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FMD2700 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Print
Students at the University of California, Berkeley held a day of protest on Friday to demand the creation of additional “safe spaces” for transgender and nonwhite students, during which a human chain was formed on a main campus artery to prevent white students from getting to class.
The demonstrators were caught on video blocking Berkeley’s Sather Gate, holding large banners advocating the creation of physical spaces segregated by race and gender identity, including one that read “Fight 4 Spaces of Color.”
Protesters can be heard shouting “Go around!” to white students who attempt to go through the blockade, while students of color are greeted with calls of “Let him through!”
Students turned away by the mob are later shown filing through trees and ducking under branches in order to cross Strawberry Creek, which runs underneath the bridge.
Protesting students went on to march through the Berkeley Student Union, chanting and disrupting students who are studying. | 0 | [
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FMD2701 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Posted 11/16/2016 2:11 pm by PatriotRising with 0 comments Students at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst are staging a week-long “shit-in,” occupying restrooms in an administration building to demand more gender-neutral facilities. Gender Liberation UMass, the student group behind the demonstration, announced Tuesday that administrators had “tentatively agreed to progressive ‘benchmarks’ put forth by organizers,” but urges supporters to remain on-call.
Students at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst are staging a week-long “shit-in,” occupying restrooms in an administration building to demand more gender-neutral facilities.
The “ Shit-In at Whitmore ” demonstration began Monday morning at the Whitmore Administration building (which the activists have nicknamed “Queermore”), and organizers intend to have students continue occupying stalls in the building’s male and female restrooms until their demands are met, though the Facebook event specifies a Friday afternoon ending.
“Maybe [administrators] will feel a little bit as anxious as trans students do just trying to pee on campus.” Tweet This
Gender Liberation UMass (GLU), a student group at UMass, is responsible for organizing the event, and provides an online sign-up form for supporters to stake out specific times and locations, giving them the option of stating whether they prefer to be along in a stall or to share one with “other sitters.”
The primary goal of the protest is to convince the administration to convert additional bathrooms on campus into gender-neutral facilities by changing the signage, which the group believes will promote “trans inclusivity and safety on campus,” but GLU has also articulated two additional demands, pledging to continue obstructing toilets until all three are met.
In addition to gender-neutral restrooms, the group is calling for the “advancement of medically and socially competent in-house transgender health services at the University Health Services center,” as well as the “hiring of a professor by the WGSS [Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department] who is an expert in the field of critical transmisogyny from an intersectional perspective.”
Divest UMass, a student environmentalist group, released a statement on its Facebook page expressing solidarity with the GLU protesters
“These demands are elementary, and it is disappointing that UMass has failed to meet the needs of trans and gender non-conforming students to date. The administration must seriously put a plan into action to de-gender its facilities,” the message declares. “In the meantime, maybe they will feel a little bit as anxious as trans students do just trying to pee on the campus they pay tuition to every single day.”
Although the objectives of Divest UMass are not directly related to those being pursued by GLU, but leaders of the Divest group explained their interest in the “shit-in” by asserting that all progressive causes are interrelated, saying, “There can be no climate justice without gender justice. There can no be gender justice without racial justice. There can no be racial justice without economic justice. There can be no economic justice without social justice.”
Within a day of the restroom occupation starting, GLU announced that it had secured a meeting with Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Enku Gelaye on Tuesday morning to discuss its demands, and subsequently reported Tuesday evening that administrators had “tentatively agreed to progressive ‘benchmarks’ put forth by organizers.”
“The administration is definitely listening and the tones of our conversation have changed quite a bit,” one GLU member told Campus Reform , though the group is cautioning its supporters to remain prepared, because “the need for action may arise at any moment.”
“Changing the signage really is not very expensive, and I don’t want to talk bad about the administration here, but that’s one of the things we’ve had to go back and forth about, is this idea of the cost of it,” another GLU member added. “I and other members of GLU think the numbers they have proposed for what it would cost to change the signage are way beyond what it would really be.”
UMass Executive Director of Strategic Communications Ed Blaguszewski, however, told Campus Reform that the university is committed to expanding the availability of gender-neutral restrooms, making no mention of cost concerns while asserting that university officials would continue to meet regularly with transgender students to discuss their concerns.
“Currently, there are more than 200 gender-inclusive, single-user restrooms on campus, and during the coming year more than 50 will be added, either by construction or by converting single-user ‘Men’ or ‘Women’ facilities to ‘Restrooms,’” he explained, adding that “All new construction and major renovations on campus will include gender-inclusive restrooms. | 0 | [
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FMD2702 | 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: Dalai Gun Claim summaries: Rumor: The Dalai Lama said it 'would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.'
contextual information: Claim: The Dalai Lama once said that if someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun. Example: [Collected via e-mail, April 2013] Did the Dalai Lama really say "If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun." I've found this on many sites, but just can't believe it's true. Origins: In May 2001 Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th and current Dalai Lama (the head monk of the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism), made a three-day visit to Portland, Oregon, during which he gave a talk to 7,600 area high school students in what was billed by organizers as the "Educating the Heart Summit." As reported by the Seattle Times, during that talk the Dalai Lama responded to a question posed by a student about how to react to a potential school shooter by stating that it would "be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun," with the proviso that one should aim to wound and not to kill: His message resonates in an era when schools must be on guard against violent acts by gun-toting students. Included in the audience were some 35 students from Thurston High School in Springfield, Ore., where Kip Kinkel went on a May 1998 rampage in which his parents and two students were killed and 24 other students were wounded. Students, in a question-and-answer period, asked some hard questions. One girl wanted to know how to react to a shooter who takes aim at a classmate. The Dalai Lama said acts of violence should be remembered, and then forgiveness should be extended to the perpetrators. But if someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, he said, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun. Not at the head, where a fatal wound might result. But at some other body part, such as a leg. Many Americans might find the Dalai Lama's response surprising, given that he has expressed a dedication to nonviolence, and Buddhism is widely viewed in western culture as a religion that embraces pacifism. However, commentators have noted that the image of Buddhist pacifism is an exaggerated one which has been projected onto Buddhism by others: commentators Buddhist cultures, including Tibet, have not historically been pacifist. The previous dalai lama strove to develop a modern military. So the current one's dedication to nonviolence should not be taken as a matter of course. He was influenced by Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer whose pacifism was rooted in Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. His nonviolent approach is exceptional for a Buddhist political leader and integrates Indian and western concepts of nonviolent struggle. The exaggerated image of pacifism projected on Buddhism (and Hinduism) was embraced and promoted by natives, as it conveyed moral superiority over colonialist oppressors and missionaries. Getting the message fed back by natives reinforced the original misconceptions. But the ultimate source is Euro-Americans themselves, weary of a century of warfare and longing for a pacifist Shangri-La. Buddhist cultural values were never so simplistic and practically served rajas, khans, and daimyo for millennia. The main reason Buddhists' history does not match our expectations, aside from them being as human as the rest of us, is that our expectations have been mistaken. Some think that fantasies of a pacifist utopia benefit the Tibetan cause. It can also be argued that they encourage communists to contemptuously dismiss western support for Tibet and obstruct Buddhists from engaging their values. The Buddhist world is racked with violence and it has never been more important to understand Buddhist ethics. These include never acting in anger; exhausting alternatives such as negotiation; striving to capture the enemy alive; avoiding destruction of infrastructure and the environment; and taking responsibility for how one's actions and exploitation cause enemies to arise. They also emphasise the great psychic danger to those who act violently, something we see in the large number of suicides among youth sent to these wars. Above all, rather than "national self-interest", the guiding motivation should be compassion. Last updated: 10 October 2015 Jenkins, Stephen. "It's Not So Strange for a Buddhist to Endorse Killing." The Guardian. 11 May 2011 (p. B1). | 1 | [
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FMD2703 | 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: Justin Trudeau to Pardon All Prisoners Convicted of a Marijuana Offence Claim summaries: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not freed from prison and expunged the record of every convicted marijuana user in Canada.
contextual information: In July 2016, a image picturing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was circulated with text stating that he had freed everyone imprisoned for marijuana offences and expunged their records, and that he was able to enact such a sweeping reform because Canada (unlike the U.S.) has no "prison for profit" facilities: However, the claim originated not with a news report of any such reform act, but with an article published by the Global Sun on 3 July 2016: A press conference was held last night by The Liberal Party of Canada, on behalf of newly-elected Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau about future marijuana laws and regulations. 30 minutes into the conference, Trudeau announced the big news that all members of the parliament have agreed to and that is pardoning all Canadian prisoners who have been convicted of a minor or major offence of marijuana. The Global Sun is a satirical publication that does not publish factual stories: The Global Sun is a satire website, articles/post on the website are all made-up stories and should not be taken seriously. Although Prime Minister Trudeau has not freed all those convicted of marijuana-related offences from prison, real news suggests Canada may be moving toward legalizing the drug in 2017: legalizing Canada's Liberal Party government will introduce a law next spring to legalize recreational marijuana, Health Minister Jane Philpott disclosed last week at the United Nations. She did not detail who would be allowed to grow or distribute cannabis products. Canada has a lot of options here, said RAND Drug Policy Research Center co-director Beau Kilmer. You have to pay attention to what's going to happen with the regulation and the taxes. That could really shape what happens in terms of people coming in from other countries. You have to decide whether you want to allow that. | 0 | [
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FMD2704 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: During the Democrats first debate last month, Bernie Sanders said we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people. Denmark s Prime Minister came out swinging, demanding that Sanders get his facts straight, Denmark is not a socialist nation, it has a market economy. Democrats have been working for decades to adopt the progressive policies based on political correctness that permeates most European nations.Sweden, the Rape Capitol of the world, is a perfect example of how well their politically correct, open-border policies have worked out for them. As the Muslim invasion of these European nations escalates, we are seeing this indifferent attitude of live and let live that only benefits those Muslim invaders who have no intention of assimilating in their host nations. This video shows how a nation gripped with fear reacts with apathy towards the criminal as opposed to taking action to save the supposed victim. It illustrates how easily a group of invaders can overtake a nation conditioned to accepting everyone, so as not to offend anyone. Sadly, we live in a country which has the highest rate of reported cases of rape. And this land is called Sweden. Rape is a very serious crime which not only affects our country, but the rest of the world. So in our new social experiment, we put Swedish citizens up for a test. This video is a great example of what happens to a nation who puts political correctness before the safety and security of its citizens: A poor girl can be heard screaming for help from the backseat of a car. There is no question she is being sexually assaulted, yet one after another, Swedish citizens continue to walk by pretending not to hear.At one point in the video, the rapist a brave passerby took action to stop him. Sadly, most of the other apathetic citizens were satisfied to look the other way, so as not to get involved. The biggest sin of the humankind is indifference. | 0 | [
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FMD2705 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Citizen journalism with a punch Russia Is Hoarding Gold at Breakneck Pace — The Next Global Conflict Will Be Fought With Currencies
The fastest-growing gold reserve in the world Print Originally appeared at The Free Thought Project
With all eyes on Russia’s unveiling their latest nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which NATO has dubbed the “SATAN” missile , as tensions with the U.S. increase, Moscow’s most potent “weapon” may be something drastically different.
The rapidly evolving geopolitical “weapon” brandished by Russia is an ever increasing stockpile of gold, as well as Russia’s native currency, the ruble.
Take a look at the symbol below, as it could soon come to change the entire hierarchy of the international order – potentially ushering in a complete international paradigm shift – and much sooner than you might think. bankofrussia-e1475520013798.png
The symbol is the new designation of the Russian ruble, Russia’s national currency.
Similar to how the U.S. uses the dollar sign ($), the U.K. uses the pound sign (£), and the European Union uses the euro symbol (€), Russia is about to begin exporting its symbol internationally.
After the failed “reset” in U.S./Russian relations by the Obama administration, and the continued deterioration of the countries relationship, Washington began targeting entire sectors of the Russian economy, as well as specific individuals, meant to impose an economic burden so severe that it would force Moscow into compliance.
Instead of decimating Russia, what it precipitated was a Russian response of gradually weaning themselves off of the hegemony of the U.S. petrodollar, and working with China to create an alternative to the SWIFT payment system that isn’t solely controlled by Western interests (see Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank , New Development Bank).
According to the Corbett Report :
New reports indicate that China is ready to launch its SWIFT alternative, and for those who have their ear to the ground this is the most significant move yet in the unfolding process of de-dollarization that is seeing the BRICS-led “resistance bloc” breaking away from the financial stranglehold of the US-led “Washington Consensus.”
For those who don’t know, SWIFT stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication and is shorthand for the SWIFTNet Network that is used by over 10,500 financial institutions in 215 countries and territories to transmit financial transaction data around the world. SWIFT does not do any of the clearing or processing for these transactions itself, but instead sends the payment orders that are then settled by correspondent banks of the member institutions. Still, given the system’s near universality in the financial system, it means that virtually every international transaction between banking institutions goes through the SWIFT network.
This is why de-listing from the SWIFT network remains one of the primary financial weapons wielded by the US and its allies in their increasingly important financial warfare campaigns.
Recently, financial guru Jim Rickards, author of the book “Currency Wars,” wrote that “Russia is poised for a major comeback in its economy. Russian bonds and stocks and the Russian currency, the ruble, will all benefit.” Rickards believes a “strong turnaround” is coming within Russia, and that this comeback will benefit the ruble.
While still suffering from the economic warfare being waged by the U.S., Russia has realized that as long they are subservient to the petrodollar, there remains a clear and present danger of the Russian economy being devastated by the whims of Washington.
The Bank of Russia, that nation’s central bank, is extremely clear about its mission, and monetary policy declaring on its website:
Monetary policy constitutes an integral part of the state policy and is aimed at enhancing well-being of Russian citizens. The Bank of Russia implements monetary policy in the framework of inflation-targeting regime, and sees price stability, albeit sustainably low inflation, as its priority. Given structural peculiarities of the Russian economy, the target is to reduce inflation to 4% by 2017 and maintain it within that range in the medium run.
In layman’s terms, that means that monetary policy, similar to nuclear weapons and the military, are “an integral part of the state policy” in Russia. While many analysts have noted the increased build-up in Russia’s military arsenal, seemingly few have highlighted the massive build-up of Russian gold reserves over the past decade.
Below is a chart showing Russian gold reserves between 1994 and last year, 2015: russiangoldchart.jpg
Since 2006, there has been a year-on-year increase that reveals a significant upward trend. The chart clearly reveals that Russia’s state policy of increasing state monetary assets, in the form of gold. Additionally, the Russian government has been converting state rubles into gold assets. From 2006 to 2015, Russia’s state holdings of gold tripled.
Within just the past year Russia has substantially increased its gold holdings
According to the Business Insider :
In July of this year, the central bank of Russia added 200,000 ounces of gold to its reserves. The one-month uptick in Russian gold reserves — 200,000 ounces — is approximately equal to the entire annual output of Barrick Gold’s Turquoise Ridge gold mine in Nevada.
At that same rate — 200,000 ounces per month — in a mere five months, Russia would add to state gold reserves the equivalent of the entire annual output of Barrick’s massive Goldstrike mine in Nevada.
Currently, Russian gold reserves rank seventh in the world. It’s clear that there is a concerted effort by Russian authorities to build up the country’s gold reserves as part of a national strategy to negate the effects of economic warfare waged by the United States. Rickards, in his 2011 book “Currency Wars,” theorized that Russia and China could combine their gold reserves to form a global gold-backed currency to compete against the U.S. dollar. Currently, Russian reserves stand at roughly 1,500 tonnes, with Chinese reserves totaling over 1,800 tonnes (according to China — it’s likely more), which would amount to a combined total of roughly 3,300 tonnes of gold.
