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FMD1700 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Wait we thought Obama and the Democrats were supposed to be standing up to the evil corporations and standing up for the every day American?When it comes to official and media opinion on Obama s crowning trade achievements , the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade And Investment Partnership (TTIP), the party line is united. As previously noted, Barack Obama has assured the population that this treaty is going to be wonderful for everyone:In hailing the agreement, Obama said, Congress and the American people will have months to read every word before he signs the deal that he described as a win for all sides. If we can get this agreement to my desk, then we can help our businesses sell more Made in America goods and services around the world, and we can help more American workers compete and win, Obama said.The mainstream media s chorus of support for these trade deal is likewise deafening: here are some indicative headlines from this past Monday:Time Magazine: Pacific Trade Deal Is Good for the U.S. and Obama s Legacy The Washington Post: The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a trade deal worth celebrating The far less popular opposing view, one repeatedly presented here, is that like with every other free trade agreement that the U.S. has entered into since World War II, the exact opposite is what will actually happen: the outcome will be that the US trade deficit (which excluding petroleum is already back to record levels) will get even larger, and we will see even more jobs and even more businesses go overseas, thus explaining the secrecy and the fast-track nature of the TPP and TTIP s passage through Congress.And while the US population, which is far more perturbed by what Caitlyn Jenner will wear tomorrow than D.C. s plans on the future of world trade, has been mute in its response to the passage of the first part of the trade treaty, the TPP after all the MSM isn t there to tell it how to feel about it, aside to assure it that everything will be great even as millions of highly-paid jobs mysteriously become line cooks other countries are standing up against globalist trade interests meant to serve a handful of corporations.Case in point Germany, where today hundreds of thousands of people marched in Berlin in protest against the planned free trade deal between Europe and the United States which they say is anti-democratic and will lower food safety, labor and environmental standards.TTIP critics fear that it would lead to worse safeguards in Europe, bringing down standards for consumer safety, food and health or labor rights down to those in America. European nations have stricter regulations for things like genetically modified foods or workers benefits than the US does. There is also discontent with the secretive nature of the negotiations, which prompts skeptics to assume the worst about the document they would eventually produce.The organizers an alliance of environmental groups, charities and opposition parties claimed that 250,000 people were taking part in the rally against free trade deals with both the United States and Canada, far more than they had anticipated. This is the biggest protest that this country has seen for many, many years, Christoph Bautz, director of citizens movement Campact told protesters in a speech.According to Reuters, opposition to the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has risen over the past year in Germany, with critics fearing the pact will hand too much power to big multinationals at the expense of consumers and workers. Popular anger appears to be focused on the encroachment by corporations into every corner around the globe: What bothers me the most is that I don t want all our consumer laws to be softened, Oliver Zloty told Reuters TV. And I don t want to have a dictatorship by any companies. Via: Zero Hedge | 0 | [
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FMD1701 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did Tampered-With Conditioner Cause a Wisconsin Woman to Lose Her Hair? Claim summaries: A mother and daughter sounded the alarm over a Pantene product sold at a Walmart store. We checked out their claims.
contextual information: In late summer 2019, multiple news accounts reported that a Wisconsin woman had endured a frightening encounter with a supermarket product tamperer who, according to the articles, had added hair remover to a bottle of conditioner, causing the woman's hair to fall out. On Aug. 1, the website Distractify published an article under the headline "Woman Loses Hair After Buying Tampered-With Conditioner That Was Mixed With Nair," reporting that Taffy Jo Trimm and her daughter Ashley Rose had recently bought a bottle of Pantene from a Walmart in New Richmond, Wisconsin. In a now-viral Facebook post, Taffy explained that the bottle must have been tampered with. Someone must have mixed in Nair or some other hair removal product with the conditioner because, when Taffy's daughter Ashley used it, her hair started falling out—in clumps. How horrifying is that? "Attention New Richmond Walmart shoppers," Taffy's Facebook post reads, "be aware of the shampoo and conditioner you buy there as my daughter Ashley Rose bought some two days ago and someone mixed Nair in her conditioner bottle!!!! As I speak, she is losing hair and crying!! The conditioner below this conditioner is supposed to be white. It is an ugly pink color." Other reports went beyond the parameters of that single purported incident, claiming without evidence that it was part of a broader trend. The websites Popbuzz and Rare.us both published articles with headlines stating, "People are Putting Hair Removal Cream in Shampoo," while one Twitter user posted a viral tweet claiming "people" were mixing Nair into shampoo and conditioner bottles. On July 30, 2019, a Twitter user wrote, "Please check your hair products before you buy them, people are mixing Nair into shampoo & conditioner in the store smh."
We have been unable to verify the claim that the woman in question lost her hair involuntarily as a result of exposure to a substance deliberately added to a bottle of hair conditioner before she purchased it from Walmart. The narrative began on July 28, when Taffy Jo Timm wrote on Facebook that her daughter, 21-year-old Ashley Robinson, was "losing her hair and crying" after using conditioner she had purchased two days earlier from the Walmart in New Richmond. Timm's post was accompanied by a photograph of a bottle of Pantene conditioner and a photograph showing what appeared to be black hair deposited in a shower. Later that night, Robinson herself posted the same photograph of black hair, along with a brief account of what had happened earlier that evening: "... Got in the shower, shampooed and conditioned my hair, got out, something was different and didn't smell the greatest. I carried on, sat down for a bit, and then decided to go blow dry my hair. I took my hair out of the towel and it smelled terrible. I got back in the shower, used my other shampoo, and rubbed that in. As I took my hands out of my hair, it was covered in hair and just kept on falling out." Robinson said she visited the emergency room due to a burning sensation and was later discharged. The following evening, she wrote on Facebook that she had undergone a "consultation" but had resigned herself to having to shave her head. On July 30, Robinson posted a photograph of herself bald, and on Aug. 1, Minneapolis television station WCCO interviewed her.
On Aug. 1, the New Richmond Police Department announced they had opened an investigation into potential product tampering after receiving a formal complaint about Robinson's experience. Their news release stated, "Due to the significance of this offense, New Richmond officers and detectives have been working with Walmart staff to identify potential suspects and review video surveillance. The New Richmond Police Department will continue to follow the facts of this case. While this appears to be an isolated case at this time, the New Richmond Police Department is asking anyone in this area who has been a recent victim of this type of activity to please report it immediately to your local police/sheriff's department. The New Richmond Police Department is also reminding people to be diligent in checking products for safety seals and prior to any use to ensure it is consistent with the product you are expecting."
We have so far been unable to independently verify that Ashley Robinson's hair loss was involuntary and resulted from her using conditioner tainted with Nair (or some other hair-removal product, or any other substance) following an act of product tampering at the Walmart in New Richmond. If or when we receive evidence that would verify that sequence of events, we will update this article accordingly. We do know that Robinson experienced hair loss and that she did indeed visit the emergency room at Westfields Hospital and Clinic in New Richmond on July 28, 2019. Her mother provided Snopes with a photograph of part of Robinson's after-visit summary. We have redacted certain personal details, but the doctor's summary clearly establishes that Robinson had experienced hair loss and suffered chemical burns on her scalp: "If [she] develops further burning sensation please ... re-rinse her hair. You can follow up in your clinic regarding hair regrowth. Based on the appearance of her scalp, that will likely grow back normally. However, follow-up may be necessary if your hair is not coming in as expected." The doctor listed the diagnosis as: "Chemical burn of scalp, unspecified corrosion degree, initial encounter."
However, beyond this documentation, we have found no evidence that corroborates the claim that Robinson's conditioner was deliberately contaminated with hair-removal cream by a third party. Furthermore, we have discovered certain details that detract from, rather than support, that theory.
First, significant confusion exists over when Robinson actually purchased the conditioner that she believes caused her hair loss. In her original Facebook post, Timm said her daughter had bought it from Walmart around two days earlier, which would be July 26. However, Timm later told Snopes that Robinson bought it on July 23. In its Aug. 1 news report, WCCO stated that Robinson bought it on the same day her hair began to fall out, July 28. When we asked Timm to clarify those discrepancies, she insisted that her daughter had indeed purchased the conditioner on July 23 and said she had asked WCCO to correct its reporting. However, a spokesperson for Walmart told us that a team of employees had extensively reviewed video surveillance footage from the company's New Richmond location and found evidence that a customer who appeared to be Robinson had, in fact, purchased what appeared to be similar conditioner two weeks before the onset of her hair loss, not five days before it. Walmart found no evidence of Robinson's purchasing conditioner there at any other time in the ensuing two weeks. Walmart also reviewed footage of the same aisle from before Robinson's visit and saw no evidence of an individual's tampering with shampoo or conditioner bottles. We again put this discrepancy to Timm, who told us she could not explain it and said she had been told by her daughter that July 23 was the date on which her daughter bought the conditioner in question. We also asked Robinson about this discrepancy, checking whether it was possible she had misremembered either the date of the purchase or the location of the Walmart. She told us she was certain she made the purchase at the New Richmond Walmart and was "almost positive" she did so on July 23. Robinson also told us that July 28 was the first time she had used the conditioner, meaning it would have been sitting unused in her home for either five days (by her account) or around two weeks (based on Walmart's surveillance footage). We asked Robinson whether any possibility existed that a visitor to her home during that time might have contaminated the conditioner before she first used it, and she told us she had not had any visitors during that time.
Furthermore, Walmart's review of the surveillance footage found evidence that the customer who resembled Robinson had unscrewed the pump-top cap from several bottles of conditioner, smelling each item before settling on one for purchase. This is potentially a significant finding. Robinson, in her July 28 Facebook post, asserted that she quickly realized something had gone awry in washing her hair because she could detect the odor of another substance in her conditioner ("something was different and didn't smell the greatest," "I took my hair out of the towel and it smelled terrible"). If the conditioner did contain a contaminant (whether hair removal cream or some other substance) that smelled strongly enough at the time to strike Robinson as "terrible," it stands to reason that she would have detected it in the first place if she were "sniff-testing" conditioners in Walmart before she chose the one she purchased. We put this question to Robinson, who claimed that she had opened bottles of shampoo when she visited the store, but not bottles of conditioner. In a statement, Walmart told us they had "inspected all products in our store, reviewed surveillance footage, and found no evidence of tampering." The company removed no products from its shelves, despite Robinson and Timm's claims of product tampering, and according to their statement, Walmart employees have "attempted to reach out to the customer to discuss this further and have received no response." Robinson told us she had not yet contacted Walmart because she was waiting to meet with her attorney.
Significant differences appear to exist between the look of the hair shown deposited in the shower in Robinson's original July 28 photographs and that of the hair shown in photographs posted later. The hair in the photograph appears to be black in color, and some strands look to be relatively long. By contrast, Robinson later posted three photographs of herself on Facebook, which appeared to show her with brown or even blonde hair, apparently shorter than the black hair shown deposited in the shower. Timm told us that these photographs had been taken in the hospital on July 28. This means that, according to Timm and Robinson's version of events, her hair appeared black when she washed it on the evening of July 28, but had significantly lightened in color within a matter of hours. Timm also sent us a fourth photograph, which she said was taken on the day after the event. It even more clearly illustrated the change in apparent hair color that, according to the two women's account, took place.
We put those discrepancies to Timm, who told us that her daughter had dyed her hair and speculated that whatever substance was purportedly added to the conditioner removed the dye from her hair, as well as removing portions of the hair itself: "I feel whatever was put into [the] conditioner stripped the hair color and removed big clumps of hair." Robinson told us she had dyed her hair dark brown two months earlier, but her roots sometimes appeared "medium brown" and "even a little blonder-looking." The hair shown in the shower appeared darker than it really was, she told us, because it was wet. And the hair shown in the subsequent Facebook photographs appeared lighter than it really was due to the effect of the camera's light. Robinson later posted to Facebook a photograph of herself with dyed hair, which she said was taken the day before her hair loss began, and various photographs on her Facebook account demonstrated that she did indeed periodically dye her hair.
We haven't been able to verify that any substance was added to Robinson's conditioner in the first place or that the conditioner was the cause of her hair loss, placing doubt on Timm's hypothesis that a contaminant added to the conditioner removed the dye from her daughter's hair and led to a significant difference in hair color across the photographs. Furthermore, the difference between the apparent color of the hair in the first photograph and its appearance in the other four remains significant enough that, while we are by no means dismissing it, Robinson's explanation remains open to reasonable doubt.
Finally, other elements are absent that would add credibility to the "Walmart tampering" account of Robinson's hair loss. For example, New Richmond police Chief Craig Yehlik told us that his department had received no other recent reports of product tampering of any kind in the New Richmond area. This absence of reports of similar incidents does not destroy the credibility of Timm and Robinson's version of events, but neither does it enhance it. Although not definitive, Walmart's internal investigation into many hours of surveillance footage yielded no evidence of product tampering at its New Richmond store, but it did reveal evidence that cast doubt on Timm and Robinson's version of events. It is noteworthy that the company has decided not to withdraw any items from sale at that store, despite widely publicized allegations that product tampering took place there. | 2 | [
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FMD1702 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Abby Martin Exposes What Hillary Clinton Really Represents ‹ › Since 2011, VNN has operated as part of the Veterans Today Network ; a group that operates over 50 plus media, information and service online sites for U.S. Military Veterans. Woodward On Clinton Foundation “It’s Corrupt” By VNN on October 28, 2016 He’s correct: The Clinton Foundation is corrupt, and voters should be troubled by Clinton’s role in the unethical pay-for-play scandals.
Conservative Tribune
Voters have been concerned about Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s involvement in the scandal-ridden Clinton Foundation.
Liberal journalist Bob Woodward legitimized those concerns Sunday on Fox News by pointing to the Foundation’s “ pay-for-play ” scandals while Clinton served as secretary of state as something that should trouble voters.
Woodward, who broke the Watergate story that led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon, told host Chris Wallace in no uncertain terms that the Clinton Foundation is “corrupt” and a “scandal.”
Watch Woodward’s comments on Fox News Sunday here:
“There are allegations about the Clinton Foundation and pay-for-play,” Wallace said. “When you see what seems to be clear evidence that Clinton Foundation donors were being treated differently than non-donors in terms of access, when you see this new revelations (sic) about the $12 million deal between Hillary Clinton, the Foundation and the King of Morocco, are voters right to be troubled by this?”
“Yes,” Woodward responded. “ It’s corrupt . It’s a scandal.”
Wallace had attempted to get answers from Clinton about the issue at the final presidential debate with Republican candidate Donald Trump.
But of course Clinton ducked the moderator’s question and instead talked about the organization’s charitable donations rather than its extreme conflicts of interest — something Woodward took note of and criticized her for.
“She didn’t answer your question at all,” Woodward told Wallace. “And she turned to embrace the good work that the Clinton Foundation has done.”
Woodward apparently didn’t want to discredit the “good work” done by the organization, but pointed out that even its “good work” is compromised by the overwhelming evidence of corruption.
“(T)he mixing of speech fees, the Clinton Foundation and actions by the State Department — which she ran — are all intertwined and it’s corrupt,” he argued.
He’s correct: The Clinton Foundation is corrupt, and voters should be troubled by Clinton’s role in the unethical pay-for-play scandals.
Unfortunately Clinton has an acute ability to avoid being held accountable for her scandals, but we have faith in the American people and their desire to be led by a person with integrity and respect for the office he holds, not someone who continuously looks for ways for his political power to benefit his personal life.
Like and share on Facebook and Twitter if you agree with Bob Woodward about Hillary Clinton and her family’s scandal-ridden Clinton Foundation. What do you think about Woodward’s criticism of Clinton? Scroll down to comment below! | 0 | [
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FMD1703 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is This Carl Sagan's 'Foreboding of an America'? Claim summaries: A quote from a 1995 book by the late astronomer and science communicator Carl Sagan struck a nerve with some readers decades later.
contextual information: Amid talk of alternative facts and a post-truth world that dominated the news directly after the inauguration of President Donald Trump on January 20, 2017, a quote from astrophysicist and science communicator Carl Sagan emerged as a viral meme. This is the excerpt from the passage containing that quote, which was shared most frequently: "Science is more | 1 | [
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FMD1704 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Public Faith in Elections Falls as the State Grows Out-of-control state power Ryan McMaken | Mises.org - October 27, 2016 Comments
In the wake of the final presidential election debate last week, the mainstream media was appalled that Donald Trump would not pre-emptively agree to not contest the outcome of the election .
Trump’s position reflects a growing faction of Americans who doubt the integrity and honesty of the American electoral system. In response, mainstream media sources have responded by vehemently insisting that “rigged” elections are “ a myth .”
While rarely stated explicitly, the way American electoral politics is supposed to work is this: the population spends several months listening to the candidates accuse each other of terrible crimes, horrible ideas, and gross incompetence. Each candidate lists the ways he or she will use the power of government to force the winner’s policy preferences on the losers. Then, once the votes are cast, everyone is supposed to quickly accept the results, ignore everything that was said during the campaign, and immediately accept the winner as having an indisputable mandate to rule over everyone, including the sizable minority — or even the majority, in many cases — who either voted against the winner, or abstained. If there appears to be any “irregularities” in the vote, well, those should just be ignored because it would “tear the country apart” to “drag out” the election. If half the country feels it’s been cheated, well, tough luck and better luck next time. Democracy Breaks Down As (Perceived) Interventionism Increases
This model can only work indefinitely under certain specific conditions. It can be workable when there is a perception that government is limited in its power, and extensive or abrupt change to government institutions are thought to be rare. It can also work in a small, culturally uniform society where there is a relatively small divide between socio-economic and ethnic groups.
In the case of the United States, however, it appears that neither of these conditions apply.
In the age of presidential executive orders, militarized police, uncountable federal laws, and a myriad of spy agencies empowered to watch Americans’ every move, gone is the perception that a loss in an electoral contest should simply be accepted without question. The president says he can issue laws with “ a pen and … a phone ” without any need to consult Congress. The Libya war proved presidents can invade any country without so much as a debate in Congress. Meanwhile, the untouchable Supreme Court hands down decisions that are equivalent to Constitutional amendments, some of which can have enormous effects on the daily lives of ordinary citizens.
In other words, the stakes are now reaching the point where an attitude of “better luck next time” doesn’t cut it. Whether or not these fears are at times overstated is irrelevant. The fact is the perception of democratic lawlessness is growing.
This situation is further complicated by the fact that the United States is an enormous conglomeration of different cultural and socio-economic groups spread out over a vast and varied geography. Many of these different groups distrust each other, and in a country where the president and the judiciary now rule largely by proclamation, there is reason to be fearful when “the other guy’s” candidate wins and yours loses. Democracy Can Work When the Stakes Are Low
Contrary to the naive musings of some nostalgic conservatives, the United States was never united into a single cultural, linguistic, or socio-economic group. Those differences may have reached a low point during the twentieth century, but they were far larger in the 19th century than they are today.
When you have a diverse population, however, the problem of who controls the government becomes far more important, and this concern grows as the state becomes more powerful. Writing on the topic of immigration and nationalism in Australia , Ludwig von Mises noted how powerful states exacerbate the problem of cultural divides. Could a laissez-faire regime be guaranteed to all residents of Australia, Mises notes, it would not matter at all if there were cultural mistrust between English-descended Australians and Asian newcomers. However, since laissez-faire liberalism has not been embraced, a familiar problem presented itself:
The present inhabitants of [Australia] fear that some day they could be reduced to a minority in their own country and that they would then have to suffer all the horrors of national persecution to which, for instance, the Germans are today [i.e., the early 1920s] exposed in Czechoslovakia, Italy, and Poland.
It cannot be denied that these fears are justified. Because of the enormous power that today stands at the command of the state, a national minority must expect the worst from a majority of a different nationality. As long as the state is granted the vast powers which it has today and which public opinion considers to be its right, the thought of having to live in a state whose government is in the hands of members of a foreign nationality is positively terrifying. It is frightful to live in a state in which at every turn one is exposed to persecution — masquerading under the guise of justice — by a ruling majority. It is dreadful to be handicapped even as a child in school on account of one’s nationality and to be in the wrong before every judicial and administrative authority because one belongs to a national minority…
It is clear that no solution of the problem of immigration is possible if one adheres to the ideal of the interventionist state, which meddles in every field of human activity, or to that of the socialist state. Only the adoption of the liberal program could make the problem of immigration, which today seems insoluble, completely disappear. In an Australia governed according to liberal principles, what difficulties could arise from the fact that in some parts of the continent Japanese and in other parts Englishmen were in the majority?
These same principles can be applied outside the subject of immigration as well. The existence of an interventionist state means any country composed of diverse ethnic and socioeconomic groups faces the same problem of one group being exploited by another group, with the help of state power. Change the term “nationality” to “political party” or “interest groups,” and one has a fair approximation of the problem of democracy in any interventionist state.
In the presence of a relatively weak government, however, these concerns are often overstated. At the turn of the 20th century in the US, for example, the fact that Spanish-speakers were in the majority in New Mexico and many areas of the American West was irrelevant to the lives of the vast majority of Americans. The fact that Japanese immigrants and their descendant were out-competing white businessmen in California was simply not a matter of national importance. The fact that Oregon attempted to outlaw Catholic Schools was not a matter for presidential executive orders. Thanks to widespread suspicion of federal power at the time, the lack of a strong federal judiciary and a relatively weak presidency meant these issues remained largely local while public policy was haphazard.
Voters have always feared losses in elections, but now more than ever, the voters may be justified in refusing to simply accept the outcomes of elections under “an interventionist state, which meddles in every field of human activity.” When that is the case, elections are not something to be taken lightly. Trump’s remarks about rigged elections — and public fears over the outcome — are to be expected from voters with an immense fear of out-of-control state power.
In response to all of this, the pundits and government class will tell us that everyone must double down on democracy, and that elections — specifically federal ones —are sacred rituals never to be questioned. There will be a double standard, of course. A Trump victory will be questioned by the media and powerful politicians. But, in that case it will be the fault of the Russians , and not anything wrong with the system itself. The solution for the feds, of course, will be a federal takeover of the election system. If Clinton wins, then no questioning of the system will be tolerated at all. To question the outcome or the wisdom of these presidential contests will be denounced as scarcely less than sacrilege.
The true solution to the problem remains far more practical, however. To paraphrase Mises, it is clear that no solution of the problem of elections is possible if one adheres to the ideal of the interventionist state. So long as elections are increasingly perceived to be referenda on which side shall use the power of the state to crush the other side, faith in the electoral system will erode, and the potential for real violence will increase. NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars Crew. Related Articles | 0 | [
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FMD1705 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The government of Congo Republic on Saturday agreed a ceasefire with rebels in the southeast region of Pool, halting a 15-year conflict that rights groups say has cost dozens of lives and forced tens of thousands to flee. Political violence spiked in the Central African oil producer after a contested presidential election in April 2016 was won by President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who has ruled for 33 of the last 38 years. A militia led by Frederic Bintsamou, better known as Pastor Ntumi, which fought Sassou Nguesso during and after a 1997 civil war, has been blamed by the government for deadly raids on police, military and government bases, and has also halted trade through the Pool region with blockades. In return, the government has bombed the Pool region, including one helicopter raid last year on a residential area that Amnesty International said killed at least 30 people. The unrest has forced tens of thousands to flee their homes and sparked allegations from human rights groups of abuse by government troops. Ntumi s so-called Ninja rebels have clashed with the Congo government since 2002 and have long sought an end to government military intervention in the Pool region. The peace agreement between the two sides was signed by Interior Ministry security advisor Fran ois Nd and Pastor Ntumi s representative, Jean Gustave Ntondo. Today is a great day for the Congolese. This is the day we have just signed the cessation of hostilities agreement, said Ntondo. Under the deal, the militias have agreed to hand over arms and allow the free movement of trade between the capital Brazzaville and the commercial hub of Pointe Noire. During hostilities, trains and cars were often halted by militias. The government will oversee a commission that will monitor the peace, and loosen security in the region to allow people to travel to and from their family homes. | 1 | [
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FMD1706 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The project was set to begin on March 1st and would have brought environmentally friendly high speed rail to California.But that project is in serious jeopardy after Donald Trump s Transportation minion Elaine Chao, who also happens to be Mitch McConnell s wife, ordered an audit of the $647 million grant awarded to CalTrain to help cover the costs.Despite promising to support infrastructure programs and create more jobs in America, Trump has apparently decided to break that promise in the name of petty partisan politics.Trump has threatened California in recent weeks with funding cuts because U.C. Berkeley canceled a Milo Yiannopoulos speech. Yiannopoulos is a Trump supporter and was recently exposed as an advocate of pedophilia.Trump also threatened to defund California in retaliation of the state continuing to offer sanctuary to immigrants. If we have to, we ll defund, Trump said. We give tremendous amounts of money to California. If they re going to have sanctuary cities we may have to do that certainly that would be a weapon. And Trump apparently pulled the trigger of that weapon on Friday by pulling the plug on the high speed rail project.The project would have converted the rail system running between San Jose and San San Francisco to run on electricity, which would have helped fight climate change. It also would have created nearly 10,000 new jobs. It would also have increased the number of people who use the system and would have cut operation costs.Trump made the decision after 14 California Republicans sent him a letter asking him to kill the project. That s only 14 out of a delegation of 55, 40 of whom are Democrats. That means Trump willfully sided with the minority party in California on this project.Here are the names of the Republicans the people of California can blame for losing out on this major infrastructure project. They are each up for re-election in 2018.Dana Rohrabacher Darrell Issa David G. Valadao Devin Nunes Doug LaMalfa Duncan Hunter Edward Royce Jeff Denham Ken Calvert Kevin McCarthy Mimi Walters Paul Cook Stephen Knight Tom McClintockAn audit of the project would certainly be a partisan witch hunt that would take months to complete, thus killing a project that California needs and wants.It would help fight climate change, create thousands of jobs, and start America on the path to catching up with the rest of the world when it comes to bullet train transportation. This project shouldn t be canceled, it should be demanded across the country.Featured image via Wikimedia | 0 | [
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FMD1707 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Tiny House Giveaway Scam Claim summaries: Multiple like-farming Facebook pages have lured users with the false promise of tiny house giveaways.
contextual information: In September 2016, Facebook pages (including "Mobile Trend" and "Lady Trend") purportedly kicked off tiny house giveaway contests: Mobile Trend Lady Trend As with all like-farming Facebook scams, the purported tiny house contests adhered to a simple format: users were instructed to like a separate page, like the original post, and share the post on their own Facebook timelines (thereby validating its legitimacy and enticing others to do the same). Although the tiny houses purportedly up for grabs appeared visually different in various posts, the instructions for "winning" them were virtually identical. The first clue these tiny house giveaways were not legitimate were the images of the homes used in the Facebook posts. The red "tiny house" was a Getty stock photo commonly pinned to Pinterest (and unlikely to be a contest prize), and the second was likewise a stock photograph of a tiny house: Moreover, neither page was linked with any major home improvement company or other commercial entity (e.g., Home Depot, HGTV, or a real estate firm) one might imagine would offer up a free tiny house in exchange for social media advertising. Were any legitimate company to engage in such a giveaway, their incentive would be exposure, yet no attendant promotional return on advertising investment was evident in these Facebook giveaway claims. The manner in which users were lured was similar to scams involving Costco, Kroger and Amazon gift cards, but the six-figure jackpot attached to some of the tiny house scams proved a far more difficult-to-resist enticement for some users, advancing the hoax more quickly than those which linked out to sketchy signup pages. The contests bore all the hallmarks of standard "like farming" gambits, intended to quickly build and sell popular Facebook pages to the highest bidder. Costco Kroger Amazon like farming Even if the page creators intended only to build an audience, participation in the scam created an environment amenable to scammers of the same ilk seeking to exploit users' desires and needs to pump and dump a relatively new Facebook page. A large audience could also be exploited by scammers' mining varying levels of personal data from those who have liked pages of dubious origin. Facebook users enmired in like and share fake giveaways not only unwittingly help spammers litter the social network with scams, they may also risk being exposed to malware, clickjacking, or other unpleasantries (such as finding their names and identities endorsing a scam, hate page, or other undesirable activity). Legitimate product giveaways, particularly of high-value merchandise, are exceptionally rare and are almost always conducted through the official channels of major brands and related large companies. | 0 | [
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FMD1708 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A protest by government workers in a drug violence-riddled southern Mexican city over rotting corpses at the municipal morgue temporarily closed a prosecutor s office on Tuesday, officials said. The protest by some 60 workers forced the office in the city of Chilpancingo, the capital of southern Guerrero state, to shut for about three hours. The protesters complained that overcrowding at the morgue was causing unsanitary conditions. Violence has spiked in Guerrero in recent years as a growing number of criminal gangs vie for control of crops of opium poppies and for drug-trafficking routes. Media reports said that at least 500 corpses were being stored in the morgue. Officials promised protesters that future transfers of bodies to the morgue will involve better sanitary conditions. Workers in the prosecutor s office will take the necessary precautions so that the situation that occurred today, in which the odor (from the corpses) arrived at the office and caused the workers to stop work, doesn t happen again, the state government said in a statement. | 1 | [
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FMD1709 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: I took the state of Ohio from an $8 billion hole to a $2 billion surplus.
contextual information: During the Republican presidential debate on his home turf of Cleveland, Ohio Gov. John Kasich touted his economic record in the state. Repeating a claim he has often made --including on his campaign website-- Kasich said, I took the state of Ohio from an $8 billion hole to a $2 billion surplus. We decided to take a closer look. An $8 billion hole? Theres an argument for $8 billion, but theres also an argument for something closer to $6 billion, according to adeep diveby the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 2011. The $8 billion figure is rounded up from a $7.7 billion gap between spending and expected revenues. It was an initial estimate from January 2011, based on the assumption made several months earlier that there would be no new revenue growth. However, revenues did grow as the economy rebounded that year, reducing the gap to between $5.9 billion to $6.1 billion -- a calculation that Kasichs budget director, Tim Keen, agreed with conceptually in a 2011 interview with the newspaper, though he took issue with some of the methodological details. Whatever the number, Kasich avoided a potential misstep when he spoke of this in the debate as a hole rather than a deficit, since Ohio, like most states, cannot run an actual budget deficit. The $8 billion gap is more accurately described as a projected shortfall rather than a deficit. A $2 billion surplus? This figure is clearer. The states Office of Budget and Managementreportedin July 2015 that the states rainy day fund had a little more than $2 billion in it, up from effectively zero when Kasich took office in 2011. Does Kasich deserve credit? Its not unreasonable to give Kasich some credit for the states improving economic fortunes -- he is a governor, after all, and he forged the states fiscal policy in concert with the Legislature. But its important to remember that he took office at the very beginning of the national economic recovery, and as the national economy has improved, so has Ohios. When Kasich was inaugurated in January 2011, the unemployment rate in Ohio was 9.2 percent -- exactly the same as the national rate. Today, the national unemployment rate is 5.3 percent and the rate in Ohio is 5.2 percent. So Kasichs timing has been fortunate. Our ruling Kasich said, I took the state of Ohio from an $8 billion hole to a $2 billion surplus. Its possible to argue over whether the initial amount should be $6 billion rather than $8 billion. But Kasich didnt pull that figure out of thin air, and it certainly was high by historical standards. He also used the term hole, which is more appropriate than deficit would have been. Meanwhile, the $2 billion figure seems solid. Still, its worth noting that Kasich spoke a little grandly when he said that I did it, since the states fiscal improvement got a big assist from the national economic recovery. The statement is accurate but needs additional information, so we rate it Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD1710 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Subway Counterfeit Coupons Claim summaries: Is Subway ending its Sub Club promotion due to the counterfeiting of stamps?
contextual information: Claim: Subway is ending its long-running Sub Club promotion due to the prevalence of counterfeit stamps. Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2005] Today I went to my local SUBWAY franchise, and was horriied to discover that they will no longer be doing the SUBWAY CLUB stamp program. The cashier at the store told me it was because some kids in California had stolen a roll of stamps and tried to sell it on eBay. He showed me a small in store display that explained that they would no longer be issuing stamps and would honor existing stamps until June 30th, 2005. Origins: Regular customers of the Subway chain of sandwich shops, which operates more than 23,000 restaurants in 82 countries, are familiar with one of longest-running promotions in retail history: the Sub Club. Ever since the 1980s, Subway customers have received a stamp for every six-inch sandwich purchased (two stamps for a foot-long); filling up a Sub Club card with the requisite number of stamps entitles the customer to a free sandwich. Alas, by the end of September 2005 the Sub Club will be no more, another victim of technology which makes counterfeiting coupons and proof-of-purchase stamps on home computer equipment all too easy. Coupon fraud has exploded in the last few years as counterfeiters using high-quality printers have not only created phony coupons for their own use, but have also sought to profit by offering millions of dollars' worth of false coupons for sale to others through on-line auction sites. In some cases grocery stores and other retailers have even stopped accepting legitimate coupons distributed on-line and printed at home because manufacturers have refused to honor counterfeits. Now, with thousands of Sub Club cards and stamps (real, stolen, and counterfeit) available for sale through auction sites, and Subway franchise owners increasingly discovering counterfeit stamps among their redemptions, the company has decided to pull the plug on the decades-old free sandwich promotion. Although each Subway restaurant can set its own timeframe, the Sub Club will be phased out company-wide by 1 October 2005. Subway is designing a replacement for the Sub Club, but details of the new promotion have not yet been announced (although some outlets are now using centrally-stored information retrieved via Subway cards with magnetic strips). Subway cards Last updated: 26 May 2011 Leamon, Scott. "Police Accuse Pair of College Students with Forging Subway Sub Club Stamps." WSLS-TV {Roanoke, VA]. 22 October 2004. | 1 | [
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FMD1711 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Gingrich Infuriates Libs With MASSIVE Call to Trump Voters on Election Day
You can watch the video here:
It is no secret that under the direction of President Barack Obama, Perez directed the challenge of South Carolina’s 2011 Voter ID Law , asserting that the estimated 81,000 South Carolina voters without any photo identification were helpless, hapless victims and not simply irresponsible. Advertisement - story continues below
He also blocked voter ID requirements in Texas, and was well known for testifying that political leadership did not play a factor in the decision to dismiss three of the four defendants in the criminal voter intimidation case of the New Black Panther Party, a radicalized faction considered by virtually every other advocacy organization to be a hate group.
More than an isolated incident, this systemic disconnect from the concern Americans have for their children, their families and their communities is typical of the Clinton administration, and since Hillary Clinton has been literally at the center of U.S. power for 8 years, that term isn’t a stretch.
Despite four years of backpedaling on Benghazi and eight years of excuses for the loss of hope and confidence in America’s strength and power to provide for our children and generations to come, Hillary Clinton has no answers beyond empty rhetoric.
If Hillary Clinton won’t stand up for our children, won’t make them and their future her first priority, we must turn to a leader who will: her Republican rival Donald Trump. Advertisement - story continues below | 0 | [
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FMD1712 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Videos France’s Far-Right National Front Seeks Funding From United Arab Emirates With French banks reluctant to lend to the National Front, the party says it could resort to foreign funding from as far away as the UAE. | October 29, 2016 Be Sociable, Share! An electoral board showing France’s far-right National Front president Marine Le Pen and reading: 100% National Front. 0% migrants is pictured during a demonstration in Forges-les-Bains, south of Paris, France, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016.
France’s National Front is known to have diverse funding streams, but an investigation published this week unveiled a new potential funder: the United Arab Emirates.
It is certainly an odd source of funding for a party whose leader, Marine Le Pen, has been taken to court for anti-Muslim hate speech.
Le Pen’s Russian networks are already well known: in 2014, the National Front received a loan of €11mn ($12mn) from the First Czech Russian Bank.
This fact was admitted by the party’s treasurer, Wallerand de Saint-Just, who said: “The party makes requests to foreign banks, why not Russian banks?”
The latest controversy was sparked by a book by famed French investigative journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot. In 2004, the journalistic duo were even held hostage at one point by Islamic militants in Iraq.
Titled Nos très chers émirs (Our dear emirs), their latest book exposes the murky relationship between a number of French politicians and the countries of the Arabian Gulf.
In the wake of the controversy caused by the book’s publication, the news website Mediapart has raised the question of possible funding of Marine Le Pen’s presidential campaign by the UAE.
A source familiar with the far-right French party told Middle East Eye: “It is true that in 2014 Marine Le Pen met an Emirati emissary in her residence in Montrebout, in the Hauts-de-Seine region, who offered to help her.
“That being said, the FN [National Front] has always been clear on this point: it has two enemies, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which it regards as sponsors of wahhabism, but in her eyes the Emiratis are an ally in the fight against radicalisation.”
Wahhabism is an ultra-orthodox strand of Sunni Islam practised in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, and it has become an increasingly popular theme to explain the chaos gripping the Middle East.
“France must break its relations with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which helped, assisted, and funded Islamic fundamentalists worldwide,” Le Pen said in September 2014 on France 24.
“We must rely on those Muslim countries which fight fundamentalism,” she added, naming the UAE and Egypt as examples of such countries and calling for “a wide coalition” against Islamic extremism.
In 2014, pro-Le Pen French MEP Jean-Luc Schaffhauser told Mediapart that he had negotiated a loan at a rate of 2.8 percent with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, but that it in the event it did not materialize.
The following year in May, Le Pen travelled to Cairo to meet with the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Mosque – a trip allegedly funded by the UAE, according to Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot.
The allegation was denied earlier this week by National Front MEP and Secretary General Nicolas Bay, who told France 2 television: “That is incorrect.”
“For now, about 50 percent of the campaign should be funded by Cotelec, the FN’s funding organisation that is chaired by Jean-Marie Le Pen,” the source close to the party told MEE.
These loans granted to the party by its members will be refunded once the state has itself reimbursed the campaign. This rule applies to all parties that win more than 5 percent of the vote in the first round of the elections.
“The needs for the first round are estimated at around €12mn, and €21mn for the second round. For the first round, they still lack €6-7 million, but they are aware of the fact that appealing to the Gulf countries harm them in terms of image,” the source added.
“So at first, the goal is to look for loans in European countries. If this is not enough, they will turn to the Russians, and thirdly, to the UAE. We can say that this is an option, but a third choice option.”
The National Front has indicated that around 40 banks have refused to lend it money. Yet polls assure that Le Pen will win more than the 5 percent of votes needed to be reimbursed by the state.
“If we have to borrow abroad, we will borrow abroad,” Wallerand de Saint-Just, the party’s treasurer, told France 3. “There are no exceptions to this, either in Russia, Argentina, or in the United States… and why not in the Middle East?” | 0 | [
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FMD1713 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Just another upstanding citizen who s been invited to the White House by our Community Organizer In Chief Birds of a feather Who can forget when Obama s speech about child safety was interrupted by a rapper who was wearing an ankle bracelet for KIDNAPPING went off?And then there was the rapper Tef Poe, who met with Obama in our White House to strategize , who tweeted this threat: Dear white people if Trump wins young niggas such as myself are fully hell bent on inciting riots everywhere we go A Black Lives Matter activist who operates a social justice charity was arrested last month on charges of sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl.Charles Wade co-founded Operation Help or Hush in the aftermath of the August 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. The group claims it helps raise funds for the needy and provide food and shelter for activists.But according to a police report obtained by TheDC, the 33-year-old Wade was raising money in more explicit ways.He was arrested on April 25 at a motel where he resided in College Park, Md. Police say he was using the motel room to pimp a 17-year-old girl.He s charged with seven counts, including felonies for human trafficking. The charges carry sentences of up to 25 years in prison and a $15,000 fine. Wade posted $25,000 bond and left jail on April 27.Wade denied the allegations in an email to The Daily Caller. Formerly a stylist for Solange Knowles, the sister of Beyonce, Wade has been featured in numerous news articles about the Black Lives Matter movement. He was also invited by the White House earlier this week to a movie screening with other Black Lives Matter activists. Wade says he did not attend the function, which was on Tuesday.Last year, a team of Washington Post reporters, including Pulitzer Prize-winner Wesley Lowery, included Wade in a profile of Black Lives Matter activists who protested after the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson, Mo. police officer Darren Wilson. According to the police report, an undercover officer with the vice intelligence unit responded to an ad on backpage.com, a website frequently used by sex traffickers and prostitutes. Holla at me. Quick stay specials tonight and tomorrow. Independent. Fun and sexy. Text me to set up an appointment??????? reads the ad, which listed the age of the poster as 23.The undercover detective contacted the poster to set up a meeting. The respondent informed him that the cost of services would be $100 for a half-hour and provided an address, which turned out to be a Howard Johnson Inn in College Park. A room number was also provided.When the undercover john arrived, a white female wearing only a towel answered the door and let him inside the room. After she attempted to initiate contact with the detective he informed her he was a police officer, and she ran out of the room. Members of the Vice Intelligence Unit described a male that was watching the Undercover Detective as he entered [room 412], the report reads.Investigators reported that the teenager, who gave her age as 17, said that Wade was her manager. She called him CJ. Wade, who used a passport to rent the Howard Johnson Inn room, was arrested and charged with sex trafficking. Police recovered three cell phones from him.The alleged victim told investigators that Wade knew she was a minor. She said that he told her he was not concerned about her age because you only have 5 months left until you re 18 so I m not worried. She also told investigators that she provided all the money she was paid to Wade.In response to TheDC s request for comment, Wade claimed that a tenant at a temporary housing facility he was running as part of his charity was involved in activities that he did not know about. As this is a legal matter, I m not going into serious detail with you, he said.He did claim, however, that he was unfairly arrested because he was too trusting. Despite those claims, the police report suggests that there is evidence that Wade was the person who communicated with the undercover detective by text message.Wade issued a statement on Twitter after being contacted by TheDC in which he blamed conservative trolls for focusing on the case. He also said I am confident that I will be cleared of the charges I am currently facing. I was forced to make this statement before I was ready to because of ongoing efforts by Twitter trolls to stop my work and the work of my organization, he wrote. For the past two to three days, trolls have been actively baiting conservative news outlets to report on my arrest, amongst other vindictive things that they are actively working on. Wade also stated that the recent arrest is the second time he has been arrested after helping someone else. He did not provide details of the case, but a review of criminal databases shows he was charged with 3rd degree grand theft in Miami in January. Wade says he was not convicted in the case nor did he take a plea deal. Records show that the case was closed in February.Wade was also arrested in August 2014 in Travis County, Tex. and charged with making false statements.For entire story: Daily Caller | 0 | [
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FMD1714 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The leader of Germany s Social Democrats (SPD) said on Monday he would launch talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives on forming a government next week if members of his center-left party gave him the green light at a congress this weekend. The remarks by Martin Schulz raised hopes that the two parties that suffered losses to the far right in an election in September could renew an alliance that has ruled Germany since 2013 and end the political deadlock in Europe s largest economy. Merkel turned to the SPD after failing to form a three-way alliance with the left-leaning Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats, plunging Germany into a political impasse and raising doubt about her future after 12 years in power. We ll explore whether and how the formation of a government is possible in Germany, Schulz told journalists. The SPD party board leadership had earlier set down its key demands for coalition talks with the conservatives. On the divisive issue of immigration, one of the main reasons for the collapse of Merkel s first effort, the SPD said it opposed a conservative plan to extend a ban on the right to family reunions for some asylum seekers. Family reunions and family cohabitation lead to good integration, the SPD document said. That s why we are against extending the suspension of family reunions. In a sign of the tensions likely to bubble up between the parties, Horst Seehofer, leader of the arch-conservative Bavarian sister party to Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU), warned the SPD not to try to prevent attempts to extend the ban on family reunifications. That would lead to such a huge migrant influx again that Germany s ability to integrate them all would be completely overstretched, Seehofer, leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), told Bild newspaper. Merkel could also face complications from her own camp. Her arch-conservative CSU allies in Bavaria on Monday named right-winger Markus Soeder to be their candidate for the state premiership in a regional election next autumn, potentially weakening her hand as she negotiates with the SPD. Merkel s CDU and the CSU bled support to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) in September s federal election because of anger at the chancellor s decision in 2015 to open Germany s door to more than a million asylum seekers. The CSU now fears losing more votes at regional level. The future of Seehofer had been in question since the election. After the losses, Merkel reluctantly accepted a CSU demand to put a limit on the number of asylum seekers Germany will accept each year. Asked why he was clearing the stage for Soeder to lead the CSU in next year s vote in Bavaria, Seehofer said: The past doesn t win you any elections. Soeder, who has accused Merkel of pulling the conservatives to the left and took a hard line on Greece during the euro zone crisis, is likely to be a bigger thorn in Merkel s side than Seehofer, who is expected to remain party leader. For its part, the SPD, which has governed in coalition under Merkel since 2013, suffered its worst election result in postwar history in September, and had been reluctant to join another grand coalition . It dropped its pledge to go into opposition only after Merkel failed to form a government, bowing to pressure from President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to ease the deadlock. The SPD will hold a party congress in Berlin this weekend, where it is expected to debate its position on coalition talks. Kevin Kuehnert, the head of the SPD s youth wing | 1 | [
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FMD1715 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Share This: B y ANDREW COCKBURN T he intrusion of the FBI into the 2016 presidential election may have come as a shock to most people, but it should not have surprised anyone who has spent time in the Oval Office. Stretching back to the days of J. Edgar Hoover, presidents have learned, sooner or later, that while they may revel in the title of “Chief Executive,” their command of coercive bureaucracies, such as the FBI and the intelligence agencies, along with the military services, and others, is limited at best. ABOVE: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover succeeded in holding power for life by bribing politicians with his knowledge of their sins and crimes. He himself was a reactionary and closet gay man. At worst, presidents may find these powerful institutions actively colluding with their political enemies. Currently, we have credible reports of agents in the New York FBI Field Office defying their nominal superiors in the justice department to dig with zeal into the Clinton Foundation on the basis of nebulous leads from a partisan and largely discredited screed by a former Bush speechwriter. Richard Nixon would have found this a familiar scenario. Early in his presidency, he came to appreciate how little control he exerted over the assorted fiefdoms of the intelligence and law enforcement bureaucracies. His solution was to set up a whole new police agency with extraordinary powers, the Drug Enforcement Administration, using the cover of a war on drugs, that would be under his direct control. Recognizing this for the threat it was, the entrenched institutions struck back, crippling Nixon with media leaks, notably those from “Deep Throat”, deputy FBI director Mark Felt. Sometimes the hobbling of executive power may emanate not from widely recognized instruments of power, such as the FBI, but from more obscure but nonetheless potent corners of the enforcement universe. Thus the Obama Administration’s signature foreign policy achievement, the agreement to limit Iran’s uranium enrichment program, is currently being actively undermined by a little-known branch of the U.S. Treasury, OFAC, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which supervises the enforcement of US sanctions around the world. Under the agreement hammered out by Secretary of State John Kerry in July 2015, Iran agreed to curtail its nuclear program in return for the lifting of an array of economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and other western powers in recent years. The most onerous of these controls were those enjoining banks from doing business with nominated Iranian banks and other entities, with savage penalties levied on anyone who infringed the rules. The effect has been to deter international banks from doing any business of any kind with Iranian banks, for fear of inadvertently triggering a billion dollar fine from the U.S. sanctions police. Recognizing that the Iranians might lose faith in the agreement if promised rewards from the ability to trade freely with the rest of the world do not appear, the Obama Administration has taken steps to remedy the situation, or thinks it has. Speaking recently at a ceremony in London honoring his role in negotiating the deal, Kerry announced that so long as banks make a pro forma effort to ensure they were not dealing with a sanctioned institution (there are still plenty of those) OFAC would not penalize them even if it turned out they were wrong. “OFAC… has made it very, very clear that if you do due diligence in the normal fashion,” said Kerry, “and later it turns out it was some unenforceable entity that pops up, you will not be held accountable for that.” Except that OFAC has different ideas. As detailed by attorney Tyler Cullis, a specialist in sanctions regulations, writing in the blog SanctionLaw, OFAC states on its own website that the “normal” due diligence cited by Kerry is absolutely not “necessarily sufficient.” Instead, Treasury’s Acting Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam Szubin, OFAC’s boss, has made it clear that anyone doing banking business with Iran had better exercise “ enhanced (my emphasis) due diligence,” essentially meaning they have to prove their counterparties are pure as the driven snow, or they will get it in the neck. The consequences are predictable; international banks will deem it smart to pay attention to the sanctions cops rather than the diplomat and steer clear of Iranian business, with consequent disillusionment over the deal in Iran and the neutralizing of a key administration success. As Nixon might have said, par for the course. NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS PLEASE COMMENT AND DEBATE DIRECTLY ON OUR FACEBOOK GROUP CLICK HERE ABOUT THE AUTHOR Andrew Cockburn is the Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine . An Irishman, he has covered national security topics in this country for many years. In addition to publishing numerous books, he co-produced the 1997 feature film The Peacemaker and the 2009 documentary on the financial crisis American Casino . His latest book is Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins (Henry Holt). Note to Commenters Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: [email protected]
We apologize for this inconvenience.
What will it take to bring America to live according to its own propaganda? =SUBSCRIBE TODAY! NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN.= free • safe • invaluable If you appreciate our articles, do the right thing and let us know by subscribing. It’s free and it implies no obligation to you— ever. We just want to have a way to reach our most loyal readers on important occasions when their input is necessary. In return you get our email newsletter compiling the best of The Greanville Post several times a week. | 0 | [
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FMD1716 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Over the last few weeks, it seemed like Neiman Marcus could not make up its mind about whether to sell Ivanka Trump’s fine jewelry. The brand’s baubles disappeared, reappeared and then disappeared again from the department store’s website. But now, Neiman Marcus won’t have much of a choice. Ms. Trump’s brand has discontinued its line of bracelets, necklaces and rings, the company confirmed on Monday. Instead, it will focus on more affordable fashion jewelry, according to Abigail Klem, the president of Ms. Trump’s brand. In a statement, Ms. Klem attributed the decision to the company’s “commitment to offering products at accessible price points. †She did not mention Neiman Marcus, or any of the other retailers that had recently backed away from carrying Ms. Trump’s increasingly politicized products. The decision to discontinue Ms. Trump’s fine jewelry line was reported on Friday by Vanity Fair. Ms. Trump’s shoes, handbags and clothing lines have become targets for both supporters and detractors of her father, President Trump, in his political rise to the White House. Many shoppers have rallied behind Grab Your Wallet, a largely movement to boycott companies associated with the Trump name. Some companies, like Nordstrom and T. J. Maxx, have pulled back from promoting Ms. Trump’s brand. After the Nordstrom decision, Mr. Trump and one of his top advisers, Kellyanne Conway, spoke out in support of the brand. By some indications, sales of Ms. Trump’s products took off since those comments. “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff is what I would say,†Ms. Conway said last month during an interview on Fox News. “I’m going to give a free commercial here: Go buy it today, everybody you can find it online. †Representatives for Ms. Trump have said that overall sales of her products increased 21 percent in 2016 compared with 2015. In a statement, Ms. Klem said that February this year saw some of the “best performing weeks in the history of the brand. †Ms. Trump licenses her name to various partners who manufacture her products. The largest share of her revenue comes from sales of her clothing, followed by shoes and handbags. Fine jewelry has always made up a small percentage of her overall business, according to company documents and interviews with former employees. Jewelry, however, was Ms. Trump’s first major foray into licensing her name. She partnered with Moshe Lax, a New diamond wholesaler, who helped Ms. Trump open a retail location on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 2007. In 2011, her boutique moved to a sprawling store in the city’s SoHo neighborhood. That location, however, was ultimately not profitable enough to stay open and closed in 2015. More recently, Ms. Trump’s fine jewelry has been sold out of a kiosk in the lobby of Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan. In the fall, Lord Taylor began selling Ms. Trump’s fashion jewelry, which is the product of a new licensing partnership, according to a spokeswoman for the brand. Unlike her fine jewelry, items in the fashion jewelry line are aimed at a audience, with many items priced at under $100. The company projected to make about $300, 000 in royalty fees in 2016, according to company documents from 2014 that were obtained by The New York Times. Sales were expected to reach about $7. 5 million last year. Ms. Trump’s fine jewelry line consisted of diamond bracelets, rings and necklaces that sold for several thousand dollars apiece, like the $10, 800 bangle she wore on CBS’s “60 Minutes†shortly after her father won the presidential election. When journalists received a “style alert†from Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry promoting the item, critics pounced on Ms. Trump, accusing her of using her proximity to the White House to promote her brand. Ms. Klem blamed a “ marketing employee†for the mishap, saying that the company was still figuring out how to move forward appropriately postelection. Ms. Trump still maintains a financial interest in her namesake brand. But since the election, she has taken steps to distance herself from her business interests. Ms. Trump has stepped away from leadership positions at both her brand and at the Trump Organization, where she served as an executive vice president for development and acquisitions along with her two brothers, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. who remain at the company. Ms. Klem was put in charge of the Ivanka Trump company. In addition, Ms. Trump separated her personal and business social media accounts. | 1 | [
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FMD1717 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Obama Orders Fed to Adopt Euro Currency Claim summaries: Has President Obama ordered the Federal Reserve to adopt the Euro?
contextual information: Claim: President Obama has ordered the Federal Reserve to adopt the Euro. Example: [Collected via e-mail, November 2014] Is this a legitimate story? Obama Orders Fed To Adopt EuroCurrency Origins: On 20 November 2014, the National Report published an article claiming President Obama was changing the currency of the United States from dollars to euros: article In the boldest takeover of Presidential authority in history, Barack Obama ordered the Federal Reserve to adopt the euro beginning October 1, 2015, the start of the next fiscal year. The US will soon share the single monetary system used by 18 European Union member states, including Greece, France, Germany, and Slovakia. The surprise announcement resulted from secret overseas deals between Obama, foreign finance ministers and the Federal Reserve System. "This step forward," announced Obama, "will make it easier for Americans and Wall Street to compare prices, stabilize the economy, and set us up to again become leaders on the world economic stage."- See more at: https://nationalreport.net/obama-orders-fed-adopt-euro-currency/#sthash.jttBKsQw.dpuf Soon afterwards links and excerpts referencing this article were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered such references mistaking them for genuine news reports. However, the article was just the latest bit of fiction from the National Report, a web site that publishes outrageous fake news stories such as "IRS Plans to Target Leprechauns Next," "Boy Scouts Announce Boobs Merit Badge," and "New CDC Study Indicates Pets of Gay Couples Worse at Sports, Better at Fashion Than Pets of Straight Couples." The National Report's (since removed) disclaimer page notes that: disclaimer National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental. National Report publisher Allen Montgomery has also stated to the legitimate press that in no way should anyone construe the National Report as real news: "It is our opinion that if a person is too lazy to check for multiple references [or at least one other source] ... and they spread misinformation around as fact, then they are to blame for their own stupidity, not us," he said. Last updated: 27 November 2014 | 1 | [
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FMD1718 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A 2015 global pact for fighting climate change will benefit in some ways at least if U.S. President Donald Trump carries out a threat to pull out, backers say, in a shift from gloom about the fate of a deal that took two decades to negotiate. The Paris Agreement requires consensus for all decisions, meaning the withdrawal of a recalcitrant United States would make it easier for emitters such as China and the European Union to design details of a trillion-dollar shift from fossil fuels. Trump has called man-made climate change a hoax and made a so-far unfulfilled campaign pledge to “cancel†the agreement, saying he wants to promote the domestic fossil fuel industry. In a step to undo environmental regulations introduced under former President Barack Obama, Trump will sign an order on Tuesday aimed at making it easier for companies to produce energy in the United States. “There will be some advantages for other countries and there will also be extraordinary disadvantages,†if the U.S. ends up quitting Paris, said Christiana Figueres, an architect of the agreement who was the U.N.’s climate chief in Paris. “It’s not a black and white scenario,†she said. She said the ideal outcome, both for the United States and other nations, was for Washington to stay and make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. There were better investment prospects for renewable energies such as solar power than coal, she added. The fear has long been that a pullout of the world’s top economy would drain other nations’ willingness to cut greenhouse gas emissions under an agreement ratified by nations as diverse as China, Saudi Arabia and African countries. But there is an emerging rival view that Paris might be better off. “The Achilles heel of the Paris Agreement is that it’s built on consensus,†said Johan Rockstrom, director of the Stockholm Resilience Center at Stockholm University. “It’s very difficult to have a negative giant in the room†able to obstruct all decisions, he said, adding that he had swung in recent weeks to reckon that a U.S. pullout would be better overall from an earlier view that it would be a “big failureâ€. The Paris Agreement has few binding obligations. It lets all nations set their own goals for fighting climate change and has no penalties for non-compliance. Governments have set a 2018 deadline to work out a rule book for the Paris Agreement, filling in details, for instance, of how nations will report and monitor their curbs on emissions. Maldives Environment Minister Thoriq Ibrahim | 1 | [
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FMD1719 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday commuted all but four months of the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the Army intelligence analyst convicted of a 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities across the world, disrupted Mr. Obama’s administration and brought global prominence to WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures. The decision by Mr. Obama rescued Ms. Manning, who twice tried to kill herself last year, from an uncertain future as a transgender woman incarcerated at the men’s military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. She has been jailed for nearly seven years, and her sentence was by far the longest punishment ever imposed in the United States for a leak conviction. At the same time that Mr. Obama commuted the sentence of Ms. Manning, a enlisted soldier at the time of her leaks, he also pardoned James E. Cartwright, the retired Marine general and former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who pleaded guilty to lying about his conversations with reporters to F. B. I. agents investigating a leak of classified information about cyberattacks on Iran’s nuclear program. The two acts of clemency were a remarkable final step for a president whose administration carried out an unprecedented criminal crackdown on leaks of government secrets. Depending on how they are counted, the Obama administration has prosecuted either nine or 10 such cases, more than were charged under all previous presidencies combined. In addition, Mr. Obama on Tuesday commuted the sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera, who was part of a Puerto Rican nationalist group that carried out a string of bombings in the late 1970s and early 1980s the other members of that group had long since been freed. Mr. Obama also granted 63 other pardons and 207 other commutations, mostly for drug offenders. Under the terms of the commutation announced by the White House on Tuesday, Ms. Manning is set to be freed on May 17 of this year rather than in 2045. A senior administration official said the delay was part of a standard transition period for commutations to time served, and was designed to allow for such steps as finding a place for Ms. Manning to live after her release. The commutation also relieved the Defense Department of the difficult responsibility of Ms. Manning’s incarceration as she pushes for treatment for her gender dysphoria, including sex reassignment surgery, that the military has no experience providing. But the move was sharply criticized by several prominent Republicans, including the chairmen of the House and Senate armed services committees, Representative Mac Thornberry of Texas and Senator John McCain of Arizona, who called her leaks “espionage†and said they had put American troops and the country at risk. Speaker Paul D. Ryan called it “outrageous. †“President Obama now leaves in place a dangerous precedent that those who compromise our national security won’t be held accountable for their crimes,†he said in a statement. But in a joint statement, Nancy Hollander and Vince Ward — two lawyers who have been representing Ms. Manning in appealing her conviction and sentence, and who filed the commutation application — praised the decision. “Ms. Manning is the in the history of the United States,†they said. “Her sentence for disclosing information that served the public interest and never caused harm to the United States was always excessive, and we’re delighted that justice is being served in the form of this commutation. †In recent days, the White House had signaled that Mr. Obama was seriously considering granting Ms. Manning’s commutation application, in contrast to a pardon application submitted on behalf of the other leaker of the era, Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who disclosed archives of surveillance files and is living as a fugitive in Russia. Asked about the two clemency applications on Friday, the White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, discussed the “pretty stark difference†between Ms. Manning’s case for mercy and Mr. Snowden’s. While their offenses were similar, he said, there were “some important differences. †“Chelsea Manning is somebody who went through the military criminal justice process, was exposed to due process, was found guilty, was sentenced for her crimes, and she acknowledged wrongdoing,†he said. “Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary and has sought refuge in a country that most recently made a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy. †Mr. Earnest also noted that while the documents Ms. Manning provided to WikiLeaks were “damaging to national security,†the ones Mr. Snowden disclosed were “far more serious and far more dangerous. †(None of the documents Ms. Manning disclosed were classified above the merely “secret†level.) Ms. Manning was still known as Bradley Manning when she deployed with her unit to Iraq in late 2009. There, she worked as a intelligence analyst helping her unit assess insurgent activity in the area it was patrolling, a role that gave her access to a classified computer network. She copied hundreds of thousands of military incident logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, which, among other things, exposed abuses of detainees by Iraqi military officers working with American forces and showed that civilian deaths in the Iraq war were probably much higher than official estimates. The files she copied also included about 250, 000 diplomatic cables from American embassies showing sensitive deals and conversations, dossiers detailing intelligence assessments of Guantánamo detainees held without trial, and a video of an American helicopter attack in Baghdad in which two Reuters journalists were killed, among others. She decided to make all these files public, as she wrote at the time, in the hope that they would incite “worldwide discussion, debates and reforms. †WikiLeaks disclosed them — working with traditional news organizations including The New York Times — bringing notoriety to the group and its founder, Julian Assange. The disclosures set off a frantic scramble as Obama administration officials sought to minimize any potential harm, including getting to safety some foreigners in dangerous countries who were identified as having helped American troops or diplomats. Prosecutors, however, presented no evidence that anyone had been killed because of the leaks. At her Ms. Manning confessed in detail to her actions and apologized, saying she had not intended to put anyone at risk and noting that she had been “dealing with a lot of issues†at the time she made her decision. Testimony showed that she had been in a mental and emotional crisis as she came to grips, amid the stress of a war zone, with the fact that she was not merely gay but had gender dysphoria. She had been behaving erratically, including angry outbursts and lapsing into catatonia midsentence. At one point, she had emailed a photograph of herself in a woman’s wig to her supervisor. Prosecutors said that because the secret material was made available for publication on the internet, anyone, including Al Qaeda, could read it. And they accused Ms. Manning of treason, charging her with multiple counts under the Espionage Act, as well as with “aiding the enemy,†a potential capital offense, although they said they would not seek her execution. Ms. Manning confessed and pleaded guilty to a lesser version of those charges without any deal to cap her sentence. But prosecutors pressed forward with a trial and won convictions on the more serious versions of those charges a military judge acquitted her of “aiding the enemy. †In her commutation application, Ms. Manning said she had not imagined that she would be sentenced to the “extreme†term of 35 years, a term for which there was “no historical precedent. †(There have been only a handful of leak cases, and most sentence are one to three years.) After her sentencing, Ms. Manning announced that she was transgender and changed her name to Chelsea. The military, under pressure from a lawsuit filed on her behalf by Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberties Union, has permitted her to partly transition to life as a woman, including giving her hormones and letting her wear women’s undergarments and light cosmetics. But it has not let her grow her hair longer than male military standards, citing security risks, and Ms. Manning said she had yet to be permitted to see a surgeon about the possibility of sex reassignment surgery. Until recently, the military discharged transgender soldiers. In June, Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter changed that policy and said the military would instead provide treatment for them, eventually including such surgery if doctors said it was necessary. Donald J. Trump mocked that change as excessively “politically correct,†raising the possibility that he will rescind it. But even if he does, Ms. Manning will soon no longer be subject to the military’s control. | 1 | [
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FMD1720 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Illinois took another step on Wednesday that is bound to lead nowhere in solving its strangled finances, with the Democratic-led House approving a new spending plan and Republican Governor Bruce Rauner immediately vowing to veto it, saying it was $7 billion out of balance. The fiscal 2017 budget, which passed in a 63-53 vote, allocates $14.1 billion for general funds spending against $33 billion in anticipated revenue. However, the Democrats’ plan does not include billions of dollars the state automatically spends on pensions and debt payments, as well as for court-ordered social services spending under consent decrees, leading Republicans to blast the budget for needing $7.2 billion in additional revenue. The spending plan appeared destined to follow in the path of the Democrats’ fiscal 2016 budget, which was vetoed by Rauner, with the exception of K-12 school funding, on the premise it was $4 billion short on revenue. That has left Illinois the only state without a complete spending plan 11 months into a fiscal year that began July 1, 2015. The state has been relying on ongoing appropriations, stopgap funding bills and court-ordered spending, with a growing pile of unpaid bills as it limps through the fiscal year. “This is a repeat of last year on steroids,†said House Republican Leader Jim Durkin during the budget debate. But House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie said lawmakers must act to pass a budget. “It is unconscionable this state has failed to do its job during the current fiscal year and it would be even more unconscionable for us to leave this assembly without taking care of our responsibilities for the fiscal year to come,†she said. The House-passed budget includes an additional $700 million to address funding inequities among K-12 school districts, most notably the cash-strapped Chicago Public Schools, which would also get an additional $100 million for pensions. The budget now moves to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where its fate was unclear. Comptroller Leslie Munger, a Republican, warned of “catastrophic†results if the House budget plan is enacted, predicting the backlog of unpaid bills would more than double to $15 billion and payments to schools, hospitals and others would take as long as nine months to process. A coalition of unpaid social service agencies that sued Illinois for more than $100 million earlier this month filed an emergency motion on Wednesday asking the Cook County Court to order the state to immediately make bill payments that are more than 60 days late. | 1 | [
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FMD1721 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Hillary Clinton’s claim on Wednesday that she lost the 2016 presidential election in part because of the proliferation of “fake news†is contradicted by an extensive study that found fake news didn’t significantly impact the outcome of the election. [That study recently received a positive nod from the Poynter Institute, the group helping Facebook determine whether certain news stories are “disputed. †Speaking at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. Clinton claimed that she lost the election due a plot in which fake news was disseminated on social media in a conspiracy orchestrated by Russian agents and bots. “Here’s what the other side was doing, and they were in a different arena,†she stated, according to a transcript from the event organizers. “Through content farms, through an enormous investment in falsehoods, fake news, call it what you will. †Without citing evidence, Clinton claimed that “1, 000 Russian agents†were behind the conspiracy to disseminate fake information about her: The other side was using content that was just false, and delivering it in a very personalized way, both sort of above the radar screen and below. And you know, look, I’m not a tech expert by any stretch of the imagination. That really influenced the information that people were relying on. And there have been some studies done since the election that if you look — let’s pick Facebook. If you look at Facebook, the vast majority of the news items posted were fake. They were connected to, as we now know, the 1, 000 Russian agents who were involved in delivering those messages. Clinton’s claim that voters were influenced by fake news contrasts with a study titled “Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election,†by economists Matthew Gentzkow of Stanford University and Hunt Allcott of New York University. The research utilized web browsing data, a database of what the authors claimed were fake news stories and a online survey about news trends. The study concluded: Our data suggest that social media were not the most important source of election news, and even the most widely circulated fake news stories were seen by only a small fraction of Americans. For fake news to have changed the outcome of the election, a single fake news story would need to have convinced about 0. 7 percent of Clinton voters and who saw it to shift their votes to Trump, a persuasion rate equivalent to seeing 36 television campaign ads. Poynter’s Chief Media Writer James Warren reported on the study: In sum, they conclude that the role of social media was overstated, with television remaining by far the primary vehicle for consuming political news. Just 14 percent of Americans deemed social media the primary source of their campaign news, according to their research. In addition, while fake news that favored Trump far exceeded that favoring Clinton, few Americans actually recalled the specifics of the stories and fewer believed them. “For fake news to have changed the outcome of the election, a single fake article would need to have had the same persuasive effect as 36 television campaign ads,†they conclude. Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. †Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook. With research by Joshua Klein. | 1 | [
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FMD1722 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: American taxpayers who expected Donald Trump to work hard for them are going to be sorely disappointed when they see this.Trump has spent a full month in office, or 744 hours.And so far, he has very little to show for it. Trump is already on track to issue more executive orders than President Obama ever did and he is on pace to spend more time on vacation as well.According to research by the Washington Post, Donald Trump may be the laziest president America has ever had to put up with.Of the 744 hours he has spent in office, Trump 293 hours not working while in Washington DC, 25 hours golfing, 13 hours tweeting, and 106 hours at Mar-a-Lago. That s a total of 437 hours of Trump not being on the job.In contrast, Trump has only spent a pathetic six hours in intelligence briefings and only 21 hours dealing with foreign relations. And can we really count all of the time Trump has spent whining about the press and bragging about himself as work time? Probably not.Here s the chart via The Washington Post.Trump promised he wouldn t have time to play golf because he would be working so hard, but he is already on pace to surpass the number of rounds President Obama played during his first term. Trump has also taken three trips to Palm Beach in Florida to stay at his resort at a cost of $10 million to taxpayers thus far, meaning Trump is on pace to shatter the 8-year $90 million price tag of President Obama s vacations and the number of days President Obama spent on vacation within his first year on the job.Considering how much conservatives whined and bitched about President Obama s golfing and vacations, the fact that they haven t complained once about Trump s is absolute hypocrisy. Compared with Obama, Trump is much worse.And as for those executive orders, Trump has signed 12 so far and that comes out to 136 this year, which means he ll sign more in two years than President Obama did in eight years if he stays on this pace. As we know, conservatives complained every time President Obama signed an executive order, claiming that executive orders undermine Congress. But apparently, conservatives have no problem with Trump acting like a king. And those orders have done nothing but cause chaos and hurt people while keeping government agencies from doing their jobs.Rather than working for the American people like he claimed he would, Trump is treating the most important job in the world like it s not much of a priority. In fact, he only seems interested in tweeting, bragging about himself during press conferences, and playing golf at a time when the world needs steady, hard-working leadership. And since Trump s work has mostly caused chaos, one can hardly say that he is working on behalf of the people. He s only interested in causing more problems and helping himself.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 0 | [
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FMD1723 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump opened the latest outpost in his real estate empire on Monday, a luxury hotel in a historic building five blocks from the White House that underwent a two-year, $200 million renovation. While staff members at the 263-room Trump International Hotel planned little hoopla for what they described as a “soft opening,†about 40 protesters opposed to the New York real estate developer’s presidential run gathered outside. The opening came eight weeks before the Nov. 8 election. “It kind of fits his personality that he finds a way to be on Pennsylvania Avenue, one way or another,†said protester Judy Byron, 70, a Washington artist. The hotel, which includes a $20,000-a-night suite, is less than a mile (km) down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. The hotel is housed in Washington’s third-tallest building, the 1899 Old Post Office, built in the Romanesque Revival architectural style. Trump said on Twitter he had stopped by the property “to thank all of the tremendous men & women for their hard work!†The protesters criticized some of Trump’s positions, including a promise to build a wall along the Mexican border to block illegal immigrants. Protest organizer Andrew Castro of Baltimore said: “We’re out here building a wall against racism.†Dozens of people filtered in and out on Monday afternoon, some to gawk and others pausing for a drink at the hotel’s bar. On his way in, Ric Hedlund, who works in port development, said he had been impressed by the renovations of a building that he said was previously “a dump.†“I’m going in to drink Trump wine,†said Hedlund, who added he also supported Trump as a candidate. Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who helped negotiate the 60-year lease with the U.S. government and oversaw the building’s revamp and design, said the project had come in a year ahead of schedule and under budget. “We have really positioned this hotel to not only be the finest hotel in D.C. but in the country,†she said in a telephone interview. A grand-opening ceremony is planned for next month. Trump attended the 2014 groundbreaking for the renovations alongside local Democratic officials before launching his presidential campaign last year. While Trump’s name is hard to escape in his native New York, where it adorns structures including the Trump Tower as well as a Bronx golf course, the hotel marks his most visible presence in Washington. His comments describing some Mexican immigrants as criminals prompted celebrity chefs Jose Andres and Geoffrey Zakarian to pull out of the project. Trump has sued them. | 1 | [
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FMD1724 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Prime Minister Theresa May s spokesman said on Monday he was not aware of any Brexit-related concerns in the British government following the collapse of German Chancellor Angela Merkel s talks to form a three-way coalition government. I m not aware of any broader concerns, the spokesman said when asked whether May was worried the situation would affect Britain s ability to negotiate a Brexit deal. It s a matter for Germany and a matter for politicians in Germany. | 1 | [
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FMD1725 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: If Mitt Romney wanted to ignite a debate about Donald Trump’s suitability for the White House, he succeeded, at least on social media. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, lambasted Trump in a speech on Thursday in Salt Lake City, Utah, calling him “a phony, a fraud†and saying it is his “very brand of anger that has led other nations into the abyss.†The speech was the latest illustration of how badly many mainstream Republican leaders want to stop Trump, the clear front-runner, from becoming his party’s nominee in November’s election to succeed President Barack Obama. Twitter users posted about Romney roughly 38 times per second following the speech, according to Zoomph, the social media analytics firm. Romney’s sentiment score, a measure of how positively users discuss a topic, was slightly higher than Trump’s following the speech, according to the firm. “Mitt Romney†quickly became one of the top-trending topics on Twitter in the United States. In a period of about four hours after the former Massachusetts governor’s speech, there were roughly 529,000 tweets about Romney on Twitter, according to the social media site’s own metrics. Trump’s response, a barrage of put-downs, also generated social media attention. During a campaign rally in Maine, Trump said Romney had begged him for an endorsement when he was running for the White House in 2012. Trump’s comments included what many on social media perceived to be a crude sexual joke. “I could have said ‘Mitt, drop to your knees,’ he would have dropped to his knees,†Trump said. “Is this a new @realDonaldTrump campaign slogan? ‘Drop to Your Knees, America ... and they did,’†tweeted Carl Spry (@CarlSpry). “His secret to getting so many endorsements?â€. Romney said later he would not have accepted Trump’s endorsement four years ago if Trump had spoken as he does now. “If Trump had said 4 years ago the things he says today about the KKK, Muslims, Mexicans, disabled, I would NOT have accepted his endorsement,†Romney tweeted (@MittRomney), referring to the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan. In his speech slamming both Trump’s policy proposals and his style, Romney did not endorse any of the candidates remaining in the Republican race. But one of them, Ohio Governor John Kasich (@JohnKasich), tweeted his support, saying “Well said, @MittRomney.†A photo of the presidential Oval Office accompanied the tweet, with the caption “The One Who Works Here Should Make Us Proud.†Other presidential candidates remained quiet on Twitter, but Republican South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley offered her support for Romney. “A brilliant speech by @MittRomney. No one can ever question his love for our party and our country. #TrueLeadership #MittRomney,†she (@nikkihaley) tweeted. Haley has endorsed Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, for the Republican nomination. (Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus and Melissa Fares in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Frances Kerry) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 1 | [
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FMD1726 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: What are the consequences of entering the United States border unlawfully? Claim summaries: A viral Facebook post comparing U.S. immigration policy to that of North Korea and Afghanistan gets most of the facts wrong.
contextual information: A nine-year-old viral Facebook post that portrays the United States as soft on illegal immigration experienced a resurgence in early 2018, likely due to ongoing negotiations between President Donald Trump and Congressional Democrats over the fate of immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children by their undocumented parents and who have previously been allowed to stay in the United States under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The wording of the post, which was turned into a meme, has been repeated since at least 2009 and has been adapted for Australian and Canadian audiences over the years. There have been small variations here and there, but it typically goes something like this: Undocumented immigrants do have some rights and entitlements, but the meme vastly overstates these entitlements and omits the many burdens and disadvantages placed on these immigrants, including the constant possibility of arrest and deportation. Adults who enter the United States illegally are not provided with a job. In fact, it's illegal to knowingly hire any immigrant who isn't authorized to work in the country (whether they entered the United States illegally or overstayed a visa after entering legally). Of course, that doesn't stop the practice from happening, and according to a 2017 analysis by the Pew Research Institute, there were around 8 million unauthorized immigrants working or looking for work in the United States in 2014. This depends on where you live. As of January 2018, there are 12 states (and the District of Columbia) that allow immigrants without legal status to obtain a driver's license. Some of the states where unauthorized immigrants can drive (California, New Jersey, Illinois) have relatively high undocumented populations. An immigrant who does not have legal status in the United States is not eligible for food stamps (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), although their children might be. Indeed, undocumented immigrants do not receive most kinds of welfare benefits, even though they do pay taxes. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a non-partisan think tank, undocumented immigrants collectively contribute almost $12 billion per year in state and local sales, income, and property taxes. Generally speaking, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federal housing benefits like public housing, rental assistance, and vouchers. However, as a 2015 Congressional Research Service report outlines, some undocumented immigrants may live in a household with citizens or qualified immigrants and thereby indirectly benefit from some public housing assistance (although the level of that assistance is reduced on a pro rata basis due to the presence of that undocumented immigrant). Undocumented immigrants are eligible for emergency assistance such as homeless accommodation and domestic violence shelters. It is possible for an undocumented immigrant to own a home, either by buying it outright with cash or by using something called an individual tax identification number (ITIN) mortgage. This allows non-citizens (including undocumented immigrants) to bypass the usual requirement of having a social security number to take out a mortgage. Some 31 percent of undocumented immigrants live in a home that is owned by at least one of its residents (as opposed to rented), according to a Migration Policy Institute analysis of data from the United States Census Bureau's 2014 American Community Survey. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) Health Insurance Marketplace, significantly curtailing the affordable health insurance and health care available to them. However, six states and the District of Columbia have rules that allow undocumented immigrant children to avail themselves of Medicaid benefits, and undocumented immigrants are also entitled to emergency medical care. According to a 2017 Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, non-elderly undocumented immigrants are four times more likely than United States citizens to be uninsured, and fears about immigration enforcement and detection often cause undocumented immigrants to forgo preventive healthcare, leading to worse outcomes. It's not entirely clear what the creator of this meme means by "child benefits," but let's take a look. Undocumented immigrant taxpayers (using an ITIN rather than a social security number) can avail themselves of a child tax credit. Low-income undocumented immigrants are also eligible for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which provides food and infant formula assistance, as well as nutritional and immunization assessments. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), a federal program that provides financial help to low-income families and pregnant women. In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states are constitutionally barred from denying children a public school education based on their immigration status. As a result, undocumented immigrant children can attend public schools for free, like any other children. While attending public schools, undocumented children can benefit from federal nutrition services like the School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program. Only two states (Alabama and South Carolina) do not allow undocumented immigrants to attend public colleges and other third-level institutions, and three others (Arizona, Georgia, and Indiana) do not allow them to pay lower in-state tuition rates, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Undocumented students are not allowed to receive federal financial aid for higher education, but they might be able to get state aid or private scholarships. This is completely false. Undocumented immigrants pay taxes, and there is no provision in law at the federal or state level that grants them any kind of "tax holiday." | 0 | [
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FMD1727 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: When there is talk of your father (and probable lover) and his campaign manager skipping hand-in-hand though a field of daisies with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, it s probably not a good idea to hang out with someone who is rumored to be his girlfriend but that s exactly what Ivanka Trump just did. People Magazine is reporting that daddy s little girl and Putin s likely lady friend, alleged Chinese spy Wendi Deng Murdoch (yes, she was also married to Fox News overlord Rupert Murdoch), were spotted over the weekend enjoying scenic Dubrovnik, Croatia, in Eastern Europe.Sight seeing with @wendimurdoch in DubrovnikA photo posted by Ivanka Trump (@ivankatrump) on Aug 14, 2016 at 8:04am PDTFor years, rumors swirled that Murdoch s ex and Trump s pal Putin were dating ever since the two elites divorced their wives in 2013 and 2014. The Kremlin has not confirmed nor denied the relationship, and Deng flat-out denied the accusations last month, years after they became public, but anonymous sources within the Kremlin confirmed the serious relationship. Via US Weekly:Reports of the pair have been floating around for years, ever since their respective divorces in 2014 and 2013.One insider close to the powerful leader tells Us Weekly the relationship is serious. But given Trump s decision to practically hump Putin s leg and his (and his current campaign chair s) confirmed financial ties to Putin and his allies, it would be a wise decision for Ivanka Trump to avoid even the appearance of impropriety because of her heavy involvement in daddy s campaign. Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets, Trump s son, Donald Jr., told a real estate conference in 2008, the Washington Post reports. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia. Trump s reliance on Russian money to turn anything resembling a profit may explain why he repeatedly praises the Russian leader, even denying that he invaded the Ukraine despite reality proving him wrong in a 10-second Google search. The Post explains Trump s relationship with Putin:The dynamic illustrates the extent to which Trump s worldview has been formed through the lens of commerce rather than the think tanks, government deliberations and international diplomatic conferences that typically shape the foreign policy positions of presidential candidates.It also reflects Trump s willingness to see world leaders through his own personal connections. In a Republican Party in which an ability to stand up to Putin has been seen as a test of toughness, Trump s relationship with the Russian leader is instead one of mutual flattery. Putin said in December that Trump was a colorful and talented person, a compliment that Trump said at the time was an honor. The back-and-forth has continued. In a mid-June rally, Trump cited those comments as the reason he will not reject the Russian leader. A guy calls me a genius, and I m going to renounce? Trump said. I m not going to renounce him. The next day in St. Petersburg, Putin again called Trump a colorful person and said he welcomed Trump s proposal for a full-scale resumption of U.S.-Russia ties.On the campaign trail, Trump has called for a new partnership with Moscow, overhauling NATO, the allied military force seen as the chief protector of pro-Western nations near Russia. And Trump has surrounded himself with a team of advisers who have had financial ties to Russia.If the numerous reports regarding a down-low Putin/Murdoch relationship are true, and it seems they are, this could create gigantic problems for Trump as he continues his routine of supporting Russia in all things. After all, a discreet vacation in Croatia would be a great time to discuss bigger plans like Trump s call on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton for him.If Deng s weak response years after the relationship was rumored to have begun and only after it began to get more press is true, if she has never met Putin as she says well, to use Trump s words, some people say Featured image via People Magazine/The Guardian | 0 | [
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FMD1728 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: #FlashbackFriday 1993 #AttorneyGate Clinton AG Reno Fires ALL 93 Republican US Attorneys in one day. #Sessions is following tradition. #MAGA pic.twitter.com/GGf9ur1R9f ia (@nia4_trump) March 10, 2017WASHINGTON (AP) Attorney General Jeff Sessions is seeking the resignations of 46 United States attorneys who were appointed during the prior presidential administration.In a statement Friday, the Justice Department said the request was similar to ones made in past presidential transitions. The department said many federal prosecutors appointed in the Obama administration have already left their positions, but that Sessions is now seeking the resignations of 46 holdovers.It is customary, though not automatic, for the country s 93 U.S. attorneys to leave their positions once a new president is in office. The Obama administration allowed political appointees of President George W. Bush to serve until their replacement had been nominated and confirmed.The federal prosecutors are nominated by the president, generally upon the recommendation of a home-state senator.One U.S. attorney appointed by Bush, Rod Rosenstein of Maryland, remained on the job for the entire Obama administration and is the current nominee for deputy attorney general.U.S. attorneys are responsible for prosecuting federal crimes in the territories they oversee. They report to Justice Department leadership in Washington, and their priorities are expected to be in line with those of the attorney general.Via: AP | 0 | [
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FMD1729 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Videos Police Violence Escalates As Provocateurs Infiltrate Standing Rock, #NoDAPL Protests While reporting from the Dakota Access pipeline protests, MintPress News reporter Derrick Broze witnessed the actions of destructive forces which have infiltrated the peaceful Native-led movement and provoked increasingly violent responses from law enforcement. | November 6, 2016 Be Sociable, Share! The remnants of a vehicle burned on North Dakota Highway 1806 on the night of Oct. 27. Non-peaceful forces embedded on the side of the water protectors were seen burning the vehicle and two armored vehicles over the protests of water protectors. (Derrick Broze for MintPress)
STANDING ROCK SIOUX RESERVATION, North Dakota — Police violence has escalated and destructive forces have entered the fray in recent weeks as “water protectors” in North Dakota have continued their fight against the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline.
On Nov. 2, police targeted water protectors from the Sacred Stone, Oceti Sakowin, and Red Warrior camps with pepper spray and rubber bullets in response to their peaceful efforts to stop the destruction of the gravesites Alma Parkin and Matilda Galpin, Indigenous women who once owned the nearby Cannonball Ranch.
“Water protectors building a makeshift bridge across the Cannonball River were met by riot police firing less-than-lethal munitions at point blank range and indiscriminately blasting OC Spray on peaceful unarmed people,” the Camp of the Sacred Stones reported on Nov. 3.
The Native communities who oppose the pipeline prefer to call themselves water protectors as a way to signify that their fight is one in defense of the health of the water in the pipeline’s path, specifically the Missouri River.
“The bridge was torn down per the orders received by Morton County from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers . Morton County police then unleashed pepper spray and tear gas on water protectors standing in the river with their hands in the air.”
More than 100 people were injured in the violence which came just one day after President Barack Obama told Now This News that he was monitoring the situation closely and exploring possible ways to “reroute” the pipeline.
“We’re going to let it play out for several more weeks and determine whether or not this can be resolved in a way that I think is properly attentive to the traditions of First Americans,” Obama said.
Watch “President Obama says they’re examining ways to ‘reroute’ the Dakota Access Pipeline” from 2016 NowThis Election:
Police and protesters turn violent
The week preceding Obama’s statement took a violent turn, as law enforcement raided camps and destructive forces positioned on the side of the water protectors made themselves known.
Militarized riot police raided two frontline camps on Oct. 27, making 107 arrests as they deployed pepper spray, stun guns, and physical force in response to a crowd of unarmed water protectors who were blocking the path of pipeline construction. The water protectors attempted to keep police and pipeline workers from accessing the construction site by setting fires to barricades, but police were able to eventually remove everyone from the frontline camps and reclaim the land where the pipeline is slated to be built. Water protectors face off with a police line off North Dakota Highway 1806. Law enforcement wear riot gear as they prepare to remove the frontline camp. Oct. 27, 2016 (Derrick Broze for MintPress)
Later that night, a bridge on North Dakota Highway 1806, just north of the Red Warrior and Oceti Sakowin camps in Mandan, was the scene of another standoff between law enforcement and citizens opposed to the pipeline.
Although stationed on the water protectors’ side of the bridge, a small group of individuals did not seem to hold the same values or practice the same tactics as the larger, Native-led movement against the pipeline.
Watch “Water Protectors face off with police #NoDAPL” from MintPress News:
In stark contrast to the water protectors’ many actions of peaceful prayer and ceremony, the atmosphere at the bridge the night of Oct. 27 was more reminiscent of an outdoor rave. The protesters on the bridge set fire to an SUV, and threw rocks and other objects at a row of armored vehicles operated by law enforcement. This small faction of non-peaceful protesters and officers briefly tossed smoke bombs back and forth.
Officers eventually lit two smoke bombs on the north side of the bridge before parking two armored vehicles at the exit to the bridge, preventing water protectors and protestors from evacuating in that direction. All law enforcement vehicles were gone within a matter of minutes, and protesters climbed aboard the armored vehicles before setting fire to them.
When several water protectors came to the bridge, they told those setting the fires and instigating violence that this isn’t what they want for the movement.
“If you feel uncomfortable, if you don’t like this action, go back to camp,” one of the men shouted back at the water protectors.
Saying prayer had failed, the small group of non-peaceful protesters said they were now fighting “by any means necessary.”
The fires they set burned throughout the night, as neither law enforcement nor fire department personnel ever arrived at the scene to extinguish the flames. Gabriella Scarlett, a water protector from Canada, signals for peace as a fire barricade burns off County Road 134. Behind her, water protectors establish a fire barricade to hold police back from the site of construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. Oct. 27, 2016 (Derrick Broze for MintPress)
Agitators make their presence known
On Oct. 28, water protectors and elders arrived on the scene to retake the bridge from the agitating faction in all-black clothing, a tactic for protests and marches known as “black bloc.” There were no more than 20 of these provocateurs, and they all traveled together in five older pick-up trucks. Several fights broke out on the bridge as the agitators clashed with those calling strictly for prayer and ceremony, and the agitators were run off the bridge and back to the camps within an hour.
Siouxz, the head of security on the frontline camp off North Dakota Highway 1806, said those who started the fires were not with the water protector movement.
“ Seven Council has came and they are very ashamed of the behavior of some of the non-traditional people here who can’t respect our ways and how we want to make this prayerful,” Siouxz told MintPress News.
“We’re here to protect the water, not initiate a riot or some violent protest, which is the image that the whole world is getting right now. Our elders have come together to condemn all of these wrongful actions like catching things on fire.”