The U.S. is about to lose overarching control of policymaking within the International Monetary Fund (IMF), thus the U.S. lockup on global gold is about to vanish, according to Business Insider. Imagine for a moment the distinctly real possibility that Russian-Chinese alliance could exercise indirect (or even direct) control over the IMF’s gold reserve of over 2,800 tonnes. Russian, Chinese and IMF gold combined would equal roughly 6,100 tonnes, and would allow for direct competition with the U.S. gold reserves, estimated at 8,100 tonnes.
Russia and China have realized that the petrodollar is wielded by Washington as it’s weapon of choice when opposing a well-armed state, and clearly see the writing on the wall – thus working together to create a new global financial paradigm.
The reality is that the United States is $20 trillion dollars in debt, and eventually the time will come when the U.S. economy begins to implode — and all the fiat currency people are stuck holding will essentially be worth nothing more than the paper it’s printed on. Hard assets, such as gold and silver, should be bought and taken custody of while there is still an opportunity to do so, as a means of hedging against the potentially disastrous results of the U.S. using the petrodollar as a “weapon.”
Ultimately, the United States, Russia and China are all controlled by centralized power-hungry tyrants attempting to command powerful global bureaucracies like the IMF, the World Bank, SWIFT, New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
It’s not Russian nuclear weapons that people should fear, as the policy of mutually assured destruction essentially voids any benefit of a state launching a first-strike nuclear attack. The true threat to America is our economic house of cards, built upon the back of a neoliberal trade policy that puts the “rights” of corporations over that of people . | 0 | [
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FMD2706 | 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 USPS Purposefully Slowing Mail To Help Reelect Trump? Claim summaries: U.S. Postal Service workers nationwide reported backlogs of letters and packages in summer 2020. But was the issue political?
contextual information: As U.S. President Donald Trump accelerated unsubstantiated attacks on the legitimacy of mail-in voting during the summer of 2020, numerous Snopes readers asked us to investigate whether the leader of the U.S. Postal Service was carrying out a nefarious scheme to help Trump win another presidential term. mail-in voting In late July and early August, various rumors surfaced regarding Louis DeJoy, a North Carolina businessman whom the Postal Service's governing board selected to run the agency in May 2020. For example, a viral tweet thread alleged: viral tweet My mailman just confirmed they have all officially been told to "SLOW THE MAIL DOWN," per trump's Postmaster General...He says that there is backed up mail ALL OVER THE FLOOR. He's never seen anything like it. It has ALREADY begun. But as long as we keep each other informed, we can beat their dirty tricks with INFORMATION. The claim's underlying notions were these: DeJoy was a political ally to the Republican president, and the new postmaster general had used his new authority to order Postal Service carriers and clerks to slow deliveries to help Trump win the 2020 November election. A backlog of ballots in the weeks or days before Election Day, critics of the president worried, could lead to votes going uncounted or deemed invalid due to state laws governing mail-in election deadlines. state laws What follows is an examination of federal documents obtained by Snopes including letters by members of Congress, campaign finance reports, and internal memos to Postal Service employees as well as interviews with postal union representatives and a Postal Service spokesperson, to determine the legitimacy of those questions. DeJoy could not be reached for an interview for this report. Note: Snopes not only investigated DeJoy's relationship to Trump, but his financial stake in companies that compete with the Postal Service to evaluate if, or to what extent, his past investments provided any evidence of a plan to undermine the Postal Service's longstanding mission: to provide mail service to every American, no matter their address or income. Yes. DeJoy, who lives in Greensboro, donated more than $1.2 million to the Trump campaign between August 2016 and February 2020, according to campaign finance reports compiled by the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). Federal Elections Commission It's unclear when or how DeJoy developed a relationship with Trump, and why he decided to support the billionaire's political pursuits. In a 2005 interview with Greensboro's local newspaper, DeJoy then-CEO of New Breed Logistics, a distribution and warehousing company appeared less supportive of Trump, saying his self-important attitude on the reality-TV show "The Apprentice" was destructive. 2005 interview The Apprentice "I'd be fired," DeJoy said, if he was a contestant. Nonetheless, by early 2017, DeJoy was among his state's top donors to Trump (see below for The Charlotte Observer's list that ranks DeJoy at No. 3 with a total contribution of $111,000). And by October of that year, DeJoy had become close enough to the president to host him and other donors for fundraiser at his Greensboro house. top donors Greensboro house. Also, by that time, DeJoy's wife, Aldona Wos, had been appointed by the president to serve as vice chair of a White House commission that oversees paid fellowships in federal offices, according to the couple's foundation website. foundation website In addition to his contributions to Trump's political campaigns specifically, DeJoy has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican causes or campaigns over decades, the FEC records show. The Postal Service's governing board, a group appointed by the president with confirmation from the Senate, selected DeJoy as Postmaster General on May 6, 2020, after what it described as an extensive nationwide search for qualified candidates. At the time of that decision, Trump had appointed all six board members Chairman Robert Duncan, John Barger, Ron Bloom, Roman Martinez IV, Donald Moak, and William Zollars since the early days of his presidency. what it described Robert Duncan John Barger Ron Bloom Roman Martinez IV Donald Moak William Zollars DeJoy, who was in charge of fundraising for the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Charlotte when the board made its announcement, made the following donations since the start of 2020, according to filings from the FEC: National Republican Congressional Committee. National Republican Congressional Committee Facebook In sum, considering DeJoy's record of donations, as well as evidence of him hosting a Trump fundraiser at his Greensboro home in fall 2017, it is accurate to claim that the new postmaster general is a political ally to the Republican president. home The answer to this question is less clear. In summer 2020, the viral claim about DeJoy that he had directed carriers to delay mail to benefit Trump's reelection campaign (which we unpack below) took on another layer: that DeJoy had also allegedly invested $70 million of his own money in delivery companies that compete with the Postal Service. another layer allegedly That allegation, which we deemed true (see the explanation below), was particularly worrisome for critics of Trump and DeJoy, who believed the alleged holdings were more proof of the two leaders conspiring together this time in an attempt to privatize the Postal Service. critics Here's some context before we dive into DeJoy's personal assets: Conservative Republicans have long pushed to remove government from mail services that they believe should be left to the private commercial market. Since Trump took office, he has called the Postal Service "a joke" or Amazon's "delivery boy," considering its package rates, and has floated the idea of eventually privatizing the agency. a joke delivery boy eventually privatizing the agency Meanwhile, others fear dismantling the federally-mandated mail service would disproportionately affect people who live in rural areas, where private companies such as FedEx and UPS either charge higher rates or do no shipments at all. At the same time, the Postal Service which does not receive tax dollars for its operating expenses faces a worsening financial situation due to a 2006 congressional mandate that required the agency to prepay health care benefits of retirees, as well as a decline in first-class mail customers. The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated those long-standing problems, forcing several post offices nationwide to completely close or scale back hours. congressional mandate coronavirus pandemic scale back hours For instance, on April 9, 2020, roughly one month before DeJoy was selected to lead the Postal Service, then-Postmaster General Megan Brennan said the agency was preparing for a $13 billion revenue shortfall due directly to COVID-19 and an additional $54.3 billion in losses over 10 years. Considering those projections, she said the agency could run out of cash this fiscal year or the end of September without federal intervention. (Brennan announced her retirement in October 2019, after more than 30 years with the agency.) April 9, 2020 announced her retirement The former Postal Service leader made those comments shortly after federal leaders negotiated a $2.2 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package, called the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which, initially, included a $13 billion one-time boost for the mail service. But, purportedly at the urging of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and aides to Trump, congressional leaders removed that provision from the stimulus package, and instead included a $10 billion loan that the Trump administration could leverage in its favor. Then, on July 29, 2020, The Washington Post reported that under DeJoy's leadership, the postal agency gave Mnuchin's office's proprietary information about the Postal Service's most lucrative private-sector contracts, such as Amazon, FedEx and UPS, in exchange for the loan money. economic relief package Steven Mnuchin The Washington Post By that time, Congressional leaders and Trump were battling yet again over another emergency relief package; Democrats proposed a $25 billion boost for the Postal Service but then lowered that amount to $10 billion during talks with Republicans. On Aug. 13, 2020, during an interview on Fox Business Network, the president said frankly the tug-and-pull over Postal Service funding was part of his administration's plan to try to make it harder for the agency to handle the expected surge in mail-in ballots in the November election. If we dont make a deal, that means they dont get the money, Trump told host Maria Bartiromo, referring to the false claim that Democrats are are proposing a universal mail-in voting system. That means they cant have universal mail-in voting; they just cant have it. told Which brings us to DeJoy's assets, and the above-mentioned claim that he had "$70 million invested in companies that compete with USPS." For the basis of this analysis, we considered private companies that provide shipping or distribution services, such as DHL, the FedEx Corporation, and United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS), business competitors with the post office. For more than 30 years, DeJoy was the CEO of New Breed Logistics, a supply chain business that contracted with a variety of public and private companies, including the Postal Service. In 2014, XPO Logistics acquired DeJoy's company, and he served on the company's executive team or board of directors until May 2018. According to internal documents, which we obtained using the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) database of company filings, XPO Logistics considered its competitors to include DHL, FedEx, UPS, and J.B. Hunt Transport Services. XPO Logistics DHL FedEx UPS J.B. Hunt Transport Services Aside from that evidence, which proved DeJoy's former company competed for business with organizations that also competed with the Postal Service, Snopes uncovered a letter from his wife, Wos, to a White House legal advisor on January 3, 2020, that listed her family's financial assets, known as "Attachment A." According to that list, the family had stock in companies including UPS, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc., and XPO Logistics, Inc. letter She wrote the letter in response to a nomination by the Trump administration to serve as U.S. ambassador to Canada, and she said she would divest from all holdings in the document within 90 days of her confirmation. However, as of this writing, Wos had not been sworn into the position. The letter, which was available via the Office of Government Ethics, read: nomination Office of Government Ethics As of June 15, 2020, the day DeJoy assumed his role as postmaster general, The Washington Post reported the couple had between $30.1 million and $75.3 million in assets in Postal Service competitors or contractors. XPO Logistics represented the vast majority of those investments, and the couple's combined stake in UPS and trucking company J.B. Hunt, for examples, was roughly $265,000. The Washington Post reported On DeJoy's first day, the Senate's top Democrat, Charles Schumer of New York, said in letter to the Postal Service's board of governors' chairman: "[DeJoy's] financial interests in companies that have business ties with the Postal Services, as well as his extensive campaign fundraising efforts, raise questions" over his ethical conflicts of interest and partisan interests. letter By that point, a spokeswoman for DeJoy told journalists he had resigned as finance chair for the Republican National Convention, and would "comply with any financial divestitures that are required" for the new leadership position. told journalists In sum, reports proved the DeJoy family at one point had millions of dollars in assets in companies that compete or contract with the Postal Service, which lend credibility to the viral assertion. But the exact amount of such investments was unclear, and as of this writing, it was unknown if or to what extent the couple had divested any of the financial holdings. Not exactly but there is some truth to the claim. Upon our analysis, the rumor seems to have stemmed from a series of directives DeJoy gave Postal Service employees since he took over the agency. On his first day, for example, he addressed the agency in a video that alluded to impending changes under his leadership that aimed to create a "viable operating model," though he did not go into specifics. video Then, in mid-July, he issued several memos to employees, including a "New [Postmaster General's] expectations and plan." Those messages to all managers, clerks, and carriers nationwide appeared to be the source of the claim, and detailed changes to how and when the Postal Agency would deliver mail. A July 10, 2020, internal document to managers, which Snopes received from the American Postal Workers Union and refers to an "operational pivot" for the agency, said the following, for example: American Postal Workers Union The initial step in our pivot is targeted on transportation and the soaring costs we incur due to late trips and extra trips, which costs the organization somewhere around $200 million in added expenses. $200 million in added expenses The shifts are simple, but they will be challenging, as we seek to change our culture and move away from past practices previously used. But perhaps most relevant to the claim, the DeJoy-sponsored directives included instructions for employees to leave letters or packages at distribution centers if they delayed carriers from their routes contradicting previous rules for deliveries and said the Postal Service would no longer pay employees overtime to complete all mail deliveries. The July 10, 2020 memo said: contradicting One aspect of these changes that may be difficult for employees is that temporarily we may see mail left behind or mail on the workroom floor or docks [in Processing and Distribution Centers], which is not typical. We will address root causes of these delays and adjust the very next day. Any mail left behind must be properly reported, and employees should ensure this action is taken with integrity and accuracy. As we adjust to the ongoing pivot, which will have a number of phases, we know that operations will begin to run more efficiently and that delayed mail volumes will soon shrink significantly. We also considered a separate message to employees in July 2020 that said, under a new initiative, carriers in certain regions would not sort any mail during the morning and instead clock in, retrieve sorted mail from the previous day and limit time in the office as much as possible. Then, when they returned from the streets, they would sort all available mail for the next day. July 2020 The agency said the extra spending on employees' overtime or delivery trips had not improved "our performance scores," without going into detail on what that meant, and framed the changes as necessary steps to improve its financial position. A July 27, 2020, public statement from DeJoy said: said public statement Given our current situation, it is critical that the Postal Service take a fresh look at our operations and make necessary adjustments. We are highly focused on our public service mission to provide prompt, reliable, and efficient service to every person and business in this country, and to remain a part of the nations critical infrastructure. David Partenheimer, manager of media relations for the Postal Service, told Snopes that the postmaster general was not doing any media interviews regarding the initiatives, nor about the underlying claims of this report. In a roughly 760-word email to us, however, Partenheimer reemphasized what the agency viewed as the need for the adjustments, and said: "We acknowledge that temporary service impacts can occur as we redouble our efforts to conform to the current operating plans, but any such impacts will be monitored and temporary ... and corrected as appropriate." Soon after the directives, American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein told us in a phone interview that employees and customers across the country were noticing mail delays. In the Philadelphia region, for instance, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported situations where residents were going upwards of three weeks without receiving packages and letters, and postal union leaders and carriers said mail was piling up at offices, unscanned and unsorted. Mark Dimondstein employees Philadelphia Inquirer "When you ... say this is what you have to do as workers, then that's what we have to do [the change] runs counter to everything that the Postal Service is about, which is we treat the mail as our own; we get it to the customer as quickly as we can," Dimondstein said. "They've never seen mail backed up like this it's not being moved." That meant, while DeJoy had not told carriers to "slow the mail down" verbatim, he initiated changes to how and when carriers go about doing their job that the Postal Agency said would cause temporary mail delays. However, it would be inaccurate to assume all slow deliveries under DeJoy's leadership were a result of the July 2020 directives specifically, when they could also be linked to reduced hours for some post offices or other circumstances. Roughly three months before the 2020 presidential election, voting rights groups and outspoken critics to the president believed the new directives by DeJoy occurred at a convenient time for Trump: when a record number of Americans were preparing to vote by mail and avoid potential exposure to the COVID-19 coronavirus by casting ballots at in-person polling places. Specifically, they worried the new requirements for post office carriers and clerks would lead to backlogs of mail-in ballots and thus create challenges for elections officials who, in the majority of states, must invalidate ballots that reach them after Election Day even if they were postmarked before that date. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, for example, led colleagues in writing a letter to DeJoy on July 20, 2020, that said: Rep. Carolyn Maloney "While these changes [to mail service] in a normal year would be drastic, in a presidential election year when many states are relying heavily on absentee mail-in ballots, increases in mail delivery timing would impair the ability of ballots to be received and counted in a timely manner an unacceptable outcome for a free and fair election." We asked Dimondstein, APWU president, whether he believed the July directives by Postal Service leadership were somehow linked to a plan to cause mail service chaos before the November election and help Trump win reelection. He said: What we do know for truth is this administration is, in written record, proposing and planning to sell the post office to private corporations, i.e. privatizing...That was June 2018. We also know as a fact that ...that [there are] calls for reduced service, increased prices, and less workers' rights and benefits. So if you take those two things together, certainly if they're implemented, then they're going to cause delays in mail; they're going to cause service being undermined... written record This is a fact: [DeJoy is] what's considered a mega-donor of the Trump administration and the Republican party... Anything that undermines the Postal Service' [service to customers] ... has us concerned that it could be linked back to those who have an agenda to eliminate [the Postal Service]. But I can't sit here and tell you that that's a fact. Partenheimer said any notion that DeJoy made decisions for the Postal Service under directions from Trump (which include claims that he issued the July 2020 changes that resulted in delays to help Trump's re-election campaign) were "wholly misplaced and off-base." He said the Postal Service, typically an apolitical agency, remains committed to "fulfilling our role in the electoral process" in places where politicians allow voters to cast ballots by mail and "to delivering Election Mail in a timely manner consistent with our operational standards." He elaborated: "[Despite] any assertions to the contrary, we are not slowing down Election Mail or any other mail. Instead, we continue to employ a robust and proven process to ensure proper handling of all Election Mail consistent with our standards." Days later, he said in a statement to news media that certain deadlines concerning mail-in ballots, may be incompatible with the Postal Services delivery standards, especially if election officials dont pay more for first-class postage. To the extent that states choose to use the mail as part of their elections, they should do so in a manner that realistically reflects how the mail works, he said. news media Then, on Aug. 18, 2020, DeJoy issued a statement in which he said he would temporarily suspend initiatives "that have been raised as areas of concern as the nation prepares to hold an election in the midst of a devastating pandemic," including the controversial July 2020 directives that eliminated overtime and some delivery trips. The statement read: statement To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded. I want to assure all Americans of the following: In addition, effective Oct. 1, we will engage standby resources in all areas of our operations, including transportation, to satisfy any unforeseen demand. In sum, it was accurate to state that DeJoy, a political ally to Trump, ordered Postal Service workers to leave late-arriving mail at distribution centers for delivery the following day and eliminate extra trips in July 2020 a change the Postal Service was expecting to cause temporary mail delays although no verifiable evidence proved those directives were part of a deliberate scheme to disenfranchise voters in the November 2020 election. Additionally, there was no proof to show the changes aimed to help Trump win reelection. For those reasons, we rate this claim "Unproven." Ye Hee Lee, Michelle and Bogage, Jacob. "Postal Service Backlog Sparks Worries That Ballot Delivery Could Be Delayed In November".