Apparently intent on forcing their tactics upon the movement, these outside forces appeared uninterested in listening to the Standing Rock Sioux or other Native water protectors.
Although the black bloc tactic has been used as a legitimate way for protesters to shield their identities from law enforcement, it has also been exploited by law enforcement. Police masquerading as black bloc activists have been exposed at the 2001 G8 Summit in Genoa, Italy , and at protests in 2007 in Quebec , and police posed as activists to infiltrate the Occupy movement. A water protector stares down police along County Road 134, in Mandan, North Dakota, north of Red Warrior Camp. Law enforcement wear riot gear as they prepare to remove the frontline camp. Oct. 27, 2016 (Derrick Broze for MintPress)
“Solidarity becomes the hijacking or destruction of competing movements, which is exactly what the Black Bloc contingents are attempting to do with the Occupy movement,” Chris Hedges, a progressive independent journalist and activist, wrote in a scathing criticism of the black bloc’s presence during the Occupy movement.
Law enforcement isn’t the only institution going undercover to infiltrate activist groups. Corporate entities also have a history of attempting to spy on peaceful, law-abiding activists . A 2013 report by the Center for Corporate Policy found that a large number of corporations are hiring former law enforcement, CIA, NSA, FBI, and military employees to act as spies.
In the report, titled “ Spooky Business ,” Gary Ruskin wrote:
“Many of the world’s largest corporations and their trade associations — including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Walmart, Monsanto, Bank of America, Dow Chemical, Kraft, Coca-Cola, Chevron, Burger King, McDonald’s, Shell, BP, BAE, Sasol, Brown & Williamson and E.ON — have been linked to espionage or planned espionage against nonprofit organizations, activists and whistleblowers.”
Considering what is known about corporate agitation, it is possible that the provocateurs were hired by Energy Transfer Partners , the company behind the pipeline, the banks financing the pipeline, or, really, any company that benefits from the pipeline in any way.
Ultimately, though, whether the agitators were police, corporate lackeys, or activists practicing a failed strategy, their actions do not represent the whole of the water protector movement and should not be used to discredit or delegitimize it. Be Sociable, Share! | 0 | [
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FMD1730 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: If she could change any one event in all of world history — including possibly going back in time to thwart genocidal dictators — former Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester would choose to ensure Donald Trump lost the 2016 presidential election. [The actress — set to play Paul Revere’s daughter in the upcoming Fox series Making History — made the claim in an interview with Yahoo! Style to promote the show. “Like, if I could snap my fingers? Trump would not be elected. That’s all,†Meester told the outlet. The actress noted that she may have opted to change an altogether different historic event had Trump not won the presidency in November. “As of right now, I feel that way,†she said. “Before Trump, I would have said that Hitler was never born. Humans are so f*cked up. †Meester wasn’t particularly politically outspoken during the 2016 presidential campaign. But in a recent interview with beauty outlet Byrdie, the actress described the atmosphere in America as “crazy†and said she found it “challenging†to constantly tune in to the news. The actress added that issues of sexism and climate change continue to plague the country. “I’m not saying we should take these issues for granted. But I think what can’t be as easily defended is the environment, and people are doing irreparable damage,†she said. “It’s pretty unbelievable that there are people out there who don’t think so. They just ignore the facts, and that’s pretty scary. Four years: Maybe we don’t have that long. †The actress — who played socialite Blair Waldorf in the popular Gossip Girl television series — is hardly the only star to compare Trump to Nazi leader Hitler. Numerous celebrities, including John Legend, Bill Maher, Louis C. K. Eva Longoria and Cher, to name just a few, have all made the comparison. So have news outlets like the Washington Post. Adolf Hitler oversaw the slaughter of six million Jews, as well as the murders of millions of others, including Polish, Serbian, and Russian political prisoners the mentally and physically handicapped (who often underwent forced sterilization) gypsies, and gay people in concentration camps across Europe during World War II. The Nazi Holocaust of Europe’s Jews — who were singled out for destruction — is considered the most infamous genocide in modern history. Hitler’s victims were gassed to death, forced on “death marches,†lined up to be shot in firing lines, and had their remains burned in crematoriums. Others starved to death or died from illnesses and diseases spread throughout the camps. Trump was elected president on November 8, 2016, and it was not immediately clear which of his policies could be reasonably compared to the death and destruction wrought by Hitler. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 1 | [
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FMD1731 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Black Box Voting ’s Bev Harris explains the following 24 minute video :
A real-time demo of the most devastating election theft mechanism yet found, with context and explanation. Demonstration uses a real voting system and real vote databases and takes place in seconds across multiple jurisdictions.
Over 5000 subcontractors and middlemen have the access to perform this for any or all clients. It can give contract signing authority to whoever the user chooses. All political power can be converted to the hands of a few anonymous subcontractors.
“It’s a product. It’s scaleable. It learns its environment and can adjust to any political environment, any demographic. It runs silently, invisibly, and can produce plausible results that really pass for the real thing.”
Provides solutions and actions for immediate deterrence.
The Onion’s 2-minute satire of this ongoing condition :
My best frame of this obvious condition:
When Americans are told an election is defined by touching a computer screen without a countable receipt that can be verified, they are being told a criminal lie to allow election fraud . This is self-evident, but Princeton , Stanford , and the President of the American Statistical Association are among the leaders pointing to the obvious (and here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here ). Again, no professional would/can argue an election is legitimate when there is nothing for anyone to count.
Election fraud is one of ~100 Emperor’s New Clothes game-changing and professionally documented facts that reveal ongoing .01% empire with associated crimes. The Crimes The US is a literal rogue state empire led by neocolonial looting liars. The history is uncontested and taught to anyone taking comprehensive courses. If anyone has any refutations of this professional academic factual claim for any of this easy-to-read and documented content , please provide it. US ongoing lie-started and Orwellian-illegal Wars of Aggression require all US military and government to refuse all war orders because there are no lawful orders for obviously unlawful wars. Officers are required to arrest those who issue obviously unlawful orders. And again, those of us working for this area of justice are aware of zero attempts to refute this with, “War law states (a, b, c), so the wars are legal because (d, e, f).” All we receive is easy-to-reveal bullshit . And, obviously, corporate media are criminally complicit through constant lies of omission and commission to “cover” all these crimes. Historic tragic-comic empire is only possible through such straight-face lying, making our Emperor’s New Clothes analogy perfectly chosen. The top three benefits each of monetary reform and public banking total ~$1,000,000 for the average American household, and would be received nearly instantly. Please read that twice. Now look to verify for yourself . Demanding arrests as the required and obvious public response rather than ‘voting’ for more disaster:
The categories of crime include: Wars of Aggression (the worst crime a nation can commit). Likely treason for lying to US military, ordering unlawful attack and invasions of foreign lands, and causing thousands of US military deaths. Crimes Against Humanity for ongoing intentional policy of poverty that’s killed over 400 million human beings just since 1995 (~75% children; more deaths than from all wars in Earth’s recorded history).
US military, law enforcement, and all with Oaths to support and defend the US Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, face an endgame choice: Demand arrests , with those with lawful authority to enact it. An arrest is the lawful action to stop apparent crimes , with the most serious crimes documented here meaning the most serious need for arrests. Watch the US escalate its rogue state crimes that annually kill millions, harm billions, and loot trillions.
In just 90 seconds , former US Marine Ken O’Keefe powerfully states how you may choose to voice “very obvious solutions”: arrest the criminal leaders (video starts at 20:51, then finishes this episode of Cross Talk ): Solutions worth literal tens of trillions to ‘We the People’:
Again: The top three benefits each of monetary reform and public banking total ~$1,000,000 for the average American household, and would be received nearly instantly. Please read that twice. Now look to verify for yourself . We can quantify the end of the lie-started and illegal Wars of Aggression quickly into the trillions, and that said, it’s worth a lot more than what we quantify. Truth : a world in which education is expressed in its full potential to only and always begin with good-faith effort for objective, comprehensive, and verifiable data. Would an ‘interview’ with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams help?
If so, here are two:
‘Election’ 2016 interview with Washington, Jefferson, Adams: America’s right and necessity to arrest .01% tyrants engaged in lie-started illegal Wars of Aggression, bankster-looting, and constant lying
**
Note: I make all factual assertions as a National Board Certified Teacher of US Government, Economics, and History, with all economics factual claims receiving zero refutation since I began writing in 2008 among Advanced Placement Macroeconomics teachers on our discussion board , public audiences of these articles , and international conferences (and here ). I invite readers to empower their civic voices with the strongest comprehensive facts most important to building a brighter future. I challenge professionals, academics, and citizens to add their voices for the benefit of all Earth’s inhabitants.
**
Carl Herman is a National Board Certified Teacher of US Government, Economics, and History; also credentialed in Mathematics. He worked with both US political parties over 18 years and two UN Summits with the citizen’s lobby, RESULTS , for US domestic and foreign policy to end poverty. He can be reached at
Note: Examiner.com has blocked public access to my articles on their site (and from other whistleblowers), so some links in my previous work are blocked. If you’d like to search for those articles other sites may have republished, use words from the article title within the blocked link. Or, go to http://archive.org/web/ , p aste the expired link into the box, click “Browse history,” then click onto the screenshots of that page for each time it was screen-shot and uploaded to webarchive. I’ll update as “hobby time” allows; including my earliest work from 2009 to 2011 (blocked author pages: here , here ). This entry was posted in General . Bookmark the permalink . | 0 | [
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FMD1732 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: MOSUL, Iraq — Dozens of Iraqi civilians, some of them still alive and calling out for help, were buried for days under the rubble of their homes in western Mosul after airstrikes flattened almost an entire city block. At the site on Sunday, more than a week after the bombing runs, reporters for The New York Times saw weary survivors trying to find bodies in the wreckage. Iraqi officials said the final death toll could reach 200 or more, potentially making it one of the worst civilian tolls ever in an American military strike in Iraq. The fighting against the Islamic State here has grown more urgent, with Iraqi officers saying the coalition has been quicker to strike urban targets from the air with less time to weigh the risks for civilians. They say the change reflects a renewed push by the American military under the Trump administration to speed up the battle for Mosul. American military officials insist there have been no changes to its rules of engagement that lessen the risk for civilians. They say the reports of greater civilian casualties have come at a time of more intense operations both by Iraqi forces in Mosul and by forces fighting the Islamic State in Syria. Starting with the surge into Mosul in December, they say, American military advisers have been given more authority to call in some airstrikes that do not have to be approved through headquarters. Right now, the battle for Mosul is in its most dangerous phase for civilians, with the fight reaching into the twisting alleys and densely populated areas of the old city. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are pinned down here in tight quarters with Islamic State fighters who do not care if they live or die. At the same time, more American Special Operations troops, some dressed in black uniforms and driving black vehicles — the colors of their Iraqi counterparts — are closer to the front lines. That way, in theory, the targeting of Islamic State fighters should become more precise for the coalition. Another 200 American soldiers, from the 82nd Airborne Division, are heading to Iraq to support that battle over the next few days. Many Iraqi commanders welcome the more aggressive American role, saying that coalition officers were too risk averse under the Obama administration. Iraqis also say fighting for the dense, urban spaces of western Mosul requires more airpower, even if that means more civilians will die. When those decisions turn tragic, it looks like this: a panorama of destruction in the neighborhood of Mosul Jidideh so vast one resident compared the destruction to that of Hiroshima, Japan, where the United States dropped an atomic bomb in World War II. There was a charred arm, wrapped in a piece of red fabric, poking from the rubble rescue workers in red jump suits who wore face masks to avoid the stench, some with rifles slung over their shoulders, searched the wreckage for bodies. One of the survivors, Omar Adnan, stood near his destroyed home on Sunday and held up a white sheet of paper with 27 names of his extended family members, either dead or missing, written in blue ink. Nearby were two men. One of them, Ashraf Mohammed, said, “I lost all of my family except this guy, my brother. †The civilian deaths have not been limited to the battle for Mosul, which is about 220 miles north of Baghdad. Across large areas of Syria and Iraq, more American ground troops are being committed to the fight, and more American airstrikes are being ordered. In Syria, the battle has intensified in large part around Raqqa, the Islamic State’s declared capital. The campaigns in both countries intend to deprive the Islamic State of its biggest cities, while keeping pressure on the group across its holdings. Allegations of civilian casualties in both countries from airstrikes have increased so much in recent months that, for the first time, the number of coalition strikes affecting civilians has surpassed those carried out by Russia in Syria, according to Airwars, a monitoring organization based in London that tracks international airstrikes and their effect on civilians. The group said the increase in reported civilian deaths began under President Barack Obama and accelerated after President Trump took office in January. American officials have confirmed that the coalition conducted airstrikes in Mosul Jidideh on March 17 and that they are investigating whether it was to blame for the dozens of deaths there. They insist that they are doing everything they can to protect civilian lives while pushing the fight in Mosul. Jim Mattis, the Defense secretary, told reporters at the Pentagon on Monday that military leaders “are keenly aware that every battlefield where an enemy hides behind women and children†could lead to civilian casualties. “We go out of our way to always do everything humanly possible to reduce loss of life or injury among innocent people,†he said. The east side of Mosul, a city of 1. 8 million that is Iraq’s second largest, was mostly secured by Iraqi forces in January. Much of it remained intact, and everyday life resumed. But on the west, the fight has become more brutal, with sections that look like moonscapes. Maj. Gen. Maan an Iraqi special forces commander, said his men had called in the American airstrikes that caused the civilian deaths, adding of the victims, “We feel sad for them. †But he called the episode an unfortunate outcome in a nasty war. He said that Iraqi forces had lost thousands of men fighting the Islamic State, and that to lose so many civilians in a single attack “in return for liberating the entire city of Mosul — I think it is a normal thing. †“This is a war, and mistakes can happen, and there can be losses,†he said. “But we are fighting the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world, with huge, unprecedented support from the international coalition. †Gen. Ali Jamil, an intelligence officer with the Iraqi special forces, said he had been fighting the Islamic State for more than two years with the support of American air power. “I have not seen such a quick response with high coordination from the coalition as I am seeing now,†he said. Before, when Iraqis requested airstrikes, he said, “there used to be a delay, or no response sometimes, on the excuse of checking the location or looking for civilians. †On Sunday, a bulldozer pushed debris so rescuers could reach bodies. When one body was found, a man nearby identified it as that of his nephew, and another man wrote the name down in a notebook. The body was then zipped up in a blue plastic bag and placed inside a garage alongside others. Many of the dead had already been buried in the gardens of homes that were only partially destroyed. Residents who were in the neighborhood during the fighting suggested that there had been every reason to believe the area was filled with civilians at the time of the airstrikes — especially because the Iraqi government and its American allies had dropped leaflets asking civilians to remain in their homes rather than risk fleeing into the middle of the battle. But the battle has come to them now. As the fight for this west Mosul neighborhood raged 10 days ago, Islamic State fighters were dashing between homes across courtyards and passing through holes punched in concrete walls that allowed them to move their positions without showing themselves on the streets. Advancing Iraqi soldiers, who called in the airstrikes, were in earshot of civilians. “They were very close,†said Mubishar Thanoon, a resident in his late 30s, standing on Sunday at the bedside of his brother, who was wounded in the attack, at a hospital in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region. “I was hearing their voices. They knew exactly that we were there. †Another man, Ziad Suleyman, 27, said he could see an Iraqi special forces sniper on a nearby building, who was wearing a baseball cap and ear muffs and communicated with him using hand signals. “He was waving to me,†said Mr. Suleyman, also at the Erbil hospital, where he was visiting a wounded relative. “I was seeing him, he was seeing us. †Residents and Iraqi officers said that Islamic State fighters, some speaking Russian, according to residents, had taken sniper positions on the rooftops of homes, pinning down some advancing Iraqi forces. Hundreds of residents, trying to escape indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire and fearful of airstrikes, took refuge in basements. It was there that they died, from airstrikes targeting the snipers that caused entire buildings to collapse, survivors recounted. “Not all of the houses had Daesh on the roof,†said Ali Abdulghani, a resident of the neighborhood, using another name for Islamic State fighters. “Why, just because of one Daesh, kill everyone?†American military officials have said that their investigation so far has found that one building collapsed days after the strikes in the neighborhood, raising the possibility that the Islamic State blew up the building after the bombing runs, killing many civilians. In interviews, survivors and local residents dismissed that, saying airstrikes brought the buildings down. Survivors and Iraqi officers said that fighting raged in the neighborhood for days after the strikes, delaying the arrival of rescuers. A few among the lucky are now lying, injured but alive, in hospital beds in Erbil, about 50 miles east of Mosul. Mr. Thanoon’s brother, Ali, was one of them. He survived days under the wreckage, emerging with a broken arm and many cuts and bruises. He recalled lying under the rubble never thinking he would die there, and speaking to another man nearby, who did not survive. “It was a conversation between two dying men,†he said. He said he had hid in a basement not because Islamic State fighters forced him to, but because of the “terror and fear†of artillery and airstrikes. “For me and my family, we thought this was the safest place,†he said. When asked what happened to his family, Ali’s brother quickly changed the subject. A few moments later, in the hallway outside the room, Mr. Thanoon confided that he had not yet told his brother, who he said was delirious from his ordeal and from painkillers, that his family — his two wives, four daughters, two sons and two grandchildren — had all been killed. | 1 | [
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FMD1733 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Jordan s King Abdullah told U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday that any move by the United States to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel would have dangerous repercussions for regional stability, a Jordanian palace statement said. Trump said he intended to go ahead with a decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in a phone call to the king, according to the palace. The king was quoted as replying that any such decision would have dangerous repercussions for the stability and security of the region and would obstruct U.S. efforts for a resumption of Arab-Israeli peace talks. It would also inflame Muslim and Christian feelings, he said. U.S. endorsement of Israel s claim to all of Jerusalem as its capital would break with decades of U.S. policy that the city s status must be decided in negotiations with the Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. The international community does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the entire city. Jordanian officials are worried the move could trigger violence in the Palestinian territories and a spillover into Jordan, a country where many people are descendants of Palestinian refugees whose families left after the creation of Israel in 1948. King Abdullah warned Trump of the risks of any decision that ran counter to a final settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict based on the creation of an independent Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the key to achieving peace and stability in the region and the world, the statement said. The monarch also phoned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and said they had to both work together to confront the consequences of this decision. King Abdullah s Hashemite dynasty is the custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, making Amman sensitive to any changes of status of the disputed city. The monarch warned of the repercussions of Trump s expected move in talks last week in Washington with top administration officials Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al Safadi said his country planned to convene emergency meetings of the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation next Saturday and Sunday on how to face the dangerous consequences of a U.S. decision. These meetings will coordinate Arab and Islamic stances toward the imminent decision (by Trump) that will increase tensions in the region, Safadi said . Jordan lost East Jerusalem and the West Bank to Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and says the city s fate should only be decided only at the end of a final settlement. All international resolutions and agreements stipulate that the fate of Jerusalem should be decided in final status negotiation ... And all unilateral steps are considered null and void, Safadi added. | 1 | [
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FMD1734 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Greg Abbott has benefitted from payday lenders who have given him $300,000 and then received a ruling from him that they can operate in a loophole in the law that allows them to charge unlimited rates and fees.
contextual information: Wendy Davis, when asked if she had unethically profited while in public office, suggested that her opponent had committed infractions, including one that resulted from hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations. Responding to a reporter at the Sept. 30, 2014, gubernatorial debate in Dallas, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee and Fort Worth state senator accused Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, her Republican foe, of selling out Texans to serve the interests of those who make donations to his campaign. As an example, Davis pointed out payday lenders who had given Abbott's campaign $300,000 and then received a ruling from him that allowed them to operate in a loophole in the law permitting them to charge unlimited rates and fees. Davis was revisiting a topic she had consistently explored: that a 2006 letter from Abbott's state office allowed payday lenders to skirt state lending laws. After Davis proclaimed that the link between Abbott's campaign donations and official action was described by the El Paso Times in January 2014, we found her statement that Texas payday lenders were charging 1,000 percent interest to be Half True. In rare instances, lenders charged 1,000 percent annual interest, but payday loan rates then averaged 465 percent. For this fact check, we gauged whether Abbott accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations and then issued a ruling favorable to payday lenders, which offer low-dollar, high-interest short-term loans targeting low-income people who live paycheck to paycheck. The loans are generally for amounts between $100 and $500 and are most often issued for two weeks. They are considered risky because low-income borrowers are relatively unlikely to be able to pay them back.
To our inquiry about the $300,000 described as given to Abbott, Davis's campaign spokesman Zac Petkanas emailed us records of Abbott's campaign contributions as filed in campaign reports at the Texas Ethics Commission covering Sept. 16, 2002, nearly through July 2014. Our own sampling of state records showed Abbott's campaign received: --$80,000 from Trevor Ahlberg, CEO of Irving-based payday lender Cash Store, in eight installments from Aug. 16, 2006, to June 16, 2014; --$57,500 from Roderick Aycox, founder of Georgia-based payday lender LoanMax, in five installments from Nov. 12, 2009, to June 9, 2014; --$30,500 from Cash America International Inc. PAC in 14 contributions from Sept. 16, 2002, to July 29, 2014; --$30,000 from Ace Cash Express Inc. PAC, in eight donations from Oct. 5, 2005, to July 29, 2014. However, according to Petkanas and state records, less than 5 percent of the total payday-lender donations, or $13,000, had come in by Jan. 12, 2006, which was the date Abbott's office issued the ruling criticized by Davis. By phone, Petkanas clarified that Davis did not mean to imply in the debate that all of the $300,000 was given before Abbott's office ruled on payday lending.
There's a lot of background to state actions involving payday lenders. In 1999, then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn, Abbott's predecessor, filed lawsuits against selected payday lenders, claiming the companies were evading state laws regulating interest rates. Separately, a usury provision in the Texas Constitution caps interest rates on short-term loans from unlicensed lenders at 10 percent. Cornyn, stating that lenders were getting away with interest rates of up to 1,000 percent, said: "This kind of abusive payday lending is illegal in Texas, and those companies who continue this practice will face serious consequences." An October 2000 report by the Sunset Advisory Commission found that in recent years, different types of lending businesses had attempted to evade regulation, including payday lenders. It recommended that the Legislature authorize the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner to regulate payday loans to help control unlawful interest rates. In 2001, state lawmakers agreed to changes in the law bringing payday lending under the office's regulation and directing the Texas Finance Commission to adopt rules guiding the industry. According to a May 2001 bill analysis by the House Research Organization, the requested rules would prohibit a lender from using a device, pretense, or subterfuge to avoid regulation of the lender's transactions, including by recharacterizing fees on a loan as a purchase of a good or service. Resulting additions to Texas law included a chart specifying acceptable fees for payday loans of various dollar amounts and durations.
However, in subsequent years, according to Austin American-Statesman news reports, Texas payday lenders found a way around the law by partnering with out-of-state banks, which financed payday loans beyond the reach of Texas laws. State and national legislators then raised concerns about payday lenders dodging the restrictions; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation cracked down in 2005, limiting the number of payday loans a bank could issue and constricting the profitability of partnerships between payday lenders and banks. That's when Texas payday lenders, under pressure from regulation, started transitioning to a new business model called a credit service organization (CSO). In January 2006, the Statesman reported that Texas payday lenders abandoned partnerships with FDIC-regulated banks and began working with third-party unregistered lenders. It also noted that Texas payday lenders received a boost from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in the form of a letter affirming the legality of the CSO model. Between 2004 and 2014, payday lender storefronts increased more than tenfold in Texas, the El Paso Times reported on Feb. 4, 2014.
Next, we looked at the Abbott ruling referenced by Davis. It turned out to be an aide's legal analysis. In 2005, the attorney general's office, headed by Abbott, received two requests to review the legality of payday-lender CSOs, agency spokesman Jerry Strickland said by email, one being an August 2005 verbal request from the consumer credit commissioner, who inquired after a court case raised questions about whether the state had any authority over CSOs. In Lovick v. Ritemoney Ltd., the plaintiff accused payday lender Ritemoney Ltd. of disguising illegal interest fees as service charges. A state district judge, Rhesa Hawkins Barksdale, wrote that Texas law does not construe such credit service fees as disguised interest, and the complaint was dismissed. Strickland said the other request for Abbott's judgment came in writing on Sept. 8, 2005, from then-state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso. Shapleigh wrote that as a CSO, a payday lending company evades both federal guidelines restricting payday loans and the interest-rate limits established by the Texas Finance Commission. As the state's leading enforcement agency, it is imperative that your office investigate this new business model and take necessary enforcement actions against businesses purposefully and illegally skirting Texas laws.
On Jan. 12, 2006, Barry McBee, the state's first assistant attorney general, signed a letter responding to the commissioner, Leslie Pettijohn, stating that there was nothing patently illegal about payday lender CSOs under state law and that there was no statutory limit to the fees they could charge. McBee's letter pointed out that, in keeping with state law, payday lender CSOs were charging the maximum-permitted 10 percent interest on loans plus service fees to arrange the loan between a borrower and a third-party lender. He wrote that, according to Chapter 393 of the Texas Finance Code, there is no limit on the amount of fees a CSO can charge in such transactions. Any discussion of whether the use of this model is the best public policy choice for the State of Texas, McBee wrote, is one that must be addressed by the Legislature and has not been explored by this office.
In the 2013 legislative session, lawmakers debated reforming payday lending practices, but attempts stalled. By phone, Don Baylor, a former senior policy analyst for the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates for programs serving low-income Texans, said that after the Lovick v. Ritemoney ruling, payday lenders remained uncertain if they could legally operate as CSOs. However, Baylor said it is fair to say the OAG letter provided enough regulatory certainty for the entire payday lending industry to adopt the CSO model. He also noted that after the Lovick ruling, the attorney general did not have the authority to prohibit loans from being made under the CSO model. He attributed the explosion of payday lender CSOs to ambiguous wording in the 1987 Credit Services Organization Act, which was written to help Texans improve credit scores and not with payday lenders in mind. "Payday lenders found the CSO costume and dressed up in the costume," said Baylor. "It's a very creative way they came up with to get around the constitutional usury limits."
Davis stated that payday lenders gave Abbott $300,000 in campaign donations and then received a ruling from him that allowed them to operate in a loophole in the law permitting them to charge unlimited rates and fees. This statement references a 2006 legal analysis—not a ruling—from a top state aide to Abbott that aligned with a court ruling permitting payday lenders to charge unlimited fees despite state caps on related interest. Clarification is needed in that only 5 percent of the described $300,000 in donations occurred before the analysis was issued. Regardless, Abbott's office reaffirmed a way for politically supportive payday lenders to exploit Texas borrowers. We rate this statement Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD1735 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Britain won a vote of confidence from its economically important life sciences sector on Wednesday as several major drug companies committed to invest in the country under the government s industrial strategy plans after Brexit. The move is welcome news for Prime Minister Theresa May, who has struggled to win over large sections of industry as Britain prepares to leave the European Union. Thanks to the strength of UK universities and the presence of two major pharmaceuticals companies in GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, the drugs industry has been a bright spot in the British economy for many years. But the highly regulated sector faces potential obstacles to trade as a result of Brexit unless London and Brussels manage to align regulatory regimes for medicines. In a bid to soften the blow, the government has backed a report by immunologist and geneticist John Bell designed to boost the pharmaceutical sector via fresh public-private collaborations. That has paved the way for the Life Sciences Sector Deal, which will see GSK invest 40 million pounds ($54 million) of new money in genomic research, including a plan to sequence DNA from all 500,000 volunteer participants enrolled in UK Biobank, the world s most detailed biomedical database. GSK s head of research Patrick Vallance said the deal showed Britain remained an attractive place for drug discovery, but he cautioned: The UK needs to recognize going forward that science is an international endeavor, not a parochial endeavor. Other investments by pharma companies include plans by Johnson & Johnson and the Medicines Co to work on new clinical trials and genetic research by AstraZeneca. U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co had already announced plans to expand UK research operations under the deal last week. In all, the government said the deal brought together existing and future commitments by 25 global organizations. Other companies in discussions with the government about investments include Philips, Roche Diagnostics, Siemens, GE Healthcare and Toshiba Medical Systems. As a key part of the deal, the government said it was committed to increasing investment in R&D to 2.4 percent of GDP by 2027 and 3 percent over the longer term. | 1 | [
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FMD1736 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he expected Britain and the European Union to progress soon into the next phase of Brexit negotiations, despite Prime Minister Theresa May s problems in getting the political backing at home to move ahead. I am absolutely convinced that, as soon as possible, we will get into the second phase of Brexit negotiations, Rajoy said in a meeting with May in London on Tuesday. May failed to clinch a deal on Monday to open talks on post-Brexit free trade with the EU after a tentative agreement with Dublin to keep the bloc s rules in Northern Ireland angered her allies in Belfast, the Democratic Unionist Party. | 1 | [
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FMD1737 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: You may have read or heard about the study debunking the rule. It said that no matter how fast you pick up food that falls on the floor, you will pick up bacteria with it. Our continued focus on this threat has long baffled me. Why are we so worried about the floor? So many other things are more dangerous than that. I first became interested in the rule years ago, when I was a of a book on medical myths. We cited a number of studies showing that food that touched household surfaces — even for brief periods of time — could pick up bacteria or other harmful substances. This most recent study was similar in that it tested a variety of foods, a variety of substances, for various periods. And, like those other studies, this one found that food touching the floor, even for a very short amount of time, could pick up bacteria. There’s no magic period of time that prevents transmission. But even though I know bacteria can accumulate in less than five seconds, I will still eat food that has fallen on my kitchen floor. Why? Because my kitchen floor isn’t really that dirty. Our metric shouldn’t be whether there are more than zero bacteria on the floor. It should be how many bacteria are on the floor compared with other household surfaces. And in that respect, there are so many places in your house that pose more of a concern than the floor. Perhaps no one in the United States has spent more time investigating the occurrence of bacteria on public surfaces than Charles Gerba. He’s a professor of microbiology and environmental sciences at the University of Arizona, and he has published many papers on the subject. In 1998, he and his colleagues investigated how well cleaning products could reduce coliform bacteria counts on household surfaces. As part of that research, they measured various locations in the house before any cleaning. They found that the kitchen floor was likely to harbor, on average, about three colonies per square inch of coliform bacteria (2. 75 to be exact). So there are some. But here’s the thing — that’s cleaner than both the refrigerator handle (5. 37 colonies per square inch) and the kitchen counter (5. 75 colonies per square inch). We spend so much time worrying about what food might have picked up from the floor, but we don’t worry about touching the refrigerator. We also don’t seem as worried about food that touches the counter. But the counter is just as dirty, if not dirtier. The same thing happens in the bathroom. I know a lot of people who are worried about the toilet seat, but it’s cleaner than all the things in the kitchen I just mentioned (0. 68 colonies per square inch). What’s dirtier in the bathroom? Almost everything. The flush handle (34. 65 colonies per square inch) the sink faucet (15. 84 colonies per square inch) and the counter (1. 32 colonies per square inch). Things get dirty when lots of hands touch them and when we don’t think about it. We worry about the floor and the toilet seat, so we clean them more. We don’t think about the refrigerator handle or the faucet handle as much. If we carry this logic out further, there are things we handle a lot and never really clean. One study, for instance, found that about 95 percent of mobile phones carried by health care workers were contaminated with nosocomial bacteria. Of those contaminated with staph aureus, more than half were contaminated with methicillin resistant bacteria (MRSA). Think about how many people have handled the money in your wallet. A study of bills found that 94 percent were colonized by bacteria, 7 percent of which were pathogenic to healthy people and 87 percent of which were pathogenic to people who were hospitalized or who had compromised immune systems. Where do you keep your money? In a wallet or purse? When did you last clean it? It’s probably filthy. I see people pay for food every day and then eat what they’re handed with no concern that the food might have been contaminated. And the money and the hands that just held it could be much dirtier than the floor. There are so many studies out there showing that things we touch every day are so, so dirty. Gas pump handles. A. T. M. buttons. Remote controls. Light switches. Computer keyboards. The dirtiest thing in your kitchen, by far, is likely to be the sponge you keep near the sink. Most people almost never wash or disinfect those sponges. Mr. Gerba found they had, on average, more than 20 million colonies per square inch. All of this should remind you that it’s always a good idea to wash your hands before you eat. is still one of the best ways to prevent illness. People react to news like this in one of two ways. One is to become paranoid about everything. Such people start to clean compulsively, worry about all the things they’re touching, and use hand sanitizer obsessively. The alternative is to realize that for most of us, our immune systems are pretty hardy. We’ve all been touching this dirty stuff for a long time, without knowing it, and doing just fine. I clearly fall into the latter group. If I drop food on the floor, I still eat it. I do that because the harm I might get from the floor is not worth my concern compared with many, many other things. You may feel differently. Either way, make an informed judgment based on relative risks, not on any arbitrary span of time that one thing has been touching another. | 1 | [
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FMD1738 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Antifa (Photo: Twitter)Diana Johnstone 21st Century Wire Fascists are divided into two categories, the fascists and the anti-fascists ~ Ennio FlaianoIn recent weeks, a totally disoriented left has been widely exhorted to unify around a masked vanguard calling itself Antifa, for anti-fascist. Hooded and dressed in black, Antifa is essentially a variation of the Black Bloc, familiar for introducing violence into peaceful demonstrations in many countries. Imported from Europe, the label Antifa sounds more political. It also serves the purpose of stigmatizing those it attacks as fascists .Despite its imported European name, Antifa is basically just another example of America s steady descent into violence.Historical PretensionsAntifa first came to prominence from its role in reversing Berkeley s proud free speech tradition by preventing right wing personalities from speaking there. But its moment of glory was its clash with rightwingers in Charlottesville on August 12, largely because Trump commented that there were good people on both sides . With exuberant Schadenfreude, commentators grabbed the opportunity to condemn the despised President for his moral equivalence , thereby bestowing a moral blessing on Antifa.Charlottesville served as a successful book launching for Antifa: the Antifascist Handbook, whose author, young academic Mark Bray, is an Antifa in both theory and practice. The book is really taking off very fast , rejoiced the publisher, Melville House. It instantly won acclaim from leading mainstream media such as the New York Times,The Guardian and NBC, not hitherto known for rushing to review leftwing books, least of all those by revolutionary anarchists.The Washington Post welcomed Bray as spokesman for insurgent activist movements and observed that: The book s most enlightening contribution is on the history of anti-fascist efforts over the past century, but its most relevant for today is its justification for stifling speech and clobbering white supremacists. Bray s enlightening contribution is to a tell a flattering version of the Antifa story to a generation whose dualistic, Holocaust-centered view of history has largely deprived them of both the factual and the analytical tools to judge multidimensional events such as the growth of fascism. Bray presents today s Antifa as though it were the glorious legitimate heir to every noble cause since abolitionism. But there were no anti-fascists before fascism, and the label Antifa by no means applies to all the many adversaries of fascism.The implicit claim to carry on the tradition of the International Brigades who fought in Spain against Franco is nothing other than a form of innocence by association. Since we must revere the heroes of the Spanish Civil War, some of that esteem is supposed to rub off on their self-designated heirs. Unfortunately, there are no veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade still alive to point to the difference between a vast organized defense against invading fascist armies and skirmishes on the Berkeley campus. As for the Anarchists of Catalonia, the patent on anarchism ran out a long time ago, and anyone is free to market his own generic.The original Antifascist movement was an effort by the Communist International to cease hostilities with Europe s Socialist Parties in order to build a common front against the triumphant movements led by Mussolini and Hitler.Since Fascism thrived, and Antifa was never a serious adversary, its apologists thrive on the nipped in the bud claim: if only Antifascists had beat up the fascist movements early enough, the latter would have been nipped in the bud. Since reason and debate failed to stop the rise of fascism, they argue, we must use street violence which, by the way, failed even more decisively.This is totally ahistorical. Fascism exalted violence, and violence was its preferred testing ground. Both Communists and Fascists were fighting in the streets and the atmosphere of violence helped fascism thrive as a bulwark against Bolshevism, gaining the crucial support of leading capitalists and militarists in their countries, which brought them to power.Since historic fascism no longer exists, Bray s Antifa have broadened their notion of fascism to include anything that violates the current Identity Politics canon: from patriarchy (a pre-fascist attitude to put it mildly) to transphobia (decidedly a post-fascist problem).The masked militants of Antifa seem to be more inspired by Batman than by Marx or even by Bakunin.Storm Troopers of the Neoliberal War PartySince Mark Bray offers European credentials for current US Antifa, it is appropriate to observe what Antifa amounts to in Europe today.In Europe, the tendency takes two forms. Black Bloc activists regularly invade various leftist demonstrations in order to smash windows and fight the police. These testosterone exhibits are of minor political significance, other than provoking public calls to strengthen police forces. They are widely suspected of being influenced by police infiltration.As an example, last September 23, several dozen black-clad masked ruffians, tearing down posters and throwing stones, attempted to storm the platform where the flamboyant Jean-Luc M lenchon was to address the mass meeting of La France Insoumise, today the leading leftist party in France. Their unspoken message seemed to be that nobody is revolutionary enough for them. Occasionally, they do actually spot a random skinhead to beat up. This establishes their credentials as anti-fascist .They use these credentials to arrogate to themselves the right to slander others in a sort of informal self-appointed inquisition.As prime example, in late 2010, a young woman named Ornella Guyet appeared in Paris seeking work as a journalist in various leftist periodicals and blogs. She tried to infiltrate everywhere , according to the former director of Le Monde diplomatique, Maurice Lemoine, who always intuitively distrusted her when he hired her as an intern.Viktor Dedaj, who manages one of the main leftist sites in France, Le Grand Soir, was among those who tried to help her, only to experience an unpleasant surprise a few months later. Ornella had become a self-appointed inquisitor dedicated to denouncing conspirationism, confusionism, anti-Semitism and red-brown on Internet. This took the form of personal attacks on individuals whom she judged to be guilty of those sins. What is significant is that all her targets were opposed to US and NATO aggressive wars in the Middle East.Indeed, the timing of her crusade coincided with the regime change wars that destroyed Libya and tore apart Syria. The attacks singled out leading critics of those wars.Viktor Dedaj was on her hit list. So was Michel Collon, close to the Belgian Workers Party, author, activist and manager of the bilingual site Investig action. So was Fran ois Ruffin, film-maker, editor of the leftist journal Fakir elected recently to the National Assembly on the list of M lenchon s party La France Insoumise. And so on. The list is long.The targeted personalities are diverse, but all have one thing in common: opposition to aggressive wars. What s more, so far as I can tell, just about everyone opposed to those wars is on her list.The main technique is guilt by association. High on the list of mortal sins is criticism of the European Union, which is associated with nationalism which is associated with fascism which is associated with anti-Semitism , hinting at a penchant for genocide. This coincides perfectly with the official policy of the EU and EU governments, but Antifa uses much harsher language.In mid-June 2011, the anti-EU party Union Populaire R publicaine led by Fran ois Asselineau was the object of slanderous insinuations on Antifa internet sites signed by Marie-Anne Boutoleau (a pseudonym for Ornella Guyet). Fearing violence, owners cancelled scheduled UPR meeting places in Lyon. UPR did a little investigation, discovering that Ornella Guyet was on the speakers list at a March 2009 Seminar on International Media organized in Paris by the Center for the Study of International Communications and the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. A surprising association for such a zealous crusader against red-brown .In case anyone has doubts, red-brown is a term used to smear anyone with generally leftist views that is, red with the fascist color brown . This smear can be based on having the same opinion as someone on the right, speaking on the same platform with someone on the right, being published alongside someone on the right, being seen at an anti-war demonstration also attended by someone on the right, and so on. This is particularly useful for the War Party, since these days, many conservatives are more opposed to war than leftists who have bought into the humanitarian war mantra.The government doesn t need to repress anti-war gatherings. Antifa does the job.The Franco-African comedien Dieudonn M Bala M Bala, stigmatized for anti-Semitism since 2002 for his tv sketch lampooning an Israeli settler as part of George W. Bush s Axis of Good , is not only a target, but serves as a guilty association for anyone who defends his right to free speech such as Belgian professor Jean Bricmont, virtually blacklisted in France for trying to get in a word in favor of free speech during a TV talk show. Dieudonn has been banned from the media, sued and fined countless times, even sentenced to jail in Belgium, but continues to enjoy a full house of enthusiastic supporters at his one-man shows, where the main political message is opposition to war.Still, accusations of being soft on Dieudonn can have serious effects on individuals in more precarious positions, since the mere hint of anti-Semitism can be a career killer in France. Invitations are cancelled, publications refused, messages go unanswered.In April 2016, Ornella Guyet dropped out of sight, amid strong suspicions about her own peculiar associations.The moral of this story is simple. Self-appointed radical revolutionaries can be the most useful thought police for the neoliberal war party.I am not suggesting that all, or most, Antifa are agents of the establishment. But they can be manipulated, infiltrated or impersonated precisely because they are self-anointed and usually more or less disguised.Silencing Necessary DebateOne who is certainly sincere is Mark Bray, author of The Intifa Handbook. It is clear where Mark Bray is coming from when he writes (p.36-7): Hitler s final solution murdered six million Jews in gas chambers, with firing squads, through hunger an lack of medical treatment in squalid camps and ghettoes, with beatings, by working them to death, and through suicidal despair. Approximately two out of every three Jews on the continent were killed, including some of my relatives. This personal history explains why Mark Bray feels passionately about fascism . This is perfectly understandable in one who is haunted by fear that it can happen again .However, even the most justifiable emotional concerns do not necessarily contribute to wise counsel. Violent reactions to fear may seem to be strong and effective when in reality they are morally weak and practically ineffectual.We are in a period of great political confusion. Labeling every manifestation of political incorrectness as fascism impedes clarification of debate over issues that very much need to be defined and clarified.The scarcity of fascists has been compensated by identifying criticism of immigration as fascism. This identification, in connection with rejection of national borders, derives much of its emotional force above all from the ancestral fear in the Jewish community of being excluded from the nations in which they find themselves.The issue of immigration has different aspects in different places. It is not the same in European countries as in the United States. There is a basic distinction between immigrants and immigration. Immigrants are people who deserve consideration. Immigration is a policy that needs to be evaluated. It should be possible to discuss the policy without being accused of persecuting the people. After all, trade union leaders have traditionally opposed mass immigration, not out of racism, but because it can be a deliberate capitalist strategy to bring down wages.In reality, immigration is a complex subject, with many aspects that can lead to reasonable compromise. But to polarize the issue misses the chances for compromise. By making mass immigration the litmus test of whether or not one is fascist, Antifa intimidation impedes reasonable discussion. Without discussion, without readiness to listen to all viewpoints, the issue will simply divide the population into two camps, for and against. And who will win such a confrontation?A recent survey* shows that mass immigration is increasingly unpopular in all European countries. The complexity of the issue is shown by the fact that in the vast majority of European countries, most people believe they have a duty to welcome refugees, but disapprove of continued mass immigration. The official argument that immigration is a good thing is accepted by only 40%, compared to 60% of all Europeans who believe that immigration is bad for our country . A left whose principal cause is open borders will become increasingly unpopular.Childish ViolenceThe idea that the way to shut someone up is to punch him in the jaw is as American as Hollywood movies. It is also typical of the gang war that prevails in certain parts of Los Angeles. Banding together with others like us to fight against gangs of them for control of turf is characteristic of young men in uncertain circumstances. The search for a cause can involve endowing such conduct with a political purpose: either fascist or antifascist. For disoriented youth, this is an alternative to joining the US Marines.American Antifa looks very much like a middle class wedding between Identity Politics and gang warfare. Mark Bray (page 175) quotes his DC Antifa source as implying that the motive of would-be fascists is to side with the most powerful kid in the block and will retreat if scared. Our gang is tougher than your gang.That is also the logic of US imperialism, which habitually declares of its chosen enemies: All they understand is force. Although Antifa claim to be radical revolutionaries, their mindset is perfectly typical the atmosphere of violence which prevails in militarized America.In another vein, Antifa follows the trend of current Identity Politics excesses that are squelching free speech in what should be its citadel, academia. Words are considered so dangerous that safe spaces must be established to protect people from them. This extreme vulnerability to injury from words is strangely linked to tolerance of real physical violence.Wild Goose ChaseIn the United States, the worst thing about Antifa is the effort to lead the disoriented American left into a wild goose chase, tracking down imaginary fascists instead of getting together openly to work out a coherent positive program. The United States has more than its share of weird individuals, of gratuitous aggression, of crazy ideas, and tracking down these marginal characters, whether alone or in groups, is a huge distraction. The truly dangerous people in the United States are safely ensconced in Wall Street, in Washington Think Tanks, in the executive suites of the sprawling military industry, not to mention the editorial offices of some of the mainstream media currently adopting a benevolent attitude toward anti-fascists simply because they are useful in focusing on the maverick Trump instead of themselves.Antifa USA, by defining resistance to fascism as resistance to lost causes the Confederacy, white supremacists and for that matter Donald Trump is actually distracting from resistance to the ruling neoliberal establishment, which is also opposed to the Confederacy and white supremacists and has already largely managed to capture Trump by its implacable campaign of denigration. That ruling establishment, which in its insatiable foreign wars and introduction of police state methods, has successfully used popular resistance to Trump to make him even worse than he already was.The facile use of the term fascist gets in the way of thoughtful identification and definition of the real enemy of humanity today. In the contemporary chaos, the greatest and most dangerous upheavals in the world all stem from the same source, which is hard to name, but which we might give the provisional simplified label of Globalized Imperialism. This amounts to a multifaceted project to reshape the world to satisfy the demands of financial capitalism, the military industrial complex, United States ideological vanity and the megalomania of leaders of lesser Western powers, notably Israel. It could be called simply imperialism , except that it is much vaster and more destructive than the historic imperialism of previous centuries. It is also much more disguised. And since it bears no clear label such as fascism , it is difficult to denounce in simple terms.The fixation on preventing a form of tyranny that arose over 80 years ago, under very different circumstances, obstructs recognition of the monstrous tyranny of today. Fighting the previous war leads to defeat.Donald Trump is an outsider who will not be let inside. The election of Donald Trump is above all a grave symptom of the decadence of the American political system, totally ruled by money, lobbies, the military-industrial complex and corporate media. Their lies are undermining the very basis of democracy. Antifa has gone on the offensive against the one weapon still in the hands of the people: the right to free speech and assembly.***Diana Johnstone is author of the introduction to her father s memoir, From MAD to Madness: Inside Pentagon Nuclear War Planning, by Paul H. Johnstone (Clarity Press).READ MORE FASCIST NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Fascist FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV | 0 | [
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FMD1739 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — The most memorable play of spring training across all of baseball — and, by now, the most watched — involved a low level Mets prospect named Luis Guillorme. And he was not even on the diamond at the time. Guillorme, a infielder, was hanging on the railing of the Mets dugout at First Data Field on Thursday afternoon during the second inning of a spring training game against the Miami Marlins when commotion erupted around him. After whiffing at a pitch from Mets starter Robert Gsellman, Marlins shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria lost the hold on his bat, and it flew toward the Mets dugout. Guillorme did not flinch. With his left hand holding him to the railing, he reached back with his right and snatched the wooden projectile — by the knob. He then nonchalantly tossed it back on to the field. “I just literally saw the bat coming at me and caught it,†Guillorme told MLB. com. “Didn’t think much of it. †The world thought otherwise. Video of the catch was replayed repeatedly on social media. Guillorme told reporters that he had dozens of text messages and social media notifications waiting on his phone after the game. “It was very impressive, because bats aren’t light, and to catch it backhand on the knob . .. †said Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo. Guillorme’s catch may have saved him from a nasty bruise. While Guillorme remained composed as the bat spiraled toward the dugout, his teammates around him braced for the worst. To Guillorme’s left, T. J. Rivera ducked and covered his head. And poor Nimmo saw the threat of a flying bat but actually moved toward it. Hoping to get behind the dugout railing, Nimmo spun to his left and used his back as a shield on the bench. Mets prospect Dominic Smith threw himself out of Nimmo’s way and on to the ground. When he stood back up, Nimmo smiled and laughed, seeing that Guillorme had caught the bat. “We just know when a bat is flying, most of us, our reaction is to try and get out of the way of it,†Nimmo said. “Not stand there, catch it, no big deal and throw it back to them. I’m very glad he caught it, because I think it would have hit me. †The moment was fitting for Guillorme, who is rated the 17th best prospect in the Mets minor leagues, according to MLB. com. He was drafted out of Coral Springs Charter High School in Coral Springs, Fla. in the 10th round by the Mets in 2013. He is undersized he was listed at and 190 pounds last season. He hit . 263 at Class A St. Lucie with minimal power. But according to some scouting reports, he was the best defensive infielder in the Mets minor leagues and possessed the best hands. The world saw that on Thursday. | 1 | [
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FMD1740 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: This is a MUST WATCH!According to American News, Raso began by calling Clinton out for a lie she told an audience in order to make herself appear as courageous as American soldiers. Of course, he was referring to the lie Clinton told about dodging enemy fire in Bosnia. I remember landing under sniper fire, Clinton once said. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicle to get to our base. It was a moment of great pride for me. Raso pointed out that video footage proves Clinton was greeted warmly with handshakes that day. She tried to blame her lie on a mistake, calling it a misstatement. In my 12-year military career, I never heard an excuse like that from my leadership, Raso told reporters. It s impossible to even imagine that happening. Only someone completely arrogant, ignorant and disrespectful of what happens in war could say something like that, he concluded. Hillary was willing to lie in order to take advantage of that feeling of gratitude and awe Americans have for those who serve. Via: Conservative Post | 0 | [
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FMD1741 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Doris Truong is a reporter for the hard left-leaning Washington [Com]Post where they only have the highest regard for journalistic integrity right? Well maybe not so much.During a break in the confirmation hearings for Rex Tillerson, Trump s choice for Secretary of State, a reporter (who many on Twitter are claiming is Doris Truong, the homepage editor for the Washington Post) was caught on camera snapping photos of the notes left on the table where Tillerson sat.UPDATE: Doris Truong has published a piece on the Washington Post where she claims the woman in the video is NOT her. From her piece: I work as a homepage editor at The Washington Post. Because Wednesday was my day off, I hadn t been online much. But before I went to bed, I noticed a message request on Facebook. Someone I didn t know asked: Any comment on you taking photos of Rex Tillerson s notes? When I checked Twitter, I had to scroll for several minutes to figure out what was going on. It seemed to start with this post: Who is this woman and why is she secretly snapping photos of Rex Tillerson s notes? We d love to know who this woman is. If you have any idea who this woman is, or who the man is that can be seen talking to her in the video, we d love to hear from you. Please send us an email: [email protected] the Gateway Pundit:The Washington Post says the reporter is not Doris Truong, their homepage editor.It is not clear at this point who the reporter was but she was friendly with the men in the video.Please email us if you recognize the woman.Truong, who is being hammered on Twitter over claims that she took pictures of Tillerson s notes has not disputed the claims on her Twitter account, even though she is getting hammered by Twitter users over this video. We also scanned the Washington Post s website to see if there was any mention of the video and the potentially false claim that the woman caught on camera does not work for them. We couldn t find anything on their website about the incident or a story refuting their reporter s involvement.https://twitter.com/Truth_Bombers/status/819404616366522368Some were saying the woman in the video was actually Lisa Song, a reporter for Inside Climate News. Lisa Song has flatly denied this allegation on her Twitter account (which is more than Truong has done to date).Hey twitter trolls, not all Asians look alike. I was nowhere near DC yesterday. Was in Boston/Cambridge, not even covering Tillerson. https://t.co/IG3lWkReut Lisa Song (@lisalsong) January 12, 2017We asked Washington Post reporter Doris Truong if she is the woman in the video on Twitter:@DorisTruong Are you the woman in this video snapping photos of Tillerson's notes during confirmation hearings break https://t.co/CvmRsJo09i 100% FED UP! (@100PercFEDUP) January 12, 2017We ll wait for her reply, and hope to have an update soon | 0 | [
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FMD1742 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The collapse of talks on a new German government means that the euro zone s ambitious plans for deeper economic integration could be put on hold, euro zone officials said on Tuesday. German government coalition talks collapsed on Sunday night as the liberal FDP party pulled out after weeks of exploratory talks, plunging the euro zone s most important economy into political uncertainty and raising the prospect of new elections. Euro zone leaders are to set a direction for deeper euro zone economic integration at a summit in the middle of December, at which Germany s input is crucial. As long as Germany does not have a clear position, it will by default not agree to anything. Therefore, delay is the most likely option, one senior euro zone official involved in the euro zone integration talks said. The summit is to launch six months of work that would lead decisions in June 2018 on whether or not the single currency area should have a budget, a finance minister and a euro zone assembly in the European Parliament. The deeper integration push, championed by French President Emmanuel Macron, also includes the transformation of the euro zone bailout fund into a European Monetary Fund and the creation of a sovereign insolvency mechanism. Things will go on hold until there is a formal acting German government, a second euro zone official said. At this stage I don t see what steps the leaders could take in December or June for deepening euro zone integration when there is a German government without a mandate, he said. Some officials said that a potential delay in the euro zone integration talks was not a big issue because they concerned the future architecture of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), now encompassing 19 countries. There is nothing that makes new decisions on the EMU especially urgent, so I don t believe this to be a real problem, a third senior euro zone official said. The June deadline can always be moved, if need be, the official said. But others noted the initial timing of the talks was to make use of a window of opportunity in 2018, when no major euro zone countries, except Italy, or EU institutions had to face elections and were therefore free to focus on euro zone reforms. If the talks were delayed, decisions on key issues, often sensitive politically, could be pushed back toward 2019 a year of elections to the European Parliament, the formation of a new European Commission and choosing new heads of the European Central Bank and the chairman of EU leaders. An official involved in preparations for the December summit said it would go ahead as planned. National elections happening all the time, all over Europe, are no reason to stop our work, the official said. But others said they expected the mandate that leaders would give to the Commission for further work on euro zone integration would probably be weaker than it would have otherwise been if no German government is in place by then. | 1 | [
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FMD1743 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: FDIC insurance provides coverage for more than 99 years. Claim summaries: After a bank failure, does the FDIC have 99 years to pay back insured deposits?