The Washington Post. 30 July 2020. Naylor, Brian. "Pending Postal Service Changes Could Delay Mail And Deliveries, Advocates War".
NPR. 29 July 2020. Naylor, Brian. "Pending Postal Service Changes Could Delay Mail And Deliveries, Advocates War".
NPR. 29 July 2020. USPS Contributor. "What Is The History Behind The Unofficial USPS Motto?"
Postal Posts. 11 September 2015. USPS. "Postmaster General Statement On Operational Excellence And Financial Stability".
27 July 2020. Office of Inspector General. "U.S. Postal Service's Processing Network Optimization And Service Impacts".
USPS. 16 June 2020. Dawsey, Josh, et. al. "Top Republican Fundraiser And Trump Ally Named Postmaster General, Giving President New Influence Over Postal Service".
The Washington Post. 6 May 2020. Bogage, Jacob. "Postal Service Memos Detail 'Difficult' Changes, Including Slower Mail Delivery".
The Washington Post. 14 July 2020. Naylor, Brian. "New Postmaster General Is Top GOP Fundraiser".
NPR. 7 May 2020. Hummel, Marta. "New Breed CEO No One's 'Apprentice' Louis DeJoy Is A Big Supporter Of George W. Bush But Says The Clinton Era Was His Most Profitable".
News & Record. 7 January 2005. Heckman, Jory. "USPS Board Names Logistics Executive As New Postmaster General".
Federal News Network. 6 May 2020. Gordon, Aaron. "USPS Plans To Slash Hours At Many Post Offices, Hoping To Save A Buck".
Vice. 29 July 2020. Cohen, Rachel. "USPS Workers Concerned New Policies Will Pave The Way To Privatization".
The Intercept. 29 July 2020. Derysh, Igor. "With Trump Donor In Charge, Postal Service May Shut Locations And Cut Service Before Election Day".
Salon. 31 July 2020. Rushing, Ellie. "Mail Delays Are Frustrating Philly Residents, And A Short-Staffed Postal Service Is Struggling To Keep Up".
The Philadelphia Inquirer. 2 August 2020. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney. "Maloney, King Lead Bipartisan NY Delegation Call For Immediate Help For The Postal Service".
28 April 2020. House Committee On Oversight And Reform. "Senior Democrats Request Information On Postal Service's Operational Changes".
20 July 2020. Bogage, Jacob. "Trump Ally Takes Over Crisis-Ridden Postal Service As Top Senate Democrat Demands Inquiry On Hiring".
The Washington Post. 15 June 2020. Murphy, Brian. "NC Businessman, A Big-Time GOP Donor, Is Tapped To Lead US Postal Service".
The News & Observer. 7 May 2020. Shear, Michael. "Mail Delays Fuel Concern Trump Is Undercutting Postal Service Ahead Of Voting".
The New York Times. 1 August 2020. Sargent, Greg. "Trump Just Told Us How Mail Delays Could Help Him Corrupt The Election".
The Washington Post. 31 July 2020. Reichmann, Deb, and Izaguirre, Anthony. "Trump Admits He's Blocking Postal Cash To Stop Mail-In Votes."
Associated Press. 14 August 2020. USPS. "Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Statement."
18 August 2020. This report was updated to include an interview by Trump with Fox Business Network on Aug. 13, 2020, where he acknowledged that he was intentionally blocking Postal Service funding in an attempt to make it harder for the agency to process mail-in ballots in the November presidential election. This report was updated to include a statement by DeJoy on Aug. 18, 2020, in which he announced the suspension of certain initiatives "to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail." | 2 | [
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FMD2707 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Videos ‘We The People’ Against Tyranny: Seven Principles For Free Government “As I look at America today, I am not afraid to say that I am afraid.”— Former presidential adviser Bertram Gross | November 7, 2016 Be Sociable, Share! Dozens of protestors demonstrating against the expansion of the Dakota Access Pipeline wade in cold creek waters confronting local police, as remnants of pepper spray waft over the crowd near Cannon Ball, N.D., Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016.
As history teaches us, if the people have little or no knowledge of the basics of government and their rights, those who wield governmental power inevitably wield it excessively. After all, a citizenry can only hold its government accountable if it knows when the government oversteps its bounds.
Precisely because Americans are easily distracted—because, as study after study shows, they are clueless about their rights—because their elected officials no longer represent them—because Americans have been brainwashed into believing that their only duty as citizens is to vote—because the citizenry has failed to hold government officials accountable to abiding by the Constitution—because young people are no longer being taught the fundamentals of the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, resulting in citizens who don’t even know they have rights—and because Americans continue to place their trust in politics to fix what’s wrong with this country—the American governmental scheme is sliding ever closer towards a pervasive authoritarianism.
This steady slide towards tyranny, meted out by militarized local and federal police and legalistic bureaucrats, has been carried forward by each successive president over the past fifty years regardless of their political affiliation.
Big government has grown bigger and the rights of the citizenry have grown smaller.
However, there are certain principles—principles that every American should know—which undergird the American system of government and form the basis for the freedoms our forefathers fought and died for.
The following seven principles are a good starting point for understanding what free government is really all about.
First, the maxim that power corrupts is an absolute truth. Realizing this, those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights held one principle sacrosanct: a distrust of all who hold governmental power. As James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, proclaimed, “All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.” Moreover, in questions of power, Thomas Jefferson warned, “Let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” As such, those who drafted our founding documents would see today’s government as an out-of-control, unmanageable beast.
The second principle is that governments primarily exist to secure rights, an idea that is central to constitutionalism. In appointing the government as the guardian of the people’s rights, the people give it only certain, enumerated powers, which are laid out in a written constitution. The idea of a written constitution actualizes the two great themes of the Declaration of Independence: consent and protection of equal rights. Thus, the purpose of constitutionalism is to limit governmental power and ensure that the government performs its basic function: to preserve and protect our rights, especially our unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and our civil liberties. Unfortunately, the government today has discarded this principle and now sees itself as our master, not our servant. The obvious next step, unless we act soon, is tyranny.
The third principle revolves around the belief that no one is above the law, not even those who make the law. This is termed rule of law. Richard Nixon’s statement, “When the President does it, that means it is not illegal,” would have been an anathema to the Framers of the Constitution. If all people possess equal rights, the people who live under the laws must be allowed to participate in making those laws. By that same token, those who make the laws must live under the laws they make. However, today government officials at all levels often act as if they are royalty with salaries and perks that none of the rest of us are afforded. This is an egregious affront to the citizenry.
Fourth, separation of powers ensures that no single authority is entrusted with all the powers of government. People are not perfect, whether they are in government or out of it. As history makes clear, those in power tend to abuse it. The government is thus divided into three co-equal branches: legislative, executive and judicial. Placing all three powers in the same branch of government was considered the very definition of tyranny. The fact that the president today has dictatorial powers would have been considered a curse by the Framers.
Fifth, a system of checks and balances, essential if a constitutional government is to succeed, strengthens the separation of powers and prevents legislative despotism. Such checks and balances include dividing Congress into two houses, with different constituencies, term lengths, sizes and functions; granting the president a limited veto power over congressional legislation; and appointing an independent judiciary capable of reviewing ordinary legislation in light of the written Constitution, which is referred to as “judicial review.” The Framers feared that Congress could abuse its powers and potentially emerge as the tyrannous branch because it had the power to tax. But they did not anticipate the emergence of presidential powers as they have come to dominate modern government or the inordinate influence of corporate powers on governmental decision-making. Indeed, as recent academic studies now indicate, we are now ruled by a monied oligarchy that serves itself and not “we the people.”
Sixth, representation allows the people to have a voice in government by sending elected representatives to do their bidding while avoiding the need of each and every citizen to vote on every issue considered by government. In a country as large as the United States, it is not feasible to have direct participation in governmental affairs. Hence, we have a representative government. If the people don’t agree with how their representatives are conducting themselves, they can and should vote them out. However, as the citizenry has grown lazy and been distracted by the entertainment spectacles of modern society, government bureaucrats churn out numerous laws each year resulting in average citizens being rendered lawbreakers and jailed for what used to be considered normal behavior. Local institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they put it within the people’s reach; they teach people to appreciate its peaceful enjoyment and accustom them to make use of it. Without local institutions a nation may give itself a free government, but it has not got the spirit of liberty.
Unfortunately, we are now governed by top-heavy government emanating from Washington DC that has no respect for local institutions or traditions.
These seven vital principles have been largely forgotten in recent years, obscured by the haze of a centralized government, a citizenry that no longer thinks analytically, and schools that don’t adequately teach our young people about their history and their rights.
Yet here’s the rub: while Americans wander about in their brainwashed states, their “government of the people, by the people and for the people” has largely been taken away from them.
The answer: get un-brainwashed.
Stand up for the founding principles.
Make your voice and your vote count for more than just political posturing.
Never cease to vociferously protest the erosion of your freedoms at the local and national level.
Most of all, do these things today.
If we wait until the votes have all been counted or hang our hopes on our particular candidate to win and fix what’s wrong with the country, “we the people” will continue to lose.
Whether we ever realize it not, the enemy is not across party lines, as they would have us believe. It has us surrounded on all sides.
Even so, we’re not yet defeated.
We could still overcome our oppressors if we cared enough to join forces and launch a militant nonviolent revolution—a people’s revolution that starts locally and trickles upwards—but that will take some doing.
It will mean turning our backs on the political jousting contests taking place at all levels of government and rejecting their appointed jesters as false prophets. It will mean not allowing ourselves to be corralled like cattle and branded with political labels that have no meaning anymore. It will mean recognizing that all the evils that surround us today—endless wars, drone strikes, invasive surveillance, militarized police, poverty, asset forfeiture schemes, overcriminalization, etc.—are not of our making but came about as a way to control and profit from us.
It will mean “ voting with our feet ” through sustained, mass civil disobedience.
As journalist Chris Hedges points out, “There were once radicals in America, people who held fast to moral imperatives. They fought for the oppressed because it was right , not because it was easy or practical. They were willing to accept the state persecution that comes with open defiance. They had the courage of their convictions. They were not afraid.”