contextual information: Claim: After a bank failure, the FDIC has 99 years to pay back insured deposits. Examples: [Collected via e-mail, July 2008] I heard an "expert" on KFI AM 640 in LA say the FDIC has up to 99 years to repay you in the event of a bank failure. This sounds like a misrepresentation, but when asked by the host, she said, "It's in the fine print." [Collected via e-mail, September 2008] I have heard a story about a man who enters a bank week after week, making a deposit of a government check for a seemingly insignificant amount (the number I heard was $0.35 per check). The teller asks why he is depositing such a small check. His response is that his bank went bust and that the checks are from the FDIC. The gist of this apocryphal tale is that FDIC insurance is not a good thing and that if it does pay out, it will take forever to recover your "insured" loss. This tale was repeated yesterday to my sister-in-law by a bank teller trying to dissuade her from moving an uninsured money market account to an FDIC-insured CD with another bank. Origins: Economic turmoil in the United States in recent years has prompted many Americans to consider just how safe their money is, especially in light of some bank failures that have reminded us that even seemingly secure investments, such as ordinary savings accounts, are not completely risk-free. Although most bank customers are aware that their deposits are insured, they aren't necessarily familiar with the details of how that insurance works, a circumstance that has fostered the spread of rumors, creating additional insecurity. After a wave of bank failures that followed the stock market crash of 1929 and the prolonged economic depression that ensued, the U.S. federal government created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to restore public confidence in (and help stabilize) the U.S. banking system. The FDIC provided federal government guarantees of deposits up to $100,000 per account holder per bank (and up to $250,000 per account holder for deposit retirement accounts), subject to certain conditions, at insured financial institutions. FDIC bank failures in the U.S. have been a relatively uncommon phenomenon since the savings-and-loan crisis of the late 1980s, so many consumers have had little or no exposure to the process by which FDIC deposit insurance works, leading to the uncertainty reflected in the examples cited above. Widely believed rumors suggest that FDIC insurance actually covers just a small fraction of the original deposit amount (e.g., 1.5%) or that the FDIC only reimburses depositors in full over a very long period of time (e.g., 99 years), resulting in the mistaken belief that FDIC insurance isn't much of a guarantee at all. In fact, these rumors are so prevalent that they were included (as numbers #3 and #4) in a list of the top ten misconceptions about the FDIC published in the Spring 2006 edition of the FDIC Consumer News newsletter, where they were addressed as follows: If a bank fails, the FDIC could take up to 99 years to pay depositors for their insured accounts. This is a completely false notion that many bank customers have reported hearing from someone attempting to sell them another kind of financial product. The truth is that federal law requires the FDIC to pay the insured deposits "as soon as possible" after an insured bank fails. Historically, the FDIC pays insured deposits within a few days after a bank closes, usually the next business day. In most cases, the FDIC will provide each depositor with a new account at another insured bank. If arrangements cannot be made with another institution, the FDIC will issue a check to each depositor. The FDIC pays failed-bank depositors 100 percent of their insured funds, including principal and interest, up to the federal limit. If your bank fails and you have deposits over the limit, you may be able to recover some or, in rare cases, all of your uninsured funds. However, the overwhelming majority of depositors at failed institutions are within the insurance limit, and insured funds are always paid in full. As noted, this type of misinformation is often passed along by unscrupulous or misinformed financial advisors who are trying to steer customers toward investments or accounts that are not insured. If you have any doubts about exactly what is or is not covered by FDIC insurance, you may want to undertake some additional verification on your own. *Note: In October 2008, the FDIC insurance limit was temporarily increased to $250,000 per account, with that increase slated to remain in effect through the end of 2009, but subsequently extended through the end of 2013. In July 2010, the FDIC insurance limit was permanently increased to $250,000 per depositor, per insured depository institution for each account ownership category. Last updated: 8 April 2014. | 0 | [
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FMD1744 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: If ever America needed a president who could speak to and for all the people, this would be such a moment. If only we had such a president.
It has been obvious for some time that the president’s leadership tank is out of gas. Now, in the extra-troubled seventh year of a failed presidency, he’s given up on America. Apparently, we the people have disappointed him one too many times.
Wherever you look, whatever the topic, the Founders’ spirit of American exceptionalism is sputtering. Our national catechism, that tomorrow definitely will be better than today, is suffering a serious bout of the yips.
It has been obvious for some time that the president’s leadership tank is out of gas. Now, in the extra-troubled seventh year of a failed presidency, he’s given up on America. Apparently, we the people have disappointed him one too many times.
Times like these are why we have a president. Times like these are why Barack Obama became president.
Despite his foolish boast that his ascendancy would mark the moment when “the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal,†Obama genuinely inspired enough hope in enough people to earn the job.
But those gauzy days of swelling crowds and swooning students now appear to be a passing derangement. Even reasonable optimism has been shattered like so many storefront windows in Baltimore, Ferguson and other hope-forsaken places.
More troubling and more dangerous, the man who promised to redeem us is not just failing to rise to the occasion. He is shrinking as the challenges grow.
To continue reading Michael Goodwin's column in the New York Post, click here.
Michael Goodwin is a Fox News contributor and New York Post columnist. | 1 | [
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FMD1745 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: After the Trump-Clinton debate, only experts gave victory to Hillary Clinton. TV channels, a range of media outlets and social networks considered Donald Trump the winner. Therefore, in accordance with TIME magazine online survey Trump won. | 0 | [
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FMD1746 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: UNITED NATIONS — In my nearly three years covering the United Nations Security Council, I have seen the Russians and Americans brawling rhetorically many times. Russia has regularly blasted American efforts at “regime change†in Libya and derided the West for backing what it called “fascists†in Ukraine. The United States Mission to the United Nations has hosted some of the Kremlin’s critics, like the punk band Pussy Riot. And American diplomats proposed a resolution that would have declared the Russian annexation of Crimea illegal — knowing Russia would veto it. But rarely have I been so taken aback as I was the other day, when Russia’s longtime ambassador to the United Nations said that the last time relations between Russia and the United States were this strained was more than four decades ago, when the conflict nearly brought the two Cold War powers to military confrontation. “The general situation is pretty bad: I think the tensions are probably the worst since 1973,†said the ambassador, Vitaly I. Churkin. His remarks, made in an interview with The New York Times and two other news organizations on Friday, made clear that there are many areas on which Russia will not compromise. zone over Aleppo? No chance, Mr. Churkin said, so long as militants were operating there. He accused Western powers of hypocrisy for demanding that warplanes be grounded over Syria. “In one situation their eyes are burning they, like, speak at the top of their lungs and advocate a †he said. But not so over Yemen, where an military coalition has bombed hospitals and other civilian sites. War crimes? Mr. Churkin called the accusations against Russia “rhetorical things†and turned the tables on the West, saying what the International Criminal Court ought to investigate instead are the alleged atrocities during the invasion of Iraq. He also questioned the evidence that hospitals had been bombed by Russian and Syrian forces besieging parts of Aleppo. “I’m cynical enough,†he said. And the computer hacking? Mr. Churkin smiled. The United States has yet to show proof that Russia broke into the Democratic Party’s email server. Anyway, he said, “we are not astute enough in American politics to understand it will have any significance for the election campaign. †In diplomacy as in the movies, he said, Americans are fascinated by “conspiracy theories. †Perhaps just words. But words are a chief currency of diplomacy. And no matter what Moscow and Washington think of each other, the Security Council is one of the few platforms that American and Russian diplomats have to talk to each other, in good times and in bad, like an estranged couple forced to coordinate the school pickups and soccer matches of their children. They still manage. As they did this month, when they chose a new secretary general, António Guterres, of Portugal. Mr. Churkin, who is president of the Security Council for October, stood at the podium outside the Council chambers to make the announcement, alongside 14 other diplomats representing the Council. Just to his right stood Samantha Power, the American ambassador, who just days earlier had accused Russians of “barbarism†for the bombardment of Aleppo. Mr. Churkin called the selection of Mr. Guterres “maybe the best success of the Security Council of the past five years. †Even so, Russia and the United States emerged from talks in Switzerland over the weekend with no agreement on how to stop the bloodshed in Aleppo. On Monday, Russia said its military, along with Syrian forces, would halt their offensive on eastern Aleppo for eight hours on Thursday, which is not even enough time to get United Nations aid trucks into parts of the city. Late Monday, Mr. Churkin told reporters at the United Nations that Moscow could do no more until the Nusra Front, a terrorist group affiliated with Al Qaeda, was flushed out. On Friday, Mr. Churkin spoke for more than an hour at the Russian Mission, without press aides or notes. He told jokes. He spoke of his past as a child actor who knew he was not good enough to continue in the entertainment business. At 64, he is the longest serving ambassador on the Security Council, having been appointed in 2006. But he gave no hints about his future plans, saying only with a hearty laugh that since he had helped choose Mr. Guterres, he felt responsible for staying on for the duration of the next secretary general’s first term. He seemed unfazed by the bitter exchanges he has held with many Western colleagues on the Security Council in the past few weeks. A few were extraordinarily acidic. On a crisp Saturday in after American warplanes had errantly bombed Syrian military targets instead of Islamic State militants — the Pentagon quickly acknowledged the mistake — Russia called for an emergency Security Council session. Ms. Power, en route to Council chambers, called Russia’s move “a stunt replete with moralism and grandstanding. †Mr. Churkin responded by calling her words “demagoguery of the highest order. †A week later, Ms. Power accused Russia of “barbarism. †Mr. Churkin struck back by accusing the United States and its Western allies of unleashing terrorist groups across the Middle East. At the end of September, Mr. Churkin said he did something he had never done. He attended a customary session for the month, where Ms. Power, he said, had “blasted†Russian actions in Syria. Diplomats present said Ms. Power had referred to the Chechen city of Grozny, when speaking of Aleppo. Shortly thereafter, they said, Mr. Churkin marched into Council chambers. Mr. Churkin said he had no idea she would criticize Russia in that meeting. She could have warned him, he argued. They had been on the phone regularly. “I walked into the room and I said what I had to say about her behavior,†Mr. Churkin recalled. “I said I try never to criticize my colleagues, but I have to tell you what I think about the whole thing. And I think she took note of it. †Ms. Power’s office declined to comment on the episode. Mr. Churkin took pains to say the current situation is unlike the Cold War in that Russian and American diplomats today speak regularly and manage to accomplish things they can agree upon. He signaled too that no matter who wins the American presidential race, he would like to see relations improve, or as he put it, “get back to normal in our relations. †| 1 | [
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FMD1747 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Did you know that poor air quality in the home can cause a condition called “Sick Building Syndrome”? This is caused by an accumulation of toxic gases known as Volatile Organic Compounds ( VOCs ) which are released from common household goods , including everything from your cleaners to appliances and even the food you eat.
In addition to being carcinogenic and neurotoxic, long-term exposure to VOCs can lead to other serious health implications including, respiratory dysfunction, genetic abnormalities, and dermatitis. It begs the question, what are we subjecting ourselves to, doesn’t it?
NASA’s Clean Air Study reports how certain houseplants help to filter and remove toxins from the air. Houseplants have long been known to clean the air in small spaces, but some of these plants are more beneficial—and prettier to look at—than others. For those of you who prefer the bright colors of flowering plants, the following list shows the best beauties for filtering the air in your home.
5 Indoor Plants That Will Improve Air Quality Succulents Everyone loves the ease in caring for succulents and some of these create delicate flowers too. Here’s a quick fact: when photosynthesis stops at night, most plants absorb oxygen and release carbon dioxide? But, there are a few plants – like orchids, succulents and epiphytic bromeliads that will take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen at night time. Meaning, these would be ideal plants to have in bedrooms to keep the oxygen flowing at night.
Flamingo Lilly AKA Flamingo Flowers, these are durable and fairly easy to grow in low light, low water situations. They can thrive for many years under ideal conditions but are hearty enough to maintain growth for up to two years in even the most adverse situations (i.e., this is a perfect flowering plant for those lacking a green thumb!) . They have large, deep green, heart-shaped leaves and produce long lasting, bright red or hot pink flowers.
The Flamingo Lilly is great at removing the toxins formaldehyde (found in many paper products), xylene (found in tobacco smoke and vehicle exhaust), and ammonia (found in cleaning products) from the air.
*Beware that the Flamingo Lilly (like a lot of flowering plants) is toxic to dogs and cats, so be sure to keep them away from your family pets.
Barberton Daisy The Barberton daisy is available in many colors ranging from white to bright red. The hybrids sold in garden centers typically produce two or more single stemmed stalks with a single flower sprouting from each one. These flowers are up to four inches wide and are quite impressive to look at. The Barberton Daisy can be grown indoors in medium-levels of sunlight, with moist soil. They can flower at any time of the year and each flower blooms for approximately six weeks.
Barberton Daisies filter out trichloroethylene (found in ink, paint, rubber products, lacquers and varnishes), formaldehyde, and xylene.
Peace Lilly The Peace Lilly is easy to care for and gives a telltale droop when it is in need of water. They flourish in shade and low light and you can expect your Peace Lilly to bloom with dozens of striking white flowers in the springtime.
Peace Lillies are extremely effective at filtering multiple toxins from the air. They work on trichloroethylene, formaldehyde, xylene, benzene (used in plastics, detergents, dyes, and glue), and carbon monoxide. If you can only have one flowering plant in your home, the Peace Lilly might be a good bet.
*Like the Flamingo Lilly, this one is toxic to pets as well, so beware.
Florist Chrysanthemum The Florist Chrysanthemum requires bright light and moist, high-quality soil, so it needs a bit more care and upkeep than the other flowers listed here so far. But with the proper maintenance and right kind of soil, the Florist Chrysanthemum will produce lots of big, beautiful blooms (typically in the red and pink color family, though occasionally you will see bright purples and yellows) that will last for up to 8 weeks.
Like the Peace Lilly, the Florist Chrysnthemum filters out multiple toxins including trichloroethylene, formaldehyde, xylene, and benzene (used in plastics, detergents, dyes, and glue).
*This plant is also mildly poisonous to dogs and cats (if the stems are ingested they will cause stomach upset and disorientation) so again, use caution.
If you feel that your home suffers from poor air quality or quite possibly sick building syndrome, start adding some indoor plants to frequented rooms and see if your health improves.
Pamela Bofferding is a native Texan who now lives with her husband and sons in New York City. She enjoys hiking, traveling, and playing with her dogs.
This information has been made available by Ready Nutrition
Originally published October 29th, 2016 How To Grow Pineapples Like a Pro! How to Select the Best Grow Light for Your Indoor Garden Strong Correlation Seen Between Flowers and Emotional Health The Most Poisonous Plants and How to Recognize Them Infographic: Composting 101 | 0 | [
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FMD1748 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is Marlboro Giving Away Cartons of Cigarettes on Facebook? Claim summaries: The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 prohibits tobacco companies from giving away free samples of cigarettes.
contextual information: In October 2015, links began circulating on Facebook promising users a free carton of Marlboro cigarettes to celebrate the brand's 100th anniversary. The embedded links involved a variety of URLs, some of which included entirely unrelated scam-bait terms like "iTunes" and "Apple." Users who clicked through to claim their purported free carton of Marlboros were routed to a page reading, "Marlboro is Giving FREE Carton of Cigarettes to Celebrate 100th Anniversary (150 Cartons Remaining)," which cloned the style of Facebook-based content but was hosted on a non-Facebook URL. As noted, the URLs visible in the posts didn't point to any credible domains or any sites linked to Altria, the brand's parent company. Marlboro didn't appear to maintain any social media accounts, and the brand's official website was locked to registered users only. While no official refutations were issued, it seemed safe to assume that cigarette brands largely refrained from participating on Facebook or creating promotions that could land them afoul of strict tobacco advertising laws. By now, most social media users are familiar with survey scams; Kohl's, Costco, Home Depot, Lowe's, Kroger, Best Buy, Macy's, Olive Garden, Publix, Target, and Walmart are among the retailers used as bait by scammers seeking personal information and valuable page likes from Facebook users. A July 2014 article from the Better Business Bureau illustrated how individuals might spot and avoid bad actors utilizing the reputations of brands on social media: Don't believe what you see. It's easy to steal the colors, logos, and headers of an established organization. Scammers can also make links look like they lead to legitimate websites and emails appear to come from a different sender. Legitimate businesses do not ask for credit card numbers or banking information on customer surveys. If they do ask for personal information, like an address or email, be sure there's a link to their privacy policy. When in doubt, do a quick web search. If the survey is a scam, you may find alerts or complaints from other consumers. The organization's real website may have further information. Watch out for rewards that are too good to be true. If the survey is real, you may be entered in a drawing to win a gift card or receive a small discount off your next purchase. Few businesses can afford to give away $50 gift cards for completing a few questions. While Marlboro occasionally sends coupons to registered customers, tobacco advertising and promotion are heavily restricted, including a prohibition on free samples, and are highly unlikely to ever occur on social media in the manner posited above. | 0 | [
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FMD1749 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Which bulletin was worse, though? The news in April that he was being dropped by WIBC in Indianapolis, a booming talk powerhouse that played home to Limbaugh’s radio show for more than two decades, or the news this week that the talker’s new address on the Indianapolis dial is going to be WNDE, a ratings doormat AM sports station that has so few listeners it trails the commercial-free classical music outlet in town?
The humbling, red-state tumble is just the latest setback for the conservative talker who has seen his once-golden career suffer a steady series of losses recently.
Divorced from successful, longtime affiliates in places like New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Indianapolis, Limbaugh’s professional trajectory is heading downward. That’s confirmed by the second and third-tier stations he now calls home in those important media markets, and the fact that when his show became available, general managers up and down the dial passed on it. Apparently turned off by the show’s hefty price tag, sagging ratings, and disappearing advertisers, Limbaugh continues to be a very hard sell.
It’s a precipitous fall from the glory days when the host posted huge ratings numbers, had affiliates clamoring to join his network, and dictated Republican politics. All of that seems increasingly distant now. With his comically inflated, $50 million-a-year syndication deal set to expire next year, Limbaugh’s future seems uncertain. “Who would even want someone whose audience is aging and is considered toxic to many advertisers,â€Â askedRadioInsight last month.
For Limbaugh, the troubles were marked by key events from 2012 and 2013. The first came in the form of Limbaugh’s Sandra Fluke implosion, where he castigated and insulted for days the graduate student who testified before Congress about health care and access to contraception, calling her a “slut†and suggesting she post videos of herself having sex on the Internet. The astonishing monologues sparked an unprecedented advertiser exodus.
The following year, as the host struggled to hang on to fleeing sponsors, radio industry giant Cumulus Media decided to negotiate its Limbaugh contract in public, making it clear through the press that the company was willing to cut ties with the pricey host in major cities where Cumulus owned talk radio stations. In the end, Limbaugh stayed with Cumulus stations, but the company sent a clear signal to the industry: Limbaugh was no longer an untouchable and general managers weren’t clamoring to hire him. Since then, the talker’s fortunes have only faded.
Another looming problem? Conservative talk radio is a “format fewer advertisers are interested in buying because of its aging audience,â€Â noted radio consultant and self-identified Republican Darryl Parks. Limbaugh himself recently conceded a generational disconnect: “Now that I’ve outgrown the 25-54 demographic, I’m no longer confident that the way I see the world is the way everybody else does.â€
That disconnect may be fueling Limbaugh’s waning political influence. Once a mighty player whose ring wasconstantly kissed by Republicans, this campaign season seems to be unfolding with Limbaugh on the sidelines, his clout and his ability to drive the conversation seemingly surpassed by other conservative mediaplayers.
Here’s a perfect example. In April, Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin conducted an awkward interview with Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz, asking the Hispanic candidate about Cuban food and if he’d answer at least one question in Spanish. Limbaugh immediately castigated Halperin’s Q&A on his show, but nobody seemed to pay much attention to his complaints.
Fast-forward one week and syndicated conservative columnist Ruben Navarrette lodged similar complaints about the interview. (i.e. “This was bad journalism, bad form, and bad manners.â€) Except this time the complaint went viral and Helperin was quickly forced to apologize. At BuzzFeed, a writer marveled at how Halperin’s controversial interview had gone unnoticed for nine days. But it hadn’t gone unnoticed. Limbaugh highlighted the interview right away. It’s just that nobody cared about the talker’s critique at the time. Limbaugh’s unfolding major-market woes will do little to boost his faltering influence. Last year he was bounced off a high-profile station in Los Angeles, shipped down the dial, and deposited on a has-been outlet (KEIB) that today has trouble securing a 1.0 rating, according to Nielsen ratings. Note that his forced farewell from WIBC in Indianapolis was likely painful. The station hosted the talker for 22 years before announcing in April it was time for him to go. Especially embarrassing for Limbaugh was the fact that WIBC is sticking with its conservative talk radio lineup, it just no longer wanted Limbaugh to be a part of it. Then, after WIBC announced it was dropping Rush, no stations in the market stepped forward to pick him up, which meant Limbaugh then had to be bailed out by iHeartMedia. Formerly known as Clear Channel, iHeartMedia owns the syndication company that produces and sells Limbaugh’s radio show, Premiere Radio Networks, and iHeartMedia owns hundreds of radio stations. So with no Indianapolis takers in sight, iHeartMedia was forced to shoe-horn Limbaugh onto its own, lowly rated all-sports channel in the market. (The station will soon be simulcast via a new iHeartMedia FM translator signal in the Indianapolis market.) “There’s no way iHeartMedia would’ve placed Limbaugh on an owned Sports station if the company had any other affiliation options in the market,â€Â noted RadioInsight when the news broke on Tuesday. “But when everyone one else says no and you need to save face, options become limited.†That same desperate scenario is playing out in Boston, where Premier hasn’t been able to find a new home for Limbaugh. This, after WRKO announced it was dropping the show. One station owner recently told the Boston Globe that Premiere had offered the Limbaugh show four times, and four times the station turned it down. Fact: Years ago station owners lined up for the chance to pick up Limbaugh’s powerhouse program. Now, rumors are still swirling in Chicago that talk radio powerhouse WLS is poised to drop Limbaugh. The move was first reported in March and quickly denied by WLS’s owner, Cumulus Media. But Limbaugh’s ratings are clearly down in the Windy Cindy. According to a March report in the Chicago Tribune, Limbaugh’s WLS show ranks 24th in the market, drawing 121,000 listeners in a metropolitan area of roughly 10 million people. “The Chicago rumors come as no surprise to me,â€Â wrote consultant Parks, “as three different Cumulus executives have told me on different occasions they wish they could get rid of Limbaugh’s show and they can’t sell it.†Ratings and revenue. That’s what the radio business has always revolved around. These days, Limbaugh’s having trouble delivering either. | 1 | [
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FMD1750 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not discuss a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) at their summit meeting on Monday, a senior Japanese government spokesman said. Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura made the comment to reporters after the meeting between the two leaders. In recent economic dialogue between Japan and the United States, Tokyo has been pushing back against U.S. calls to open talks for a bilateral FTA. | 1 | [
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FMD1751 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: November 19, 2016 - By Eduard Popov for Fort Russ - translated by J. Arnoldski -
The other day, the disturbing news came from Lvov, the unofficial capital of Ukrainian Galicia, that the Lvov regional council has filed a lawsuit to forcibly evict the Pushkin Russian Cultural Center. As the head of the regional council, V. Girnyak, said in his statement, organizations tied to the Anti-Terrorist Operation are preparing to transfer the building on Korolenko Street. The Lvov deputies hardly expect to earn more money from these “ATOers.” Rather, the eviction of the Pushkin Russian Cultural Center is explained by a different motive: once again punishing anyone ideologically representative of “enemy” Russian culture.
This center’s building was leased to the Russian community of Lvov in 1990. In 1999, the then mayor Vasiliy Kuybida, set the symbolic rent fee of 5 hryvnia (around $1 back then).
Let us quote one founding document signed by Ukraine, the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between the Russian Federation and Ukraine from May 31st, 1997. Point 12 of the agreement reads: “The High Agreeing Parties shall protect the ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious identities of national minorities on their territory and create conditions for the fostering of their identity….they will contribute to creating equal opportunities and conditions for studying the Russian language in Ukraine and the Ukrainian language in the Russian Federation, training pedagogical staff for teaching these languages in educational establishments, and for these purposes provide equal state support.”
Points 1-2 of the agreement are based on the recognition of the friendly relations between the countries and their territorial integrity. Hence why the agreement is often called a border treaty. For Ukraine, whose territorial sovereignty over some territories (including Galicia, which was part of the Second Polish Republic until September 1939) is quite disputed, this agreement was a real gift. It is no coincidence that a number of patriotic politicians in Russia demanded that this document not be signed.
Russia’s recognition of Kiev’s sovereignty over territories included in the Ukrainian state is founded on Ukraine’s observance of the rights of its Russian-cultured citizens. After the coup d’etat in 2014, Ukraine began pursuing a policy of cultural genocide (ethnocide) against the Russian-cultured population. Now Ukraine is discussing the initiative of the scandalously infamous politician Irina Farion to deprive Russian residents in Ukraine of civil rights. In fact, this measure is already being implemented. The number of Russian schools has rapidly declined while Russian organizations are being prosecuted and their activities are under close surveillance by Kiev’s intelligence services.
In accordance with the 1997 treaty, an entire network of federal and regional organizations of Ukrainians is funded in Russia . For example, in the Rostov region there is a city-level and regional national-cultural autonomy of Ukrainians. The organization receives funding from the city and regional budgets. Its head, the businessman Makarchuk, is a member of the Public Chamber of the Rostov region and is proud of his friendship with Rostov governor Vasili Golubev. Meanwhile, Makarchuk is published on the website of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi Svoboda party and frequently makes Russophobic statements.
Unfortunately, Russia is largely to blame for the fact that the civil rights of Russian-cultured people in Ukraine are being massively violated. An example of this is the patronizing policy of the Rostov region authorities. But on the federal level as well, the state does not have sufficient (or any at all) efforts to defend the Russian population of Ukraine (nearly half of the country’s total population).
Meanwhile, a more responsible attitude towards obligations would lead to a discussion on the 1997 treaty. In a situation in which the second country (Ukraine) massively violates the treaty’s basic premises, then Russia has the right to withdraw from the treaty with all the legal and political implications. I see no reason for the Russian budget to support the activities of Ukrainian organizations in Russia or recognize the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine.
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FMD1752 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Elaborate Welfare Housing Project Claim summaries: Video clip shows Tacoma housing development 'built for illegal immigrants' who are receiving 'refugee pay.'
contextual information: Claim: Video clip shows a Tacoma housing development "built for illegal immigrants" who are receiving "refugee pay." Example: [Collected via e-mail, July 2011] I want to move to Tacoma... to the good life! Here is a development in Tacoma, WA (Salishan) that was built for illegal immigrants! 1,325 homes created! Refugee pay offers them $2,642 per month in SSI benefits, plus food stamps, plus Section 8 housing. You will see new expensive cars in this video. Wouldn't you like to get a free ride like the illegals? Origins: As noted by Kathleen Merryman of the Tacoma News Tribune, the video clip linked above about the Salishan housing development on Tacoma's East Side has garnered a good deal of attention for that community: William B. Mount is going viral on Salishan. The Tacoman once used public access television to air his worldview and now posts videos on YouTube. About five months ago, he and a woman named Jane drove through Salishan on Tacoma's East Side with a video camera and a big box of misinformation. They delivered a 10-minute commentary on the mixed-use and mixed-income redevelopment of the worn-out public housing site and posted it on the video-sharing site. The stew of untruths simmered there. It's at a boil now. Tacoma Housing Authority (THA) and Tacoma City Council members are getting e-mails from people upset over what he calls the misuse of Social Security funds. As Ms. Merryman described in considerable detail in an excellent analysis of the video, virtually all of the claims made within it regarding Social Security, foreigners, and illegal immigrants are false: analysis Claim: "What you are looking at is a $225 million complex, $225 million complex, of housing out of the Social Security budget for 1,300 units." False: No Social Security funds were used to redevelop Salishan. Claim: "All welfare housing. All Social Security housing for foreigners will get $2,642 a month. All of that comes out of the Social Security budget." False: Of Salishan's renters, 97 percent are citizens of the United States, according to THA Executive Director Michael Mirra. "We know of no government program that pays $2,642 per month to foreigners," Mirra said. Claim: "The average income in here is about $13,000 per year, not including welfare, not including Social Security refugee pay, not including Women, Infants, and Children." False: The $13,000 figure is based on out-of-date 2000 Census data. As for the other sources, Mirra said: "We do not know of anyone who gets something called 'Social Security refugee pay.'" Claim: "This school was built by Tacoma specifically to house foreigners and welfare recipients." False. Lister Elementary School does not "house" any foreigners or welfare recipients. Claim: "They mollycoddle these foreigners who come across the border illegally." False. THA does not rent to people who are in this country illegally, and 97 percent of Salishan residents are U.S. citizens. Claim: "And they don't pay taxes. This housing is free if you are on Social Security refugee pay." False. Anyone who buys non-food goods and services in Washington State pays sales tax, and every Salishan household with earned income is subject to federal income taxes. Every Salishan rental household with an income pays rent. For complete information, we recommend reading the News Tribune's thorough debunking of the video. Last updated: 28 July 2011 | 0 | [
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FMD1753 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: NEW DELHI — In the dense smog that engulfed India’s capital early this month, a baby named Vaishnavi gasped through the night. In the concrete room that her father and mother rent for $20 a month, they took turns staying up, laying a hand on her rib cage, feeling it move up and down. Her coughing fits became so violent that she vomited, milk mixed with ropes of sputum. Three times they thought she would not survive until morning. Twenty miles away, in an elegant, house in an elite neighborhood, a boy named Mehtab was also struggling to fill his lungs with air. His mother, heavily pregnant, sat beside him, administering corticosteroids through a nebulizer mask once an hour. But once an hour wasn’t enough. Mehtab’s father fought waves of panic as they waited for the sun to rise. The boy looked, to him, like a fish suffocating in the air. For seven days at the beginning of this month, a thick cloud settled over this metropolis of 20 million people. Held in place by a weather system known as an anticyclone, the pollution was pulled inward and down, trapping the people of this city in concentrations of hazardous never before recorded here. The rich, who are buffered from so many of Delhi’s dangers, bunkered themselves inside, filtering out particles in their own air through expensive, purifiers. But the nature of air pollution is that it is pervasive. Researchers in China have found that exposure rates for the rich and the poor are virtually indistinguishable. As average daytime levels of PM 2. 5, the most dangerous particles, passed 700 micrograms per cubic meter, 28 times the concentration the World Health Organization considers safe, the authorities in Delhi took the unprecedented step of shutting schools for three days. Protesters marched in surgical masks, carrying posters likening the city to a gas chamber. Eventually, the wind picked up, reducing the city’s pollution down to its usual, atrocious winter level. But the air quality in north India will remain dangerous for months, as poor people fight the dropping temperature by burning things — leaves, plastic, anything — to stay warm. There is a clear body of evidence that death rates, emergency room visits, heart attacks and strokes all rise when particulate concentrations are high. Recent data from the W. H. O. ’s Global Burden of Disease project indicates that the number of premature deaths related to air pollution in India has caught up with the number in China, and is now surpassing it. The will be the very old, who are susceptible to heart disease and stroke, and the very young, whose lungs are taxed so badly by polluted air that they cannot develop normally. Children are more vulnerable because they are smaller, with shallower breaths and higher heart rates they breathe more air. In the very different homes of Vaishnavi and Mehtab, four parents are waiting to see what the rest of this winter will do to their children. Vaishnavi’s father, Ravi — who, like many in India, does not use a last name — remembers the day when he woke up and smelled something burning. The rubber casing of an electrical wire is burning, that was his first thought. He splashed his eyes with water to stop the stinging. On the ride into central Delhi, where he sells trinkets on a street corner, he passed columns of smoke: wisps from piles of trash, and black pillars from fields where farmers were burning the straw left over from their rice harvests. Scientists had been tracking the progress of a mass of smoke via NASA satellite images, as it rose off farmers’ fields in the nearby states of Punjab and Haryana and floated across the plains toward the city, a drift. In Delhi, it merged with emissions from cars, power plants, burning of trash and dust from construction. This year, the emissions happened to arrive on the eve of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, when smoke from millions of celebratory fireworks typically send concentrations of the harmful PM 2. 5 particles skyrocketing. Ravi has worked on the same corner since he was a child, and his mother worked there before him. He had never seen a smog so thick that it obscured the Hotel. He knew something was not right: He felt dizzy, as if he had been sniffing glue. What worried him more was his only child, Vaishnavi, just 18 months old, whose spasmodic nighttime cough no longer quieted with the arrival of morning. He bought her a surgical mask for 40 rupees — about 60 cents — from a merchant at an intersection, but she kept pulling it off. On the way home, he furiously jumped out of the and confronted a man burning a pile of trash on the road. “Please don’t burn this, my daughter is crying,†he said. The man responded with a string of especially dirty abuses. The air that week was utterly still meteorologists measured both horizontal and vertical movement at nil. Madhurbain Singh Anand, the father of Mehtab, peered into the garden behind their house as the cloud of pollution settled on the city the garden wall, maybe 20 feet away, was no longer visible. When someone opened a door, a haze filled the room. “It’s like those horror movies,†he said. “You open the door and the thing comes in. †Mr. Anand, an executive at a clothing company, grew up in the house, and moved his family back to it from Mumbai shortly after his son, their only child, turned 2. He hoped Mehtab could enjoy the same protected Delhi boyhood that he did, tumbling out the door after school and running around with a gang of neighborhood children until dinner. But Mehtab’s life is nothing like that. In the winter, when the air quality plummets, he barely goes outside for fear of setting off his breathing problems. His mother, Guntas Kaur, enrolled him in tennis lessons, and then swimming, but both had to be cut short because of wheezing attacks. She says she had to allow him more television time instead. After a severe attack last year that led to a hospitalization, Ms. Kaur moved Mehtab into his parents’ bedroom and set her iPhone alarm for every two hours, so she could strap on his nebulizer mask at intervals throughout the night. On the night of Diwali, the couple sat inside, listening to the neighbors celebrate. They could hear firecrackers going off outside, the expensive kind that sizzle and pop and burn for half an hour. “We were feeling so disturbed,†Ms. Kaur said. “We knew what was going to happen. †The two children, 20 miles apart and at different ends at the economic spectrum, got sick on the same night. hours after Diwali, the pollution had pooled close to the ground. Delhi’s airport, Indira Gandhi International, reported visibility of around 1, 000 feet, the worst conditions in 17 years. After episodic smog events, it typically takes between one and three days for severe effects to emerge in children, according to Bhargav Krishna, who manages the Public Health Foundation of India’s environmental health system and is a of Care for Air. The crisis typically comes in the form of a lower respiratory infection, like bronchitis or pneumonia, that can become dangerous, with fluid filling the lungs and plummeting levels of oxygen in the blood. In the migrants’ settlement where her family lives, Vaishnavi coughed incessantly: Her face was red, and the tendons on her neck were popping out. Ravi stirred from a nap to hear his wife howling. He did not sleep again until morning, but instead rubbed the baby’s feet and hands, and listened for a heartbeat. “There was not a sound coming from her,†said Bhanwari, her mother. “You hear a wheezing sound inside her. A rattling. †Mehtab, too, was in trouble. His mother, weary of confining him, had finally allowed him to go to school, but he was sent home right away, sniffling. That much exposure to the air was enough. When night fell Ms. Kaur began administering the steroids every hour, something she had never done. He began to gasp, his rib cage heaving, 15 minutes after she removed the mask from his face. “It was really bad,†Mr. Anand said. “I can’t explain it in words, actually. †The decisions came quickly after that. Mr. Anand brought home an air purifier that cost 29, 000 rupees — about $425 — and switched it on, peering at the display to see the concentration of PM 2. 5. It was above 700 inside the house. Three days later, Ms. Kaur took Mehtab out of Delhi, boarding a train for her parents’ home, a few hours north. What shocked her was how quickly his breathing eased. They arrived at night, and he slept so peacefully that she reduced the steroid treatments to every four hours. The next morning, she watched through the window as he played outside. She called her husband, crying, and said it was time to leave Delhi. Not so for Vaishnavi. This week, she sat on her mother’s lap, sucking on a lollipop, while her aunt cooked on a clay stove in the room, filling it with fumes. The worst season here in Delhi has just begun. It will continue for three months, growing worse when the city’s vast homeless population begins setting nighttime fires for warmth, and when dropping temperatures push the emissions toward the ground. Some emergency protective measures introduced during the week after Diwali, including a moratorium on construction, have been reversed. The Badarpur power plant will remain shuttered until Jan. 31. But it will then reopen, and new standards being imposed on coal plants next year will apply only to newly built plants, Mr. Krishna said. “You stop being angry and start being cynical at some point,†he said. “Year after year, there are action plans issued with no . And every year, this kind of thing happens. †With the tourists back on the street, Vaishnavi’s father, Ravi, was back at his corner, selling trinkets. He had consulted a roadside doctor about protecting his family from air pollution, and gathered that they were supposed to eat cane sugar. He had also bought a pair of glasses to protect his eyes from the pollution, and removed several bricks from the wall of the small, airless room his family occupies, which he thought would improve air circulation. Vaishnavi had improved with a course of antibiotics, but he felt no certainty that she would survive another week like the one that followed Diwali. Or, for that matter, that anyone would notice if she did not. “Delhi people have no memory,†he said. “It would be one in a hundred who would ask me how she died. †| 1 | [
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FMD1754 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (TN) decided to launch an online poll to ask, Do you support the repeal of Obamacare? RT if you do, and share what you want to see as the replacement. OK, we know online polls aren t for reals but conservatives tell us they are so we re just going to believe them this one time. And the survey says: 84 percent do not want Obamacare repealed. Only 16 percent called for a repeal.Do you support the repeal of Obamacare? RT if you do, and share what you want to see as the replacement. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) January 3, 2017Nearly 8,000 people took the poll.She was obliterated on Twitter.@MarshaBlackburn why do you hate Americans? Just curious. Fred Mertz (@S3nt13ntB31ng) January 3, 2017 No millionaire left behind. @S3nt13ntB31ng @MarshaBlackburn No millionaire left behind The Monster (@boris3324) January 3, 2017@boris3324 @S3nt13ntB31ng @MarshaBlackburn GOP obstruction caused the rates to go up. Put Congress on the plan the rest of us are on . Bob Schecter (@BobSchecter) January 3, 2017 Please don t take away my health care @MarshaBlackburn please don t take away my healthcare, which I pay for 100% myself, no subsidies. Stop the lies! Steven K (@Waorguy) January 3, 2017@MarshaBlackburn You don t care that 64 MILLION of us plus will lose our health care you are on OUR payroll lady WE PAY YOURS. iratesForResistance (@PirateWench) January 3, 2017@MarshaBlackburn No, I don t. And I suggest SINGLE PAYER, Mrs. Ebeneezer Scrooge! Rapunzel ? (@co_rapunzel4) January 3, 2017@co_rapunzel4 @MarshaBlackburn @Kris_Sacrebleu This is priceless, 83% DO NOT want to repeal Obamacare using a right wing poll! ?????? Vincent De Mello (@vincedemello) January 4, 2017Kicking 20+ million off insurance b/c you can t stand Obama doing what GOP couldn t do w/GOP own idea (individual mandate) @MarshaBlackburn lawhawk (@lawhawk) January 3, 2017 What time can I swing by for my pap smear? @MarshaBlackburn What time can I swing by for my pap smear? No doubt you have a doctor. What about us? They won t accept us w/o insurance. liberalgranny50 (@peppersandeggs) January 3, 2017No. @MarshaBlackburn Khary Penebaker (@kharyp) January 3, 2017@MarshaBlackburn My adult son has juvenile diabetes since age 3.ACA made possible 4him to buy health insurance 4first time in his life. Melinda? (@melindafla) January 4, 2017@MarshaBlackburn Repealing without a simultaneous replacement is deeply irresponsible. GOP has had six years to come up with a plan. Christopher Coleman (@ccineastnash) January 3, 2017In 2014, Blackburn said Obamacare is a failure because Medicaid expansion wasn t happening. So, a journalist pointed out to her that her own state blocked Medicaid expansion from happening. But she knew that already. Republicans could fix Obamacare, but it s the President s name they don t want attached to it.Photo by Scott Olson/Getty | 0 | [
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FMD1755 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Higher interest rates are on the way. That, anyway, is the prediction increasingly baked into financial markets. Donald J. Trump’s policy agenda — big tax cuts and new infrastructure spending — seems to point in that direction. And the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, with plans for more increases next year. But what if that’s wrong? There’s no doubt that the stated goals of Trump imply that rates will be higher in a couple of years than they are today. As my colleague Binyamin Appelbaum writes, any stimulative fiscal policy from the Trump administration could well face an equal and opposite tightening of monetary policy by a Fed that raises interest rates. The central bank will seek to prevent too much inflation from breaking out in an economy it believes is getting close to operating at its full potential, which means Mr. Trump’s stimulus might run up against the Fed chair Janet Yellen’s (and perhaps her successor’s) . But it’s worth looking at the two big ways that these forecasts could be wrong, and worth considering that the era of low rates might stick around a bit longer than some of the postelection discussion might have suggested. First, the Trump agenda might pack less of a growth punch than some have imagined. If so, you would expect the same cautious approach to rate increases from the Fed. Second, even if the economy does start growing faster, future Trump administration appointees could change their tune on the desirability of higher interest rates. That has been the pattern with other populist politicians of the Trump mold around the world. Politicians, once in office, tend to learn that they like low interest rates. It’s easy to envision a Trump administration pushing for cheaper money and the Fed attempting to hold the line to prevent inflation. On the first point, it’s worth diving into the details of the Trump policies that led to the market rally in stocks and the in bonds. He wants to enact major tax cuts, for one, which all else being equal, would tend to create a boost in economic growth and higher interest rates. But there are some early signals that the Republican lawmakers who actually have to pass any changes to tax law, especially those in the Senate, are wary of tax cuts that would increase the budget deficit as much as Mr. Trump’s campaign plan would. “My preference on tax reform is that it be revenue neutral,†the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell told reporters this week. Another big plank underneath the idea that Mr. Trump’s economic policy will be stimulative is an expectation that he will embrace a infrastructure spending package. But while the mentioned that idea in his election victory speech, he hasn’t put much meat on the bones of the plan since. The details matter a great deal for how much an infrastructure plan could lift growth. For example, tax credits that make the finances of building toll roads more favorable are less likely to create a huge boost in activity than spending on upgrading physical infrastructure outright. So on both tax cuts and infrastructure, there’s no guarantee that the actual scale of stimulus will match some of the early postelection talk. Economists at JPMorgan Chase, for example, are forecasting economic growth of just under 2 percent for both 2017 and 2018 — about the same as the pace of the last six years. And that’s before you factor in the risk that some elements of Trump economic policy could end up being a drag on growth. Think of a trade war with China or Mexico, immigration restrictions that limit the supply of labor or geopolitical disputes. All that gives the Fed every reason to take a approach to shaping its policy. If the Trump economy really starts to take off, the Fed could move more aggressively to raise rates. But it will do that based on actual evidence and data rather than the ’s rhetoric. Which leads to the other scenario, in which the economy accelerates at the risk of overheating. History is littered with examples of politicians in that circumstance pressuring their central banks to keep rates low to encourage growth. In 1972, that was Richard Nixon, pressuring the Fed chairman Arthur Burns to keep money flowing freely in the economy to help his chances. In modern times, populist politicians in Hungary and Turkey have undermined their central banks’ independence, pushing for lower interest rates. There are two vacancies on the Fed’s board of governors already, and Ms. Yellen’s term as chairwoman expires in February 2018 the Stanley Fischer’s term is up in June of that year. Add it up, and within 18 months of taking office, Mr. Trump could have appointed a majority of the Fed’s board, including its chair and vice chair. That doesn’t mean that Trump nominees for those jobs would necessarily refrain from rate hikes if they believed they were warranted. Many potential Republican Fed nominees have opposed the low interest rate tendency of the Fed under Ms. Yellen and her predecessor, Ben Bernanke. For the past few administrations, the accepted practice has been that presidents should refrain from weighing in on monetary policy and let the Fed act independently. But Mr. Trump has described himself as a “low interest rate person†and was willing to scrap that precedent by attacking Ms. Yellen by name during the campaign. Also, to be technical about it, even if the Fed kept its interest rate targets low despite rising inflation, interest rates, which are determined by the bond market, would probably rise. If there’s one thing we know about Mr. Trump, it’s that he doesn’t feel bound by the traditions that have governed how recent presidents have acted. And that means that the future of United States interest rate policy, like so much else, is up for grabs. | 1 | [
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FMD1756 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Says David Perdue hasn't held a single public town hall meeting in six years and sells four meetings a year and a retreat on a private island for a $7,500 corporate PAC check. Claim summaries: We found no evidence that Perdue has held open town halls during his nearly six years in the Senate., He does offer meetings with political action committees that make annual donations to his campaign.
contextual information: In a debate where he appeared alongside an empty lectern, Democrat Jon Ossoff attacked his absent Republican opponent, saying Georgia Sen. David Perdue hasn't been accessible to his constituents and has sold his time for donations from political action committees. "Perdue hasn't held a single public town hall meeting in six years," Ossoff declared on Dec. 6. "He openly sells access for corporate PAC checks. He sells four meetings a year and a retreat on a private island for a $7,500 corporate PAC check." Perdue's campaign manager has indicated that the first-term senator won't participate in any debates with Ossoff ahead of their Jan. 5 runoff election. Along with another Georgia runoff on the same day, which pits Democrat Raphael Warnock against GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler, the race will determine which party controls the Senate. As for town halls, Perdue's Senate office did not cite any that he has held. Ossoff's claim about donor access refers to a solicitation for a Perdue campaign fundraising event. That invitation shows that political action committees contributing $7,500 annually (not a single contribution) would qualify to attend quarterly events and an annual Sea Island retreat. A town hall, as it is typically understood, is a meeting that is publicized in advance and open to the public, in which the elected representative answers questions from members of the public that are not screened. Traditionally, these have been in-person events, but particularly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more have been held online. We found no evidence that Perdue has held such a meeting, and his office didn't offer any. Ossoff has been making the town hall claim about Perdue since at least August, and we found several media reports about Perdue not holding public forums. In May, the student-run Harvard Political Review reported that Perdue had not held any town halls since he took office in January 2015. Atlanta TV station WGCL reported in August about Perdue's lack of accessibility to the public and noted the Harvard story. In September, Atlanta TV station WXIA referred in a news report to a 2017 Perdue event that drew protesters. It didn't describe the event but said Perdue hasn't held a town hall since then. Perdue's staff did not respond to those reporters for those stories. However, in 2017, Perdue told reporters he had held impromptu town hall meetings while making an unannounced visit to the state Capitol and that he prefers holding meetings with individuals or small groups. The nonprofit Town Hall Project told PolitiFact that Perdue has not held a public town hall since it began tracking town halls held by members of Congress in January 2017. The project uses staff and volunteer researchers to track lawmakers' public schedules, subscribe to their newsletters, follow them on social media, and visit their websites, said executive director Nathan Williams. According to the Town Hall Project, a meeting is a town hall if it is open to the public and the press; announced with at least 24 hours' notice; and has at least 30 minutes of open questions and answers; that is, the questions are not screened. Perdue's Senate office told PolitiFact that he regularly participates in public events and local visits to hear directly from constituents. The office did not cite any town hall event, either in person or online, but said Perdue has held constituent conference calls since taking office, including weekly calls during the COVID-19 pandemic. It's not clear whether those calls were publicized in advance or whether constituents were allowed to ask Perdue questions that weren't screened by staff. His office didn't comment on those issues. To support the second part of Ossoff's claim, his campaign cited a two-part tweet from Dave Levinthal, who was then an editor-at-large for the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics and is now a Washington correspondent for Business Insider. The June 5, 2019, tweet showed images of an invitation to a Perdue fundraising event the same day that was hosted by Perdue Victory, a joint fundraising committee of Perdue's campaign and One Georgia PAC, which is affiliated with Perdue. The invitation solicited annual donations at three levels from individuals and political action committees for the Boardroom, an effort helping Perdue's 2020 re-election run. At the top level, called Chairman, a PAC donating $7,500 per year or an individual donating $5,400 per year would be invited to an annual retreat at Sea Island, a private community on St. Simons Island in Georgia, including a reception at Perdue's residence; invitations to special events throughout the year; quarterly events; and an end-of-year thank you. Images of a fundraising solicitation to support Sen. David Perdue's reelection campaign were posted on Twitter by journalist Dave Levinthal. The invitation did not specify whether Perdue would be at all the events. Perdue's office did not comment on the fundraising solicitation, and his campaign did not respond to requests for comment. WXIA-TV reported in February 2020 that on Feb. 13, 2019, Perdue attended a meeting of his Boardroom donors and did not attend a Senate hearing held at the same time by two Armed Services subcommittees on substandard military housing at Georgia's Fort Benning and other facilities nationwide. Perdue is a member of one of the subcommittees. Perdue's office released a statement saying the senator has taken strong action to improve military housing at bases in Georgia but didn't address his scheduling on Feb. 13, 2019, according to the news report. Ossoff said Perdue hasn't held a single public town hall meeting in six years and sells four meetings a year and a retreat on a private island for a $7,500 corporate PAC check. Perdue's office said the senator has held weekly conference calls with constituents. However, we found no evidence that Perdue has held a town hall—a meeting publicized in advance, open to the public, and allowing the public to ask him unscreened questions—since he took office in January 2015. An invitation to a 2019 campaign fundraising event for Perdue offered political action committees that made an annual donation of $7,500 access to an annual retreat at Perdue's residence in a private community on St. Simons Island, Ga., as well as access to quarterly meetings and other events, though it was not clear whether Perdue himself would attend each event. We rate the statement Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD1757 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Swedish Minister for Culture and Democracy Alice Bah Kuhnke has suggested that Swedes who left to fight for radical Islamist groups in the Middle East should be welcomed back and helped to integrate into society. [Ms. Kuhnke made the comments Sunday evening on the television programme Agenda which is transmitted by the Swedish state broadcaster SVT. The programme focused on the fact that some 300 Islamic radicals from Sweden had gone to the Middle East to fight for groups like Islamic State and around half of them had returned to Sweden. “They need to be channelled back into our democratic society,†Kuhnke said. The minister added she and the government had no idea how many of the returnees were still radicalised versus how many left because they had become disillusioned with Islamist beliefs. When asked how many radical Muslims were involved in deradicalisation programmes, she estimated between 10 to 30 people based on information given to her by various municipalities. “There are far too few. We have to work together much better,†she noted. Kuhnke also could not confirm that those who had been through the programmes had been successfully deradicalised, saying the process could take a decade or more. “We can not say that we have succeeded because it’s been such a short time. It is only in years we can say that they actually managed to leave these environments,†she said. Many on social media criticised the minister’s comments including terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp who took to Twitter to note that at least two returning Swedish jihadists were involved with the terrorist attacks that occurred in Paris in late 2015 and in Brussels in 2016. Dessutom har TVÅ av våra Osama Krayem Mohammed Belkaid varit delaktiga i terrorattackerna i Paris Bryssel. #agenda, — Magnus Ranstorp (@MagnusRanstorp) March 12, 2017, “The interview speaks for itself. This is how we are to deal with returnees,†Ranstrop noted. The Swedish attitude toward returning jihadists is seen as strange by many, as several municipalities have gone above and beyond to cater for returning fighters. In the medieval city of Lund, the government is considering a range of measures including debt forgiveness, driving lessons, and free housing in the name of integrating returning extremists. Last week, another damning report showed the Swedish government had still been paying many Islamists through the generous Swedish welfare system whilst they were fighting in Iraq and Syria. Ranstorp, who was one of the authors of the report, said the main problem was the Swedish government refusing to follow up on welfare claimants to check whether they were in the country or ensuring that someone else wasn’t collecting benefits on their behalf. Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart. com | 1 | [
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FMD1758 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: House Speaker Paul Ryan was put on the spot last night during CNN s town hall, when a Republican attendee asked him a question that most of us would love to know how can anyone, Republican or not, justify standing by Donald Trump after all the horrible things he s said and done?Student Zachary Marcone, who stressed that he himself was a Republican but would NOT be voting for Trump, confronted Ryan by pointing out Trump s bigotry. Marcone said: It concerns me when the Republican leadership is supporting somebody who s blatantly racist and has said Islamophobic statements, wants to shut down our borders. Can you tell me, how can you morally justify your support for this kind of candidate, somebody who could be very destructive to our country? Ryan couldn t actually give Marcone a moral justification for why he continued to support Trump even though he d condemned several of the Islamophobic things Trump has said in the past. Basically accepting Marcone s description of Trump as a racist Islamophobic candidate, Ryan s only response was that carrying out the Republican party s agenda was more important to him than protecting America. Ryan fired back with notable irritation in his voice: That basically means you re going to help elect Hillary Clinton. And I don t think Hillary Clinton s going to support any of the things that you stand for, if you re a Republican. So according to the Speaker of the House, subjecting America to a blatantly racist and Islamophobic idiot isn t as bad as having Clinton leading the country even though she is far more qualified to do so and Ryan admitted that several of Trump s proposals were wrong and don t reflect the view of fellow conservatives and Republicans. Ryan said: She represents a third Obama term. I don t think that s good for America; I think that s the wrong direction. So, yes, things have been said that I, too, disagree with. Then I ll make that point, then, but I m going to go fight for the principles and these solutions that I believe in. And the candidate that I think is so much more likely to put those into law, because I know Hillary Clinton won t do that. It is a binary choice. It is either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. You don t get a third option. It s one or the other and I know where I want to go. You can watch Ryan expose how much the GOP doesn t give a damn about America below:Featured image via screenshot | 0 | [
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FMD1759 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Has Education Secretary Betsy DeVos officially listed her yacht in the Cayman Islands? Claim summaries: Several viral memes made unfounded assumptions based on the complicated inner workings of the DeVos family's business interests.
contextual information: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been the subject of intense scrutiny since even before her appointment, both regarding her qualifications and positions on education policy, as well as her (and her family's) financial connections, investments, and donations. That scrutiny continued in August 2018, when the investigative website Capital & Main published a report detailing the registration and management of a yacht associated with the DeVos family. When someone untied a yacht owned by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos's family, Fox News portrayed the episode as an illustration of uncouth anti-Trump sentiment. The yacht's foreign flag, however, illustrated how an allegedly America First administration is filled with moguls who have eagerly stashed their wealth offshore—if doing so means avoiding taxes, regulations, transparency requirements, and domestic employment laws. When her family's 164-foot yacht was untied from a Huron, Ohio dock, it was flying a flag of the Cayman Islands, where VesselTracker states the yacht is registered. According to federal records, the yacht is owned by RDV International Marine, which is an affiliate of the company that controls the DeVos family's fortune. When buying a vessel or cruising in U.S. waters, American yacht owners like the DeVoses could face state sales or use taxes. However, registering a yacht in a locale like the Caymans—under what has come to be known as a flag of convenience—allows those American yacht owners to effectively characterize themselves as foreigners for tax purposes, thereby avoiding the obligation of paying the standard sales and use levies while enjoying police and Coast Guard services during times their vessels are untied. The report, which was also published by Newsweek, prompted several memes from left-wing and progressive social media accounts. The yacht in question, Seaquest, is registered in the Cayman Islands, an arrangement that has potentially allowed its owner(s) to avoid paying taxes that they would otherwise face when traveling in the United States. However, it cannot be affirmed with certainty that this was the motivation behind the overseas registration. Furthermore, Betsy DeVos is not the owner of the vessel (although members of her family are), and a spokesperson for the DeVos family's main management company stated that neither she nor her husband Dick was responsible for the decision to register the yacht in the Cayman Islands. The yacht Seaquest is a 164-foot long (50-meter) yacht built by Westport and registered in George Town, the capital of the Cayman Islands. It is owned and managed by R.D.V. International Marine, according to the website VesselTracker.com. The country's Shipping Registry confirmed that Seaquest's official Cayman Islands vessel number is 740641. R.D.V. International Marine is an entity of R.D.V. Corporation, the Michigan-registered management company that oversees the substantial financial investments and business interests of the DeVos family, headed by 92-year-old Richard DeVos, a multi-billionaire businessman and one of the co-founders of the multi-level marketing giant Amway. Dick DeVos (Richard DeVos Jr.), the husband of Betsy DeVos, is a director of R.D.V. Corporation, as is the couple's daughter Elisabeth ("Elissa") Lowery, Dick's sister Suzanne ("Cheri") DeVos, and his brothers Doug and Dan and their wives Maria and Pamella. Betsy DeVos was herself a company director until November 2016, according to her financial disclosure. However, the Chief Operating Officer of the Windquest Group, Greg McNeilly, stated that Dick and Betsy DeVos are not the owners of Seaquest. (The Windquest Group is a private investment firm founded by Dick DeVos, who is its president. Betsy DeVos was a director at Windquest until November 2016.) This was corroborated by Nick Wasmiller, a spokesperson for R.D.V. Corporation, who stated by email that Seaquest is owned (through R.D.V. International Marine) by Richard DeVos, who previously owned it in conjunction with his wife Helen prior to her death in October 2017: "Dick and Betsy DeVos do not own Seaquest and have never held ownership in the watercraft... Dick and Betsy DeVos had no role in the registration of Seaquest nor the management of any subsequent efforts to maintain that registration." So the three memes referenced above are factually inaccurate in alleging that Betsy DeVos both owns Seaquest and registered it in the Cayman Islands, or that she registered "her family's fleet of 10 yachts" in the Cayman Islands. The yacht Seaquest is, and has always been, owned by Betsy DeVos's father-in-law, according to spokespersons for two DeVos family companies, and Betsy herself has never made any management or registration decisions about it, according to a spokesperson for R.D.V. Corporation. A 2017 investigation by the Wall Street Journal outlined how the extended DeVos family structures and manages their investments, business interests, and assets, which include nine vessels other than Seaquest. In response to our question, Wasmiller confirmed that these other nine vessels are "owned by various DeVos family entities" but said they are "registered in the United States." We checked the U.S. Coast Guard's Vessel Documentation Center database and found that the nine DeVos family-related vessels listed by the Wall Street Journal are indeed all registered to ports in the United States, specifically in Michigan, Delaware, and Florida. So the Americans for Tax Fairness meme is also false on the grounds that it claims Betsy DeVos registered "her family's fleet of 10 yachts in the Cayman Islands," but in reality, nine of those vessels are registered in the United States, and the one that is registered in the Cayman Islands is not managed or owned by Betsy DeVos. While Betsy DeVos does not personally own or manage Seaquest, it is possible that its registration in the Cayman Islands, as opposed to the United States, might have allowed its owner, Richard DeVos (via RDV International Marine), to avoid incurring certain taxes, as Capital & Main reported: If the vessel were registered in, say, Grand Rapids, Michigan—the state where RDV is located and that has in the past made an effort to compel yacht owners to pay use taxes—the Seaquest would likely be subject to Michigan's six percent use tax. That would require the DeVos empire to cough up about $2.4 million. The figure of $2.4 million represents six percent of $40 million, which is the estimated value given to Seaquest in several news reports, including Capital & Main's investigation. The source of that evaluation is not clear, with many articles describing the yacht as being "reportedly valued at $40 million," without providing any attribution for that number. We found one online broker selling a brand-new 164-foot Westport yacht (like Seaquest) for $42.5 million, and another 2013 listing for a similar vessel which presented a sale price of $34 million. Seaquest was built in 2008, so it's possible its purchase price was lower than $40 million. Furthermore, it's unclear whether Seaquest would actually incur a tax liability even if it were registered in Michigan. What's in question here is a type of taxation called "use tax," which applies to tangible products and entities that are brought into and used or consumed in a particular jurisdiction (in this case, the state of Michigan), in circumstances where sales tax does not apply. Section 205.93 of Michigan's Compiled Laws states that: "There is levied upon and there shall be collected from every person in this state a specific tax, including both the local community stabilization share and the state share, for the privilege of using, storing, or consuming tangible personal property in this state at a total combined rate equal to 6% of the price of the property or services." So, in principle at least, if you own a yacht that is habitually docked or sailed in Michigan, that is likely to be regarded as storage or usage, and you would owe the state of Michigan use tax of six percent of the price of the yacht. However, certain exemptions from this use tax exist when the property is purchased outside Michigan, is "used solely for personal, nonbusiness purposes," and "the property is purchased by a person who is not a resident of this state at the time of purchase and is brought into this state more than 90 days after the date of purchase" or "the property is purchased by a person who is a resident of this state at the time of purchase and is brought into this state more than 360 days after the date of purchase." We don't know whether Richard DeVos was a resident of Michigan at the time he bought Seaquest in 2008, and we don't know how much time elapsed between his purchase of the yacht and its arrival in the state. Therefore, even if Seaquest were registered in Michigan and not the Cayman Islands, it's not certain that the vessel would be subject to use tax, although this is certainly a possibility. Wasmiller, on behalf of R.D.V. Corporation, provided an alternative explanation for the decision to register Seaquest in the Cayman Islands: "Non-commercial watercraft exceeding 100 feet, such as Seaquest, are commonly registered in the Cayman Islands. The country's strict safety, manning, and operation standards for non-commercial watercraft are widely recognized in international waters and closely align with requirements commonly encountered during global travel. As a result, registration in the Cayman Islands provides for the most efficient entrance and exit of various jurisdictions." In boating terms, it's a widely recognized flag—a significant benefit when traveling internationally, thus the registration of Seaquest there. Also of note, it is the policy of RDV International Marine that all employees aboard Seaquest are eligible to work in the United States, as the boat does periodically enter U.S. waterways. The claims contained in the viral memes we listed are based on several assumptions made without sufficient evidence and contradicted by spokespersons for Dick and Betsy DeVos and Richard DeVos. First, RDV International Marine owns Seaquest, and RDV International Marine is an entity of RDV Corporation, the DeVos "family office" which oversees the family's substantial business interests, assets, and investments. However, even though Betsy DeVos is a former director of RDV Corporation, and her family members are closely intertwined with the company, this does not mean that every asset owned by every entity of RDV Corporation is also owned (even in part) by every member of the DeVos family. It is a family company, but it is not a co-op. This logical and evidentiary leap is also directly contradicted by spokespersons for two DeVos-related companies, who stated on the record that Richard DeVos owns Seaquest, and that neither Betsy nor Dick DeVos have ever owned even part of it nor have ever made decisions about its management and registration. Second, there is a significant evidentiary leap from the fact that one DeVos-related yacht is registered in the Cayman Islands to the claim that 10 DeVos-related vessels are registered there. This is factually inaccurate. Nine of the vessels listed as DeVos assets in a Wall Street Journal article are registered in the United States. Finally, there is an assumption (albeit a more reasonable one) involved in the claim that registering Seaquest in the Cayman Islands allows its owner(s) to avoid paying taxes in the United States. Michigan state law allows for certain exemptions from the obligation to pay "use tax," and it cannot be said with certainty that Richard DeVos, the owner of Seaquest, did not meet the criteria for those exemptions. The claim that the tax obligation allegedly being avoided amounts to $2.4 million is also based on an assumption about the price of the yacht itself, which is not known for certain. | 0 | [
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FMD1760 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: When it comes to income taxes, Wisconsin is one of the best places in the country to be poor but top 4 or 5 worst for middle-income earners.
contextual information: Its one of Madisons worst-kept secrets: Republicans at the Capitol want to cut state income taxes, and hope to take up the issue in the 2013 legislative session, which begins in January.The question is: Cut them for who?On that, its a good idea to listen to Rep. Robin Vos, the Republican from Rochester who was elected Nov. 13, 2012 as speaker of the state Assembly.Vos made clear in a recentWisPolitics interviewthat his top priority is a middle-class income tax cut.If youre poor in Wisconsin, it is one of the best places in the country to be poor. Were in the bottom 10 states as far as paying taxes if youre poor, Vos said in the interview. If youre successful, we are in the middle. I think were number 15 or 16 ...But if youre a person in the middle class, somebody who makes $20,000 to $200,000, youre in the top 4 or 5 worst places in the country to be a middle-class income taxpayer.Vos went on to tell WisPolitics that Republicans want an across-the-board income-tax cut, though the primary benefits would go to the middle class. When we asked him to clarify what he meant, he told us fiscal constraints might preclude -- for now -- reducing income tax rates on upper-income earners for whom legislative Democrats and Gov. Jim Doyle raised the top rate in 2010.So, is Vos right about how the income tax burden affects low and middle-income earners?When asked for backup, Vos pointed us to research presented to the bipartisanSteering Committee on Income Tax, a study group chaired by Vos that was set up through the nonpartisan Wisconsin Legislative Council.Lower-income workers:Vos said their income tax burden is in the bottom 10, and its clear from the complete interview he meant among the 41 states that levy a personal income tax.In a November 2009 study, the nonpartisan, liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)ranked the burdenon the lowest one-fifth of Wisconsins earners as the 29th-lowest among those 41 states.Thats not quite bottom 10, but the groups executive Matthew Gardner told us the difference between Wisconsin and the lowest rung of the bottom 10 was so trivially small as to be meaningless.Another 50-state study, by theMinnesota Taxpayers Associationin 2011, ranked the low-income burden in Wisconsin as either 32nd- or 34th-lowest for married couples at $10,000 or $20,000. Both are bottom 10.In Wisconsin, as in several other states, the working poor often have a negative income tax bill -- they get tax credits that wipe out their tax liability and in some cases result in a payment to them from the state.Wisconsin would be lower in these rankings, but some states pay even larger credits.Middle-income earners:Vos said this group faces a top-five burden.Income taxes paid by Wisconsin married couples and single heads of household in the $75,000 to $100,000 income range are fifth-highest in the country, based on the Minnesota study. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue indirectly cited the Minnesota study in testimony before the Vos-chaired study group.A sub-group of all married couples -- senior couples making $100,000 -- have the fourth-highest.The Minnesota groups research director, Aaron Twait, said he considers the $100,000 mark for two earners a classic middle-class household, based on average incomes in Wisconsin and Minnesota.In addition, the ITEP study shows only four states collecting a higher average tax rate than Wisconsin in the $57,000-$88,000 range.So Vos has evidence to back up this part of his claim.But when you look at other levels within Voss middle-class range of $20,000 to $200,000, the burden is not quite as heavy as Vos said.For example, at the $150,000 level in the Minnesota study, the rankings are No. 10 for singles, No. 8 for married couples filing jointly and No. 9 for single heads of household. Again, thats among the 41 states with an income tax.At $50,000, we found a mix of rankings between No. 3 and No. 7.Finally, Vos mentioned one other income group, the successful, by which he meant upper-income. Its not part of the claim were testing, but Vos said that groups income-tax burden was in the middle of the 41 states.Thats basically on target. We found tax-burden rankings from No. 11 to No. 17 for top earners in categories such as $250,000, $500,000 and $1 million annual income. These rankings were from the Minnesota study. The ITEP study also shows the rankings falling as income rises.Our ratingVos said that when it comes to income taxes, Wisconsin is one of the best places in the country to be poor but top 4 or 5 worst for middle-income earners.Hes mostly on target here, based on credible tax studies showing a very low burden on the working poor, compared to a very high burden on many middle-income earners.Not all the middle-income earners face a top-5 tax burden, though: Its top-10 for some in the middle-class as he defined it.We rate his claim Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD1761 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Most of us are fully aware that Republican nominee Donald Trump is not only a racist, a misogynist and a bigot, but a complete psychopath and compulsive liar. But what happens when Trump is actually put through a clinical sanity test? Political commentator Keith Olbermann decided to find out.In a courageous attempt to understand the way Trump s disturbed mind works, Olbermann examined Trump using clinical psychology practices, which lead to his conclusion that Trump would not pass any of the sanity tests commonly used to identify criminal and antisocial tendencies.Olbermann released his findings on Thursday in Vanity Fair, and the results were not good for the future of America. The particular test Olbermann chose to evaluate Trump was The Hare Psychopathy Checklist , developed by Canadian criminal psychologist Robert D. Hare, which serves as a kind of triage device to separate the injured from the tripping from the psychopathic. This particular test goes through 20 different personality traits, awarding points for each. Such traits include a grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, lack of empathy, parasitic lifestyle, promiscuous sexual behavior, and a failure to accept responsibility for one s own actions. Just by that small sample of traits alone, you can probably already guess how Trump might have scored.The maximum amount of points you can get is 40, and clinical psychopathy is considered any score 30 or above. Trump scored a whopping 32 making him a certainty for a diagnosis of clinical psychopathy. Olbermann remarked on Trump s mental health: The implications are clear. Our Trumperor s New Clothes media rightly sees the latest Trump event whatever it is this time as one of the most unbelievable developments in American political history. But the simple mechanics of following, reporting, and writing the proverbial new high in low every single day means that they could be missing one overriding truth about the health of the most remarkable presidential candidate since at least 1864. In short, our amateurs exercise with the very professional Hare Psychopathy Checklist suggests that if you were betting on it, you d probably want to bet that Donald Trump couldn t pass a sanity test open book. If that isn t terrifying, I don t know what is. Trump is the GOP nominee, and although Clinton will probably wipe the floor with him in the election, the fact that someone as hateful and mentally unstable as Trump has gotten this close to the White House should worry us all.Here s a video from Olbermann, which goes through the test and Trump s results:Featured image via screenshot | 0 | [
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FMD1762 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did a Drag Queen in a 'Demonic' Outfit Read a Sexually Explicit Book to Children at a Public Library? Claim summaries: Right-wing web sites used alarmist language and false claims to describe a reading event at a California library.
contextual information: In October 2017, right-wing websites reported with a significant degree of alarm that a drag queen in a "Satan-inspired costume" had read to children at a California public library associated with former First Lady Michelle Obama. In their headline, Conservative Fighters falsely claimed that Xochi Mochi had read a "sexually explicit" book to the children. World News Daily reported: "The Michelle Obama public library in Long Beach, California, has presented to children who are part of its young readers program a huge array of diversity and inclusion agendas." It was during Xochi Mochi's visit that the program was described as pro-LGBTQ, transgender, drag queen-friendly, and Satanist-approved, with characters featuring red-tipped, demon-like horns, all to read to children for LGBTQ History Month. The right-wing Media Research Center wrote: "In a nightmare-inducing vision that's likely spawned years of intense psychological therapy, children at the Michelle Obama Public Library in Venice Beach, California, were forced to endure being read kids' books by a five-horned drag queen in the most terrifying clown makeup known to man. And no, not for Halloween. For diversity."
Setting aside the alarmist language used to describe this event, the Los Angeles drag performer Xochi Mochi (also known as Jorge Alcantar) did read to children at the Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library in Long Beach, California, on October 14. The reading was part of a series called Drag Queen Story Hour, which is run by the writer Michelle Tea and the literary and arts non-profit Radar Productions. Here's how the Drag Queen Story Hour website describes the project: " | 2 | [
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] | 2 |
FMD1763 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: NTEB Ads Privacy Policy Black Americans Going For Donald Trump In Record Numbers As Election Day Approaches Donald Trump is gaining in Michigan partly because many African-American voters — especially younger voters who backed Sen. Bernie Saunders — distrust Clinton, said Wayne Bradley, state director of African-American engagement for the Michigan Republican Party. by Geoffrey Grider November 5, 2016 Donald Trump is on track to double Gov. Mitt Romney’s support among African-American voters, according to a series of state polls. In 2012, African-Americans comprised a record 13 percent of all voters. President Barack Obama was reelected with 93 percent of the African-American vote, leaving Gov. Mitt Romney with only 6 percent of the African-American vote. Obama is now campaigning against Trump, and hoping to keep his share of the African-American vote below the 11 percent that George W. Bush won in 2004 during the housing bubble. On Friday , a poll of 506 Pennsylvania voters by Harper Polling showed Trump has the support of 18.46 percent of African-Americans. That’s eight points more than Romney’s share of the national vote in 2012, and if it proves true during the ballot, that 18.46 percent African-American support translates into 2 point shift towards Trump. The poll also said another 4.6 percent were undecided. Trump acknowledges ‘Blacks for Trump’ supporters: The Harper poll is small , with an error margin of 4.4 percent, but an Oct. 30 poll of 1,249 likely voters in Pennsylvania showed Trump has 19 percent support among African Americans, while another 7 percent remain undecided. That poll has a error margin of 2.77 percent. In next-door Michigan, two nights of a tracking poll conducted for Fox 2 of 1,150 likely voters showed Trump with 14 percent support and 19 percent support, leaving Clinton with 83 percent and 79 percent support. That’s equivalent to a two-point shift from Clinton to Trump in the state. “We’re showing Donald Trump doing far better among African-Americans than any other Republican in modern memory, said John Yob, CEO of a Michigan-based polling firm, Strategic National . Trump “has done an excellent job in campaigning for the votes of African-Americans,” he said, partly by campaigning in Detroit, said Yob, whose automated tracking polls show Trump and Clinton running level in the state. Black Trump Supporters Explain Why They are Voting for Donald Trump: Donald Trump is gaining in Michigan partly because many African-American voters — especially younger voters who backed Sen. Bernie Saunders — distrust Clinton, said W ayne Bradley, state director of African-American engagement for the Michigan Republican Party. “T here is a tremendous trust deficit with Hillary Clinton” because tough anti-crime laws established when her husband was president in the 1990s, he said. That distrust has helped cause a sharp drop in the number of absentee ballots mailed in from Detroit, even as other part of the state send in more ballots that before, Bradley said. Faced with a low turnout, the Clinton campaign is trying to frighten African-Americans to vote, but “t hat’s not a convincing enough argument,” he said. “Detroit as of Wednesday had seen absentee ballots returns equaling just 46 percent of the total 2012 absentee vote in the city, and the city clerk’s office is forecasting a decline of 10,000 absentee ballots compared to 2012, a fall of 12.5 percent,” according to a review of absentee records by the Gongwer.com website, which intensively tracks Michigan politics. It is “possible that the falloff portends reduced [election day] voting at the precincts, in which case … Clinton could net something like 32,000 fewer votes out of the city than President Barack Obama did in 2012.” But other polls offer better news to Clinton. A Detroit Free Press poll of 600 likely Michigan voters released Nov. 4 showed that “Among black voters, her margin also grew substantially, to 92% compared to 88% two weeks ago.” National Trends Trump’s gain among African-American voters is happening in many states, alongside an overall reduction in African-American enthusiasm and support for Obama’s designated successor. That drop-off in support from Obama’s 93 percent level will likely reduce the turnout for Clinton. MSNBC reporter wasn’t expecting Black Americans to vote for Trump: That’s a problem for Democrats, because a 7.5 percent drop in nationwide African-American turnout would be equal to a one-point drop in a nationwide vote for Clinton. Reports say the early-voting turnout by African-Americans has dropped by up to 10 percent in North Carolina and by somewhat less in Florida . President Barack Obama and other top Democrats have hopscotched through the states to push that turnout back up by election day. But pollsters face problems when trying to gauge opinions in a high-stakes emotional competition. For example, a large slice of African-Americans are picking “undecided” in some polls. The Washington Post is reporting that Clinton is leading Trump by 79 percentage points among African-Americans, but the fine print in the article says Clinton’s score is 82 percent and Trump’s score is 3 percent — leaving 15 percent who did not pick either candidate. So if Trump gets just one-in-five of the undecided African-American voters, he reaches Romney’s 2012 level. Blacks for Trump, It’s a Thing: Some concerned people lie to pollsters. For example, roughly 7 percent of college grads hide their support for Trump when they’re ask by pollsters over the phone, perhaps out of fear of penalties if their choice was made public. So when polls show a non-answer from respondents, for example, many undecided voters, the votes may be hiding a weak or strong preference for Trump. These factor may be impacting polls of African-Americans, who are being hammered by claims from Clinton and Obama that Trump is supposedly a racist. “If you accept the support of Klan sympathizers — the Klan — and hesitate when asked about that support, then you’ll tolerate that support when you’re in office,” Obama told an African-American crowd in North Carolina on Nov. 3. For example, Public Policy Polling — which mostly works for Democratic clients — used phone interviews in a poll that showed Trump with just 9 percent support in Michigan among 957 likely voters, of whom 12 percent were African-American. The poll said none of the roughly 110 African-Americans were undecided in a two-person race, even though 8 percent said they were unsure when they were asked if they had a favorable view of Trump. In contrast, the Harper Polling survey in Pennsylvania got very different answers from African-Americans. Trump got 18.5 percent support in a four-person race, although many respondents waffled when they were asked to pick between just Clinton and Trump. When asked to pick either of the two main candidates, only 12.3 percent supported Trump, while 13.9 percent declared themselves to be undecided. So Trump actually picked up half of the undecideds when the respondents were allowed to chose from the four candidates. Polls A national poll by TIPP showed Clinton at only 75 percent support among all non-whites, including Hispanics, African-Americans and Latinos. That poll showed Trump getting support from 15 percent of non-whites , leaving 5 percent undecided and 5 percent supporting other candidates. In North Carolina, 19 percent of African-Americans support Trump, according to an Oct. 30 survey of 1176 likely voters by Remington Research Group. An Oct. 28 to Oct. 31 poll in North Carolina by SurveyUSA showed Trump with 14 percent support in a poll of 800 adults, including 659 likely voters. African-Americans comprised 21 percent of the voters in the poll. SurveyUSA is the top-ranked pollster in Nate Silver’s rankings . But a late October poll of African-Americans in North Carolina by Siena University showed 89 percent support for Clinton and 1 percent for Trump — but it also showed 6 percent staying they did not know who they will vote for, and 11 percent support for the GOP Gov. Pat McCrory. In Florida, a Siena University poll showed that Trump had the support of 13 percent of African-Americans. More ominously for Clinton, she had the support of only 83 percent, while 4 percent said they didn’t know who to vote for. If Trump gets one-quarter of the 4 percent, he reaches 14 percent of the African-American vote, leaving Clinton with roughly 86 percent. In Virginia, a survey by Public Policy Polling taken in Nov. 3 and Nov. 4 showed Trump with 9 percent support and Clinton with 91 percent support. A Remington Research automated poll of 1,106 likely voters in Virginia showed Trump with 19 percent , and Clinton with just 78 percent support. In Georgia, a Nov. 2 to Nov. 3 poll of 1,000 likely voters showed Trump with 12 percent of the African-American vote, leaving Clinton with 85 percent. Amid the disagreement, rivalries and complexity, Bradley is confident that Trump will do well among African-Americans. His final tally as the GOP candidate “will be a higher number that it has been in the past… [because] he’s working, he’s coming to these cities to deliver the message.” The African-American vote may even be enough to help push Trump over the so-called “blue wall” of Democratic northern states that stands in his path to the White House. source SHARE THIS ARTICLE Geoffrey Grider NTEB is run by end times author and editor-in-chief Geoffrey Grider. Geoffrey runs a successful web design company, and is a full-time minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to running NOW THE END BEGINS, he has a dynamic street preaching outreach and tract ministry team in Saint Augustine, FL. NTEB #TRENDING | 0 | [
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FMD1764 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did Trump Defense Secretary 'Disarm' DC National Guard Before Insurrection? Claim summaries: The claim stemmed from a Jan. 4 memo authored by former acting Defense Security Christopher Miller.