Ultimately, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People , it will mean refusing to be divided, one against each other, by politics and instead uniting behind the only distinction that has ever mattered: “we the people” against tyranny. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Mint Press News editorial policy. Be Sociable, Share! | 0 | [
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FMD2708 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Muslim-majority Malaysia s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad on Friday called U.S. President Donald Trump an international bully and a villain for his move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital. Trump last week reversed decades of U.S. policy by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and said the United States would move its embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in the coming years. The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest barriers to a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace. Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there. Palestinians want the capital of an independent state of theirs to be in the city s eastern sector, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move never recognized internationally. The anger from Trump s decision will lead to what is called terrorism , the 93-year-old Mahathir told a protest rally in front of the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Today we have an international bully. Trump, go find someone your own size. This (Jerusalem plan) will only stir the anger of the Muslims, said Mahathir, the chairman of Malaysia s opposition coalition. We must use all our power to oppose this villain who is the president of the United States, he said, urging all Muslim countries to cut ties with Israel. Muhyiddin Yassin, another opposition leader, called on the Malaysian government to not proceed with planned investments in the United States. Last week, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak urged Muslims worldwide to oppose any recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital. Social media users in Muslim-majority Malaysia vowed to boycott U.S. companies, such as McDonald s Corp, following Trump s decision. The chain s Malaysian franchise said it did not support or engage in any political or religious conflicts. Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Ahamd Hamidi on Friday said Najib and the leader of the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) would lead a protest rally next Friday in Malaysia s administrative capital of Putrajaya, media said. | 1 | [
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FMD2709 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Democratic-leaning states may take legal action to challenge the cap on deductions of state and local taxes under the sweeping overhaul of the U.S. tax code, and even though such lawsuits would face long odds they could help galvanize Democrats for next year’s mid-term election. The U.S. tax bill, passed by Republicans in Congress on Wednesday, limits deductions of state and local income and property taxes, known as SALT, to $10,000. The provision hits hardest Democratic-leaning states with high incomes, high property values and high taxes, like New York, New Jersey and California. Law professors said legal challenges would likely rest on arguing that the provision interferes with the protection of states’ rights under the U.S. Constitution. Some political strategists see a win for Democrats regardless of how courts ultimately rule, saying that lawsuits could be used to keep the issue front and center for voters already largely disenchanted with the Republican party. “It’s a no-brainer for them to do this,†said Democratic political consultant Phil Singer. “Failing to aggressively pursue a remedy would be political malpractice.†New Jersey Governor-elect Phil Murphy said during an appearance on CNBC on Wednesday that “everything is on the table†for New Jersey to oppose the bill, including challenging its “legality and constitutionality.†The governors of California and New York, Jerry Brown and Andrew Cuomo, have both previously said they were exploring legal challenges to SALT deduction limits. Their offices did not return requests for comment on Wednesday. Since President Donald Trump took office, blue states have aggressively used the courts to attempt to block the president’s agenda, suing over his proposed travel ban, environmental policies and other measures. William O’Reilly, a conservative political consultant in New York, said the SALT deduction issue would likely add to Republicans’ “suburbia problem†among college-educated voters ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. “They already had one because of this president’s style,†O’Reilly said. Darien Shanske, a tax law professor at the University of California Davis School of Law, said the governors would probably argue that restricting the SALT deduction, which dates back to the introduction of the federal income tax in 1862, violates the U.S. Constitution’s 10th Amendment that protects states’ rights. Shanske and other tax experts said the federalism argument would need to overcome the U.S. Supreme Court’s historically broad interpretations of Congress’ 16th Amendment power to impose taxes. “As a general matter, nothing prevents the federal government from changing the SALT deduction,†said David Gamage, a professor of tax law at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law. In a frequently cited 1934 decision, the Supreme Court called tax deductions a “legislative grace†rather than a right, and said Congress has broad leeway to abolish them. The court reiterated this view in a 1988 decision allowing Congress to remove a federal tax exemption for interest on some state and local bonds. Kirk Stark, a professor of tax law at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, said there is a slight possibility that a federalism argument against limiting the SALT deduction could gain traction. “Courts create new law all the time,†he said, noting that decisions on matters this sweeping tend to become political. But some legal experts noted that the state’s rights argument is more typically a conservative position. Using it to challenge the SALT provision could be a move that Democratic governors come to regret in the future, said Daniel Hemel, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. “The progressive agenda depends on the federal government being able to raise revenue and the Supreme Court not getting in the way of that,†Hemel said. | 1 | [
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FMD2710 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Andrew Napolitano was a Superior Court judge in New Jersey until, frustrated by the constraints of his salary, he left the bench for more lucrative pastures: talk radio, a syndicated court TV series (“Power of Attorneyâ€) and, eventually, Fox News, where he rose to become the network’s senior legal analyst. It was in that capacity this week that Mr. Napolitano managed to set off a cascading scandal, which by Friday had sparked a tiff between Britain and the United States while plunging President Trump’s close relationship with Fox News into new, murkier territory. It was new ground for Mr. Napolitano, 66, who prefers being addressed as “The Judge†and once insisted that Fox News install bookshelves and in his newsroom office, the better to resemble a judge’s chambers. But Mr. Napolitano’s unlikely leap into global politics can be explained by his friendship with Mr. Trump, whom he met with this year to discuss potential Supreme Court nominees. Mr. Napolitano also has a taste for conspiracy theories, which led him to Larry C. Johnson, a former intelligence officer best known for spreading a hoax about Michelle Obama. Let’s back up. The saga began on Tuesday on “Fox Friends,†the chummy morning show, where Mr. Napolitano made a bizarre and unsupported accusation: Citing three unnamed sources, he said that Britain’s top spy agency had wiretapped Mr. Trump on behalf of President Barack Obama during last year’s campaign. Cable news blather, especially at that hour, usually vanishes at the commercial break. But on Thursday, Mr. Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, repeated the claim from the White House podium, infuriating British officials. On Friday, Fox News was forced to disavow Mr. Napolitano’s remarks. “Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary,†the anchor Shepard Smith said . “Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the of the United States was surveilled at any time, any way. Full stop. †The terse declaration boosted the credibility of Fox News’s newsroom, which is often attacked as biased, but also put it in the awkward position of repudiating one of its featured contributors. And it could threaten the cozy dynamic between Mr. Trump, a frequent Fox viewer, and the network’s conservative hosts. Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and the prankster Jesse Watters are among the few television personalities to be granted interviews with the president. Programs like “Fox Friends†often serve as cheerleaders for him, and the network is increasing its focus on conservatism: A new weekly series, hosted by a leader of the Brexit movement, Steve Hilton, will focus on populism. Mr. Napolitano, who keeps a residence in Manhattan at Trump International Hotel Tower on Central Park West, did not respond to inquiries on Friday. But Mr. Johnson, who was himself once a Fox News contributor, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Napolitano called him on Friday and requested that he speak to The New York Times. Mr. Johnson said he was one of the sources for Mr. Napolitano’s claim about British intelligence. Mr. Johnson became infamous in political circles after he spread false rumors in 2008 that Michelle Obama had been videotaped using a slur against Caucasians. In the interview on Friday, Mr. Johnson acknowledged his notoriety, but said that his knowledge of surveillance of Mr. Trump came from sources in the American intelligence community. Mr. Napolitano, he said, heard about his information through an intermediary. “It sounds like a Frederick Forsyth novel,†Mr. Johnson said. Mr. Trump refused to back down from the claims on Friday, and even praised Mr. Napolitano, telling reporters, “All we did was quote a very talented legal mind. †The president’s next scheduled appearance on Fox News is Saturday night, when an interview will air between him and Mr. Watters, a host known for interviews that have been denounced as offensive and, at times, racist. In a clip released on Friday, Mr. Watters asks Mr. Trump which celebrity he would most like to fire: Alec Baldwin, Senator Chuck Schumer or CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker. “I don’t want to say,†Mr. Trump replied. “But I will say I’m disappointed in all three. †| 1 | [
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FMD2711 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday unveiled measures aimed at educating the public and schoolchildren about sexism and violence against women and improving police support for victims. During his campaign Macron, who won the presidential election in May, promised to rethink sexual politics and gender equality, which he made a national cause for his five-year mandate. The Harvey Weinstein scandal in the United States has accelerated a rethink of attitudes toward sexual harassment in France, a country that cherishes its self-image as the land of seduction and romance. Let s seal a pact of equality between men and women, Macron said in a speech marking the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women. About violence and sexual abuse, he said: It is essential that shame changes camp. During his speech, Macron observed a minute s silence for the 123 women killed by their partner or ex-partner in 2016. Measures announced include educating secondary school children about pornography and simplifying the system for rape and assault victims to go to the police. Proposals that could be included in a 2018 draft law include criminalizing street harassment and extending the statute of limitation for the rape of minors to 30 years from 20 years. Macron also said he was personally in favor of setting the age of sexual consent at 15. Currently France has no minimum age for sexual consent. Planned changes to the police system include allowing victims of rape and sexual assault to make their initial complaints online, before going to a police station to bring criminal charges. Other measures include on demand bus stops, where women can stop a bus anywhere at night so they can get home safely. French feminist group Osez le F minisme said the measures were going in the right direction but must be accompanied by adequate funding. Without funding, any communication, training, awareness or help plan for the victims will be useless, the statement said. France has often debated sexual harassment over the past decade following scandals involving French politicians. Six years ago a sex scandal forced former finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn to resign as head of the International Monetary Fund, provoking a round of soul-searching in France about sexual abuse that goes undetected in the upper echelons of power. | 1 | [
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FMD2712 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Geo-Engineering Unlikely to Work, Conservation Group Says Posted on Nov 3, 2016
By Alex Kirby / Climate News Network Biofilm used in research into carbon capture: Doubts persist about geo-engineering. (ENERGY.GOV via Wikimedia Commons)
LONDON—The global watchdog responsible for protecting the world ’ s wealth of species, the UN ’ s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), has looked at the hopes for reining in climate change through geo-engineering. Its bleak conclusion, echoing that reached by many independent scientists, is that the chances are “highly uncertain”. “Novel means”, in this context, describes trying to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by removing them from the atmosphere, and altering the amount of heat from the Sun that reaches the Earth. Some scientists and policymakers say geo-engineering, as these strategies are collectively known, is essential if the world is to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement . This is because current attempts to reduce emissions cannot make big enough cuts fast enough to keep global average temperatures from rising more than 2°C above their pre-industrial levels, the Agreement’s basic goal. But the CBD says in a report that geo-engineering, while it could possibly help to prevent the world overheating, might endanger global biodiversity and have other unpredictable effects. Many independent analysts have raised similar concerns.Attempts to increase the amount of carbon in the oceans, in order to remove GHGs, have so far shown disappointing results. One report doubted that geo-engineering could slow sea-level rise . Another said it could not arrest the melting of Arctic ice . A third study found that geo-engineering would make things little better and might even make global warming worse . Transboundary impacts The lead author of the CBD geo-engineering report is a British scientist, Dr Phillip Williamson, of the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council . He is an associate fellow in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia , UK. The CBD originally became involved in climate geo-engineering in 2008, because member governments were concerned that experiments to fertilise the oceans could pose unknown risks to the environment (they were then unregulated when carried out in international waters). The CBD’s concern expanded to include other geo-engineering techniques, especially atmospheric methods which could have uncertain transboundary impacts. Some scientists argue that “geo-engineering” is a hazily-defined term and prefer to speak instead simply of “greenhouse gas removal”. Dr Williamson and his colleagues say assessment of the impacts of geo-engineering on biodiversity “is not straightforward and is subject to many uncertainties”. On greenhouse gas removal they warn that removing a given quantity of a greenhouse gas would not fully compensate for an earlier ‘overshoot’ of emissions. New risks In some cases, they say, the cure may be worse than the disease: “The large-scale deployment of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) seems likely to have significant negative impacts on biodiversity through land use change.” When it comes to attempts to reflect sunlight back out into space or to manage solar radiation, a familiar theme recurs: “There are high levels of uncertainty about the impacts of SRM [solar radiation management] techniques, which could present significant new risks to biodiversity.” Time and again, it seems, a potential advance is liable to be cancelled by an equally likely reverse: if SRM benefits coral reefs by decreasing temperature-induced bleaching (as it may), in certain conditions “it may also increase, indirectly, the impacts of ocean acidification.” There could even be a risk in some circumstances of loss to the Earth’s protective ozone layer. Dr Williamson and his colleagues believe that geo-engineering is essential—if it can be made to work—because of the diminishing chances that anything else will. “I’m sceptical. That’s not to say bio-energy with carbon capture and storage is impossible, but it seems extremely unlikely to be feasible” They write: “It may still be possible that deep and very rapid decarbonisation by all countries might allow climate change to be kept within a 2°C limit by emission reduction alone. However, any such window of opportunity is rapidly closing.” Repeatedly, those two words recur: a suggested technique or development will be “highly uncertain”. Most of the report amounts to a very cautious call for more research, coupled with an implicit acceptance that in the end geo-engineering is unlikely to prove capable of contributing much to climate mitigation. Dr Williamson told the Climate News Network: “I’m sceptical. That’s not to say bio-energy with carbon capture and storage is impossible, but it seems extremely unlikely to be feasible (for all sorts of reasons)” at the scale needed. When the CBD member governments meet in December they are expected to call for more research: a safe option in most circumstances, but far from a ringing endorsement of a technology once seen as very promising.
Alex Kirby is a former BBC journalist and environment correspondent. He now works with universities, charities and international agencies to improve their media skills, and with journalists in the developing world keen to specialise in environmental reporting.
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FMD2713 | 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 Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price Have to Rent His House to Make Ends Meet? Claim summaries: Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price rented out his house after raising the minimum wage at his company to $70,000, but not because he couldn't otherwise make ends meet.
contextual information: On January 2, 2017, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin posted a message referencing a quote from former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher about socialism, along with a link to a story about Dan Price, the CEO of Gravity Payments, who took a drastic pay cut to raise the minimum salary at his company to $70,000 and then had to rent out his home in order to make ends meet. The linked story was not current news; it was originally published by Young Cons on August 1, 2015. Back in April, we told you about Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments, who said he would pay every single one of his employees $70,000 annually. Every single one, from the lowest-skilled workers on up. Now, as expected, Price has fallen on hard times financially, even having to rent out his own home. The Young Cons article was based on a comment Price made in a video interview with the New York Times. Price, who slashed his own $1 million pay package to provide a minimum salary of $70,000 to all his employees, told the newspaper that he had received mixed reactions about the new pay structure and was still adjusting to life on his much lower salary. Price's relevant comments come at the 2:30 mark of the following video: "My hope is that I'll be right at the end of the day. But I actually don't think that the idea is so good to guarantee that I'll be right. I'm working as hard as I've ever worked to try to make it work. I'm renting out my house right now to make ends meet for myself. I haven't made this little amount of money since I was in my early 20s. It helps that I'm 31 and don't have kids. And no girlfriend to tell me I'm crazy." Price did indeed put his house up for rent on Airbnb (an online marketplace and homestay network). The first review for the listing was posted in June 2015, and the house was reviewed eight additional times, with the most recent review as of this writing coming from August 2016. However, Price's actions didn't necessarily demonstrate any failings of socialism, indicate that Gravity Payments was suffering financially, or show that Price had "fallen on hard times." Price told Today in August 2016 (more than a year after he made his initial salary announcement) that some of the financial adjustments he made, such as renting out his house during the summer, were neither permanent nor based purely on financial necessity. Price himself made some cutbacks to adjust to the lower salary, although more out of sensibility than necessity. He now rents his house on Airbnb during the summer to make extra cash and sleeps in the guest room at a friend's house. "You might call it a sacrifice," he said, speaking from the borrowed room. "But to me, it's fun. It feels good." Price is quick to state the obvious: that any life adjustments he's made as a result of earning less after earning so much more are hardly putting him in some horrible, awful position. Of course, even as he's emerged as a champion for income equality, he won't be making $70,000 forever, and that was never the plan. "When I made the announcement, I said I would just put my salary back where it was once the company's profits had gone back to where they were," Price said. "I expected us to take a big step backwards." Price's salary adjustments sparked massive interest in Gravity Payments (a credit card processing company), and according to an article published by Inc Magazine, the company's revenues and profits doubled in the six months following Price's announcement. Six months after Price's announcement, Gravity has defied doubters. Revenue is growing at double the previous rate. Profits have also doubled. Gravity did lose a few customers; some objected to what seemed like a political statement that put pressure on them to raise their own wages, while others feared price hikes or service cutbacks. But media reports suggesting that panicked customers were fleeing have proved false. In fact, Gravity's customer retention rate rose from 91 to 95 percent in the second quarter. Only two employees quit—a nonevent. Jason Haley isn't one of them. He is still an employee, and a better-paid one. We talked to a close associate of Dan Price's at Gravity Payments who confirmed all of the above for us. Mr. Price chose to put his house up on Airbnb during the summer months not out of financial necessity, he said, but because Price lives alone and has far more room than he needs (in addition to plenty of friends and acquaintances in the area with whom he can stay), so why not let others enjoy his beautiful home part of the year and raise some extra revenue in the process? He also noted that because the company's revenues and profits have shot up dramatically since the minimum wage announcement (rather than sharply declining, as initially expected), Price could have returned his salary to its previous much higher level but has so far opted not to. | 2 | [
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FMD2714 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: This week s documentary film curated by our editorial team at 21WIRE. The US has a highly developed pharmaceutical industry offering treatments for all kinds of mental disorders. Millions of Americans are being medicated for ailments as diverse as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and many others. Even young children are being put on psychiatric drugs. If parents decline such treatment, social services may intervene. Many patients, who ve been taking these pills for years, insist that they do more harm than good. They have experienced disturbing side effects such as suicidal thoughts, addiction and even neurological damage. A lot of patients were put on their medication as children and by the time they were legally old enough to decide for themselves, they had already become addicted. They testify that breaking their dependency on the drugs is extremely difficult because, like any habit forming narcotic, they cause severe withdrawal symptoms.RTD meets some of the sufferers to hear their stories of battling to shake off prescribed medicines. Father of 5, Josh, was given anxiety medication, it caused Akathisia and Dystonia. Both are physical disorders causing involuntary and uncontrolled body movement and have left him disabled. Olivia s son was prescribed psychiatric drugs to treat Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD). Olivia soon noticed side effects and refused to continue giving him the pills. He was taken by social services and hospitalised. These stories and more.RTD meets a few of them. Watch this incredible documentary film:. Run time: 49 min Writer & Director: Petr Timofeev Distributor: RT-TV Novosti (2017)SEE MORE SUNDAY SCREENINGS HERE | 0 | [
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FMD2715 | 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: Bruce Willis' Wife Shares 'Final Update' About His Dementia Diagnosis? Claim summaries: The video was posted after Emma Heming Willis, Willis wife, appeared on the "Today" show to discuss his health on Sept. 25, 2023.
contextual information: On Oct. 4, 2023, the purported celebrity gossip YouTube channel Just In published a video that claimed actor Bruce Willis wife had shared a final update about his dementia diagnosis. video The clip's title read, "Bruce Willis Wife TEARFULLY Shares FINAL Update About His Dementia." The video had been viewed over 12,200 times on Just Ins YouTube channel at the time of this writing. (@JustInCeleb/YouTube) The YouTube video also circulated on TikTok. One post we found on the platform that featured a clip of the YouTube video had received over 520,000 views at the time of this writing. Another TikTok post we found that featured a clip of the YouTube video had 91,000 views. We also found posts on other social media platforms that contained the video, like Facebook and Twitter. post post Facebook Twitter The claim was false. The video was posted after Emma Heming Willis, Willis wife, appeared on the "Today" show to discuss his health on Sept. 25, 2023. In March 2022, Willis family announced he would be retiring from acting after he was diagnosed with aphasia, a cognitive disorder that impacts a persons ability to communicate. Nearly a year later, in February 2023, the family said his condition had progressed, and that hed been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. appeared announced said While Willis does have health issues that have been credibly reported to the public, there is no evidence that Heming Willis had given any final update about his condition. The clip's narration, scripting, sequencing and thumbnail image all looked to have been a product of artificial intelligence (AI), video-creation tools. At the bottom of the description contained under the YouTube video, a disclaimer reads: reads Disclaimer: Content might be gossip, rumors, exaggerated or indirectly besides the truth. Viewer advised to do own research before forming their opinion. Content might be opinionated. As we've seen with many of these AI-generated videos across multiple celebrity gossip YouTube channels, this clip contained a misleading video title with a mix of old and unrelated news, false claims and other emotionally charged moments that likely were meant to elicit angry responses in the comments. Such videos often end up with hundreds or thousands of comments from users who indicated that they had believed the misleading information presented in the clips. We've also previously fact-checked other false celebrity gossip rumors from Just In, like the false claim that actor Mel Gibson said fellow actor Ashton Kutcher was a "hidden handler" for Hollywood elites. We found there was no truth to the claim. false claim Guy, Zoe. Bruce Willis Diagnosed With Frontotemporal Dementia. Vulture, 16 Feb. 2023, https://www.vulture.com/2023/02/bruce-willis-dementia-diagnosis.html. Jacoby, Sarah & Anna Kaplan. Bruce Willis Wife, Emma, Gives Update on His Life with Dementia in TODAY Exclusive. TODAY.Com, 26 Sept. 2023, https://www.today.com/health/news/bruce-willis-wife-gives-health-update-rcna116860. Liles, Jordan. Mel Gibson Reveals Ashton Kutcher Is a Hidden Handler for Hollywood Elites? Snopes, 19 Sept. 2023, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gibson-kutcher-handler-hollywood/. Sharf, Zack. Bruce Willis Stepping Away From Acting Following Aphasia Diagnosis. Variety, 30 Mar. 2022, https://variety.com/2022/film/news/bruce-willis-retiring-acting-apashia-1235219017/. | 0 | [
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FMD2716 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Home › HEALTH › TARGET STORES TO LAUNCH IN-STORE VERTICAL FARMS TO GROW THEIR OWN CROPS TARGET STORES TO LAUNCH IN-STORE VERTICAL FARMS TO GROW THEIR OWN CROPS 10 SHARES
[10/29/16] Indoor farming is quickly becoming a growing trend because of consumers’ mistrust in GMOs, the yearning to buy as local as possible, and a decline in usable land. There are a variety of indoor farming options available, including incubators that grow plants for households and vertical hydroponic systems that can churn out huge amounts of produce in warehouses.
The latter is likely what would be used at Target, who has announced that they will be testing out a vertical farming system starting in Spring 2017. The trials will be done at different locations across the country that have not yet been announced, but the store plans on starting out with leafy greens and possibly building their way up to potatoes, beets, and zucchini.
Target collaborated with IDEO and the MIT Media Lab and created Food + Future coLab , a group that is “pushing the edges of technology, business, and design to create new, impactful ventures” that change the way we know and create food. They have been researching in-store micro-farming for over a year and their findings will finally be put to the test next year. Greg Shewmaker, one of the entrepreneurs at the coLab, said,
“Because it’s MIT, they have access to some of these seed banks around the world, so we’re playing with ancient varietals of different things, like tomatoes that haven’t been grown in over a century, different kinds of peppers, things like that, just to see if it’s possible.” Post navigation | 0 | [
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FMD2717 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: In its 109-year history, only one F.B.I. director had been fired until Tuesday, when President Trump fired James B. Comey. In July 1993, President Bill Clinton fired William S. Sessions, who had been nominated to the post by President Ronald Reagan in 1987. Mr. Clinton said his attorney general, Janet Reno, reviewed Mr. Sessions s leadership and concluded in no uncertain terms that he can no longer effectively lead the bureau. Mr. Sessions had been cited for ethical lapses, including taking free trips on F.B.I. aircraft and using government money to build a $10,000 fence at his home. Mr. Sessions was asked to resign, and was fired when he refused to do so. Despite the president s severe tone, he seemed to regret having to force Mr. Sessions from his post, The New York Times wrote about his dismissal:WASHINGTON, July 19 President Clinton today dismissed William S. Sessions, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who had stubbornly rejected an Administration ultimatum to resign six months after a harsh internal ethics report on his conduct.Mr. Clinton said he would announce his nominee to replace Mr. Sessions on Tuesday. He was expected to pick Judge Louis J. Freeh of Federal District Court in Manhattan; officials said Judge Freeh had impressed Mr. Clinton favorably on Friday at their first meeting.Mr. Clinton, explaining his reasons for removing Mr. Sessions, effective immediately, said, We cannot have a leadership vacuum at an agency as important to the United States as the F.B.I. It is time that this difficult chapter in the agency s history is brought to a close. Defiant to the EndBut in a parting news conference at F.B.I. headquarters after Mr. Clinton s announcement, a defiant Mr. Sessions his right arm in a sling as a result of a weekend fall railed at what he called the unfairness of his removal, which comes nearly six years into his 10-year term. Because of the scurrilous attacks on me and my wife of 42 years, it has been decided by others that I can no longer be as forceful as I need to be in leading the F.B.I. and carrying out my responsibilities to the bureau and the nation, he said. It is because I believe in the principle of an independent F.B.I. that I have refused to voluntarily resign. Mr. Clinton said that after reviewing Mr. Sessions s performance, Attorney General Janet Reno had advised him that Mr. Sessions should go. After a thorough review by the Attorney General of Mr. Sessions s leadership of the F.B.I., she has reported to me in no uncertain terms that he can no longer effectively lead the bureau. Similarly, Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey on the recommendation of his attorney general, Jeff Sessions. (No relation to William S. Sessions.) There are no United States statutes that discuss the president s authority to remove the F.B.I. director. NYT s Vince Foster: What the Media Won t Tell You Major media outlets reported Wednesday on the Supreme Court hearing of California lawyer Allan Favish s case that government photographs of Vincent Foster s death scene be released for public viewing. The media report that no fewer than five investigations have found that Foster committed suicide because he was depressed. But despite 10 years of denial by the major media, the Foster case has not closed as the Supreme Court hearing Wednesday demonstrated. The case won t close because of the failure of authorities to make full disclosure and to conduct a full investigation into the case, including a complete autopsy.Vince Foster was not only deputy White House counsel but also the personal attorney to Bill and Hillary Clinton.On the night of Foster s death, top Clinton aides made a frantic effort to enter and remove documents from his West Wing office. In the days that followed, federal investigators were stymied in their investigation of Foster s office and strange death.Since Foster s July 1993 death, the facts of his death have been obfuscated by friends of Bill and Hillary in the major media, but here s the undeniable truth:There weren t five investigations into Foster s death, as the media report. The Park Police, best known for their meter and horse patrols around Washington, were put in charge of the initial death inquiry of the most important federal official to die suspiciously since President Kennedy. The Park Police, contradicting standard procedure, declared the death a suicide before launching their inquiry.Later, Robert Fiske, selected by Clinton s counsel Bernie Nussbaum and Janet Reno, quickly confirmed the Park Police probe as a suicide.But when Ken Starr entered the investigation, he reopened the case. His chief prosecutor in the case, Miquel Rodriguez, later quit the Starr investigation, claiming that Starr s staff was engaging in a cover-up of Foster s death.Rodriguez, a Harvard-educated federal prosecutor, argued that one of the Polaroid photos taken of Foster at the crime scene indicated an additional wound on Foster s neck never noted on the autopsy report. Favish s suit before the Supreme Court is seeking to release this photo, among others.No fewer than three of the paramedics on the scene indicated in reports or testimony that the crime scene was consistent with a murder scene, not a suicide.A careful FBI microscopic investigation of Foster s shoes found not a trace of soil or grass stains on them, though he supposedly walked several hundred yards through wooded Fort Marcy Park to where his body was found. [Years later, Starr s investigation found plenty of soil and grass stains. Rodriguez charged that the shoes were tampered with to produce such evidence. ]According to the FBI report on Vince Foster s death (below) blonde hairs were found on the body of Vince Foster, but were never investigated:Foster was found with little blood around his body and despite claims that he fired the gun into his mouth, practically no blood was found on the front of his shirt.Foster was found with a 1913 revolver no one in his family could claim, with two serial numbers, made from the parts of three or more guns. None of Foster s fingerprints were found on the gun.For years, detail after detail emerged questioning the official ruling.Significant questions were raised about the unusual gun a .38 Colt revolver made from the parts of three guns with two serial numbers found conveniently in Vince s hand.The Park Police said one of the serial numbers indicated the gun was vintage 1913 and had no pedigree.Foster family members insisted neither Foster nor his father ever owned the old revolver.The NCIC keeps records of all law enforcment inquiries of serial numbers.On March 23, 2001, the FBI responded to requests made by a man names Craig Brinkley:Serial number 356555, one of the numbers on the gun, was never searched, not by the FBI, the Park Police or by that investigation by Ken Starr.Serial number 355055 was found on the frame of the gun. Brinkley believes that was the gun s real nnumber.That number was indeed searched by the Park Police, on the evening of Foster s death, more exactly at 22:45 EDT on July 20, 1993.Interestingly, searches were conducted on the same serial number no fewer than three times earlier that year, before Foster s death, on March 3, March 7 and April 29.Was someone checking to see that this gun had a clean predigree and was untraceable?The bullet from the gun that supposedly killed Foster was never found, despite intensive searches.Despite claims to the contrary, no one who knew Foster, including Hillary, Web Hubbell and his own wife, saw signs of depression.A so-called suicide note was found in an office briefcase that had been searched and found to be empty after Foster s death. The note was torn into 27 pieces. Yet an FBI examination found no trace of Foster s fingerprints on the note and a top Oxford handwriting expert found the note to be an obvious forgery.Despite the enormity of the case, Foster s autopsy lasted an astounding 45 minutes. The coroner in the case had previously been overruled in other cases he declared suicides that were later found to be murders.All of the X-rays taken during the autopsy are missing.Complete crime scene photos don t exist. The Park Police said all the photos were accidentally overexposed. A series of close-up Polaroids, which Favish is suing for, remain. This is just a brief summary of the dozens of inconsistencies in the case. Two New York homicide investigators who looked into the case concluded that Foster s body had been moved to the crime scene and that murder could not be ruled out.Despite overwhelming evidence of a cover-up, the media won t question the official ruling.Ken Starr, who could find no criminal wrongdoing on the part of the Clintons during his intensive probe, confirmed a ruling of suicide. Starr even hired O.J. Simpson s defense expert to prove his case.On August 23, 2016, The Daily Mail revealed that FBI agents reported interviews documenting that Hillary Clinton s stinging humiliation of her friend and mentor Vince Foster in front of White House aides triggered the suicide of Vince Foster were missing from where they should be filed at the National Archives.On the first visit, archivist David Paynter provided the box of records that he said contained the FBI reports of interviews conducted by FBI agents on Foster s death. On a second visit, archivist James Mathis provided what he said were those same documents.While the box contained dozens of FBI reports concerning Foster s death including interviews with the medical examiner, U.S. Park Police officers, and White House aides about the contents of Foster s office the reports on Hillary Clinton s role in his death were absent.After filing a Freedom of Information request with the National Archives, Martha Murphy, the archives public liaison, reported that she directed a senior archivist to conduct a more thorough review of the relevant FBI files, including those that had not been previously made public in response to FOIA requests. He examined all eight boxes but found no interviews by any investigator that detail either a meeting between Hillary Clinton and Vince Foster or the effects of a meeting between Hillary Clinton and Vince Foster on Vince Foster s state of mind, Murphy reported in an email.After firing Republican FBI Director William S. Session, President Bill Clinton temporarily replaced him with Floyd I. Clarke and then on September 1, 1993 he Louis Freeh became the FBI Director. Right from the start, the Freeh FBI was drenched in controversy. The screw-ups were legion from the exposure of fraudulent FBI crime lab results to the wrongful blaming of an innocent man for the bombings at the Atlanta Olympics to the bloody standoff and shootout at Ruby Ridge. | 0 | [
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FMD2718 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Videos Wikileaks: Clinton, Podesta Agreed Not To Distribute Confidential Intel By Private Email Account In an email released by Wikileaks, John Podesta said he was willing to discuss sensitive information with his future boss Hillary Clinton while he worked for President Obama and she was a private citizen. In this Oct. 5, 2016, photo, Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta speaks to members of the media outside Clinton’s home in Washington.
As reported previously, when discussing Hillary Clinton’s email in which revealed US intel and strategy regarding the middle east, and disclosed that Qatar and Saudi Arabia were funding the Islamic State, John Podesta said he was willing to discuss sensitive information with his future boss Hillary Clinton while he worked for President Obama and she was a private citizen in August 2014, but he knew better than to send the intel over Clinton’s private server from his Gmail account, emails released Thursday by WikiLeaks show.
In the exchange which Hillary Clinton previewed by stating”sources include Western intelligence, US intelligence and sources in the region”, and who had resigned as secretary of state 18 months earlier, asked then-Obama counselor Podesta if he knew who was responsible for an Aug. 18 airstrike in Tripoli, in which unidentified bombers blew up an Islamist-controlled arms depot in the Libyan capital.