contextual information: After the U.S. Capitol insurrection in January 2021, Snopes readers asked about the legitimacy of a viral document that left-leaning websites framed as an attempt by a member of former President Donald Trump's cabinet to suppress the ability of National Guard forces to provide law enforcement during the gathering of Trump supporters rallying to try to overturn the 2020 election. left-leaning websites 2020 election For example, the Daily Kos, a self-described online hub of progressive media and activism, reported on Jan. 29: online hub [On. Jan. 4], former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller issued a memo to the secretary of the Army placing some extremely unusual limits on National Guard forces for that event. Its not a to-do list. Its a list of thou shalt nots. A long list. A list that says guard forces cant arrest any of the pro-Trump protesters, or search them, or even touch them. And thats just for starters. [...] Its clear that these restrictions would have absolutely prevented any guard forces from trying to protect any location. A website called "The National Memo" republished the body of the Daily Kos' story verbatim, under a new headline: "Trump Defense Secretary Disarmed D.C. National Guard Before Capitol Riot." The National Memo Before we directly address the claim, let us unpack the basis of the above-mentioned articles. The Daily Kos' original story included a hyperlink to an authentic tweet by New York Times congressional reporter Luke Broadwater on Jan. 28. tweet The reporter's tweet included a digital image of what appeared to be a Jan. 4 memo to former Army secretary Ryan McCarthy and signed by Miller whom Trump appointed as acting Pentagon chief in November 2020, just days after President Joe Biden was announced the winner of the election. Ryan McCarthy November 2020 was announced In early February, we reached out to Broadwater to learn where, how, or under what circumstances he obtained the document. He told us "it was a leak," or that an anonymous person or group within government or law-enforcement released the document to The New York Times. While no evidence exists to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the document displayed in the tweet, we sought to independently verify its authenticity. Citing the Freedom of Information Act, Snopes submitted multiple requests for a copy of the Jan. 4 record from various record-keeping centers within federal government. Freedom of Information Act On March 3, the U.S. Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee fulfilled our request after its chair, Sen. Gary Peters, entered Miller's memo into the committee's public database of records. Committee spokespeople emailed us copies the document that indeed imposed restrictions on the D.C. National Guard (DCNG) during planned demonstrations by Trump supporters in the coming days. It read, in part: planned demonstrations Without my subsequent, personal authorization, the DCNG is not authorized the following: You may employ the DCNG Quick Reaction Force (QRF) only as a last resort and in response to a request from an appropriate civil authority. If the QRF is so employed, DCNG personnel will be clearly marked and/or distinguished from civilian law enforcement personnel, and you will notify me immediately upon your authorization. The document written by the Trump appointee did not order any person or entity to take away weapons from Guard members. Rather, it required McCarthy, who oversees the DCNG, to request approval from the defense secretary in order for Guard members to use weapons, helmets, body armor or riot control agents as well as to share equipment with other law-enforcement agencies during the preplanned gatherings of Trump supporters on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6. Rewind a few days, and, according to the Department of Defense, D.C. officials requested that the district's Metropolitan Police department not a federal agency lead security efforts during the pro-Trump events, which were widely marketed as gatherings of Trump supporters to try to send a message to Congress to halt a ceremonial vote affirming Biden's win. Department of Defense A Jan. 5 document signed by McCarthy and obtained by Snopes (displayed below) showed the Pentagon ultimately fulfilled that request, saying that its troops would provide support for the district police department or Capitol Hill Police, should they need it. Some 340 Guard members were planning to control crowds at metro stations and enforce street closures during the events, and a "Quick Reaction Force" comprised of 40 Guard officers was standing by, no matter what. "DCNG Soldiers will store their helmets and body armor within vehicles or buildings in close proximity to their positions," McCarthy's memo read. "In the event of an elevation of the threat requiring immediate donning of this equipment for self-defense, DCNG leadership will immediately notify the Secretary of Army." https://www.scribd.com/document/497258792/Secretary-of-the-Army-Memorandum#fullscreen=1 That decision by the Department of Defense, as well as the request for autonomy from D.C. officials, followed the Guard's controversial response to protests against police violence following George Floyd's death in summer 2020. Politico reported: George Floyd's death reported: While some of the early protests did include looting and damages to local businesses, [D.C. Mayor Muriel] Bowser never called in the National Guard. Against the mayor's wishes, Trump ordered Guard personnel to the city, where the military faced backlash for using overly aggressive crowd control tactics against peaceful protesters, including flying helicopters low over the city to create rotor wash, an action used in overseas conflicts. Any time we would employ troops and guardsmen in the city, you had to go through a rigorous process. As you recall, there were events in the summer that got a lot of attention, and that was part of this," William J. Walker, the DCNG's commanding general, said in an interview with The Washington Post. The Washington Post. Walker was referring to the guidelines (like those in the Jan. 4 and Jan. 5 memos) that required the highest-level approval for the Guard to fully launch into law-enforcement mode. As a result of such restrictions, Walker told The Washington Post that when he received a panicked phone call from Capitol Hill Police about the extremists preparing to break into the Capitol on Jan. 6 (which occurred around 1:50 p.m., per the defense department's timeline) he could not immediately deploy Guard members to help. He instead needed to wait for approval from McCarthy, who then waited for an answer from Miller. The Washington Post department's timeline At 3 p.m, Miller approved full activation of the DCNG (1,100 members) to help district and Capitol Hill police and directed those troops to secure the Capitol, the department's timeline showed. the department's timeline showed (See here for our fact check into a separate claim that the Department of Defense initially denied a request by D.C. officials to deploy the Guard.) here In sum, it was true that Miller issued a Jan. 4 memo requiring Guard leaders to seek prior approval before using weapons during the pro-Trump protests. However, it was an inaccurate portrayal of that order to claim that the Trump appointee "disarmed" or took weapons away from Guard members before the demonstrations, like The National Memo alleged. For those reasons, we rate this claim a "mixture" of false and true information. This report was updated after Snopes obtained a copy of Miller's Jan. 4 memo. The update corroborated the New York Times reporter's tweet and added context about McCarthy's response to D.C. officials' request to lead law-enforcement efforts during the upcoming protests. | 2 | [
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FMD1765 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday businessmen who attempted to move assets abroad were traitors , and called on his cabinet to block any such moves. I am seeing signals, news that some businessmen are trying to move their assets abroad, and I call on firstly my cabinet from here to never allow this exit for any of them because these people are traitors, Erdogan said. Speaking to members of his ruling AK Party in the eastern province of Mus, Erdogan did not say to whom he was referring, nor did he single out a single business, person or country of destination. His comments come after the state-run Anadolu news agency said on Friday that Turkish prosecutors were set to seize the assets of Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors in the trial of a Turkish bank executive charged with evading U.S. sanctions on Iran, and his acquaintances. The trial has caused already strained ties between NATO allies Ankara and Washington to deteriorate further as Zarrab detailed in court a scheme to evade the U.S. sanctions, saying that Erdogan personally authorized two Turkish banks to join the scheme when prime minister. Ankara has cast the testimony as an attempt to undermine Turkey and its economy, and has previously said it was a clear plot by the network of U.S.-based Fethullah Gulen, who it alleges engineered last year s coup attempt. We cannot take kindly to those who earn in this country and then try to take those earnings abroad, Erdogan said. | 1 | [
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FMD1766 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: President Donald Trump nominated former Republican lawmaker Scott Garrett as president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States on Friday, completing an about-face over an institution he had denounced as “featherbedding†for big business. A White House statement also named Spencer Bachus, another Republican former congressman, to be a member of the board of directors of the bank. Both were named for four-year terms. Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday he would fill the two vacancies on the bank’s five-member board that have prevented it from having a quorum and being able to act on loans over $10 million. His picks must gain approval from the Senate, which blocked nominees by former President Barack Obama. The Export-Import Bank, an independent government agency, provides loans to foreign entities that enable them to purchase American-made goods. For example, it has been used by foreign airlines to purchase planes from Boeing Co (BA.N) and farmers in developing nations to acquire equipment. The bank has become a popular target for conservatives, who worked in Congress to kill the institution, arguing that it perpetuates cronyism and does little to create American jobs. Trump’s backing of the bank represents a victory for manufacturers like Boeing and General Electric Co (GE.N), which have overseas customers that use the agency’s government-backed loans to purchase their products. Trump told the Journal the bank benefits small businesses and creates jobs, a reversal of his earlier criticism of the bank as being “featherbedding†for wealthy corporations. Trump’s about-face followed a meeting on Tuesday with former Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney, who left the company last year but oversaw the corporation’s aggressive lobbying effort in support of the bank in 2015. Large American corporations that do significant amounts of exports say other countries have similar agencies and the export bank levels the playing field. A 2015 fight to shutter the bank led by conservatives in Congress allowed the bank’s charter to expire for five months. After overwhelming bipartisan support emerged to renew the bank’s charter, which is needed for it to operate, conservatives blocked nominees to the board, preventing it from financing large exports like aircraft and power turbines. | 1 | [
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FMD1767 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The Volcker Rule is a key reform adopted after the 2008 financial meltdown that bans banks from gambling in securities markets with taxpayer money -- a tactic known as proprietary trading. But under legislation slated for a Wednesday vote, banks would be given a two-year reprieve from unloading some of their riskiest holdings -- known as collateralized loan obligations.
The deregulation measure is one of 11 changes to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law that Republicans will bring to the floor under a single bill Wednesday. The legislation can only pass the House if dozens of Democrats support it, since the bill will be brought up under special rules that require a two-thirds majority for approval. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) will lead the opposition to the bill for Democrats on the House floor. Ellison will likely be opposed by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who voted for a similar bill in April, and supported the bank subsidy in December.
“One day into the new Congress, House Republicans are picking up right where they left off: trying to gut Wall Street reforms so that big banks can make more risky bets using taxpayer-backed money," Warren said. "This is yet another big bank giveaway that makes our economy and middle class families less safe.â€
"It's all about the bonus pool," said Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets, a financial reform nonprofit. "The attack on the Volcker Rule has been nonstop, because proprietary trading is about big-time bets that result in big-time bonuses. Wall Street has been fighting it from day one, and they're not going to stop."
"It's absurd," said Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform. "It's getting on five years after the passage of the Volcker Rule, and the banks have still not actually been required to stop doing anything that they want to be doing. And anytime we get close to the point where they could, somebody comes in with an extension."
Collateralized loan obligations, or CLOs, are complex contracts similar to the mortgage securities that crashed the economy in 2008. To create a CLO, banks package dozens of risky corporate loans together and sell slices to investors. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a major bank regulatory agency, warned in December that the corporate debt market is overheating and becoming increasingly dangerous.
The nation's largest banks dominate the CLO market. According to an April letter from five federal regulators, banks with at least $50 billion in assets hold between 94 percent and 96 percent of the domestic market, valued at $84 billion to $105 billion.
A similar version of the bill was initially introduced by Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) and cosponsored by Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), passing the House by a voice vote in April. The legislation received another vote in September, when it passed the House 320 - 102, with 95 Democrats voting in favor and just one Republican, Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) voting against it.
"Alvarez wants to kill the Volcker Rule, so it's being delayed until they can kill it. He made the decision to delay it until 2017, and this is consistent with that strategy," a frustrated Democratic aide told HuffPost.
Alvarez -- a bank-friendly holdover from the years when Alan Greenspan chaired the Fed -- in December delayed the moment of truth for a host of other risky bank investments through 2017. The Federal Reserve wasn't immediately available for comment after normal business hours.
The flurry of activity on the Volcker Rule follows the December passage of a $1.1 trillion spending bill that included subsidies for risky Wall Street derivatives trading. The bill repealed a key section of President Barack Obama's 2010 financial reform legislation. Obama said that he opposed the plan, but didn't want to derail the broader spending bill over it.
If the latest bill to aid big banks clears the House, the Republican-controlled Senate likely has the votes to pass it as well, unless new filibuster rules provide Democrats with more leverage. Obama has the authority to veto the legislation, but bank watchdogs are wary of Obama after his support for the December spending bill that included the Wall Street subsidy. | 1 | [
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FMD1768 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Brazil s Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to grant Congress the final word on decisions to remove a sitting politician, conceding a victory to lawmakers fighting to shield themselves from prosecution for corruption. The narrow 6-5 decision will allow the Senate to vote next week to revoke a top court ruling that suspended Senator Aecio Neves who is being investigated in seven corruption cases. A majority of the justices decided to back off from confrontation with Congress in the midst of Brazil s biggest political corruption scandal, which has even implicated President Michel Temer and his inner circle of cabinet ministers. The lower house of Congress is expected to vote later this month to shelve charges against Temer in a corruption case involving meatpacker JBS SA, saving him from trial by the Supreme Court. More than 110 politicians are targeted by the sprawling Car Wash graft investigation that has uncovered since 2014 a massive network of bribes and kickbacks paid by companies seeking to win government contracts and influence legislation. Congress has pushed back against judicial action by the Supreme Court since the justices ordered the removal of the former speaker of the lower house, Eduardo Cunha, who was arrested last year, convicted of corruption and sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for corruption. One third of the politicians in Brazil s Congress | 1 | [
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FMD1769 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: United States By ORIENTAL REVIEW
The outcome of the 2016 presidential election will show that the American political system – as we have known it – will apparently cease to exist. Trump is nothing like those Republican pawns who, along with the puppets of the Democratic party, have spent the last 40 years erecting the facade of American democracy. It really looks like he is ready to make good on the threat he made even prior to the Republican National Convention – to send millions of his supporters into the streets.
Today Trump represents an entirely new party made up of half of the American electorate, and they are ready for action. And whatever the eventual political structure of this new model, this is what is shaping America’s present reality. Moreover, this does not seem like such a unique situation. It rather appears to be the final chapter of some ancient story, in which the convoluted plotlines finally take shape and find resolution.
The circumstances are increasingly reminiscent of 1860, when Lincoln’s election so enraged the South that those states began agitating for secession. Trump is today symbolic of a very real American tradition that during the Civil War (1860-1865) ran headlong into American revolutionary liberalism for the first time.
Right up until World War I traditional American conservatism wore the guise of “isolationism.” Prior to WWII it was known as “non-interventionism.” Afterward, that movement attempted to use Sen. Joseph McCarthy to battle the left-liberal stranglehold. And in the 1960s it became the primary target of the “counter-cultural revolution.” Richard Nixon
Its last bastion was Richard Nixon , whose fall was the result of an unprecedented attack from the left-liberal press in 1974. And this is perhaps the example against which we should compare the present-day Trump and his current fight.
And by the way, the crimes of Hillary Clinton, who has failed to protect state secrets and has repeatedly been caught lying under oath, clearly outweigh the notorious Watergate scandal that led to Nixon’s forced resignation under threat of impeachment. But the liberal American media remains silent, as if nothing has happened.
By all indications it is clear that we are standing before a truly epochal moment. But before turning to the future that might await us, let’s take a quick glance at the history of conflict between revolutionary liberalism and traditional white conservatism in the US. ***
Immediately after WWII, an attack on two fronts was launched by the party of “expansionism” (we’ll call it that). The Soviet Union and Communism were designated the number one enemy. Enemy number two (with less hype) was traditional American conservatism. The war against traditional “Americanism” was waged by several intellectual fringe groups simultaneously.
The country’s cultural and intellectual life was under the absolute control of a group known as the “ New York Intellectuals .” Literary criticism as well as all other aspects of the nation’s literary life was in the hands of this small group of literary curators who had emerged from the milieu of a Trotskyist-communist magazine known as the Partisan Review ( PR ). No one could become a professional writer in the America of the 1950s and 1960s without being carefully screened by this sect.
The foundational tenets of American political philosophy and sociology were composed by militants from the Frankfurt School , which had been established during the interwar period in Weimar Germany and which moved to the US after the National Socialists took power. Here, retraining their sights from communist to liberal, they set out to design a “theory of totalitarianism” in addition to their concept of an “authoritarian personality” – both hostile to “democracy.” Max Shachtman
The “New York Intellectuals” and representatives of the Frankfurt School became friends, and Hannah Arendt , for example, was an authoritative representative of both sects. This is where future neocons (Norman Podhoretz, Eliot A. Cohen, and Irving Kristol) gained their experience. The former leader of the Trotskyist Fourth International and godfather of the neocons, Max Shachtman , held a place of honor in the “family of intellectuals.”
The anthropological school of Franz Boas and Freudianism reigned over the worlds of psychology and sociology at that time. The Boasian approach in psychology argued that genetic, national, and racial differences between individuals were of no importance (thus the concepts of “national culture” and “national community” were meaningless).
Psychoanalysis also became fashionable, which primarily aimed to supplant traditional church institutions and become a type of quasi-religion for the middle class.
The common denominator linking all these movements was anti-fascism . Did something look fishy in this? But the problem was that the traditional values of the nation, state, and family were all labeled “fascist.” From this standpoint, any white Christian man aware of his cultural and national identity was potentially a “fascist.”
Kevin MacDonald, a professor of psychology at California State University, analyzed in detail the seizure of America’s cultural, political, and mental landscape by these “liberal sects” in his brilliant book The Culture of Critique , writing:
“The New York Intellectuals, for example, developed ties with elite universities, particularly Harvard, Columbia, the University of Chicago, and the University of California-Berkeley, while psychoanalysis and anthropology became well entrenched throughout academia.
“The moral and intellectual elite established by these movements dominated intellectual discourse during a critical period after World War II and leading into the countercultural revolution of the 1960s.”
It was precisely this intellectual milieu that spawned the countercultural revolution of the 1960s.
Riding the wave of these sentiments, the new Immigration and Nationality Act was passed in 1965, encouraging this phenomenon and facilitating the integration of immigrants into US society. The architects of the law wanted to use the celebrated melting pot to “dilute” the “potentially fascist” descendants of European immigrants by making use of new ethno-cultural elements.
The 60s revolution opened the door to the American political establishment to representatives from both wings of the expansionist “party” – the neo-liberals and the neo-conservatives.
Besieged by the left-liberal press in 1974, Richard Nixon resigned under threat of impeachment. In the same year the US Congress passed the Jackson-Vanik Amendment (drafted by Richard Perle ), which emerged as a symbol of the country’s “new political agenda” – economic war against the Soviet Union using sanctions and boycotts.
At that same time the “hippie generation” was joining the Democratic Party on the coattails of Senator George McGovern’s campaign . And that was when Bill Clinton’s smiling countenance first emerged on the US political horizon.
And the future neo-conservatives (at that time still disciples of the Democratic hawk Henry “Scoop” Jackson) began to slowly edge in the direction of the Republicans. «If there is any doubt about the power of your ideas, just look at the number of members of the Center that have been appointed to posts in this administration -especially in the Department of Defense- to dispel that doubt». Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, September 5, 2002
In 1976, Mr. Rumsfeld and his fellow neo-conservatives resurrected the Committee on the Present Danger , an inter-party club for political hawks whose goal became the launch of an all-out propaganda war against the USSR.
Former Trotskyists and followers of Max Shachtman (Kristol, Podhoretz, and Jeane Kirkpatrick) and advisers to Sen. Henry Jackson (Paul Wolfowitz, Perle, Elliott Abrams, Charles Horner, and Douglas Feith) joined Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and other “Christian” politicians with the intention of launching a “campaign to transform the world.”
This is where the neocons’ “nonpartisan ideology” originated. And eventually today’s “inalterable US government” hatched from this egg.
American politics began to acquire its current shape during the Reagan era. In economics this was seen in the policy of neoliberalism (politics waged in the interests of big financial capital) and in foreign policy – in a strategy consisting of “holy war against the forces of evil.” The Nixon-Kissinger tradition of foreign policy (which viewed the Soviet Union and China as a normal countries with which is essential to find common ground) was entirely abandoned.
The collapse of the USSR was a sign of the onset of the final phase of the “neocon revolution.” At that point their protégé, Francis Fukuyama, announced the “end of history.” ***
As the years passed, the influence of the neo-conservatives (in politics) and neoliberals (in economics) only expanded. Through all manner of committees, foundations, “think tanks,” etc., the students of Milton Friedman and Leo Strauss (from the departments of economics and political science at the University of Chicago) penetrated ever more deeply into the inner workings of the Washington power machine. The apotheosis of this expansion was the presidency of George W. Bush, during which the neocons, having seized the primary instruments of power in the White House, were able to plunge the country into the folly of a war in the Middle East.
By the end of the Bush presidency this clique was the object of universal hatred throughout the US. That’s why the middle-ground, innocuous figure of Barack Obama, a Democrat, was able to move into the White House for the next eight years. The neocons stepped down from their central rostrums of power and returned to their “influential committees.” It is likely that this election was intended to facilitate the triumphant return of the neoconservative-neoliberal paradigm all wrapped up in “new packaging.” For various reasons, the decision was made to assign this role to Hillary Clinton. But it seems that at the most critical moment the flimsy packaging ripped open …
What happened? Why is this clique’s triumphant return to power erupting in massive scandal this time around? Probably because we are living in an era during which much that was mysterious is suddenly becoming clear. Probably because Trump’s “silent majority” suddenly saw before them someone they had been waiting for for a long time – a man ready to defend their interests.
Perhaps also it is because the middle class is choking on its growing exasperation with the “elite caste” occupying its native country. And it finally became clear to the sober-minded American patriots in law enforcement that the return to power of the people responsible for the current global chaos could be a big threat to the US and rest of the world. Because, in the end, everyone has children and no one wants a new world war.
How will this new conservative revolt against the elite end? Will Trump manage to “drain the swamp of Washington, DC” as he has promised, or he will end up as the system’s next victim? Very soon we can finally get an answer to these questions. RELATED POSTS | 0 | [
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FMD1770 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Does anyone in recent history remember the US Department of Education asking educators to place more emphasis on Christianity or Judaism in their curriculums? Yeah neither do we As parents across the country storm school board meetings over a perceived overemphasis on Islam in the curriculum, bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. are suggesting ways teachers can focus more on the religion.A recent blog posted to Home Room, The official blog of the U.S. Department of Education, points out that terrorist attacks in Paris and California sparked anti-Muslim incidents in schools and other places.Muslim students, and those perceived to be Muslim, could be bullied, and the government wants teachers to know how to create an anti-bias learning environment by focusing specifically on those students and their faith. This means incorporating the experiences, perspective and words of Muslim people into the curriculum through social studies and current events instruction, children s literature, in order to learn about different cultures, the blog reads. When you teach about world religions, be sure to include Islam. It s also important to be aware that some Muslim students may feel relieved and comfortable discussing these issues in class and others may feel nervous, scared or angry to be talking about a topic so close to home. The education experts authors Jinnie Spiegler, director of curriculum with the Anti-Defamation League, and Sarah Sisaye of the Education Department s Office of Safe and Healthy Students suggest that teachers pick controversial current events ripe with examples of bias and injustice to highlight anti-Muslim discrimination, and to discuss what actions (students) could take to make a difference. Teachers should also take it upon themselves to spread awareness about Muslim cultural traditions by encouraging events like Hijab days, when female students wear the Islamic religious scarf donned by their Muslim classmates. The education experts provided a link to a YouTube video of an event at Vernon Hills High School in December as an example.Meanwhile, in places like Tennessee, state officials are reviewing curriculum early amid a barrage of complaints about questionable lessons on Islam in middle school history courses. Parents have highlighted lessons that required students to read, write and recite the Islamic conversion prayer; and pointed out the disproportionate amount of time students spend studying Islam versus other religions.Parents have also questioned the accuracy of texts that suggest Christians and Muslims worship the same God and that Islam is a religion of peace, EAGnews reports. A lot of the things we hear about Muhammad and a lot of the warfare that was waged is very much sugar coated, Williamson County School Board member Susan Curlee said at a December town hall. My concern is, are we going to be asking students on a test to potentially compromise their faith for the sake of a grade? she questioned.Also in December, parents in Greenville, Virginia raised objections to a world geography lesson at Riverheads High School that tasked students with copying the Islamic conversion prayer in Arabic, by hand. The intent, according to the lesson, is to give you an idea of the artistic complexity of calligraphy, The Shilling Show reports.The lesson doesn t appear to explain what the shahada or Islamic statement of faith is exactly There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah but it does discuss the inspiring beauty of the Koran.And it s those types of lessons that are sparking a backlash from parents across the country, from lawsuits in Maryland to proposed legislation in Tennessee, centered on what many view as Muslim indoctrination through curriculum.A bias toward Islam is one of the reasons Tyler County Board of Education President Bonnie Henthorn decided to homeschool her children, rather than allow them continue in public schools, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports.And while the Education Department blog stresses the importance of creating classrooms that are free from discrimination and harassment based on protected traits including religion, it offers no suggestions for teachers struggling to explain to parents why government approved texts and associated lessons focus more on Islam than other religions. Via: EAG News | 0 | [
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FMD1771 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Was it against the law to make money from healthcare before the introduction of the HMO Act of 1973? Claim summaries: While there are myriad arguments to be made that the legislation contributed to expansion of for-profit insurance companies, the HMO Act of 1973 is misrepresented in memes.
contextual information: A long-lived but inaccurate meme on social media ties an act signed into law in 1973 by President Richard Nixon to the development of for-profit HMOs and health insurance agencies: Did you know that before 1973 it was illegal in the US to profit off health care? The Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973, passed by Nixon, changed everything. In 1973, Nixon did a personal favor for his friend and campaign financier, Edgar Kaiser, then president and chairman of Kaiser-Permanente. Nixon signed into law the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973, which allowed medical insurance agencies, hospitals, clinics, and even doctors to begin functioning as for-profit business entities instead of the service organizations they were intended to be. And which insurance company got the first taste of federal subsidies to implement HMOA73 *gasp* ... why, it was Kaiser-Permanente! This text conflates two separate issues: the development of Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) in conjunction with alleged cozy ties between Kaiser-Permanente and the Nixon Administration, and the legal permissibility of for-profit healthcare. However, as for-profit health care existed prior to 1973, the Health Maintenance Organization Act clearly did not create or enable that phenomenon. The growth of employer-sponsored health insurance was instrumental to the development of the current for-profit healthcare insurance system in America, which arose largely as a result of federally mandated wage freezes that occurred during and after World War II. This progression was described in a history of American healthcare by Elisabeth Rosenthal, abridged in a Spring 2017 issue of Stanford Medicine: When the National War Labor Board froze salaries during and after World War II, companies facing severe labor shortages discovered that they could attract workers by offering health insurance instead. To encourage the trend, the federal government ruled that money paid for employees' health benefits would not be taxed. This strategy was a win-win in the short term, but in the long term has had some very negative implications. Within a decade, the model spread across the country. Three million people had signed up by 1939, and the concept had been given a name: Blue Cross Plans. The goal was not to make money, but to protect patient savings and keep hospitals—and the charitable religious groups that funded them—afloat. Blue Cross Plans were then not-for-profit. As time wore on and medical science became both more advanced and more expensive, other organizations realized the existence of a market for plans tailored to younger and healthier people, and by 1951 both Aetna and Cigna were major players in offering major medical coverage in a for-profit model. For-profit insurance companies moved in, unencumbered by the Blues' charitable mission. They accepted only younger, healthier patients on whom they could make a profit. They charged different rates, depending on factors like age, as they had long done with life insurance. They produced different types of policies for different amounts of money, which provided different levels of protection. Aetna and Cigna were both offering major medical coverage by 1951. With aggressive marketing and closer ties to business than to health care, these for-profit plans slowly gained market share through the 1970s and 1980s. It was difficult for the Blues to compete. From a market perspective, the poor Blues still had to worry about their mission of providing high-quality, affordable health care for all. In 1994, after state directors rebelled, the Blues board relented and allowed member plans to become for-profit insurers. Their primary motivation was not to charge patients more, but to gain access to the stock market to raise some quick cash to erase deficits. This was the final nail in the coffin of old-fashioned, noble-minded health insurance. It is inaccurate to say that before 1973 it was illegal in the US to profit off health care, as Aetna and Cigna had been profiting from health care for over 20 years before that. Ballooning health care costs became a serious political issue in the 1970s, and it was in this environment that the concept of HMOs grew in popularity. An HMO differed from the other insurance models in that it was a prepaid, managed plan that granted a patient access to a specifically contracted network of physicians and specialists, generally combined with some form of financing. In traditional managed care plans (e.g., Health Maintenance Organizations), the money follows the "member," whether ill or not. Although there are many definitions of managed care, generally the term describes a continuum of arrangements that integrate the financing and delivery of health care. Purchasers contract with (or "own") selected providers to deliver a defined set of services at an agreed per-capita or per-service price. The concept had existed in various forms prior to the 1970s, but during the Nixon administration, the HMO model was viewed as the solution to massive increases in government spending taken on by the federal government through the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Both liberals and conservatives supported the concept at the time, as described by Stuart Altman and David Shactman in their book Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care: Richard Nixon was concerned about health care costs. Federal spending for the Medicare and Medicaid programs had surpassed everyone's expectations. Their cost grew from 4.1 percent of the federal budget in 1961 to 11.3 percent by 1973. HMOs seemed to have everything Nixon needed. They appealed to Nixon and Republican conservatives because they were a free market approach, and they preserved the private insurance market. Moreover, they did not require large government spending as in the case of liberal, Democratic reform proposals. Differences between liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans shaped the trajectory of legislation that would become the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973, which was signed into law with bipartisan support. The act initially provided $45 million in grants and loans and $300 million in loan guarantees to spur the development of HMOs. With support from a broad coalition in Congress, President Nixon secured the passage of the HMO Act of 1973. The Act enabled individual HMOs to receive endorsement (referred to as qualification) from the federal government, and it required employers to offer coverage from at least one federally qualified HMO to all employees (dual choice). However, the dual choice requirement was never enforced, and many large HMOs, including Kaiser, never sought federal qualification. The Act did facilitate growth in HMO enrollment by helping to create several successful HMOs around the country, and it legitimized the HMO concept. Over time, the restrictions on which HMOs could receive federal endorsements were eased in a series of amendments to the act, leading to a massive increase in for-profit HMOs that medical historian Paul Starr described as the conservative appropriation of liberal reform. Paradoxically, the efforts to control expenditures for health services also stimulated corporate development. The conservative appropriation of liberal reform in the early seventies opened up HMOs as a field for business investment. In ways entirely unexpected, the regulation of hospitals and other efforts to contain costs set off a wave of acquisitions, mergers, and diversification in the nonprofit as well as profit-making sectors of the medical care industry. Pressure for efficient, business-like management of health care has also contributed to the collapse of the barriers that traditionally prevented corporate control of health services. In this light, it is fair to say that Richard Nixon's support for HMOs presaged a dramatic transition in the American healthcare system that increased for-profit health insurance enterprises, but it is not fair to say that the act itself first made for-profit health insurance legal. The primary emotional hook in the meme is the assertion that the HMO Act was a handout to Edgar Kaiser, a friend of Nixon's who donated heavily to his campaign for president. It is true that Kaiser advocated on behalf of the HMO Act to Nixon's aide John Ehrlichman, and that the concept proposed in the bill was modeled on HMO plans already offered by Kaiser. The claim that the act was a quid pro quo, however, is belied by the fact that the original 1973 act, in its final form, did not allow Kaiser's plan to be recognized. While Kaiser Permanente was in operation for many years before, it did serve as a model for the HMO Act of 1973. Paul Ellwood Jr., MD, a community physician working with the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, in 1971 found a model for his health maintenance organization vision in Kaiser Permanente. Ironically, when Nixon signed the HMO Act in 1973, it had been so diluted by the political process from Ellwood's ideas that Kaiser Permanente, a central model at the outset, did not qualify as an HMO until the act was amended four years later. Such a truth also makes the meme's claim that Kaiser was the insurance company to get the first taste of federal subsidies incorrect. Additional controversy stems from a conversation between Ehrlichman and Nixon captured in the Nixon White House tapes that makes it sound as though Nixon believed the motivation behind the act was that the less care [insurance companies] give [patients], the more money they make. Ehrlichman: Edgar Kaiser is running his Permanente deal for profit. And the reason that he can ... the reason he can do it ... I had Edgar Kaiser come in ... talk to me about this and I went into it in some depth. All the incentives are toward less medical care, because ... President Nixon: [Unclear.] Ehrlichman: ... the less care they give them, the more money they make. President Nixon: Fine. [Unclear.] Ehrlichman: [Unclear] ... and the incentives run the right way. President Nixon: Not bad. Kaiser Permanente contended that this was a crude and inarticulate paraphrase of what Edgar Kaiser was trying to explain to Ehrlichman, and that Nixon's later statements to Congress about the act made it clear what the two men were attempting to explain. The issue was that doctors needed to be incentivized to provide preventative medicine to reduce overall healthcare costs, but the rate-based, for-profit insurance model currently in play did not provide incentives for this less profitable area of healthcare, unlike HMOs. Despite Ehrlichman's miscommunication, Nixon eventually grasped the Kaiser Permanente model of integrated, preventive health care. In a communication to Congress about his Health Strategy Initiative on Feb. 18, 1971, Nixon called health maintenance an important part of a new national health strategy. He continued: If more of our resources were invested in preventing sickness and accidents, Nixon said, fewer would have to be spent on costly cures. If we gave more attention to treating illness in its early stages, then we would be less troubled by acute disease. In short, we should build a true health system—and not a sickness system alone. Under traditional systems, doctors and hospitals are paid, in effect, on a piecework basis. The more illnesses they treat, and the more service they render, the more their income rises. This does not mean, of course, that they do any less than their very best to make people well. But it does mean that there is no economic incentive for them to concentrate on keeping people healthy. All told, little factual basis supports the meme's assertion that Nixon altered the legality of for-profit insurance by signing the HMO Act of 1973, or its claims that the act was a secret method for Nixon and his cronies to enrich themselves. The only sliver of truth here is the fact that the increase in popularity of HMOs that occurred after the passage of the act (and its amendments) greatly expanded for-profit health care in America. Rosenthal, Elisabeth. "Insurance Policy: How an Industry Shifted from Protecting Patients to Seeking Profit." Stanford Medicine. Spring 2017. Sekhri, Neelam K. "Managed Care: The U.S. Experience." WHO Bulletin. 2000. Altman, Stuart and David Shactman. Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care: The Inside Story of a Century-Long Battle. Prometheus Books, 2011. ISBN 1616144564. Markovich, Martin. "The Rise of HMOs." RAND Graduate School Dissertation. 7 August 2003. Starr, Paul. The Social Transformation of American Medicine. Basic Books, 2017 (2nd edition). ISBN 0465093027. Kaiser Permanente. "Kaiser Permanente's Prominent Role in American Health Care Reform." 22 June 2007. Wikisource. "Transcript of Taped Conversation Between President Richard Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman (1971) That Led to the HMO Act of 1973." 17 February 1971. | 0 | [
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FMD1772 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did George Carlin Say This About Participation Trophies? Claim summaries: One deceitful tactic used to spread opinions is to pretend they were first offered by celebrities.
contextual information: In February 2022, a meme supposedly featuring a quote from comedian George Carlin about "participation trophies" was recirculated on social media. This is not a genuine quote from Carlin. The meme reads: "Here's an idea for you to ignore. Instead of giving kids participation trophies, teach them activities where the result is the reward. Our society has lost sight of what's truly important, and it's about damned time we found it again." We were unable to find any record of Carlin uttering this phrase. When we looked for the origins of the quote, we did not find an old stand-up routine or a passage from one of Carlin's books. Instead, we traced it back to a 2016 post by Laurie Neverman on the Common Sense Home website. Neverman wrote that she originally posted this message to her personal Facebook page in September 2015 and that since then, a number of Facebook pages have attempted to take credit for it: "I wrote the passage above back in September 2015 and posted it on my personal Facebook wall. Friends gave me so much feedback on it that I shared it on the Common Sense Home Facebook page. Then a couple of huge Facebook pages took it and put their names on it (with no credit to me, naughty folks), and it was wildly popular on their pages, too. Given all the people who seemed to approve of the concept, I decided to write a post on it." This frequently happens with misattributed quotes. A message will get posted by a relatively unknown person, and then, in an attempt to legitimize that opinion and spread that message to a wider audience, the words will be erroneously placed into the mouth of a celebrity. For example, Clint Eastwood did not say, "the problem is not guns," Jim Carrey did not call for the "media to close for 30 days," and Kurt Russell did not write a poem that opposed defunding the police. While Carlin did not say this about "participation trophies," he did express similar sentiments during a stand-up routine about how "every child is special." It's worth noting that while the culture war skirmishes over participation trophies are relatively new, participation trophies themselves are not. They have been given out since at least the 1920s. | 0 | [
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FMD1773 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is Anthony Hopkins considered one of the 'most petite men in Hollywood'? Claim summaries: We clicked the "next page" button a whopping 95 times in a slideshow article so you don't have to.
contextual information: Since at least January 2021, actor Anthony Hopkins was featured in an online advertisement about the height of Hollywood celebrity men. The ad read: "Some of the Shortest Men in Hollywood Today." Readers who clicked the online ad were led to a 95-page story on Cleverst.com. Its headline read: "These Short Male Celebrities Remind Us That Height Doesn't Matter In Hollywood." The lengthy article began with a picture of actor Dave Franco, who is purported to be 5 feet 7. We clicked "next page" 95 times until we realized we had clicked "next article" at the end. Hopkins didn't even show up in the story. Anthony Hopkins' height is listed at 5 feet 9 on various sources, including on his IMDb page. The actor is anything but "short." his IMDb page Hopkins is perhaps best known for his work in the 1991 classic, "The Silence of the Lambs." He won the best actor Oscar for playing the role of the terrifying cannibal, Hannibal Lecter. The long story of "short male celebrities" also featured a 6-feet-tall Vin Diesel, a 5 feet 10 Jason Statham, and 5 feet 9 actors Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Hardy. This was hardly a list of "some of the shortest men in Hollywood today." The Cleverst.com story appeared to be a strategy known as advertising "arbitrage." The goal was to make more money on ads that were displayed on all 95 pages than it cost to display the original Hopkins clickbait picture. The Hopkins photograph lured the readers. Readers then clicked "next page" in a search for Hopkins, who never appeared. The business and technology blog Margins defined "arbitrage" as "leveraging an inefficient set of systems to make a riskless profit, usually by buying and selling the same asset." They also called it "the mythical free lunch that economics tells us does not exist." Margins The same strategy employed for Hopkins' height was used by other advertisers in the past who placed an ad about Pierce Brosnan's net worth. The ad claimed that "Pierce Brosnan's final net worth left his family in tears." Not only was Pierce Brosnan still alive, but he also did not appear in the lengthy slideshow story that resulted. Pierce Brosnan's net worth Snopes debunks a wide range of content, and online advertisements are no exception. Misleading ads often lead to obscure websites that host lengthy slideshow articles with lots of pages. It's called advertising "arbitrage." The advertiser's goal is to make more money on ads displayed on the slideshow's pages than it cost to show the initial ad that lured them to it. Feel free to submit ads to us, and be sure to include a screenshot of the ad and the link to where the ad leads. submit ads to us | 0 | [
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FMD1774 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: BANJUL, Gambia — Yahya Jammeh, the president of Gambia, has been defeated in his bid for according to results made public on Friday. It is a stunning turn for a nation that has lived for more than two decades under what human rights groups have described as a repressive regime. Adama Barrow, a real estate company owner, was declared the winner a day after voters cast ballots, in an upset victory that astonished observers. In a concession speech broadcast on state television on Friday night, Mr. Jammeh, one of Africa’s most eccentric leaders, calmly accepted his loss. “I told you, Gambians, that I will not question the outcome of the results and will accept it,†he said. “I did not wish to contest or find out why they did not vote for me. I leave that with God. †Mr. Jammeh’s whereabouts on Friday was unknown, and speculation was rampant that he had fled the country. People celebrated in the streets, calling it a new era for the West African nation. “We have our country back,†shouted Modu Ceesay, a taxi driver who took his shirt off and waved it furiously over his head. “This is our country, and now we have it. †Mr. Jammeh’s defeat is a rare turn for the crop of longtime African leaders who have amassed so much power — and often, wealth — through decades of incumbency that they sometimes manage to stay in office until death. Other leaders for life have interfered with elections to cling to power. Mr. Jammeh had himself been accused of keeping power by rigging elections in the past. And so it came as a surprise that in this tiny sliver of a country, the smallest on continental Africa, voters managed to oust a strongman who has reigned for 22 years in a government that prosecuted and jailed critics, some of whom wound up dead, and sent thousands of fearful citizens into exile. After more than 24 hours of an internet and phone blackout, networks lit up Friday morning in the nation, which has a population just under two million, as the news that Mr. Jammeh was trailing in the vote count began to trickle out. On the streets in Gambia, men took off their shirts in celebration, pounding on passing cars. One yelled repeatedly, “Today we are free!†Mr. Jammeh seized power in a coup in 1994, and he has become known for eccentric behavior that included claiming to be able to cure AIDS with herbs, prayer and a banana. He has been denounced by human rights groups for threatening to behead gay people, ordering sorcerers to be hunted and killed, and arresting and prosecuting journalists and supporters of the opposition. “It is the birth of a new Gambia where we can together as people raise our fists to the sky and say ‘never again shall we experience dictatorship,’†said Sheriff Bojang Jr. a Gambian journalist who has lived in exile in Dakar, Senegal, for 15 years. Mr. Barrow, a real estate agent and former security guard at a London department store, is an accidental presidential candidate. He was thrust into the position after members of his party were either arrested or died in prison this year. Supporters describe him as an unassuming businessman. Yet he managed to do what no other opposition candidate has done in recent elections: bring various groups together to support him. His coalition of opposition groups jelled in the final days of the campaign as enthusiasm swept the streets of Banjul, the capital. People gathered by the hundreds for peaceful protests, crying out for the end to what they said was an oppressive government. “What happened is unity,†said Jeffrey Smith, founder of Vanguard Africa, a political consultancy and nonprofit group that supported Mr. Barrow in the campaign. “That is precisely what is needed to take down highly entrenched regimes. †But analysts said the victory might be more a vote against Mr. Jammeh than one for Mr. Barrow. In past months, Mr. Jammeh’s administration had come under increasing scrutiny by Western leaders over the suppression of human rights. The European Union threatened to impose sanctions on the government, and the United States issued statements highly critical of Mr. Jammeh’s crackdowns on opponents. Organizations like Amnesty International released stinging reports on his methods. In recent years, democracy has had mixed results on the continent. Late last year, Ivory Coast had its first peaceful election in two decades. In Nigeria, the dominant party lost elections last year and conceded to Muhammadu Buhari, who is now president, in a peaceful transfer of power that reverberated across Africa. And in some nations, presidents who have tried to hold on to power have been ousted by popular uprisings. The government of Blaise Compaoré in Burkina Faso was toppled in 2014 after mass protests against his attempts to change the Constitution and to extend his tenure after he had been in office for 27 years. But elsewhere, other leaders are hanging on to power, like in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where President Joseph Kabila’s term is almost up and it is unclear when an election will take place. This year, Gabon was widely accused of verifying fraudulent election results that kept President Ali Bongo Ondimba in power. And some nations on the continent still maintain presidents for life. In Cameroon, Paul Biya has been in power since 1982. Mr. Biya has been criticized for spending weeks at a time in Europe, with some critics calling him the president of the Hotel Intercontinental in Geneva. This summer, a Cameroonian citizen stood outside the hotel with a loudspeaker shouting insults at the president. The message from elections across not just Africa but the globe is muddled. Winners are those who can unite various forces that in the past have pursued their own, separate interests and split the vote, said Kamissa Camara, a political expert and founder of the Sahel Strategy Forum, a research group that analyzes events in West and Central Africa. “In general, politics has become so unpredictable,†she said. “Outcomes such as the one we’re seeing today in Gambia will definitely send the signal that elections are not for nothing. †In his concession call to Mr. Barrow, Mr. Jammeh admonished him to “work towards peace and stability. †“Because without peace and stability, let me make it clear, you cannot achieve anything in Africa,†he said. | 1 | [
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FMD1775 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Will banks be required to disclose all transactions exceeding $600 to the IRS as outlined in President Biden's proposal? Claim summaries: The American Families Plan has a reporting requirement for banks that has infuriated some.