“Yes and interesting but not for this channel,” Podesta replied in the Aug. 19, 2014 message to Clinton’s account.
As fox previously observed , the conversation suggests that Podesta, now Clinton’s campaign chairman, was willing to provide Clinton information that had not been made public. Reports from The New York Times and The Associated Press at the time included denials of involvement from the U.S., France, Italy and Egypt and debunked claims of responsibility from a rogue Libyan general.
Podesta, in his email response, indicated he had his own sources. But he also apparently recognized he shouldn’t share the information over their personal accounts.
It’s unclear if he was concerned more about the security on her clintonemail.com account or his Gmail account — which would be hacked months later, in turn exposing the email chain Thursday.
Podesta’s concern could show that at least one close Clinton ally was aware of the risk of sharing sensitive or classified information over the unsecured server.
And today, thanks to the latest – and perhaps last – Wiki release, we know that Hillary agreed with Podesta when in the last email in that thread she replied simply, “got it.” It is unclear if this was the first time Hillary Clinton realized that sending potential confidential intelligence by private email is frowned upon. | 0 | [
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FMD2719 | 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: European Parental Leave Benefits Claim summaries: Senator Bernie Sanders' office released an image showing how the U.S. 'lags' behind Canada, Norway, and Germany on the issue of parental leave.
contextual information: On 14 March 2017, Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) office posted an image on his Facebook page criticizing the lack of federally-funded family leave in the U.S. by highlighting how similar policies are implemented in three other countries: Facebook Sanders, who ran for the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential nomination, expressed support for a federal family leave program in the U.S., as stated on his campaign website: stated In my view, every worker in America should be guaranteed at least twelve weeks of paid family and medical leave. Thats why I am a proud cosponsor of the FAMILY Act, introduced by Senator [Kirsten] Gillibrand, which does just that. Under this measure, every employee would receive twelve weeks of paid family and medical leave: to take care of a baby, to help a family member who has been diagnosed with cancer or another serious medical condition, or to care for themselves if they become seriously ill. This would be funded through an insurance program, like Social Security. Workers would pay into it with every paycheck, at the price of roughly one cup of coffee per week. There is no reason not to pass this bill now. His office's claim that the U.S. and Papua New Guinea are alone "out of 188 countries" in lacking federal family leave programs is based on a 2015 study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) reporting that statistic. Sanders' post was also accompanied by an image listing individual claims about parental leave policies in Canada, Germany, and Norway. study Canada allows parents to take 35 weeks' worth of leave while still receiving up to 55 percent of their regular salaries. The country's paid leave benefits are applied as part of its employment insurance (EI) program, which states: program For most people, the basic rate for calculating EI benefits is 55% of your average insurable weekly earnings, up to a maximum amount. As of January 1, 2017, the maximum yearly insurable earnings amount is $51,300. This means that you can receive a maximum amount of $543 per week. While parents can divide the 35 weeks of leave between themselves, mothers can take an additional 15 weeks as part of the program: EI maternity benefits can be paid for a maximum period of 15 weeks. You cannot receive EI maternity benefits beyond 17 weeks after the expected or actual week of childbirth, whichever of the two is later. EI parental benefits can be paid for a maximum period of 35 weeks. The payments must be made within 52 weeks of the week your child was born or the week your child was placed with you for adoption. Parents seeking to take the paid leave must also meet criteria regarding length of employment, and while parental benefits are open to "biological, adoptive, or legally recognized parents while they are caring for their newborn or newly adopted child," maternity benefits are only available to a child's biological mother: To be eligible for EI maternity benefits, you must have accumulated at least 600 hours of insurable employment in your qualifying period. If you are a self-employed fisher, you must have earned $3,760 from fishing during the 31-week qualifying period immediately before the start of your benefit period. To be eligible for EI parental benefits, each parent who applies for benefits must have accumulated at least 600 hours of insurable employment in his or her qualifying period. If you are a self-employed fisher, you must have earned $3,760 from fishing during the 31-week qualifying period immediately before the start of your benefit period. In Norway, as Sanders' office stated, parents may take 49 weeks of parental leave while receiving 100 percent of their pay. But the Norwegian government's web site also notes that parents have another option that provides lesser coverage for a longer period of time: notes When you apply for parental benefit, you must choose between 100 percent or 80 percent degree of coverage The total benefit period for parental benefit in the case of a birth, is 49 weeks at 100 percent coverage, and 59 weeks at 80 percent coverage. The parents must choose the same degree of coverage. Expectant mothers are also required to use three of their benefit weeks prior to their child's birth and can start using their benefits up to 12 weeks before the child's due date, though only nine of those weeks would be withdrawn from their accrued leave time. Adoptive parents also have two options: take 46 weeks off while receiving 100 percent of their pay, or take 56 weeks off at 80 percent of their pay. In Germany, there are two ways to take parental leave, one of which is mentioned in the post by Sanders' office: parents can each take between two and 12 months off while receiving "two-thirds of [their] previous income." Benefits range from at least 300 Euros a month to a maximum of 1,800 Euros a month. (Unemployed parents are also eligible for the benefits program.) receiving Parents who are already employed are each protected from losing their jobs while utilizing their family leave. However, parents taking the time off together can extend their benefits period to 14 months. Additionally, parents who participate in the "ElterngeldPlus" program can also add four months to their leaves if they each work up to 30 hours a week during their benefit period. Parents seeking to take part in Germany's parental leave program must submit applications to their employer (if applicable) at least seven weeks before they intend to start taking the time off. Additionally, as of 1 July 2015 parents are eligible for up to 24 months of parental leave if their children are between the ages of two and seven. Government of Canada. "Employment Insurance Maternity and Parental Benefits."
Accessed 16 March 2017. Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration. "Parental Benefit."
19 July 2013. [Danish] Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. "Parental Allowance and Parental Leave."
Accessed 16 March 2017. International Labour Organization. "Social Protection for Maternity: Key Policy Trends and Statistics."
2015. Sanders, Bernie. "Real Family Values."
berniesanders.com. | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD2720 | 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: Whataburger Closing Its Doors? Claim summaries: A "prank" Facebook post fooled many into thinking the restaurant chain was closing down.
contextual information: A prank Facebook post that appeared to link to an article reporting that the restaurant chain Whataburger was closing its doors surfaced in June 2017. However, clicking on the link takes you to a fake news story about the restaurant chain's faux announcement on the prank website Channel22news.com. The Texas-based food chain is shutting its doors effective April 26 due to numerous reports of food poisoning, with high concentrations of salmonella found in meat served in the DFW area during the month of April. Anyone who has eaten at Whataburger should be tested for salmonella poisoning, as symptoms can appear as many as three weeks later. Doctors urge all individuals who have eaten at these restaurants, especially in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, to seek medical attention immediately if they have dined there more than once in the past few weeks. The more frequently you have eaten there, the higher the likelihood of an infection occurring. Lawsuits have already been filed, and Whataburger has decided to shut its doors due to the litigation and payouts it expects to incur. Filing for bankruptcy in a downtown Austin courthouse, Whataburger spokesman Jeff Smith stated, "We have taken the advice of our counsel and filed Chapter 7; we have shut our doors." It is unclear what the future holds for the Texas-based chain. One thing is for certain: Allyson Heffernan is sure to be disappointed! Channel22News is clearly labeled with various disclaimers and carries a "you got owned" meme in its header: "We do NOT support FAKE NEWS!!! This is a prank website that is intended for fun. Bullying, violent threats, or posts that violate public order are NOT permitted on this website." Channel22News, as well as other sites of its ilk, allows users to generate their own fake news stories. These stories are then packaged into social media posts that resemble genuine news items. Because many people share links on social media without actually reading the stories, these "pranks" frequently reach large audiences. In response to the prank, Whataburger created a Facebook post of their own: "An article is being circulated stating that Whataburger will be closing all stores. This article is a hoax, and we aren't going anywhere." Dewey, Caitlin. "6 in 10 of You Will Share This Link Without Reading it, a New, Depressing Study Says." Washington Post. 16 June 2016. | 0 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
FMD2721 | 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 Russia Building an 'Immigrant Village' for Conservative Americans and Canadians? Claim summaries: The claim was made by a well-connected Russian immigration lawyer.
contextual information: In May 2023, several American publications asserted that a "special village" for conservative Americans and Canadians was in development. Vice News described the potential village as a "MAGA colony." The New Republic reported that "Russian authorities" were apparently planning the creation of of "a special village outside Moscow dedicated to conservative-minded Americans and Canadians." described reported (The New Republic) A Russian immigration lawyer named Timur Beslangurov, who owns the domain name movetorussia.ru, is responsible for the claim. He has provided no concrete evidence the project is happening, but he made the assertion at the 11th St. Petersburg International Legal Forum, an event in which "representatives of the Russian and foreign legal community, business, and government [...] discussed the role and place of law in the modern world." Legal Forum State-run Russian media outlet RIA Novosti, a sponsor of the forum, ran a story about his remarks on May 11, 2023. Beslangurov claimed that tens of thousands of people wanted to move to Russia and that the project would be (or had been) financed by future settlers of the village and was approved by a regional government (via Google translate): a story A village will be built in the Moscow region for Americans and Canadians who want to immigrate to Russia, said Timur Beslangurov, a partner at the law firm VISTA Immigration, which provides assistance in obtaining Russian documents. [...] According to Beslangurov, tens of thousands of people would like to move to Russia - foreigners without Russian roots. According to him, although the project is financed by future settlers, the approval of the regional government was required. The project, he claimed, would begin sometime in 2024. As reported by Novosti, these westerners want to move to to avoid the "radical values" of their home countries and return to their Christian roots (via Google translate): reported The reason is the inculcation of radical values: today they have 70 genders, it is not known what will happen next. Many normal people emigrate, including considering Russia, but are faced with huge bureaucratic problems of Russian migration legislation, the lawyer explained. According to him, among those wishing to move there are also traditional Catholics who very strongly believe in the prophecy that Russia will remain the only Christian country in the world. Outside of these lofty statements made at a Kremlin-backed legal conference, Beslangurov has not provided any evidence of the project's reality. In May 2023, he told Vice News he had no information to give them: told VICE News contacted Beslangurov asking for further information on the reported project, and to speak with some of the hundreds of potential Western immigrants he said existed to help verify his claims, but he replied that he wasnt able to provide further information at this stage. By email, Snopes asked Beslangurov if any progress had been made on the village and if plans to begin construction in 2024 were on track. "Yes, we are working to make this happen," he responded. Beslangurov is not a "Russian authority," but a private lawyer who provides services for foreigners who wish to move to Russia. While he is evidently well connected, he is not an official voice of the Russian government. According to his Linkedin profile, he does "work closely with the federal agencies and the members and committees involved in the development of laws," however. profile Beslangurov's statements echo similar statements made by the Kremlin seemingly geared at western conservatives. The New Republic wrote that "Beslangurovs remarks [...] mirror the broader posturing of Russias government as traditional in comparison to the Wests supposed loose liberalism." wrote Beslangurov has regularly been cited on issues related to immigration to Russia and expatriate life in the international press. In 2022, he argued to the Daily Beast that "nothing good would happen" with western sanctions against Russia in response to their invasion of Ukraine and that the move would push Russia closer to China and India. In early 2023, his name appeared in an Indian outlet where he promoted a golden visa program aimed at recruiting Indian investors with offers of Russian residency. argued promoted Because no Russian "authority" is actively part of this project, and because the one person responsible for making the claim has thus far declined to provide evidence to support it, Snopes rates it Unproven. Chaudhury, Dipanjan Roy. Russian Golden Visa: Russian Gov Aims to Lure Indian Investors with New Residency Program. The Economic Times, 29 Jan. 2023. The Economic Times - The Times of India, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/migrate/russian-golden-visa-russian-gov-lures-indian-investors-with-new-residency-program/articleshow/97419768.cms. Hume, Tim. Russia Wants to Build a MAGA Colony for US Conservatives, Lawyer Claims. Vice, 12 May 2023, https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgwdew/russia-maga-colony. Kirsch, Noah. In Tears: Hollywoods Messy Breakup With Russias Weeping Elite. The Daily Beast, 3 Mar. 2022. www.thedailybeast.com, https://www.thedailybeast.com/celebrity-insider-bob-van-ronkel-on-hollywoods-messy-breakup-with-russias-oligarchs. Recap of the 11th St. Petersburg International Legal Forum. https://legalforum.info/en/news/itogi-xi-peterburgskogo-mezhdunarodnogo-juridicheskogo-foruma/. Accessed 19 Jan. 2024. Thakker, Prem, et al. Russia Wants to Build a Safe Space for Conservative Americans to Move To. The New Republic, 1 Nov. 2022. The New Republic, https://newrepublic.com/post/172710/russia-build-safe-space-conservative-americans-move. , . . , 20230511T1229, https://realty.ria.ru/20230511/derevnya-1871001155.html. Update [Jan. 20, 2024]: Added comment from Beslangurov. | 2 | [
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] | 2 |
FMD2722 | 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: Tax on the sale of residential properties Claim summaries: Does a provision of health care legislation impose a 3.8% sales tax on all home sales?
contextual information: Claim: A provision of "Obamacare" health care legislation creates a 3.8% Medicare tax on real estate transactions. Health care legislation imposes a 3.8% tax on all home sales. Health care legislation imposes a 3.8% transaction tax on profits over the capital gains threshold. Example: [Collected via e-mail, April 2010] 3.8% tax on real estate transactions. Under the new health care bill, did you know that all real estate transactions are subject to a 3.8% "Sales Tax"? You can thank Nancy, Harry, and Barack (and your local Congressmen) for this one. If you sell your $400,000 home, this will result in a $15,200 tax. Remember Obama's battle cry: take from the workers and give to the drones. TAX ON HOME SALES imposes a 3.8 percent tax on home sales and other real estate transactions. Middle-income people must pay the full tax even if they are "rich" for only one day—the day they sell their house and buy a new one. Origins: One of the provisions in the reconciliation bill (HR 4872) passed in conjunction with the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA) health care legislation calls for high-income households to be subject to a new 3.8% Medicare tax on investment income starting in 2013: HR 4872. The PPACA creates a new Code Section 1411, which will generally impose a 3.8 percent tax on the lesser of "net investment income" or the excess of modified adjusted gross income over a "threshold amount" (generally, $250,000 for taxpayers filing a joint return, $125,000 for married taxpayers filing a separate return, and $200,000 in all other cases). Net investment income generally means the excess of (i) interest, dividends, annuities, royalties, rents, income from passive activities, income from trading financial instruments and commodities, and gain from the disposition of certain non-business property, over (ii) allowable deductions properly allocable to such income. In determining the amount of net investment income, special rules apply with respect to dispositions of equity interests in certain partnerships and S corporations, and to distributions from certain qualified plans. This additional tax applies to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2012. This is a complicated section of a complicated piece of legislation, and the 3.8% Medicare tax has been frequently misreported as amounting to a 3.8% "sales tax" on all real estate transactions. This is incorrect: the Medicare tax is not a sales tax, nor does it apply to all real estate transactions; it is a tax on investment income (income which may or may not derive from the sale of property) only for persons who earn more than the amounts specified in the bill. First of all, the Medicare tax will be imposed only on individuals with an income above $200,000 and couples with a joint income of more than $250,000, a figure which currently excludes about 97% of all U.S. households. Second, the tax will not be assessed on every house sale, but only on real estate transactions that produce profits over a specified dollar amount. As Sara Orrange, Government Affairs Director of the Spokane Association of Realtors, noted in response to a repetition of the "sales tax" rumor in the Spokane Spokesman-Review: In his recent guest column regarding the impact of the health care bill, Paul Guppy of the Washington Policy Center claimed that a 3.8 percent tax on all home sales was a part of the recently passed legislation. This is inaccurate and needs to be corrected. The truth about the bill is that if you sell your home for a profit above the capital gains threshold of $250,000 per individual or $500,000 per couple, then you would be required to pay the additional 3.8 percent tax on any gain realized over this threshold. Most people who sell their homes will not be impacted by these new regulations. This is not a new tax on every seller, and that correction needs to be made. This tax is aimed at so-called "high earners"—if you do not fall into that category, you will not pay any extra taxes upon the sale of your home. For example, let's assume that a couple with an income of $325,000 bought a house in 2004 for $300,000 and resold it in 2013 for $850,000, thus producing a $550,000 profit. Since U.S. law allows a couple to exclude from their gross income profits of up to $500,000 from the sale of their principal residence, the taxable gain from this sale would be $50,000 (i.e., a $550,000 profit minus the $500,000 exclusion), and the couple's taxable income would now be $375,000 (i.e., the original $325,000 plus the $50,000 of taxable profit from their home sale). The 3.8% Medicare tax would now apply to whichever of the following dollar figures is the lesser: a) The amount by which the couple's taxable income now exceeds the $250,000 income threshold level. b) The amount of taxable income gained from the sale of their home. In case (a), the dollar figure would be the couple's taxable income ($375,000) minus the income threshold level ($250,000), or $125,000. In case (b), the dollar figure would be the amount of taxable income gained from the sale of their home, which, as detailed above, was $50,000 (i.e., $550,000 profit minus the $500,000 exclusion). The second dollar amount is the lesser of the two, and therefore the couple would have to pay an additional tax of 3.8 percent of $50,000, which would amount to $1,900. (If the hypothetical couple had realized less than a $500,000 profit on the sale of their residence, none of that gain would be subject to the 3.8% tax.) The referenced tax is therefore not a tax on all real estate sales; it is an investment income tax that could result in a very small percentage of home sellers paying additional taxes on home sales profits over a designated threshold amount. In short, if you're a "high earner" and you sell your home at a substantial profit, you might be required to pay an additional 3.8% tax. However, given that only about 3% of U.S. households have incomes that exceed the specified income threshold amount, the existing home sale capital gains exclusion on a principal residence ($250,000 for individuals, $500,000 for couples) still stands, and the national median existing-home price in January 2012 was only $154,700, the Medicare tax will likely affect only a very small percentage of home sellers when it is implemented in 2013. Additional information: The 3.8% Tax: Real Estate Scenarios & Examples Last updated: 15 March 2012 Sahadi, Jeanne. "Medicare Tax Hikes: What the Rich Will Pay." CNNMoney.com. 25 March 2010. | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD2723 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: January 2017 can t come fast enough for America, and for the rest of the world who is 100% FED UP with this freeloading, fascist loving family .For two days President Barack Obama has defied calls from Republicans to cancel his trip to South America and return home in the wake of the terror attacks in Brussels.And now it seems even his guests are sick of having him after dozens of human rights protesters took to the streets of Buenos Aires to demand he leave Argentina.But instead of departing Obama chose to carry on regardless this evening as he attended a glitzy banquet alongside wife Michelle, Argentine President Mauricio Macri and first lady Juliana Awada.The foursome were pictured arriving at the Centro Cultural Kirchner, named after Argentina s former Prime Minister and Marci s predecessor, in the country s capital this evening.The group paused for a photo opportunity on a red carpet with Obama and Marci dressed in suits and Michelle and Awada in glamorous evening dresses.From there they made their way into a leafy candlelit courtyard for champagne, where Obama was pictured clinking glasses with Marci. Meanwhile a few streets away human rights protesters were busy burning American flags and demanding Obama leave the country. The protesters accuse America of backing dictatorial regimes during the Cold War in South America, including in Argentina, and hold the U.S. responsible for the thousands who died or were disappeared under their rule.Today marks the 40th anniversary of the military coup in Argentina that ushered in one of the most oppressive dictatorships in Latin American history, which demonstrators argue makes Obama s visit particularly offensive.Earlier in the day, Obama sought to deflect criticism of his foreign travel in the wake of Belgium s terror attacks, saying the U.S. must show ISIS that it does not have power over its citizens. We are strong, our values are right. You offer nothing, except death, Obama said of ISIS.Gesturing in the direction of Argentinian President Mauricio Macri, who was standing to his left at a joint news conference this afternoon in Buenos Aires, Obama said, It is important for the United States president and the United States government to be able to work with people who are building and who are creating things. We have to make sure that we lift up and stay focused, as well, on the things that are most important to us, he said. Because we re on the right side of history. Via: Daily MailYeah right Barry. | 0 | [
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"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
FMD2724 | 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 David Hogg Attend a California High School? Claim summaries: The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor turned gun-control activist has been the target of relentless online hoaxes and attempted smears.
contextual information: In the weeks after a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on 14 February 2018, killing seventeen people, Internet trolls and "hoaxers" continued to share an already completely debunked rumor that David Hogg a teenaged survivor of the mass shooting who has since become an outspoken advocate of gun control is actually a professional actor who went to school in southern California: As Hogg's classmates have pointed out and as we reported previously, the above meme is a very low-quality, low-effort Internet hoax the photograph actually confirms that Hogg is legitimately an Marjory Stone Douglas High School student because the image was taken from MSD's yearbook, a fact that could be gleaned from another student in the very same image wearing an MSD "Eagles" mascot shirt two rows above him: reported previously Theres a photo going around claiming David Hogg did not attend Douglas, but a school in California. Heres a video to debunk that: pic.twitter.com/hJsMNSdAsF pic.twitter.com/hJsMNSdAsF Joey (@_Joey_Wong) February 21, 2018 February 21, 2018 Hogg had visited California in 2017 and witnessed an altercation, about which he made a video blog a simple fact that was blown out by conspiracy theorists to mean he already lived in Los Angeles and was part of the entertainment industry. (Hogg did live in California, but relocated with his family to Florida before starting high school; he returns to visit every year, as many people do.) video blog Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former Marjory Stone Douglas student who used an AR-15 semi-automatic firearm he had reportedly purchased from a gun store to carry out the mass shooting, has since been charged with murder; Parkland students have galvanized a national movement calling for stricter gun legislation. Hogg has been one of the most vocal leaders in what has become known as the "March For Our Lives." known as The students' activism has made them the target of "hoaxers" deranged Internet users and grifters who spread false information that mass shooting incidents are manufactured by the government to seize guns and hand power to a secret global cabal working to install an authoritarian world government. hoaxers Such hoaxers have periodically been arrested and jailed for physically stalking and harassing survivors, but despite their outlandish beliefs and apparent moral debasement, they are not exactly the "fringe." Far-right web sites and Internet personalities like GatewayPundit.com writer Lucian Wintrich, undeterred by ongoing lawsuits related to previous conspiracy theory-related blunders, have claimed the Parkland students were reading from scripts, while the National Rifle Association said in an official statement in response to a nationwide march on 24 March 2018 that the events were staged by "Hollywood elites." arrested jailed stalking ongoing lawsuits blunders claimed statement DAngelo, Bob. "NRA: March Fueled By 'Gun-Hating Billionaires and Hollywood Elites.'"
Dayton Daily News. 25 March 2018. Herman, John. "The Making of a No. 1 YouTube Conspiracy Video After the Parkland Tragedy."
The New York Times. 21 February 2018. Chavez, Nicole. "School Shooting Survivor Knocks Down 'Crisis Actor' Claim."
CNN. 21 February 2018. | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD2725 | 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: My fellow resident, John Edwards. Claim summaries: E-mail from neighbor describes vice-presidential candidate John Edwards.
contextual information: Claim: E-mail from neighbor describes Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards. Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2004] Meet my neighbor. I'd like to introduce you to my neighbor. I'm from Raleigh, North Carolina, and for several years I've lived around the corner from Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards. My neighbor John has been in the news a good deal lately, but it's hard to learn about the man himself from the coverage. Maybe I can help you get to know him better. Even several years ago, before he was elevated to the national stage, my neighbor John didn't socialize much with other neighbors. He didn't gather with them on the Fourth of July, and he didn't come out to the sledding hills to watch the kids play after a snow. My neighbor John preferred to jog through the neighborhood by himself. There's no sidewalk on Alleghany Drive, John's street in Raleigh, and if you drove past him while he was jogging on the road and didn't slow down enough for his taste, he'd flip you the bird. Even after he became a U.S. Senator, he'd still come home to Raleigh every once in a while, jog through the neighborhood, and flip the occasional bird to passing cars. He last showed me his middle finger about four years ago. Since then, my neighbor John is rarely in town. When he is home, though, we in the neighborhood all know it. My neighbor John invited reporters from TV, radio, and print news organizations to come to his house in January 2003 for the announcement of his presidential bid. He didn't want any news vans parked on his property; in fact, he made sure all the cameras and reporters waited in the street at the bottom of his driveway. That way, everyone could get good footage of him strolling down the driveway to make his announcement, young children in tow. The news vans drove into the yards of John's neighbors and parked there. I heard two families ended up re-sodding their damaged yards, and John never apologized to anyone, much less offered any compensation. The family across the street from my neighbor John has since put up posts at their property line to try to prevent that sort of thing from happening again. The appearance was good for my neighbor John. Since then, when my neighbor comes home (as he did on July 10, to be interviewed with John Kerry for "60 Minutes"), Raleigh police officers block off the street. Those of us who live near him end up coming and going to and from our homes on a circuitous route, on a bad, unsurfaced road. Forsyth Street has been closed to through traffic, except when my neighbor is in town, because the road has been ripped up for the installation of new gas and sewer lines. My neighbor's street is a public, city-maintained street, and it is the best way to get to homes just north of his. If my neighbor is around, though, apparently none of the rest of us can use the street at all. It's good for my neighbor John. My neighbor John has been a very successful trial lawyer, but his practice of law sometimes seems more like extortion. A friend of mine is a doctor in Raleigh. He recently spoke with another doctor, an anesthesiologist, who was named in a suit filed by my neighbor John. Apparently, a surgeon at a local hospital had made a mistake, and my neighbor John represented the injured patient. Not only did my neighbor John sue the doctor who made the mistake, but he also sued the hospital and a string of others, including the anesthesiologist. There was no problem with the anesthesia; the anesthesiologist had done absolutely nothing wrong. His attorney said so in a meeting with my neighbor John. John's neighborly response was that he couldn't care less if the doctor had done nothing wrong. That wasn't the point. The point was that clients come to my neighbor John because of his record of success and his reputation for thoroughness. Every defendant in a suit he files pays, regardless of whether they are actually guilty or not. My neighbor John demanded a settlement of $250,000 and said his firm was willing to spend $2 million to get it. The doctor's insurance company promptly paid the $250,000. The rate of growth in North Carolina's medical malpractice insurance rates is among the highest in the nation. The total cost of health care rises with those rates. My neighbor John's slimy extortion is part of the reason. Forget about right or wrong, guilt or innocence. My neighbor John did what was best for himself. My neighbor John may be a trial lawyer, but in front of juries, he also claims to be something of a psychic. You see, my neighbor John specializes in cases involving the death or serious injury of children. He claims to receive messages from dead or brain-damaged children, and the messages are much clearer and more specific than those received by the famous "psychic" who nearly shares my neighbor's name. When a child has been killed or is otherwise unable to speak for him or herself, my neighbor John says he has the ability to "channel" that child. He tells juries he feels the child inside him and that he has messages from that child, which he relays to jury members. He tells juries about the car-accident death of his own son, Wade, and speculates that he may have received the ability to "feel" the souls of dead or injured children because of the close relationship he still feels with his son. It sounds hokey and more than a little creepy, but it seems to play well with juries and results in very high jury awards. These awards have made my neighbor extremely wealthy. He's so wealthy that he created a corporation of which he is the only member and pays himself most of his earnings as corporate dividends, not as salary or wages. Medicare taxes are not levied on dividend income, so my neighbor has avoided paying $600,000 into the Medicare system since 1995 by setting up this tax shelter. But he says others aren't paying their fair share of Medicare taxes. It's good for my neighbor John. My neighbor made a lot of promises on his way to the Senate. He promised strong support for our military, but then voted against body armor, combat pay, and better health care for our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. He promised to support traditional North Carolina values, but then voted to the left of Ted Kennedy on partial-birth abortion, taxes, property rights, and a host of other issues. We in North Carolina feel betrayed. My neighbor John figuratively gave his constituents the middle finger while he ingratiated himself to Tom Daschle and the rest of the Democratic Party leadership. My neighbor announced many months ago that he would not seek reelection because he knows he's unpopular in North Carolina and would lose by a huge margin. According to a poll released this week, when the Kerry/Edwards ticket was announced, support for Kerry in North Carolina went down, not up. We North Carolinians know John Edwards. We've been betrayed by him, and we do not support him. But as he broke his promises to us, he gained favor with the Democratic Party leadership. Now he's a political star. I guess turning his back on the people he claims to represent has worked out well for my neighbor, John Edwards. Origins: This piece about North Carolina senator John Edwards, the 2004 Democratic vice-presidential nominee, was posted to various political newsgroups and websites in early August 2004, attributed to one John Edwards posted by Brian T. Nicholson, "a neighbor of John Edwards." Mr. Nicholson does live on Yadkin Drive in Raleigh, a street that intersects Alleghany Drive, where Senator Edwards resides. However, Mr. Nicholson now maintains that he did not pen the essay attributed to him, but that he wrote a private message to family and friends which was altered by someone else and turned into the piece now circulating on the Internet. (He has not yet produced the original version or explained which parts of his message were altered, however.) According to the Raleigh News & Observer, other neighbors of Senator Edwards report they haven't observed the behaviors attributed to him in the piece quoted above. For example, the Internet essay maintains: If you drove past him as he was jogging on the road and didn't slow down enough for his taste, he'd flip you the bird. He last showed me his middle finger about four years ago. However, the News & Observer reports: But neighbors this week said they saw Edwards wave while jogging, sometimes giving a thumbs up or stopping briefly to chat. No one said they saw any rude gesture. "I've never seen him be rude or ugly," said Tootie Flythe, who was so upset by the essay that she wrote a multipage response in longhand, which she is keeping to herself. Flythe lives across the street from the Edwardses, and