contextual information: Announced in April 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden's American Families Plan is an ambitious proposal that aims to expand Americans' access to childcare and education and increase the number of women in the workforce. The plan intends to fund all of this through higher taxes on income earners and increased reporting requirements for banks that could potentially yield more tax revenue. These reporting requirements have drawn the ire of several banks that took issue with this less widely known section of the plan. A Facebook post by FNB Community Bank claimed: "The Biden administration has proposed requiring all community banks and other financial institutions to report to the IRS on all deposits and withdrawals through business and personal accounts worth more than $600, regardless of tax liability. This indiscriminate, comprehensive bank account reporting to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) could soon be enacted in Congress and will create an unacceptable invasion of privacy for our customers." Another screenshot shared by our readers expressed similar concerns: "The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) even began a campaign, calling on communities to send a letter to Biden to prevent this so-called intrusive proposal: 'Tell Congress: Don't Let IRS Invade My Privacy.' The Biden administration is proposing requiring financial institutions to report to the IRS all transactions of all business and personal accounts worth more than $600. This is an unprecedented invasion of privacy. In order to oppose this intrusive proposal, please send this letter to your representative and senators immediately." We looked up the proposal itself, and it does require more robust reporting of transactions across business and personal accounts. The proposal, which aims to go into effect after December 31, 2022, states: "This proposal would create a comprehensive financial account information reporting regime. Financial institutions would report data on financial accounts in an information return. The annual return will report gross inflows and outflows with a breakdown for physical cash, transactions with a foreign account, and transfers to and from another account with the same owner." This requirement would apply to all business and personal accounts from financial institutions, including bank, loan, and investment accounts, with the exception of accounts below a low de minimis gross flow threshold of $600 or fair market value of $600. We begin by explaining some of the more technical terms in this proposal. A "de minimis threshold" is broadly defined as the amount of a transaction that has such a small value that accounting for it would be unreasonable. We spoke to Visiting Assistant Professor of Tax Law at New York University, Nyamagaga Gondwe, who explained, "It is the amount below which the IRS would argue isn't worth investigating. It's the difference between your company giving you a $5 card to Subway versus traveling on a private jet on your company's dime. The latter is worth reporting." In this case, "gross flow" refers to the aggregate inflows and outflows of cash from bank accounts. In sum, the current proposal stipulates that an aggregate amount of less than $600 worth of cash flowing into and out of accounts is not worth reporting. The "fair market value" refers to the amount people are willing to pay for an asset in the open market. In this case, Gondwe argued, the use of the term could possibly refer to the changing market value of transactions exceeding $600 that may occur in foreign currency transactions. The ICBA claims that the proposal will make banks report "all transactions" above the limit, but this is misleading. While it is true that the IRS will have more information on cash flows above $600, that doesn't mean they will have all the information pertaining to all transactions. The Center for American Progress (CAP) points out that banks will only be providing aggregate numbers to the IRS after each year—gross inflow and gross outflow—and not individualized transaction information. This reporting requirement would also extend to peer-to-peer payment services like Venmo but wouldn't require people to report any additional information to the government. According to The Wall Street Journal, financial institutions must already report interest, dividends, and investment incomes to the IRS, and the IRS can obtain other information through audits. According to Marie Sapirie of Tax Notes, a publication focused on tax news, a parenthetical to the proposal indicates that there is some flexibility in raising the minimum account balance/inflow/outflow above $600. The Tax Notes report also states that the Treasury Department estimated this form of reporting would raise $463 billion over the 10-year budget window, making it the third-largest revenue raiser proposed in the budget. The aim is to target businesses outside of large corporations that carry out gross underreporting of their income, amounting to $166 billion per year. According to the proposal: "Requiring comprehensive information reporting on the inflows and outflows of financial accounts will increase the visibility of gross receipts and deductible expenses to the IRS. Increased visibility of business income will enhance the effectiveness of IRS enforcement measures and encourage voluntary compliance." Banks claim this would be an invasion of consumer privacy, with the ICBA saying it would allow the government to monitor account information. However, CAP analysts Seth Hanlon and Galen Hendricks argue, "Only the prior year's total inflow and total outflow would be reported on annual forms. No one would say that the IRS monitors you on your job because it receives a W-2 from your employer with your total wages every January." Another challenge not mentioned in the ICBA's consumer alert is the higher costs this reporting proposal may impose on banks. In May 2021, a coalition of banking associations wrote a letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, arguing that they already provide a lot of data to the IRS and that this would impose additional costs on their systems. The costs and other burdens imposed to collect and report account flow information would surpass the potential benefits from such a reporting scheme. New reporting would appear to require material development costs and process additions for financial institutions, as well as significant reconciliation and compliance burdens on impacted taxpayers. For example, reporting total gross receipts and disbursements would require a new reporting paradigm for depository institutions, necessitating system changes to collect the information. On the flipside, Sapirie wrote for Tax Notes, the benefits of such a reporting proposal may be difficult to realize: "Increasing the amount of information flowing into the IRS would not in itself lead to increased enforcement, and it might come with added challenges." Former IRS Commissioner Charles O. Rossotti acknowledged that the IRS today cannot use all the information it already receives, and significant areas of noncompliance are barely addressed, so more reporting alone will not solve the problem. It would almost certainly have a deterrent effect for taxpayers contemplating evasion, but the extent of that effect is unclear, and it might be insufficient to justify the costs to financial institutions and the federal government of implementing such a large new reporting regime. But CAP's analysis argues that this will help prevent tax evasion while also providing more funding to enhance data security for consumers. Additional funding would go to enhancing data security. Even at present, the IRS's data security is already much better than that of the financial industry, with only very rare and limited breaches compared to the exponentially larger data breaches from financial institutions. Second, the reporting of information flows only from financial institutions to the IRS and not in the other direction, as some earlier proposals had called for. The Biden administration's bank reporting proposal is a critical element of the Build Back Better agenda. It gives the IRS some visibility into opaque forms of income that disproportionately accrue to high-income individuals. Despite fearmongering from bank lobbies, the proposal protects taxpayers' privacy while simply requiring banks to provide basic, aggregated information about flows. That enables the IRS to select audits in a more efficient and equitable way so that the vast majority of taxpayers will be less likely to be audited. By deterring and helping catch tax cheats, the proposal raises substantial revenue for the Build Back Better agenda, which provides critical investments to increase economic opportunities for American families and communities. On October 12, 2021, Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended the proposal in response to a question from a reporter, who said, "[Banks] are concerned about the tracking of transactions that are greater than $600; Americans are starting to get worried about this. Do you think [this] is going to stay in the Reconciliation Bill?" "With all due respect, the plural of anecdote is not data," Pelosi said. "Yes, there are concerns that some people have. But if people are breaking the law and not paying their taxes, one way to track them is through the banking measure. I think $600—that's a negotiation that will go on as to what the amount is. But yes." Whatever the impact of this proposal is, it does require additional reporting of certain bank transactions, just not in the way the banks are portraying it. | 2 | [
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FMD1776 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Was taxpayer money used by Fauci for experiments on beagles that were described as cruel and unnecessary? Claim summaries: Allocated government funds for the experiments reportedly totaled more than $1.8 million.
contextual information: Throughout the latter half of 2021, the taxpayer watchdog group White Coat Waste Project (WCW) released announcements that it had exposed several government-funded, cruel and unusual research projects that tested potential vaccines and drug therapeutics on beagles, which collectively cost taxpayers millions of dollars. In all cases, WCW pointed blame at Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), whom the group posited as having given the final approval to fund the projects. Snopes readers asked our team to focus our investigation on three of the studies in question, which included research conducted at the University of Georgia Research Foundation (UGR), the nonprofit research institute SRI International, and by scientists in Tunisia. The allegations began in July 2021 when the Republican-led animal rights advocacy group published a report that claimed Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID, approved funding from taxpayer dollars to conduct painful experiments on beagles. WCW claimed in its July 30 report that Fauci, in an attempt to advance a human vaccine for a parasitic disease called lymphatic filariasis, spent $424,000 to commission a study in which healthy beagles were given an experimental drug and then intentionally infested with flies that carry a disease-causing parasite that affects humans. The findings of the WCW investigation were subsequently reported in publications like Fox News and conservative-leaning outlets such as RT, The Federalist, The Daily Caller, and The Patriot Project. In October 2021, Republican U.S. House Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina tweeted a letter she sent to Dr. Anthony Fauci, referencing documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request from WCW. WCW claimed that from October 2018 to February 2019, Fauci ordered cruel and unusual drug toxicity tests on dogs that cost taxpayers $1.68 million. In a third report, WCW claimed that NIAID funded more than $375,000 to conduct a study that again used beagles as test subjects in experiments involving sand flies that the organization described as "torture." Snopes contacted WCW and obtained copies of documents reportedly obtained via separate Freedom of Information Act requests submitted by the organization. Claims of Fauci funding the torture of dogs circulated and recirculated in Fall 2021 and are largely based on two studies funded by the NIAID that did, indeed, involve using beagles as test subjects. We break those claims down below, but first, a closer look at the organization behind the reports. Founded in 2013, WCW is a watchdog group that self-describes as representing more than 2 million liberty lovers and animal lovers who oppose using taxpayer dollars to support experiments on animals. It is not a traditional animal advocacy group but instead devotes its efforts to denouncing what it characterizes as wasted government funds spent on testing. In 2016, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) reported that the Washington, D.C.-based organization is the brainchild of former Republican strategist Anthony Bellotti. His opposition to animal research began in 1995 when, in the summer between high school and college, he worked in a hospital laboratory that was conducting heart studies on pigs and witnessed experiments he saw as cruel. After he became a political consultant, he hit upon the idea of framing such research as a waste of taxpayer money, wrote AAAS. Following the UGR investigation into the lymphatic filariasis studies, a spokesperson for WCW told Snopes that in August 2021, the watchdog group also requested documents related to toxicity testing on beagles commissioned by NIAID. Snopes read through the file to verify the claims made in the WCW report specific to NIH contract number HHSN272201400006I, which was described in a government database as preclinical development services for AIDS therapeutics with SRI International, a California-based nonprofit scientific research institute. According to the government fiduciary site USA Spending, a $1.1 million grant was awarded to the organization by DHHS on behalf of the NIAID. The study was listed to begin on July 15, 2020, and wrap up by December 24, 2021, and included testing on small animals for therapeutics to treat HIV as well as Hepatitis B and C viruses. The request returned 1,438 pages of documents describing wasteful and unnecessary drug toxicity tests on beagle puppies, a WCW spokesperson told Snopes. The documents are hosted on our site at the link below. The records outlined several studies involving both rats and beagles. The documents outline both the proposed study design as well as the actual results of the study, the latter of which resulted in 40 beagles between the ages of 8 and 9 months being administered oral and subcutaneous (under the skin) doses of an unnamed HIV therapeutic between September 2018 and October 2019. It is true that all dogs were euthanized following the study and their organs were analyzed for potential toxicity from the drugs. It is also true that the dogs' vocal cords were cut out. In a statement emailed to MedPage Today, NIAID told the publication that the contract for "preclinical pharmacology and toxicology services" was conducted "as required in animal models by the FDA, in compliance with Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) guidelines and in a facility accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) or its equivalent." "Vocal cordectomies, conducted humanely under anesthesia, may be used in research facilities where numerous dogs are present," the statement said. "This is to reduce noise, which is not only stressful to the animals but can also reach decibel levels that exceed OSHA allowable limits for people and can lead to hearing loss." The housing and care of the beagles at the time of the study was in accordance with the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, while welfare requirements were met in accordance with regulations established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Animal Welfare Act. Every effort will be made to minimize, if not eliminate, pain and suffering in all animals in this study. Moribund animals and animals experiencing undue pain and suffering will be euthanized at the discretion of the Study Director, attending veterinarian, or other qualified person. The Study Director will make every effort to protect the scientific validity of the study, read the document. While at least some of the funding was provided by NIAID, it is still unclear whether Fauci personally signed off on approving the research. Claims of Fauci ordering the funding of therapeutic testing on beagles originated with a 38-page FOIA request submitted by WCW and shared publicly in July. Those are hosted in this Dropbox folder and have been archived on our site: Snopes read through the document, and our analysis confirmed that obligated funds were issued to the UGR by the NIH in the amount of $424,555 to determine the efficacy of a potential vaccine for lymphatic filariasis on beagle test subjects. A contract shared online by the U.S. government defined the research as: "PRE-CLINICAL MODELS OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES; TASK C12 LYMPHATIC FILARIASIS VACCINE (LFGUARD) EFFICACY TRIAL IN DOGS." Research conducted on behalf of NIAID is funded in large part through annual funds allocated by Congress and the president, though direct projects may be signed off on by various leaders within NIH. However, there is no evidence that the grant was personally approved by Fauci, and there is no mention of him in the FOIA documentation. All that we can definitively say is that at least some of the money came from NIH. Neither the NIH nor UGR responded to Snopes requests to verify the documents published by WCW, but a spokesperson for WCW sent our team a letter, written by NIAID Government Information Specialist Lauren Bartok in response to the FOIA request under case number 55876. The letter referenced the experimental documents obtained by WCW, confirming that the experiments took place. As with the first study, personal and proprietary information had been removed from the document, including the name of the vaccine and experiment objectives. The files did note that the contractor (UGR) was to acquire healthy, adult beagle dogs to administer different formulations [presumably of vaccine] to dogs via the intramuscular route. Each set of experiments will use 14 dogs, which total 28 dogs at the completion of the study (7 dogs in each group), read the statement of work. Studies began in mid-November 2020, at which point the pathogen-free adult beagle dogs were scheduled to receive a total of three doses on days 0, 28, and 56. Throughout the study, researchers were instructed to monitor the dogs' health twice daily and collect blood and urine samples. A first dose of the vaccine was administered on November 12, with a second round given on December 17 without incident, with one important exception. That exception was four dogs in the so-named blue group reported as having vocalized in pain upon administration. After a physical examination five days later, the four dogs were observed as being bright, alert, and responsive. A third and final round was administered on January 14, 2021, also without incident but with one important exception. Half of the animals in the blue group again vocalized in pain upon administration. A week later, they were once again deemed bright, alert, and responsive. Emails sent between the researchers were included in the FOIA documents and confirmed that only the blue group showed a consistent pain response. The research is scheduled to be completed by January 15, 2022, and all animals will be euthanized after day 196, read the FOIA document. The UGR contract noted the vaccine was for lymphatic filariasis, a mosquito-borne parasitic infection caused by microscopic, thread-like worms. When inside their human hosts, these filarial worms live in the human lymph system and can cause elephantiasis and, in men, a condition called hydrocele that causes the swelling of the scrotum, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Lymphatic filariasis affects an estimated 120 million people worldwide, with another 1.2 billion at risk of infection, wrote researchers in 2014. Currently, there is no vaccine available for human cases, though treatment typically consists of chemotherapy and multiple drug therapies. But as the White Coat Project reported, vaccines for the disease have been tested in mice and were shown to be 90% effective and macaques (70% effective). In fact, at least 27 related animal experiments have been conducted since the 1940s on filarial worms. While WCW deemed the experiments "cruel and unnecessary" and claimed that some of the dogs were "bitten to death," the NIH contends that all research involving animals is overseen by the agency's Office of Laboratory Welfare to ensure it is conducted ethically. All animals used in NIH-funded research are protected by laws, regulations, and policies that ensure the smallest number of subjects and the greatest commitment to their welfare, notes the agency on its website. Furthermore, no evidence was put forward showing that the dogs were subject to biting, let alone "bitten to death." If any such information was included in the FOIA document, it has since been redacted. In an interview with Newsweek, Greg Trevor, associate vice president for marketing and communications at UGR, confirmed that the research was for a potential vaccine that was developed at another institution. In an emailed statement, Trevor reportedly told the publication that under federal rules, a vaccine must be tested in two animal species before it can be cleared for human clinical trials. NIAID decided to fund this research and that it needed to be conducted on a dog model, of which beagles are the standard. "Because this disease currently has no cure, unfortunately, the animals that are part of this trial must be euthanized. We do not take lightly the decision to use such animals in some of our research," Trevor reportedly told the publication. The third study took place in Tunisia and analyzed whether a species of sand fly (Phlebotomus perniciosus) was noticeably attracted to beagles infected with Leishmania infantum, the parasite that causes the skin disease leishmaniasis. Sand flies are the main vector of L. infantum, and dogs are the main host and reservoir of the disease. Though the research took place, NIAID did not fund the study, and the journal that published the study, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, issued a correction after reporting that the federal agency did support the study. The manuscript mistakenly cited support from NIAID when, in fact, NIAID did not support this specific research shown in the images of the beagles being circulated, NIAID told Politifact. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases confirmed to MedPage Today that the mistake was made and posted a correction online, adding that NIAID did not provide any funding for this research and any such claim was made in error. Research conducted on behalf of NIAID is funded in large part through congressional and executive actions deciding how to allocate taxpayer dollars. These annual allocations are then signed off on by the sitting president. NIAID funding for the fiscal year 2021 was awarded $5.4 billion by then-U.S. President Donald Trump in 2020. The following year, President Joe Biden requested an increase of $178.9 million, or 2.9% compared with the fiscal year 2021 enacted level, for a total of $6.2 billion to be awarded in the fiscal year 2022. It is true that research conducted at UGR and SRI International was at least in part funded by NIAID with taxpayer dollars, though it is unclear whether such allocations were personally approved by Fauci. | 2 | [
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FMD1777 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: California Governor Jerry Brown announced on Tuesday that state lawmakers had reached an agreement about the state’s 2017-2018 budget. Both houses of the state legislature will likely vote on the new budget on Thursday, the constitutional deadline for lawmakers to adopt a budget bill. California’s Department of Finance had not totaled the final budget numbers as of Tuesday morning, according to department spokesperson H.D. Palmer. The budget adds $1.8 billion to the state’s rainy day fund, expands access to California’s Earned Income Tax Credit and boosts funding for schools and infrastructure repairs, according to the governor’s office. It also sends more money to the nation’s largest public pension fund, California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), to help reduce the fund’s unfunded liability. “This budget keeps California on a sound fiscal path and continues to support struggling families and make investments in our schools,â€Â Brown said in a statement on Tuesday. “This budget makes historic investments in healthcare, education, and childcare, and lays down a multi-billion dollar investment to start fixing our roads and infrastructure,â€Â said Senate President pro tem Kevin de León. Brown proposed a state budget in January for the new fiscal year and revised his budget up 2.2 percent to $183.4 billion in May. | 1 | [
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FMD1778 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A transgender student at UC Berkeley has penned an open letter to Breitbart’s MILO declaring that when he arrives to give a talk at the university, protesters will be “waiting here to strip you of your gay identity. â€[Neil Lawrence, a female to male transgender student, opens her column for The Daily Californian by saying that she “ought to sue†MILO for “misleading the public,†saying that the “world is full of very dangerous faggots, but you are not one of them. †Lawrence adds that although she suffers from “terrible period cramps,†she’s a “bigger fag than you’ll ever be,†adding that she is “probably a better top than you. †“I’ve hated you for a long time — being compared to you by some commenter on my column sent me into a rage for several hours — but the stunt you pulled against that young woman in Milwaukee was the last fucking straw,†she continues. The stunt in question was when MILO called out a transgender student who had been forcing his way into men’s bathrooms under the guise of being a woman at UC Milwaukee. The student later left the university. “When you get here on Feb. 1, we will be waiting here to strip you of your gay identity. You can have sex with all the men you want, but you’re not gay anymore. You’ve used your sexual orientation as an excuse to spit bile and galvanize cowards for long enough. Put your badge and gun on my desk. The community rejects you. You have never been one of us,†Lawrence said. “You never should have booked this UC tour, Milo. But you want to come to my town? I say, welcome to Berkeley, motherfucker. I’m the meanest gay on this coast. I was assigned to raise hell at birth. You come through me,†she continued. Technology entrepreneur Peter Thiel, who endorsed Donald Trump’s candidacy, also had his event cut short whilst delivering a keynote at UC Berkeley, as protestors stormed the venue. LGBT activists have also claimed that Thiel, who is openly gay, cannot be a real homosexual due to his support for Trump. MILO’s visit to UC Berkeley will take place Wednesday, February 1. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 1 | [
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FMD1779 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: What Republicans call the death tax is the estate tax on the ultra wealthy which, in 2016, was paid by only two out of every 1,000 people.
contextual information: Ripping thesweeping tax reformspushed by PresidentDonald Trumpand other leading Republicans, U.S. Rep.Mark Pocan, D-Madison, singled out the provision to eliminate the death tax. In an Oct. 18, 2017, appearanceon a talk showon Janesvilles WCLO radio, Pocan said: They (Republicans) go about getting rid of the estate tax -- which, to me, is the one that I wish more people would really understand. Theyve done a good of marketing it as a death tax -- you die and you get taxed. But the reality is, its a tax on the ultra-wealthy that the vast majority of people will never, ever, ever see in their life. Last year, two out of every 1,000 people paid an estate tax. So its not like a common tax thats out there. With the overall reform gaining momentum froma Senate votethe day after Pocans claim, anda House votea week later, lets see if his statistic is correct. Aimed at the rich? Thereisdebate about how the rich are treated by the reform proposal, which at this stage is considered only a framework, since it lacks details. Weverated as Mostly Falsea claim by House SpeakerPaul Ryan, a Janesville Republican who represents the congressional district that borders Pocans. Ryan said the framework, which he supports, is focused on tax breaks for the middle class and not about people who are really high-income earners getting a tax break. The framework does offer some benefits for the middle class, but whats more clear is there are specific provisions benefiting the wealthy. As for what is conventionally known as the estate tax, theTrump administration usesthe term death tax (asdo Ryanandother Republicans) in promoting how the framework would repeal the tax. Trump himself claimed ending the tax would protect millions of small businesses and the American farmer. But PolitiFact Nationalsrating was Pants on Fire: Only 5,460 estates even pay the tax each year, with only 80 being small businesses or farms. Pocans figure The Internal Revenue Service tells usthe estate tax is a tax on your right to transfer property at your death. It consists of an accounting of everything you own or have certain interests in at the date of death -- including cash and securities, real estate, insurance, trusts, business interests and other assets. In 2016, the year cited in Pocans claim, an unmarried individuals estate was potentially taxable only if the estates value exceeded $5.45 million. (The value had to exceed $10.9 million to be taxable, if there was a surviving spouse.) After deductions, such estates generally are taxed at40 percent. IRS figures showthere were 12,411 estate tax returns filed in 2016 -- but a tax was owed on only 5,219 of them. That smaller figure aligns with what PolitiFact National found. And the non-profit Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Centermakes a similar estimatefor 2017: 5,460 estates owing a tax.) In 2016, those 5,219 estates paid a total estate tax of$18.3 billion. Since annual estate tax filings include deaths that occur in previous years, the Tax Policy Center says that each year, there are roughly 5,000 estates that pay the federal estate tax out of roughly 2.6 million deaths each year. That comes to 2 of every 1,000. Point of view on the tax While he doesnt dispute the statistics,Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, told us there are other points to consider regarding the estate tax, saying: The estate tax affects far more people than the relatively small number who pay. Many people who own businesses and/or investments have to spend a lot of time and money on lawyers/accountants planning to avoid it. A substantial portion of the life insurance industry exists only to avoid the estate tax. And, indeed, that is an important criticism: it is one of the most inefficient taxes in the sense that the ratio of paperwork/avoidance to tax collections is very high . The estate tax is anti-saving and anti-investment. It encourages wealthy folks to consume their wealth before death because, if the rate is high, they dont want the government to grab it. For the rest of us, it would be better if wealthy people kept their money invested in the economy, because that spurs growth. Its better for us if the wealthy hold large pools of savings rather than going out and buying expensive cars and yachts. A high estate tax rate encourages them to go out and buy expensive cars and yachts, which does nothing for long term economic growth. Our rating Pocan says that what Republicans call the death tax is the estate tax on the ultra wealthy which, in 2016, was paid by only two out of every 1,000 people. Republicans who are proposing to eliminate the estate tax do use the death tax term. In 2016, the tax, generally 40 percent, applied only to estates worth $5.45 million or more. After deductions, the tax was paid by only about two out of every 1,000 people who died. We rate the statement True. | 1 | [
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FMD1780 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did Stalin claim that 'America resembles a robust body possessing triple resistance'? Claim summaries: Despite how frequently these words are shared in his name, there appears to be no record of Josef Stalin writing or uttering them.
contextual information: One of the forms of political expression that frequently arrives in our inbox for verification is the "evil plan" warning, items which present the notion that some malevolent entity (ranging from Communists to Satan himself) not only expressed an intent to destroy our society from within, but outlined a specific plan for doing so. A quote attributed to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin that a reader emailed us in November 2011 exemplifies the genre: Soviet dictator Josef Stalin "America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within." The specifics of these plans (no matter how long ago they may supposedly have been formulated) generally relate to current events, and the political purpose of circulating them is to make readers aware that trends which threaten the health of our society are currently in place (i.e., "This is EXACTLY what is happening now!"), and to warn them that we must be vigilant about holding our course and stopping or reversing the encroachment of these socially unhealthful trends. This form has been expressed in such widely circulated items as Paul Harvey's "If I Were the Devil" essay, an (apocryphal) quotation by Karl Marx about the perils of consumer debt, and an (also apocryphal) warning from Abraham Lincoln about the accumulation of vast wealth in the hands of a few. If I Were the Devil Karl Marx Abraham Lincoln The putative quotation from Stalin referenced above is another item of this genre, one which presents the concept that Communist enemies of the U.S. viewed patriotism, morality, and spirituality as America's greatest assets and cannily plotted that the U.S. could be made to collapse from within if these values were sufficiently undermined (and which, of course, serves as an admonition to American readers to be attentive in maintaining these values). Whatever level of truth one might find in this sentiment, however, it's highly unlikely that Stalin ever spoke these words. Proving a negative is often an uncertain proposition, but our reasons for believing this quotation to be of dubious origin are: Josef Stalin Internet Archive Stalin documents letter Cummings, Jeanne. "Gingrich Out to Save America."The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 16 January 1994 (p. G1). "Readers Respond to 'The Day After'."Lawrence Journal-World. 23 November 1983 (p. 9). Stalin Internet Archive. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/subject/index.htm. Accessed 15 Sept. 2022. Stalin, Joseph, 1879-1953 | The Online Books Page. https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Stalin%2c%20Joseph%2c%201879-1953. Accessed 15 Sept. 2022. Updated [Sept.15, 2022]: Sources and links refreshed. | 0 | [
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FMD1781 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: You just can t make this stuff up! does anyone else see the HUGE irony in this?A Marxist student group at Swarthmore College disbanded itself earlier this year after realizing that its members were too rich and too white to be real commies.According to screenshots confidentially provided to Campus Reform by an individual with access to the group s private Facebook page, the demise of the Swarthmore Anti-Capitalist Collective (SACC) came in the wake of a farewell letter from a member who had decided the group could never be an effective proponent of unproblematized anticapitalist politics due to its history of abuse, racism, and even classism. From my understanding SACC disbanded because they realized the makeup and tactics of their group was at odds with their espoused principles, Swarthmore Conservative Society President Gilbert Guerra told Campus Reform. Their main support base was middle-upper class white kids who enjoy jogging. The farewell letter corroborates Guerra s understanding, asserting that SACC s fundamental failure was that at its formation, it was made up of entirely white, with the exception of one person of color*, students, and to make matters worse, not one of [the founding members] are from low-income and/or working class backgrounds. Arguing that low-income people of color should never be an afterthought in a group whose politics supposedly focus on their liberation, the author then went on to accuse SACC of having a history of abuse, racism, and even classism that was never adequately addressed or recognized despite constantly being brought up as an issue. Via: CR | 0 | [
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FMD1782 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: After Hillary Clinton made the argument that Donald Trump s hateful rants against Muslims were fueling Islamic terrorism recruitment during a recent debate, Republicans and the Fox News crowd last their minds accusing her of lying. Where were these videos? They demanded. A reporter just found one.While ISIS s campaign of terror in the Middle East gets most of the headlines, an equally horrific group is operating out of Africa. Al-Shabab, linked to al-Qaeda, has been responsible for a number of massacres, terror attacks, and other human rights atrocities, primarily in Somalia and Kenya. Recently, the group s numbers and influence has dwindled after sustained opposition from a coalition of African governments. They are clearly desperate so they are reportedly turning to the powerful recruitment tool known as Donald Trump.Harun Maruf, a journalist working with Voice of America, has been closely following Al-Shabab and its recruitment strategies. On January 1, he came across a new video that features you guessed it Trump s recent call for a total Muslim ban. BREAKING: Al-Shabab issued a new video propaganda video targeting African Americans and US Muslims. #Somalia Harun Maruf (@HarunMaruf) January 1, 2016BREAKING: Donald Trump's recent speech calling for "total Muslim ban" is on Al-Shabab recruitment video. #Somalia Harun Maruf (@HarunMaruf) January 1, 2016The video itself features an English speaking narrator telling young Muslims that America is a racist nation. A clip of what appears to be an ISIS spokesman explains that Jim Crow laws targeting African Americans have morphed into religious discrimination, then cuts to Donald Trump calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. 3) New #Shabaab vid shows #Trump proposing Muslim travel ban & Awlaki predicting bigotry & "concentration camps" pic.twitter.com/2KMpzYf3ui Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) January 1, 2016It s easy to see why Trump s hateful remarks would be attractive to terrorist recruiters. For years, terrorism experts have warned that radical extremists rely on propaganda and fear-mongering about the West to get desperate people to join up with violent causes. The idea is to paint America as hostile to Muslims and therefore a natural enemy to Muslims around the world. If America hates Muslims, then lashing out against it is a natural conclusion, or so the thinking goes.Trump, with all of his small minded bigotry, is a boon for this propaganda. After all, just playing a clip of him spouting off hatred is enough to prove to many that Americans do hate Muslims. Nobody knows that better than the terrorists themselves.While Republicans took potshots at Hillary over her calling this spade a spade, her comments hold up remarkably well under scrutiny. Even before she set off a firestorm of conservative outrage during her debate appearance, she was unflinchingly calling out Republican Islamophobia. On December 8, she went so far as to release a statement warning all Republican candidates, not just Trump, to stop the hate.This kind of rhetoric sets us back in the fight against radical jihadists a fight we absolutely have to win, against a brutal, nihilistic enemy who twists Islam to justify mass murder. These jihadists cannot be contained; they have to be defeated. And the vast majority of Muslims here and abroad are on our side in this fight. Many are helping prevent radicalization, including here at home. So why would anyone suggest that they re the enemy? How does that help us? Radical jihadists are telling people that the United States hates Muslims and there s Donald Trump on TV screaming about how he s going to keep all Muslims out. He s strengthening the terrorists argument.A desperate, losing terror group like Al-Shabab is staking their future on Trump. That should say it all.Feature image via YouTube | 0 | [
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FMD1783 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Confronting China By John Pilger
TJC: Please tell us about your new film, The Coming War on China .
JP: The Coming War on China is my 60th film and perhaps one of the most urgent. It continues the theme of illuminating the imposition of great power behind a facade of propaganda as news. In 2011, President Obama announced a pivot to Asia of US forces: almost two-thirds of American naval power would be transferred to Asia and the Pacific by 2020.
The undeclared rationale for this was the threat from China, by some measure now the greatest economic power. The Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, says US policy is to confront those who see Americas dominance and want to take that away from us.
The film examines power in both countries and how nuclear weapons, in American eyes, are the bedrock of its dominance. In its first chapter, the film reveals how most of the population of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific were unwittingly made into nuclear guinea pigs in a programme whose secrets and astonishing archive are related to the presence of a missile base now targeting China. The Coming War on China will be released in cinemas in the UK on December 1st and broadcast on ITV (in the UK) on December 6th.
TJC: How do you assess Australias role in Americas Pivot to Asia?
JP: Australia is virtually the 51st state of the US. Although China is Australias biggest trader, on which much of the national economy relies, confronting China is the diktat from Washington. The Australian political establishment, especially the military and intelligence agencies, are fully integrated into what is known as the alliance, along with the dominant Murdoch media. I often feel a certain sadness about the way my own country with all its resources and opportunities seems locked into such an unnecessary, dangerous obsequious role in the world. If the pivot proceeds, Australia could find itself fighting, yet again, a great powers war.
TJC: With regards to the British and American media, how can the US get away with selling China as a threat when it is encircling China?
JP: Thats a question that goes to the heart of modern-day propaganda. China is encircled by a noose of some 400 US bases, yet the news has ignored this while concentrating on the threat of China building airstrips on disputed islets in the South China Sea, clearly as a defence to a US Navy blockade.
TJC: Obamas visit to Japan, and particularly to Hiroshima, was a really cynical act. What was your impression of Japan and the political situation there?
JP: Japan is an American colony in all but name certainly in terms of its relationship with the rest of the world and especially China. The historian Bruce Cumings explores this in an interview in the film. Within the constraints of American dominance, indeed undeterred by Washington, Japans current prime minister Shinzo Abe has developed an extreme nationalist position, in which contrition for Japanese actions in the Second World War is anathema and the post-war peace constitution is likely to be changed.
Abe has gone as far as boasting that Japan will use nuclear weapons if it wants. In any US conflict with China, Japan which last year announced its biggest ever defence budget would play a critical role. There are 32 US military installations on the Japanese island of Okinawa, facing China. However, there is a sense in modern Asia that power in the world has indeed moved east and peaceful Asian solutions to regional animosities are possible.
TJC: Do you think the new trade and investment deals like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and especially the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) will affect Chinas business operations?
JP: Its difficult to say, but I doubt it. What is remarkable about the rise of China is the way it has built, almost in the blink of an eye, a trade, investment and banking structure that rivals that of the Bretton Woods institutions. Unknown to many of us, China is developing its New Silk Road to Europe at an astonishing pace. Chinas response to threats from Washington is a diplomacy thats tied to this development, and which includes a burgeoning alliance with Russia.
T.J. Coles is the author of Britains Secret Wars (2016, Clairview Books). PIPR Š 2016 | 0 | [
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FMD1784 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Are the majority of cruise ships registered under foreign flags? Claim summaries: The economic strain of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted some to point fingers at companies perceived to be skirting the rules.
contextual information: Snopes is still fighting an infodemic of rumors and misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, and you can help. Find out what we've learned and how to inoculate yourself against COVID-19 misinformation. Read the latest fact checks about the vaccines. Submit any questionable rumors and advice you encounter. Become a Founding Member to help us hire more fact-checkers. And please, follow the CDC or WHO for guidance on protecting your community from the disease.
As the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to shut down businesses across America in March 2020, the U.S. government faced the difficult task of deciding which industries should receive economic assistance to stay afloat. Public sentiment in some quarters was strongly against government bailouts for businesses such as airlines and cruise companies, on the grounds that many major operators had spent billions of dollars in profits buying back their own stock rather than paying down their debts. In USA Today, John M. Griffin and James M. Griffin wrote: "Start with the airlines. Rather than using their profits from the past five years to pay off debts and save for a rainy day, the big four—American, United, Delta, and Southwest—grew their combined liabilities to $166 billion, all while spending $39 billion on share repurchases." That amount, which is only from the big four, is almost 80% of what they are now asking for from U.S. taxpayers. Similarly, the three largest cruise companies—Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean—have liabilities of $47.5 billion and engaged in share repurchases of $8 billion. Had these companies paid down their liabilities instead of using stock repurchases to inflate their stock prices, they would have been far better prepared to weather this emergency. Of course, higher share prices made their stock options more valuable, allowing top airline executives to pay themselves $666 million in compensation over the five-year period, while top cruise executives managed to earn $448 million. Now, taxpayers are unwillingly being called upon to bail out their extravagant behavior.
A widely circulated meme on social media offered another reason why cruise lines were supposedly unworthy of government bailouts: although they might be headquartered in the U.S., their ships are foreign-flagged to evade U.S. law. That nearly every major cruise line registers their ships somewhere outside the U.S. is hardly disputable. As a 2011 news report noted, only a single major cruise ship at the time was U.S.-flagged: "Only one major cruise ship—NCL America's Pride of America—is registered in the United States, according to data from CyberCruises.com." Most of the big boats fly Bahamian flags, but other popular registries include Panama, Bermuda, Italy, Malta, and the Netherlands. In fact, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, 90% of commercial vessels calling on U.S. ports fly foreign flags. The three cruise lines mentioned in the meme—Disney, Celebrity, and Carnival—do indeed engage in this practice. It's not difficult to verify that Disney cruise ships are registered in the Bahamas, Celebrity ships in Malta, and Carnival ships in Panama.
Of course, the cruise industry and its critics offer differing reasons for why cruise ships are flagged in countries other than the U.S. The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) maintains that there are many factors determining where a cruise ship—or any maritime vessel—is flagged. Those determinations are made by individual cruise lines and other ship operators based on various factors, including the capabilities of the flag to deliver the necessary services, the representation and reputation of the flag in the international shipping community, the performance of the flag state, the pool of seafarers able to meet the needs of the flag, and the flag's fees, charges, and taxes. This can be viewed as a robust free-market debate. Some maintain that burdensome U.S. regulations have forced cruise operators to plant their flags elsewhere, while others argue that these corporations seek to attract American dollars while skirting American safety and consumer protection laws.
On the other hand, an academic paper by Caitlin E. Burke of the University of Florida about "Legal Issues Relevant to Cruise Ships" observed that reflagging of ships has long been used as a means of avoiding U.S. federal taxes, labor and safety laws, environmental laws, lawsuits, criminal investigations, and other regulations. Aside from the majority of revenue generated by U.S. passengers, cruise lines are independent of the U.S. economy. Even though nearly 75 percent of passengers are U.S. citizens, cruise line corporations and their ships are not traditionally American-owned or registered. Cruise line companies are not concerned about increasing minimum wage, rising insurance premiums, or higher corporate taxes. They escape federal taxes and labor laws by registering their corporations and vessels in foreign countries such as Panama, Liberia, and the Bahamas. In fact, employees of cruise lines are often mistreated due to lax labor laws, and worst of all, they find little to no recourse in pursuing litigation. Likewise, a U.S. citizen passenger faces the same predicament. A vessel's country of registration is commonly referred to as the "flag of convenience" (FOC). Flagging a ship under a foreign flag for the convenience of the cruise line is nothing new, nor is it rare. The majority of cruise ships today are registered in Panama, Liberia, or the Bahamas. It is important to note that many vessels within the same fleet are often registered in different countries. For example, Carnival Corporation has flagged its cruise vessel Celebration under Panama and Destiny under the Bahamas. Cruise lines often avoid drawing attention to the FOC by using the term "headquartered in Miami, Florida." While the majority of these cruise lines have their headquarters in Miami, they are not registered in the U.S. Thus, U.S. laws do not apply, and passengers are at the mercy of maritime law.
The practice of ship reflagging is common and regular. Whether cruise lines headquartered in the U.S. but operating ships registered in foreign countries "deserve" government bailouts in a time of pandemic is a subjective issue with no definitive answer, but certainly, some critics have argued that they do not. Even in a crisis, companies with prudent balance sheets will survive and, in time, thrive. Despite what politicians might tell you, the airplanes and ships of imprudent companies are physical property that will not suddenly disappear. They will fly or sail again under the same or a different name, but hopefully with cheaper prices, better service, and different executives. Like a college student sleeping off a hangover, a crisis is a time to sober up by removing debt from the system. It's not time for another drink. | 1 | [
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FMD1785 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Somalia s Islamist group al Shabaab on Thursday publicly stoned a woman to death in a town in the south for cheating on her husband, an official told Reuters. Al Shabaab, which has been waging a war for years to topple the Horn of Africa country s western-backed government, seeks to bring in rule based on its strict interpretation of sharia law. Sheikh Mohamed Abu Abdalla, Al shabaab s governor for Somalia s Jubba regions in the south, said Habiba Ali Isak, a 30-year-old mother of eight children, was killed by stoning in Sakow on Thursday afternoon. Sakow, a town about 515 km (320 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu, is in an area entirely under al Shabaab s control. Members of al Shabaab have in the past handed out harsh punishments for religious infractions including hacking off of limbs for alleged thieves and public executions. Isak lived with her legal husband and children in Hagar village in Jubba, but cheated on her husband after she told him she was traveling to Mogadishu to visit her relatives, Abdalla said. Her legal husband, Ali Ibrahim, subsequently found out his wife did not go to Mogadishu but instead had married again and was living with another husband in Sakow. Her legal husband brought the case to the court. She admitted she illegally married a second husband, Abdalla said. According to the Islamic sharia she was publicly stoned to death this afternoon. The offending second husband had fled, according to Abdalla. | 1 | [
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FMD1786 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Were customers at Kroger Supermarkets charged extra because of a shortage of coins? Claim summaries: Widely shared Facebook posts claimed that Kroger's new policy was to not give out cash change.
contextual information: In the summer of 2020, readers asked us to examine widely shared Facebook posts that claimed the Kroger supermarket chain was refusing to give customers cash change, and thereby overcharging them. One widely shared post from July 9 stated that: post "Kroger will no longer keep coins in the drawer. Starting tomorrow. We will take them, but we can't give change. You can round up to the nearest dollar and donate it to the food bank, or round up and it goes onto your Kroger card as a credit. So it begins ..." One week later, Facebook users began sharing a post that purported to describe a contentious transaction and conversation at a Kroger supermarket in Bourbonnais, Illinois. The post claimed that, in light of a coin shortage, Kroger was rounding up the price of items to the next dollar, where a customer pays in cash, and then refusing to give out change, thus effectively overcharging customers: users began sharing post ... Stopped by Kroger today for just a gallon of milk. Seems due to this "Change Shortage", their new policy is to round every cash purchase UP to the next full dollar! I can even accept if they insisted on they could not "give" any coin back.It cost $2.41. I offered $2.50 payment. The clerk refused the quarters, explained "due to change shortage" policy & demanded another dollar instead. I offered the $2.50 again.Clerk: "Your total is $3.00."Me: The total is $2.41, which $2.50 adequately covers & I don't care to give up the 9 cent, but I do NOT accept being up charged 60 cent while you refuse to take the coins I am offering.Clerk: it's $3.00 So literally the clerk was insisting I pay the $3 or they were refusing the sale. WTF ?!?... A nationwide coin shortage did take place in the summer of 2020, contrary to a prevalent conspiracy theory that falsely claimed the crisis was fabricated or manufactured in order to usher in a cashless economy as part of a broader push towards a "New World Order." That conspiracy theory reared its head in the Kroger post, which included the line, "This is how being FORCED into a Cashless economy begins!" did take place conspiracy theory Remarkably, it is not clear what Kroger's company policy was with regard to providing cash change to customers, at the time the Bourbonnais Facebook post was originally published, in the early hours of July 16. Initially, a spokesperson for the company provided Snopes a statement which asserted that, in light of the ongoing nationwide coin shortage, Kroger was offering customers the option of receiving the amount of their change in the form of loyalty card credit or rounding up their total and donating the remainder to charity, as well as the existing options of paying by credit or debit card, or paying by cash and getting cash change. The statement read: "We remain committed to providing our customers with an uplifting shopping experience and the freedom and flexibility to choose their payment method, including cash, during this unprecedented time. The Federal Reserve is experiencing a significant coin shortage across the U.S., resulting from fewer coins being exchanged and spent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many retailers and businesses, we are adjusting to the temporary shortage in several ways while still accepting cash. "Customers can switch their payment type (e.g., use debit or credit vs. cash), and through our upgraded technology, we can now load coin change to their loyalty card for use during the next shopping trip, provide coin change at a lane with coins available or round up their order to support The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation, a public charity committed to creating communities free of hunger and waste." [Emphasis is added.] However, after this fact check was first published, we became aware of contradictory public statements attributed to Kroger earlier in July. In a July 15 article, KABC-TV reported that Kroger had "announced this week that they will not be returning coin change to customers who pay with cash." The article attributed the following statement to the company: KABC-TV "Currently our stores are collecting donations... by allowing customers to round up their order total to the next dollar... For customers that choose not to donate, our cashiers will load the coin value due back through their loyalty card. Customers can redeem the amount on their next transaction. We know this is an inconvenience for our customers and we appreciate their patience." That statement made no mention of the continued possibility of customers receiving their coin change as coin change, an omission which naturally indicates that Kroger policy at that time was to not provide customers with coin change. On July 10, a named company spokesperson appears to have told another news outlet that Kroger policy was to no longer give out coin change. WXIX reported that: "Kroger spokesperson Erin Rofles confirmed Friday the grocer will no longer return coin change to customers. Instead, the remainders from cash transactions will be applied to customers loyalty cards and automatically used on their next purchase." WXIX We asked Kroger to explain these glaring discrepancies in the company's various public articulations of its policy on coin change. A spokesperson said that the statement initially provided to Snopes (which asserted that company policy was to give customers the option of receiving coin change) was "first issued on July 13," suggesting the company had been consistent in its messaging on the subject. We found the same wording in a series of tweets the company sent to a customer on July 14. Nevertheless, the company also told KABC-TV the opposite in an article published the following day. tweets In one particularly egregious example of the confusion surrounding Kroger's articulation of its policy, on July 14 the company actually posted two different sets of tweets in response to the same customer's inquiries on Twitter. In one pair of tweets, Kroger told @bbaum17 that customers could either have their change loaded on to their loyalty card or donated to charity (no mention of coin change). In a second pair of tweets, Kroger told @bbaum17 that the company could accept a credit or debit card as payment, or load the customer's change on to their loyalty card, or have it donated to charity, or they could "provide coin change at a lane with coins available." sets of tweets The company spokesperson suggested to Snopes that news articles reporting that Kroger was no longer giving out coin change might have been based on signs that have been erected inside Kroger supermarkets. The spokesperson provided the following example, which reads: ATTENTION CUSTOMERS:The Federal Reserve is currently experiencing a coin shortage. Please consider Rounding Up for Zero Hunger ZeroWaste, using exact change or another form of payment. We apologize for any inconvenience this maycause and appreciate your help. A sign that apologizes to customers for the inconvenience associated with an ongoing nationwide coin shortage, suggests three ways to avoid the need to provide change, and omits to mention that customers can still get their change in coin form is very obviously likely to create the perception that Kroger no longer gives out coin change. We asked Kroger for exact details on whether, when and how its policy on coin change had changed; as well as whether, when, and how those changes had been communicated to Kroger's regional divisions, in-store employees, and paying customers. We will update this fact check if we receive a response to those questions. In its initial statement to Snopes, Kroger gave us the clear impression that its policy on coin change was unambiguous, made no mention of any existing confusion or misinformation over that policy, and made no mention whatsoever that the company and its spokespersons had previously made directly contradictory public statements about that policy. In reality, Kroger and its spokespersons had indeed issued contradictory and confusing public statements, and had done so before the original "Bourbonnais" Facebook post was published in the early hours of July 16. As a result, we are changing the rating in this fact check from "false" to "Mixture." It's not entirely clear what took place at the Kroger supermarket in Bourbonnais, Illinois, specifically, but it appears to have been at least similar to the description in the widely shared Facebook post. A spokesperson for the company told Snopes: "The associate who engaged with this customer was newly trained to the cashier role and misunderstood the various ways were adapting to the temporary national coin shortage. It is an isolated event, and weve since coached the associate and contacted the customer." This appears to be a tacit admission by the company that, in the specific instance highlighted in the Facebook post, the cashier did incorrectly insist on receiving $3 in cash for the milk, but that this was not in keeping with the company's policy, although as we outlined above, the company's public articulation of its policy on coin change has not been consistent. The image of a receipt that accompanied the viral Facebook post was dated July 15, and indicates that the customer in question paid $3 in cash for a $2.41 container of milk (after tax). A line in the receipt labelled "change shortage" had $0.59 next to it, and the "change" line had 0.00 next to it. That indicates that the customer did not receive cash change. Shortly after midnight on July 16, a person who lives near Bourbonnais, whose name we are withholding because their original Facebook post was private, published what appears to be the original version of the subsequently widely shared post. (That original version of the post began "Stopped by Kroger today" while versions published later began "Stopped by Kroger yesterday," and the edit history of the post shows that a photograph of the receipt that showed the name of the cashier was replaced with a photograph showing the cashier's name obscured -- both signs that the post was published by the customer in question). We contacted that person, whose identity we verified. In an email to Snopes, that person reiterated the version of events presented in the original Facebook post. The customer clarified that it was not possible to purchase the milk with a debit or credit card because the patron lives on "a cash basis." To complicate matters further, on July 22 a Facebook page with the name "KROGER-Bourbonnais" published responses to the viral post, explaining that the company was "currently allocating the remaining change that you would typically receive after your purchase to your Kroger Loyalty Card," but later wrote that "we are not rounding up ... it was just a mistake of [sic] a cashier." explaining later Those posts were not written by an authentic Kroger company account, a spokesperson told Snopes, adding "Our social media team isnt affiliated with it." Mac Guill, Dan. "Did a Nationwide US Coin Shortage Occur in Summer 2020?"
Snopes.com. 8 July 2020. Grider, Geoffrey. "Remember the Psy-Op Called the Great Toilet Paper Shortage? Now We Are Pretending There's a National Coin Shortage ..."
NowTheEndBegins.com. 11 July 2020. Updated [23 July 2020]: Rating changed from "false" to "Mixture." Article substantially updated to include Kroger's previous, contradictory public articulations of its policy on coin change. | 2 | [
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FMD1787 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: 'No DUIs' Scam Promises $610, $622, $710, or $712 in Savings Claim summaries: We reached out to the Better Business Bureau to learn more.
contextual information: Since at least 2020, various Facebook and Instagram ads claimed that U.S. citizens with "no DUIs in the last 3 years" could receive $610, $622, $710, or $712 as a government refund check, perhaps as part of a stimulus plan, if they simply entered their ZIP code into a form. For example, one video ad showed U.S. President Joe Biden signing a piece of paper and another person holding checks that appeared to resemble the design used by the U.S. Treasury. It also included a clip of a family celebrating something they saw on their computer. one video ad Joe Biden The video of the family celebrating likely had something to do with the girl in the video being accepted to a college. It's unclear if they knew their video was being used in this Facebook ad. This Facebook ad from the Edwin Parker Facebook page, which had more than 70,000 followers, read: "Enter Your Zip Code To See What You Get Back. US Citizens with no DUIs in the last 3 years are getting $610 back if they sign up before the deadline ends. HURRY." Edwin Parker Facebook page However, there was no truth to any of this. Biden did not sign legislation to provide $610, $622, $710, $712, or any other amount of money to drivers who hadn't driven under the influence in the last three years. No other U.S. government entity was providing money either. A picture of Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court also appeared in some of the ads as well, which was also misleading. These sorts of Facebook and Instagram ads often lead to little more than offers to change insurance providers. However, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) told us that these can also be scams that attempt to obtain your personally identifiable information for nefarious purposes. We previously reported about a similar scam that also used pictures of Biden and promised $3,600 stimulus checks from the government to homeowners. reported The ad on the Edwin Parker Facebook page led to the website expertsinfinance.online. We noticed that the website's terms and conditions page was rather short, and that the address it listed was in Mumbai, India. expertsinfinance.online terms and conditions page Mumbai, India The Facebook ads claimed the dollar amount was $610 or $622, while the website resulting from the ad said $710 or $712. The website's landing page stated the following: People With No DUIs In Last 3 Years Are Getting $710 Back in Savings. ENDING SOON: Drivers Should Check Savings Before the 30th ... Disclaimer: This is an advertorial and not an actual news article, blog or consumer protection update. Our aim is to bring consumers the best information that may help them make informed decisions. This article is for demonstration purposes only. By proceeding forward you automatically agree to our terms and conditions. The purpose of this site is the solicitation of insurance. This article is for demonstration purposes only. By proceeding forward you automatically agree to our terms and conditions. The purpose of this site is the solicitation of insurance. This site is not a part of the Facebook website or Facebook Inc. This site is not endorsed by Facebook in any way. FACEBOOK is a trademark of FACEBOOK, Inc. As for the Edwin Parker Facebook page, it listed 19 page managers in India, one in Germany, and one in the U.S. Also, its profile picture did not show a man named Edwin Parker, but rather Ezekiel Emanuel. profile picture Emanuel's bio said that he was "the Vice Provost for Global Initiatives, the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania." He was also listed as "a Special Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization, as well as a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress." He appeared to do have nothing to do with the Facebook page and likely did not know his picture was being misused. bio In sum, no, drivers with "no DUIs in the last 3 years" were not eligible for government refund checks of $610, $622, $710, $712, or any other dollar amount. Readers as well as their friends and family are advised to steer clear of these kinds of ads and websites. For the reasons stated within this story, along with guidance from the BBB, we have rated this claim as a "Scam." | 0 | [
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FMD1788 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The FBI photo warning is from Drexel University but all colleges and universities in the Philly area are warned. As you ll see below, everyone s a little confused about what to do or NOT do tomorrow during college classes. Twitter messages look something like the one below but e-mail alerts should have been sent to students: You should be aware. If you see something, say something. Patrols are being increased. But everyone should be vigilant. The FBI has issued a warning to Philadelphia colleges about a possible threat on Monday. Here s what we know so far.1. The Threat Is Related to a Social Network Posting The FBI has issued a safety advisory for all colleges in the Philadelphia area. The threat is related to a social media posting that is threatening violence at a university in the area. Because of the shooting at Umpqua Community College, the FBI is taking an abundance of caution. The advisory stated that the FBI has received similar posting throughout the country.According to a related thread on Reddit, the warning may have been made after a post was made to 4chan that talked about violence in Philadelphia on Monday, October 5. The thread read, in part, that the beta rebellion had begun and the shooting in Oregon was just the first. The posting stated that at 1:00 p.m. on October 1, someone else would take up arms against a college in Philadelphia. Anyone in the area is encouraged to stay home, the message, which was reposted on Imgur, read.2. The Warning is for Monday, Around 2 PM EasternAccording to the University of Pennsylvania s advisory post, the threat is specifically for Monday, October 5, at around 2:00 p.m. Eastern/1:00 p.m. Central. A specific university wasn t specified, so all universities and colleges in the area are being advised to take caution and be on the lookout for anyone suspicious.3. There Is No Knowledge of a Specific Threat The FBI has stated that it doesn t have any knowledge of a specific threat. Drexel University has said that it s going to increase patrols on Monday, the university reported. They are going to be on the lookout for anything suspicious.4. Students Aren t Sure What To Do With the WarningA student from La Salle University told Philly Mag that she had no idea what to do with the information. She is supposed to be on campus during the time of the threat, so she doesn t know if she should be looking over her shoulder or what she should be doing. Other students, meanwhile, have said that they are planning on just skipping classes tomorrow or during that time. 5. Others Are Concerned Because They Haven t Gotten a Warning YetOther students are concerned and not sure what to do because they haven t actually received a warning yet, even though they attend colleges in the area. One student, who attends University of the Sciences, posted on Twitter wondering why they hadn t received news about the warning yet. A La Salle University student told Philly Mag that she only found out about the warning because she saw a safety advisory on the university s website, but no one was sent a text or an email warning. Philly Mag stated that the FBI hadn t responded to a request for a comment.Via: Heavy | 0 | [
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FMD1789 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Senior Mexican officials will hold meetings on January 25 and 26 with U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump’s top aides in Washington, to discuss bilateral relations such as security, trade and migration, the government said on Thursday. In a statement, the foreign ministry said Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray and Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo would attend talks with chief-of-staff Reince Priebus, Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, among others. The meetings will also be attended by Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, Gary Cohn, who heads the White House National Economic Council, trade advisor Peter Navarro, and national security advisor Michael Flynn, the statement said. Trump has sent Mexico’s peso to record lows, threatening to tax Mexican-made products for the U.S market, build a wall along the southern border, and scrap a free trade agreement with Mexico if he cannot renegotiate it to favor American interests. | 1 | [
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FMD1790 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: As some presumably small portion of Americans sat through a dull debate between the Republican and Democratic vice-presidential nominees on Tuesday night, a far more interesting drama was unfolding within the Libertarian ticket. VP candidate Bill Weld told the Boston Globe that he plans to focus on attacking Donald Trump for the remainder of the campaign — essentially admitting that running mate Gary Johnson can not become president.*
Trump has Weld’s “full attention,†he explained, because his agenda is so terrible it’s “in a class by itself.†“I think Mr. Trump’s proposals in the foreign policy area, including nuclear proliferation, tariffs, and free trade, would be so hurtful, domestically and in the world, that he has my full attention,†Weld said.
Apparently he avoided acknowledging that his new mission amounts to working to make Hillary Clinton president. He pointed out that he disagrees with Clinton on fiscal and military issues, though last week on MSNBC he said he’s “not sure anybody is more qualified than Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States.â€
It’s unusual for a candidate to admit defeat five weeks before the election, even though Johnson is at just 7.4 percent nationally in the Real Clear Politics polling average. However, Weld’s move doesn’t exactly constitute “going rogue,†since earlier in the day Johnson admitted in a CNN interview, “I guess I wasn’t meant to be president.†The Libertarian nominee was trying to argue that his lack of foreign-policy knowledge is an asset five days after he was unable to name a world leader he admires. Johnson described that as another “Aleppo moment,†referring to a previous gaffe in which he failed to recognize the name of the besieged Syrian city.
The gaffes led many to say Weld should be at the top of the ticket, and Weld strategists reportedly looked into the possibility of doing that, only to be shot down by Johnson.
Weld insists that he’s not abandoning Johnson, and that his running mate is fully in support of his strategy shift. “I have had in mind all along trying to get the Donald into third place, and with some tugging and hauling, we might get there,†he said.
However, Weld’s claim that there’s no discord on the Libertarian ticket wasn’t very convincing. He also suggested to the Globe that he may abandon the Libertarian party in the future. “I’m certainly not going to drop them this year,†he said.
Weld, a former two-term Republican governor of Massachusetts, said that after blocking a Trump presidency, he’d like to work with Republicans like Mitt Romney and Haley Barbour to rebuild the GOP.
“Maybe somebody is going to come up with a new playbook, and I don’t know who it’s going to be, but it would be fun to participate,†he said.
Maybe Mike Pence? Both vice-presidential candidates seem pretty eager to move past the humiliations of the 2016 campaign.
* Update: In an interview with Reason on Wednesday, Weld tried to clarify — or walk back — his remarks to the Globe:
He also posted a statement to Facebook: | 1 | [
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FMD1791 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: BEIRUT, Lebanon — As the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approached, jihadist propagandists told their followers that it was a good time to kill people. The spokesman for the Islamic State said in late May that jihadists should “make it, with God’s permission, a month of pain for infidels everywhere. †Another extremist distributed a manual for using poisons, adding, in poor English: “Dont forget Ramadan is close, the month of victories. †A bloody month it has been, with terrorist attacks killing and wounding hundreds of people in Orlando, Fla. Istanbul Dhaka, Bangladesh and now Baghdad, where a bomb killed more than 140 people early Sunday in a shopping area full of families who had just broken their Ramadan fasts. For the vast majority of the world’s Muslims, violence is completely dissonant with the holy month, which in addition to fasting is a time for spiritual renewal, prayer and visits with friends and family. It is widely believed that the rewards earned for noble acts are greater during Ramadan, which culminates in the Eid holiday this week. Jihadists have perverted this belief to serve their own ends, analysts said. In short: If one believes it is good to kill those who are considered infidels, all the better to do so during Ramadan. “There is no doubt in my mind that Al Qaeda, its various affiliates and now ISIS use Ramadan as a watershed, as a marker to inspire and motivate their followers and supporters worldwide,†said Fawaz A. Gerges, a professor at the London School of Economics who has written books on jihad. While not all of them may have been carried out with Ramadan in mind, the month has seen a stunning array of attacks. A gunman opened fire in a nightclub in Orlando, killing 49. A suicide attack on an army post in Jordan killed seven soldiers. Suicide bombers killed dozens of civilians in Al Mukalla, Yemen, and in a Christian village in Lebanon, on the same day. The next day, attackers struck Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, killing at least 41. In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian assailants killed two Israeli civilians over two days: stabbing a girl while she was asleep in her home in a Jewish settlement and gunning down a man on the road. On Friday, gunmen stormed a restaurant in Dhaka’s diplomatic quarter, letting some Muslims escape but killing at least 22, most of them foreigners. And on Sunday, a bombing took at least 143 lives in Baghdad. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has claimed responsibility for many of the attacks and is the prime suspect in others. A large share of the victims have been Muslims, belying the Islamic State’s claim to be the defender of their faith. “We were happy and preparing to break the last day of the fasting month very soon and to celebrate Eid, but our feelings have been stained with blood,†said Hadi a shopkeeper who was hit with flying glass in the attack in Baghdad. Many large attacks occurred during Ramadan last year, too, hitting a Tunisian beach resort, a Shiite mosque in Kuwait, a Kurdish town in northern Syria and African Union troops in Somalia. But terrorism researchers caution that attacks happen and that there is little systematic evidence that they become more common during Ramadan. And it is almost impossible to tell what role the month plays in the thinking of individual attackers. What is clearer is that the manipulation of the goals of Ramadan are another way in which jihadists have interpreted the religion in a way most Muslims deplore. Another example is the jihadists’ wide use of takfir, or the branding of others as infidels who deserve death. The Islamic State has used this concept to justify the killing of other Muslims, be they Shiites or fellow Sunnis whom the group deems to be insufficiently devout. Such views course through the jihadists’ Ramadan propaganda. In an audio message released before the month began, Abu Muhammed the Islamic State spokesman, urged the group’s followers to launch attacks in the West during Ramadan in retaliation for strikes by a United coalition in the group’s central territories in Syria and Iraq. “Know that in the heart of the lands of the Crusaders there is no protection for that blood, and there is no presence of civilians,†he said. Jihadists should act, he said, “so that perhaps you will gain the great reward for martyrdom in Ramadan. †Other propagandists reached back into Islamic history to compare the modern jihadist struggle to the Battle of Badr, a famous Ramadan victory mentioned in the Quran in which the Prophet Muhammad and his forces routed their enemies in Mecca. Some drew links between those forces and Omar Mateen, the Orlando gunman. “In Islamic history, Ramadan is a reminder to Muslims of who they are, separating the faithful from the †Professor Gerges said. “But what ISIS and Al Qaeda have done to great effect is to focus on the war spirit and offensive spirit rather than on the moral spirit. †The recent spate of attacks could be less about Ramadan than about the Islamic State’s desire to project strength as it loses territory. In Iraq, it recently lost control of Ramadi and was pushed out of Falluja last month — a humiliating Ramadan defeat. Since those losses undermine the jihadists’ claim to have a powerful state with its own territory, attacks abroad serve as “force multipliers, because they divert attention from what is happening in Iraq and Syria,†Professor Gerges said. The jihadists’ focus on violence during the holy month stirs revulsion among most Muslims, who see it as a time of intensified spirituality and increased religious activity, said Jonathan A. C. Brown, a professor of Islamic civilization at Georgetown University. This often means more time spent in prayer, at the mosque or reading the Quran, in addition to the fast that is among the primary requirements of observant Muslims. Even many secular Muslims fast or pursue good works throughout Ramadan. “If you do your fast well and it is received, there is a huge reward you get in the afterlife,†Dr. Brown said. Underlying much Ramadan activity is a sense that the rewards for good deeds are greater during the holy month, even for acts as small as smiling at someone, Dr. Brown said. Muslims are to give contributions to charity equaling the cost of one meal at the end of the month, and many also give their required alms for the year during Ramadan, making it an active time for thinking about the poor. Many Muslim communities also hold Ramadan drives for charitable causes. There is also a belief that the devils who normally tempt people to sin are “chained up†during Ramadan, making it easier for Muslims to be good, as they have to face only their own temptations. “This is a time to improve yourself and not to swear, not to have arguments — and you have a leg up now,†Dr. Brown said. “That means that people who do these attacks only have themselves to blame. They can’t blame the devil. †| 1 | [
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FMD1792 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Yesterday, Fox News announced that they were suspending Eric Bolling after accusations that the popular host sent lewd photos to at least three female coworkers two at Fox Business and one at Fox News.Many believe the accusations against Eric Bolling are just more lies in a series of false sexual misconduct allegations levied against Fox News top personalities, like Bill O Reilly and the now deceased Roger Ailes. The woman who attempted to smear Fox News host Sean Hannity quickly dropped her accusations when Hannity took off the gloves announced he would fight accuser Debbie Schulssel with some of the finest and toughest lawyers in the country after she accused the Fox News host of sexually propositioning her as allegations of sexual harassment continue to roil the network.Philly.com Suspended Fox News host Eric Bolling s first public accuser is a major left-wing activist who held a protest sign at President Trump s inauguration accusing the president of being a rapist.Caroline Heldman, an Occidental College professor who appeared on Fox News, reportedly filed a sexual harassment complaint just hours before Fox News announced O Reilly s departure, according to People magazine.Now, she is back to accuse Eric Bolling, a major Trump supporter at the network. Here is Philly.com s report:Hours after Fox News announced it was suspending Bolling, Caroline Heldman, a politics professor at Occidental College and frequent guest on the network from 2008 to 2011, claimed the Fox News host made an unspecified number of unsolicited sexual advances to her. [Bolling] said he wanted to fly me out to New York for in-studio hits and to have fun. He asked me to have meals with him on several occasions, but I found excuses not to go, Heldman wrote in a lengthy Facebook post. Once, he took me up to his office in New York, showed me his baseball jerseys, and in the brief time I was there, let me know that his office was his favorite place to have sex. Bolling s team is denying the accusations. Heldman s social media profiles show her to be a staunch left-wing feminist activist. Big League PoliticsMany brought up #pizzagate in response to my "good people don't vote for rapists" sign at Trump's inauguration. https://t.co/lTDtBEhhgh pic.twitter.com/T2S8UfIF5O Caroline Heldman (@carolineheldman) June 22, 2017Seriously though, the fact that accuser Caroline Heldman would use a picture of themselves with the pal and high-profile, media whore lawyer Gloria Allred at the top of their Twitter account is pretty interesting.Here is Caroline Heldman s Twitter profile:Social media users attempted to accuse Michelle Fields of being one of the women accusing Bolling of sexual harassment. She quickly came to Bolling s defense:False. Im not one of the women in @yashar's story & Eric Bolling was nothing but professional when I worked w/ him. Pls stop spreading lies https://t.co/Jmi3e3vgiV Michelle Fields (@MichelleFields) August 6, 2017 | 0 | [
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FMD1793 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, promised on Thursday to roll back some of America’s most ambitious environmental policies, actions that he said would revive the ailing U.S. oil and coal industries and bolster national security. Among the proposals, Trump said he would pull the United States out of the U.N. global climate accord, approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada and rescind measures by President Barack Obama to cut U.S. emissions and protect waterways from industrial pollution. “Any regulation that’s outdated, unnecessary, bad for workers or contrary to the national interest will be scrapped and scrapped completely,†Trump told about 7,700 people at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck, the capital of oil-rich North Dakota. “We’re going to do all this while taking proper regard for rational environmental concerns.†It was Trump’s first speech detailing the energy policies he would advance if elected president. He received loud applause from the crowd of oil executives. The comments painted a stark contrast between the New York billionaire and his Democratic rivals for the White House, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, who advocate a sharp turn away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy technologies to combat climate change. Trump slammed both rivals in his speech, saying their policies would kill jobs and force the United States “to be begging for oil again†from Middle East producers. “It’s not going to happen. Not with me,†he said. Trump’s comments drew quick criticism from environmental advocates, who called his proposals “frightening.†“Trump’s energy policies would accelerate climate change, protect corporate polluters who profit from poisoning our air and water, and block the transition to clean energy that is necessary to strengthen our economy and protect our climate and health,†said Tom Steyer, a billionaire environmental activist. But industry executives cheered the stance. “It’s simple. If Trump wins, oil field workers will be happy. If Clinton wins, oil workers will be unhappy,†said Derrick Alexander, an operations manager at oilfield services firm Integrated Productions Services. Trump hit Clinton hard in his speech, saying the former secretary of state would be more aggressive than Obama on regulations. He repeated several times Clinton’s March comments that her policies would put coal miners out of work. “Hillary Clinton’s agenda is job destruction,†Trump said. Trump said slashing regulation would help the United States achieve energy independence and reduce America’s reliance on Middle Eastern producers. “Imagine a world in which oil cartels will no longer use energy as a weapon,†he said. The United States currently produces about 55 percent of the oil it uses, with another quarter of the total coming from Canada and Mexico, and less than 20 percent coming from OPEC, according to U.S. Energy Department statistics. Trump’s advisers, including U.S. Representative Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, have said they suggested Trump examine the role of OPEC in the global oil price slump since 2014, which has contributed to the demise of a handful of smaller U.S. oil companies. Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members have declined to cut production to support prices. Until Thursday, Trump had been short on details of his energy policy. He has said he believes global warming is a hoax, that his administration would revive the U.S. coal industry, and that he supports hydraulic fracturing | 1 | [
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FMD1794 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The search for an Argentine navy submarine missing in the South Atlantic for one week reached a critical phase on Wednesday as the 44 crew on board could be running low on oxygen, a navy spokesman said. Dozens of planes and boats were searching for the ARA San Juan, a mission that has plunged relatives of the sailors into an anguished wait for news and transfixed the South American country of 44 million people. If the German-built submarine, in service for more than three decades, had sunk or was otherwise unable to rise to the surface since it gave its last location on Nov. 15, it would be using up the last of its seven-day oxygen supply. We are in the critical phase...particularly with respect to oxygen, navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told reporters. There has been no contact with anything that could be the San Juan submarine. Relatives of the crew members have gathered at a naval base in Mar del Plata, where the search is coordinated. Their concern grew as the hours ticked by. The craft was probably on the seabed because the mechanism to surface either failed or was not activated by a crew member, naval investigator Fernando Morales told Reuters in a telephone interview. If the captain stayed at the bottom because he thought it was more prudent to stay at the bottom, it s one thing. But at this point we have to think that if he s at the bottom, it s because he could not emerge, Morales said. In an evening news conference, Balbi said an unusual noise was detected on Nov. 15, near where the submarine last reported its position. He declined to say if the sound indicated an explosion or emergency on the vessel. Data on the noise were being analyzed, he added. Favorable weather allowed search boats to cover a greater area after being hampered by strong winds and waves for much of the past few days, Balbi said. Poor weather was expected to return on Thursday. Around 30 boats and planes and 4,000 people from Argentina, the United States, Britain, Chile and Brazil have joined the search for the submarine, which last transmitted its location about 480 km (300 miles) from the coast. Planes have covered some 500,000 square km (190,000 square miles) of the ocean surface, but much of the area has not yet been scoured by the boats. Argentines have been gripped by the search, with local newspapers placing photographs on their front pages of crew members relatives praying. The case has dominated discussion on social media in Argentina, with the hash tags Los 44 (The 44) and (navy spokesman) Enrique Balbi becoming trending topics on Twitter. Comparisons were made to the most recent major rescue operation in the region, when 33 miners in northern Chile were rescued in 2010 after 69 days trapped underground. The submarine was en route from Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, to the coastal city of Mar del Plata, some 400 km (250 miles) south of Buenos Aires, when it reported an electrical malfunction shortly before disappearing last week. The submarine was launched in 1983 and underwent maintenance in 2008 in Argentina. The disappearance has highlighted the dwindling resources and lack of training faced by the armed forces since the end of a military dictatorship in the early 1980s. | 1 | [
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FMD1795 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Regulating and taxing marijuanamuch like we do alcoholwould generate more than $165M in revenue starting in 2022 Claim summaries: Experts, generally speaking, had no quarrel with the states math, but questioned the implementation schedule in the estimates., That is, the assumptions in the plan may be too rosy, so less money would be generated in the 2021-23 budget window., In any case, the issue is a nonstarter for raising revenue, since legalized marijuana lacks support in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
contextual information: Gov. Tony Evers proposed that Wisconsin keep up with three of its neighbors and legalize marijuana, but the plan has already gone up in smoke. The GOP-controlled Legislatures budget-writing committee on May 6, 2021 removed legalizing marijuana -- and hundreds of other provisions -- from the governors proposed 2021-23 spending plan. In making the changes, and starting fresh, the panel created agap of about $3.4 billion. With that gap, and polls showing general public support for legalized marijuana, it brought to mind a claim from Evers that we had set aside: Regulating and taxing marijuana much like we do alcohol would generate more than $165M in revenue starting in 2022, Evers tweetedApril 14, 2021. In all, 36 states have medical marijuana programs (including Iowa), while14 states-- including neighboring Illinois and Michigan -- have legalized marijuana for recreational use: But what about the money? Is Evers correct that his plan would add $165 million to the states coffers in the upcoming budget? When asked for backup to the claim, Britt Cudaback, Evers communications director, pointed us to the states Budget in Brief document, released in February 2021, which includes more detail on how his plan would work. Under the plan, the state Department of Revenue would issue permits to those wishing to sell recreational marijuana. The Governors proposal imposes a 15 percent excise tax on the sales price of each wholesale sale by a permit-holding producer to a permit-holding processor, according to the budget document. In addition, the proposal imposes a 10 percent excise tax on the sales price of each retail sale. Retail sales, except for medical use, would be subject to the sales tax. So, how did the governor arrive at that $165 million figure? According to Cudaback, the budget office looked at data from other states, including Colorado, which was the first state to legalize marijuana, and made adjustments for population and reported marijuana usage. She noted that other states have relied on Colorados data in developing their own budgets, and noted that the estimates were on the conservative side, meaning they could be closer to the low end of potential tax revenue. According to the Evers figures, if sales were to begin Jan. 1, 2022 -- roughly six months after expected passage of the budget -- $165.8 million would be reached if tax collections were $19 per-capita. That is, if -- on average -- every person in the state bought enough marijuna to generate $19 in annual tax revenue. Here is the math: $19 per capita per year x 5.8 million population x 1.5 years = $165.8 million. That includes a projected $65 million from taxes on sales at the wholesale level, $67.1 million from retail taxes and $33.6 million from the sales tax. Its difficult to compare states because of their varying size and different taxing structures around marijuana sales. For instance, Illinois has a lower excise tax, but far higher sales taxes on recreational marijuana, and more than double Wisconsins population. According to the Public Policy Forum, a non-partisan think tank that has analyzed the Wisconsin budget, Illinois likely collectedaround $175 millionin revenue in its first year of recreational implementation. Thats not much more -- despite twice the population size -- than what Evers is anticipating. The administration's estimate appears to imply a pretty rapid implementation, the Policy Forum said. Nevada, meanwhile, has a 15% tax on wholesale sales and a 10% tax on retail sales, so its framework is generally similar. Infiscal year 2020, with just over half of Wisconsins population, Nevada collected $105.2 million. That said, the Policy Forum notes Nevadas unique tourism industry -- i.e., legalized gambling -- may make it a poor basis for comparison. Andrew Reschovsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Emeritus of Public Affairs and Applied Economics pointed out that forecasting revenue from a new tax is always difficult. He said the State Budget Office has taken the sensible approach and based its estimates on the experience of other states that have already legalized marijuana sales. But that doesnt mean its sure to come true. The Administrations forecast, like all revenue forecasts, is based on a set of assumptions, he wrote. While some of the Administrations assumptions may result in an under-estimate of tax revenues, I do worry that the state may be overly optimistic about the time needed to implement the issuing of both medical and recreational marijuana retail sales licenses and the time needed to open retail outlets throughout the state. In other words, the state may not be able to get a system up and running in time to meet the Jan. 1, 2022 date the budget projections are based upon. Based on the experiences in Massachusetts and California, this may be an overly optimistic estimate of the time it takes to license and open retail sales outlets, Reschovsky wrote. If the rollout process is in fact slower than anticipated, revenue during the next biennium may be lower than the Administrations forecast. Evers tweeted Regulating and taxing marijuana much like we do alcohol would generate more than $165M in revenue starting in 2022. Experts consulted by PolitiFact Wisconsin, generally speaking, had no quarrel with the states math, but questioned the implementation schedule baked into the estimates. In other words, if legalized marijuana were to go forward, it may not generate the revenue Evers claimed because it may take too long to get a licensing system in place, and to license and open retail outlets. In a nutshell, the Evers projections are plausible, but may be overly optimistic. For a statement that is accurate but needs clarification or additional information, our rating is Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD1796 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A beautiful story of generosity and kindness the media would never share with American voters One narrative emerging around the surprisingly resilient Donald Trump portrays the brash billionaire as a final card laid down by Republican blue-collar voters who see their way of life and their political clout draining away in a bathtub spiral.Trump has been a man of last resort before. Right here in Georgia, in fact. And if his Republican presidential machine doesn t seize upon the tale in the next few weeks, as he and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas battle for Southern votes, then someone in the Trump campaign will be guilty of gross incompetence.It happened in 1986, in the midst of the worst farm crisis since the Great Depression. In Burke County, on Georgia s eastern border, farm after farm was folding.On Feb. 4, Lenard Dozier Hill III, a third-generation occupant of his cotton-and-soybean acreage, was about to have his land sold out from under him. That morning, it was going to be auctioned off at the courthouse steps, so he committed suicide, said Betsy Sharp, his daughter.In the bedroom of the Hill home, along with the .22-caliber rifle that did the work, was a neat stack of life insurance policies and other papers on the nightstand. Hill had intended for the life insurance payout to cover most of his $300,000 debt and so save the family farm for another generation.It was a grievous miscalculation. Most, if not all, life insurance policies include a clause that prohibits payment in cases of suicide. He didn t realize all that, Sharp said.Hill s desperate act struck a chord. Reporters and TV crews descended on the Waynesboro church where the funeral was held. Vandals painted farmer killer on the door of the local bank.Once the family realized the financial futility of Hill s suicide, the burden of saving the farm fell on his widow, Annabel Hill, a 66-year-old teacher and social worker with gray hair and large glasses.The widow was already familiar with Frank Argenbright, a wealthy and white Atlanta businessman who had made a name for himself by organizing the successful effort to save the farm of a black farmer in Cochran named Oscar Lorick.(Argenbright initially tried to do this anonymously, as a masked benefactor who called himself A.N. American. But he was the head of a growing security firm, and his cop friends recognized his voice.)Argenbright arranged a press conference for Annabel Hill in Atlanta. It went national, he said. Today, in the age of the Internet, we use the term viral. Then, as now, clowns came out of the woodwork. In an interview, Argenbright said one of the first calls he received was from a Texas oilman who wanted to come to Atlanta to help. For some reason I had to pay the ticket, Argenbright said. First class.The oilman turned out to be a soused escapee from a rehab unit for alcoholics. Argenbright put him on the next flight back to Texas. In coach.Above is a video, featuring Betsy Sharp, daughter of Lenard and Annabel Hill, put together by Chad Etheridge of Growing America, a news service for farmers.***Argenbright was still at the airport when his assistant called. Someone claiming to be Donald Trump had just rang, offering to help Annabel Hill.A suspicious Argenbright called the number and demanded proof of identity from the man who answered. Herschel Walker works for me, the voice said. The former University of Georgia running back was the star of the New Jersey Generals, a United States Football League team owned by Trump. That was good enough. Well, Mr. Trump, I apologize, Argenbright said.Trump told the Atlanta businessman that his wife, Ivana, had seen the report on the Hill family s plight on the network news, and she suggested that he get involved. The magnate summoned Argenbright and the Hills to New York. After a brief interview, Trump signed onto the cause.Accounts of what followed differ. In his book The Art of the Deal, Trump wrote that, in a phone call, he twisted the arm of a vice president of the Georgia bank that held the Hill mortgage. I said to the guy, You listen to me. If you do foreclose, I ll bring a lawsuit for murder against you and your bank, on the grounds that you harassed Mrs. Hill s husband to his death. All of a sudden, the banker sounded very nervous and said he d get right back to me. Sometimes it pays to be a little wild, Trump wrote.Problem solved.Argenbright, a Trump admirer who would go on to provide security at many of the billionaire s properties, describes a Trump who was far less sure of himself and of the public reaction that would follow. And quieter, too. It wasn t the Donald that you see now, Argenbright said. He wasn t sure that people would respond to him. He didn t want to be embarrassed. Trump provided $20,000 to stave off foreclosure of the Hill farm, but his name was initially kept out of the picture. During a press conference on the courthouse steps in Waynesboro announcing the delay, Argenbright said he spoke only of support from a New York developer. But Trump s identity was easily and quickly guessed. The billionaire and the Georgia farm wife made the rounds of the morning TV shows. Viewers were asked to send their dollars to the Annabel Hill Fund, Trump Towers, New York, 10022. Money poured in, but Trump and a Texas oilman a real one, this time provided the last $78,000. A mortgage-burning ceremony was scheduled for two days before Christmas. The Hill family was again flown to New York, at Trump s expense. I had just graduated from high school. He flew us to New York, and we went to Trump Towers and had breakfast with him, said Betsy Sharp, who is now 49 and lives in Augusta. We saw a whole different side of him that was kindhearted, to reach out to us, to help us, the daughter said. Most people don t know and see that side. All they see is just the blurt that people put on the TV. They don t see the other side of him, and that s what my family got to experience. Argenbright feels likewise. He couldn t have been nicer. He took care of them and stayed in touch with them after that, Argenbright said. He had no ulterior motive. But Argenbright said that, in advance of that mortgage-burning ceremony in 1986, he did catch a glimpse of the media-savvy presidential candidate that we are watching now.Trump ordered the waterfalls in his towers turned off, to make it easier for the TV sound technicians. He made sure that at least three tested cigarette lighters were on hand to spark the fire. The mortgage papers were fake, but Trump ordered an assistant to light one up to make sure they would burn quickly and dramatically, said Argenbright, who supplied an engraved tray from Tiffany s for the ashes. Just to watch how detailed he was in understanding the perception of the moment and how significant it was it was a special time, Argenbright said. He was an honorable guy who wanted to do the right thing. If it wasn t for him, that farm wouldn t have been saved. The Annabel Hill episode was just a small piece of the farm crisis. In the two months that followed, 85 other farms in Burke County alone were scheduled for foreclosure. Other celebrities attempted rescues as well Willie Nelson s series of Farm Aid concerts had begun the year before.But this was the moment that Donald Trump, who had already put his name on the New York City skyline, introduced himself to rural America. Via: AJC | 0 | [
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FMD1797 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: For anyone who believes they re more CONSERVATIVE than the average Trump supporter because they re planning to vote for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and his running mate, former Governor Bill Weld you may want to re-think your conservative position. It turns out, you re really just voting for another Barack Obama without the race card to fall back on or Hillary without the criminal background Libertarians should be allergic to power grabs by the executive for the obvious reason that they lend themselves to concentrated authority and (usually) bigger government. If you want to slow the state down, a robust, sharply divided Congress that jealously guards its constitutional prerogatives from the president should be your ideal even in cases where the executive happens to be acting towards an end you deem salutary. In this year of all years, admirers of Obama s various forms of overreach should be thinking hard about how President Trump might build on his precedents. To a constitutionalist, which most mainstream libertarians claim to be, all of this is second nature.Is Gary Johnson a constitutionalist?THRUSH: How about Obama s executive order, which was decried as being a great constitutional violation by the Republicans, Obama s executive order on immigration. Did you consider that to be a violation or did you consider that a reasonable use of targeted executive power?MR. JOHNSON: I saw it as a reasonable use, challenging Congress to action. And an untold story with regard to Obama and immigration is he s broken up 3 million families. He has deported 3 million heads of households that have gone back to Mexico and their families have remained in the United States.If Obama issued an executive order to the IRS demanding that they collect 10 percent more in tax from individuals than the Internal Revenue Code provides, would Johnson deem that legal? What if the order instructed the agency to collect 10 percent less tax? Would his opinion of its legality change? Because it shouldn t. Bear in mind, Obama s 2014 DAPA amnesty has already been blocked by a preliminary injunction that was upheld on review by the Fifth Circuit so Johnson had plenty of legal cover here to say that he s troubled by Obama s procedural approach despite the fact that he happens to agree with the policy ends. Instead he seems to endorse the bizarre legal theory pushed by some leftists that if Congress isn t moving quickly enough for the president s taste in enacting a policy he supports, he can go ahead and challenge them by enacting it himself and leaving it to Congress to overrule him if they feel strongly to the contrary. How the hell does a libertarian arrive at that model of government? The president does what he wants, and then it falls to the people s representatives to try to muster a two-thirds majority to override his policy? What? HotAirHere is Gary Johnson in 2 minutes:Gary Johnson s running mate, Bill Weld wants all firearms that have five rounds or more banned.The NYT s reported on gun-grabber Governor Bill Weld here:Watch Gary Johnson s running mate former Governor Bill Weld endorsing Barack Obama. The most stunning part of the entire interview with MSNBC s Chris Matthews is when he calls radical leftist Barack Obama a Once in a lifetime talent. Here s a fun fact uncovered by Newsweek: Weld has been friends with both Hillary and Bill Clinton for quite some time. According to Newsweek, Weld and Hillary both worked together on the House impeachment committee in 1974 and almost worked for Bill during Bill s presidency in 1997. Weld has also gone on to say that he does not believe Hillary is in the wrong or should be punished for her emails. Some experts worry that his closeness to the Clintons could be a problem other Libertarians. Weld was also chosen as Bill Clinton s ambassador to Mexico before he withdrew after being denied a hearing by the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Jesse Helms. | 0 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
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FMD1798 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: When the Environmental Protection Agency proposed rules regulating carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, Scott Pruitt sued. When the Justice Department offered legal status to young undocumented immigrants, Scott Pruitt sued. And when the Obama administration sought to give tax credits to states that hadn t set up their own health insurance exchanges, Scott Pruitt sued.Since becoming Oklahoma attorney general in 2010, Pruitt has filed or joined lawsuits against federal agencies at least a dozen times. Even when Oklahoma isn t an actual party in litigation, the state often submits a legal brief against the federal government. Besides air pollution, immigration and health care, Pruitt has fought federal laws and regulations on banking, contraception and endangered species. These days, whenever states go to court against the Obama administration, the chances are that Pruitt is somehow involved.Not that Pruitt is alone. During Obama s presidency, the entire cadre of Republican attorneys general (27 at present) has coordinated cases against federal agencies at an unprecedented pace. But Pruitt is at the center of the action. He has set up a first-in-the-nation federalism unit, which seeks to combat instances of federal overreach by every possible means.Read more: Governing | 0 | [
"0",
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FMD1799 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A Catholic priest is mediating a potential political exit for Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, although the 93-year-old is insisting he can only be removed via a party leadership vote, political and intelligence sources said on Thursday. Separately, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has been receiving cancer treatment outside Zimbabwe, returned to Harare late on Wednesday, a party spokesman said, fuelling speculation about a post-Mugabe political settlement. | 1 | [
"0",
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