she said John Edwards sometimes cuts through her yard to get to a greenway. He always stops to ask about her family, said Flythe, a 54-year-old registered Democrat. The essay says Edwards didn't hang out with neighbors on the Fourth of July or go out to sledding hills to watch kids play in the snow. But Edwards' neighbors said they don't do that, either. Ray Mays lived across the street from Edwards for 10 years until he sold his house this summer. Mays, a 61-year-old who said he will vote for President Bush this fall, said he and Edwards were "passing acquaintances," though he knew Elizabeth Edwards better. Mays attended one or two Christmas parties at the Edwards home and remembers Elizabeth spending most of her time in the kitchen, cooking. "They were always friendly," he said. "They never gave the appearance that they were stuck up in any way." The essay also claims: My neighbor John invited reporters from TV, radio, and print news organizations to come to his house in January 2003 for the announcement of his presidential bid. He didn't want any news vans parked on his property; in fact, he made sure all the cameras and reporters waited in the street at the bottom of his driveway. That way, everyone could get good footage of him strolling down the driveway to make his announcement, young children in tow. The news vans drove into the yards of John's neighbors and parked there. I heard two families ended up re-sodding their damaged yards, and John never apologized to anyone, much less offered any compensation. But on January 2, 2003, the day he officially announced his candidacy for president, Senator Edwards sent a note containing the following apology and offer to repair damaged lawns (at his expense) to his neighbors: Dear Friends & Neighbors: As you know, 2003 has gotten off to an exciting start for our family. In light of our recent decision, we know that many of you may also be feeling the effects. We want to apologize for any inconvenience you and your family may have experienced. Please call our assistant, Andrew Young, if you have any lawn damage from the media traffic. Our personal lawn maintenance company will make any necessary repairs. Thank you for your patience. The Internet piece goes on to claim that the standard security provided to presidential and vice-presidential candidates is somehow an inconsiderate and selfish whim of Senator Edwards, one which has made access to the Raleigh neighborhood where he lives inconvenient for other residents: The appearance was good for my neighbor John. Since then, when my neighbor comes home (as he did on July 10, to be interviewed with John Kerry for "60 Minutes"), Raleigh police officers block off the street. Those of us who live near him end up coming and going to and from our homes on a circuitous route, on a bad, unsurfaced road. Forsyth Street has been closed to through traffic, except when my neighbor is in town, because the road has been ripped up for the installation of new gas and sewer lines. My neighbor's street is a public, city-maintained street, and it is the best way to get to homes just north of his. If my neighbor is around, though, apparently none of the rest of us can use the street at all. Again, however, the News & Observer reported differently: When Edwards is at home, which isn't often these days, police block his section of Alleghany Drive but let residents, guests, and home repair services through. The essay complained about that inconvenience, but Alleghany residents said they manage easily. "We have a lot of contractors coming and going," said Brenda Gibson, 47, a registered Republican. "I have nothing negative to say." Some of the neighbors said they liked having traffic access limited because it stops cars from speeding down the narrow street. "Alleghany was just a thoroughfare," said Clotilde Collins, 74. "You take your life in your hands trying to get out of your driveway." Some said they are excited to have Edwards as a neighbor. And they like looking out their windows to see Secret Service agents. "I love the security," Gibson said. Last updated: 13 August 2004 Sources: Bonner, Lynn. "E-Mail About Edwards Disputed." The [Raleigh] News & Observer. 13 August 2004. | 2 | [
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FMD2726 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Muslims in the French city of Clichy protested a local government decision to remove them from a building which they were occupying and had turned into a mosque. [On Wednesday, police removed the Muslim group known as the Union of Muslim Associations of Clichy (UAMC) who were squatting in the building after a long and heated battle between the city and the UAMC. The city wants to turn the property into a media library, and the Muslim group want it to remain a mosque. On Thursday, a large group of Muslims appeared on the street outside the city hall at 5:00 am to pray and protest the evacuation of the property, La Parisien reports. According to reports, the local government gave the Muslim association a lease on the property but it expired in June last year, and the Muslims refused to leave. On Wednesday at 8:30 am, bailiffs arrived at the building and welded the gate shut so that no one could enter. However, around 50 individuals managed to gain access to the building and had to be forcibly removed by police. The removal was not entirely peaceful as police report that three of their officers were injured during the operation. One Muslim demonstrator was arrested for committing a violent act against a police officer. The city decided to repurpose the building last year and gave the UAMC another building to pray in. The Muslim group rejected the offer and said the new area was too small and did not have the “dignity†befitting its worshippers. Footage has emerged claiming to be of the protest, showing protestors blocking a street and being flanked by police in full riot gear whilst cars beep their horns. #France: Illegal mosque evacuated by police in #Clichy. later, the clever believers celebrated prayer on the street. pic. twitter. — STOP TERROR (@S_T_O_P_TERROR) March 23, 2017, The street prayer protests come as part of a rising movement in France. The recurrence of mass public prayer became so disruptive in the country that in 2011 the government was forced to pass a law banning Muslims from praying on the streets of Paris. Illegal mosques are not just a problem in France but also in Italy where authorities shut down at least six mosques last year. Muslims in Italy also protested the shutdowns, which officials closed for safety reasons and building standards, and threatened to invade the Vatican and pray there if they weren’t allowed to continue using their mosques. In Germany, some small mosques, which are often located within private homes, have been linked to radical Islamic schools of thought like Salafism. Earlier this year, Socialist Party politician Sigmar Gabriel called for Salafist mosques to be shut down after it was revealed the Berlin Christmas Market terror attacker Anis Amri had been involved with several Salafist mosques in Berlin. Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart. com | 1 | [
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FMD2727 | 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 Biden promise to get rid of the 'stepped-up' basis for the capital gains tax? Claim summaries: For once, a viral Facebook post critical of a politician accurately articulated their past pronouncements.
contextual information: In early 2021, readers asked Snopes to examine the accuracy of a widely shared social media post that purported to describe U.S. President Joe Biden's intention to eliminate a piece of tax law that allows taxpayers to benefit from selling a home inherited from their parents. The post, which was critical of Biden and the supposed plan, first emerged during the 2020 presidential election campaign but regained prominence after Biden was inaugurated in January 2021. It typically read as follows: "Did you know Biden wants to get rid of something called 'stepped-up basis'? How does this affect you? When your parents pass and leave you the family house, normally you would inherit that property at its current value. If you were to sell that house, you would only pay taxes on the gain from its current value and what it sells for. If Biden does away with 'stepped-up basis,' you will inherit the property for what your parents paid for it. If you decide to sell, you will pay taxes on the difference between the original purchase price and what it sells for today. Here is what this looks like:
Current Policy
Inherited House at Current Value - $200,000
Sells for $205,000
Taxable income = $5,000
Taxes Due - 20% of $5,000 = $1,000
Profit to you = $204,000
Biden Policy
Inherited House at Original Purchase Price - $40,000
Sells for $205,000
Taxable income = $165,000
Taxes Due - 20% of $165,000 = $33,000
Profit to you = $172,000
If your parents had sold this property prior to passing, they would have paid no taxes because it was their primary residence. So much for helping the middle class get ahead. My educated guess would be that at least 95% of Americans don’t even know Biden has proposed this. We are talking tens of thousands of additional tax dollars for the average person after inheritance! Wow, Google 'Biden stepped-up basis' and educate yourself because this is significant! Please share!
The viral post accurately stated that Biden proposed getting rid of the 'stepped-up' basis for capital gains tax and correctly explained the potential practical consequences for an individual taxpayer who inherits a home. In fact, the tax burden for wealthier individuals would be even greater than the post stated, because Biden has also proposed doubling the rate of long-term capital gains tax for those with income over $1 million.
Here's how the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office describes the stepped-up basis for capital gains tax, which is the tax due on profits from the sale of an asset, such as shares or property: When people sell an asset for more than the price they paid for it, they realize a net capital gain. The net gain is typically calculated as the sale price minus the asset's adjusted basis—generally the original purchase price adjusted for improvements or depreciation. To calculate the gains on inherited assets, taxpayers generally use the asset's fair-market value at the time of the owner's death, often referred to as stepped-up basis, instead of the adjusted basis derived from the asset's value when the decedent initially acquired it. When the heir sells the asset, capital gains taxes are assessed only on the change in the asset's value relative to the stepped-up basis. As a result, any appreciation in value that occurred while the decedent owned the asset is not included in taxable income and therefore is not subject to the capital gains tax.
In 2015, then-President Barack Obama also proposed eliminating the stepped-up basis. Here's his administration's explanation of how it works: Suppose an individual leaves stock worth $50 million to an heir, who immediately sells it. When purchased, the stock was worth $10 million, so the capital gain is $40 million. However, the heir's basis in the stock is stepped up to the $50 million gain when inherited, so no income tax is due on the sale, nor ever due on the $40 million of gain. Each year, hundreds of billions in capital gains avoid tax as a result of the stepped-up basis.
During the 2020 presidential election, Biden and his campaign repeatedly expressed his intention to eliminate the stepped-up basis. As first highlighted by Politifact, the Biden campaign presented the proposal as a partial way to pay for its proposed student loan reforms. In October 2019, ABC News reported that the plan makes official several policies the former vice president often discusses on the trail about student debt. Biden's policy includes his plan for reducing student loan debt obligations for students who enter the public service sector, allowing $10,000 of undergraduate or graduate debt relief per year for up to five years of service. Biden would also double the maximum amount of Pell grants available to students, including Dreamers, and would allow students making less than $25,000 a year to defer payments on their federal loans without accruing interest. Any student making more than $25,000 would pay 5% of their discretionary income toward their loans rather than the current 10% owed. The plan would be funded through the elimination of the stepped-up basis loophole, a type of break on inheritance taxes, and capping itemized deductions for wealthy Americans at 28%, according to the campaign.
In June 2020, according to CNBC, Biden told potential donors: "I'm going to get rid of the bulk of Trump's $2 trillion tax cut, and a lot of you may not like that, but I'm going to close loopholes like capital gains and stepped-up basis." On the Biden-Harris campaign's website, a Spanish-language document outlining the campaign's plans for education reforms stated (translated): "The Biden plan for post-secondary education is a $750 billion investment over 10 years, aimed at developing a stronger and more inclusive middle class. It will be paid for by ensuring the super-rich pay their fair share. Specifically, this plan will be funded by eliminating the gap in our tax law known as the 'Stepped-up Basis Loophole' as well as reducing the itemized deductions that the richest Americans can make to 28%."
Elsewhere, the Biden campaign proposed not only eliminating the stepped-up basis but also doubling the tax rate for long-term capital gains—that is, profits from the sale of an asset owned for more than one year—for relatively wealthy taxpayers. Here's what the Biden-Harris campaign website stated, as part of the campaign's healthcare plan: "As President, Biden will make healthcare a right by eliminating capital gains tax loopholes for the super wealthy. Today, the very wealthy pay a tax rate of just 20% on long-term capital gains... As President, Biden will roll back the Trump rate cut for the very wealthy and restore the 39.6% top rate he helped restore when he negotiated an end to the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy in 2012. Biden's capital gains reform will close the loopholes that allow the super wealthy to avoid taxes on capital gains altogether. Biden will ensure that those making over $1 million will pay the top rate on capital gains, doubling the capital gains tax rate on the super wealthy."
The Facebook post shared widely in late 2020 and early 2021 accurately described Biden's stated intention to eliminate the stepped-up basis for capital gains tax, a move that would indeed increase the tax burden on an individual who inherits a piece of property from their parents before selling it. The tax burden for wealthier taxpayers would be even greater than the Facebook post outlined, since Biden has also proposed increasing the rate of long-term capital gains tax for those with an income above $1 million. The Facebook post did not mention that Biden had stipulated he would use the money raised from eliminating the stepped-up basis to help pay for his healthcare and education plans. Snopes contacted the White House to ask whether the Biden administration still intended to push for the elimination of the stepped-up basis, but we did not receive a response in time for publication. | 1 | [
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FMD2728 | 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 Mitt Romney wants to add $2 trillion to defense budget that the military hasnt asked for.
contextual information: Republican nominee Mitt Romney has stated that he plans to increase defense spending by about $2 trillion over the next 10 years if he is elected president. In the final debate of the campaign, moderator Bob Schieffer asked Romney, "Where are you going to get the money?" Romney responded that he would take it from other parts of the budget—by abolishing Obamacare and by changing Medicaid to a block grant and turning it over to the states. President Barack Obama argued that Romney's plan for increased defense spending is misguided because it is unnecessary. "Romney wants to spend another $2 trillion on military spending that our military is not asking for," Obama said.
Romney has outlined his national security policy on his website. There, he warned that restoring the military will not be a cost-free process and stated that he will begin by reversing Obama-era defense cuts, with the goal of setting core defense spending—meaning funds devoted to the fundamental military components of personnel, operations and maintenance, procurement, and research and development—at a floor of 4 percent of GDP.
What is 4 percent worth? The Pentagon's budget is expected to run in the range of 3.2 to 3.5 percent of GDP in the next fiscal year. According to the Center for a New American Security, a group with ties to both Republican and Democratic administrations, even a gradual ramp-up to 4 percent would increase defense spending by $2.1 trillion over the next ten years, as reported by CNN. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan group focused on deficit reduction, uses that number as well, as do other budget think tanks. Romney seems to accept it, so the $2 trillion figure appears reasonably accurate.
In the past, when asked about increasing defense spending in tough economic times, the Romney campaign has emphasized that the 4-percent goal will take some time to achieve. While the campaign website describes the goal as a floor, campaign spokesperson Andrea Saul referred to it as a target in an email to a Boston Globe reporter. "The first priority," Saul wrote, "is to reverse Obama-era defense cuts." In the same article, one Romney adviser, Mackenzie Eaglen with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, stated, "That's not a hard number, and anybody would be crazy to suggest it is. It would have to be a very slow ramp-up, and they would be hard-pressed to even achieve a 4 percent base budget by the end of the first term." This suggests there is some flexibility on Romney's part, although the candidate himself has not expressed that.
In the debate, Romney said, "Our Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. We're now at under 285." In fact, the 313-ship plan reflects a 2005 strategic review. In April, the Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, presented a new program that sets a goal of 300 ships. Mabus's remarks came at a moment when Romney had been vocal in his opposition to the new approach. "A lot of this criticism is based on either incomplete and/or inaccurate or outdated information, or a failure to see beyond the short term or a willingness to protect the status quo in spite of the changing world and in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary," he said.
The president's budget calls for $487 billion in defense savings between now and 2021. His defense secretary, Leon Panetta, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, have both spoken in support of the plan, as have the heads of all five branches of the military. "We are developing today the Joint Force the nation will need in 2020," Dempsey told the Senate budget committee. "We will be a military that is able to do more than one thing at a time—to win any conflict, anywhere." Panetta acknowledged that the budget comes with risks, but he stated that the department's plan was based on first assessing the threats the nation might face. "The department would need to make a strategic shift regardless of the nation's fiscal situation," Panetta told the budget committee. "We are at that point in history. That's the reality of the world we live in."
Administration critics argue that the reality is just the opposite. A report from the conservative Heritage Foundation claimed that the administration set a goal of slashing the defense budget and then crafted a strategy justifying such drastic cuts. The president is the commander-in-chief. Panetta works for Obama, and the military answers to him. To the analysts at the Heritage Foundation, the chain of command says it all. However, in the past, when military commanders have disagreed with presidents, they have found ways to voice their complaints to the public.
This is not to say that all commanders are pleased with the trade-offs they face. But Nora Bensahel, deputy director of studies at the Center for New American Security, believes the president invested significant time in discussions with the military, and by and large, the commanders support the plan. "It's hard to see daylight between the military and the White House on this," Bensahel said. "Broadly speaking, it is always possible that the service chiefs would disagree over funding of individual programs, but that is within the overall budget limits."
The president stated that Romney planned to increase defense spending by $2 trillion and that this was money the military had not requested. Military leaders have testified in support of the president's spending plan, and we found no evidence of disagreement behind the scenes. We rate the statement True. | 1 | [
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FMD2729 | 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 Amazon Giving Away Free AirPods in a Raffle? Claim summaries: If you receive this congratulatory text message from "Amazon" on your phone, don't click that link!
contextual information: If you received a text message purportedly from Amazon, chances are you are one of many recipients, and it is a scam. During March and April 2021, many Snopes readers reported receiving messages on their phones claiming they had won an AirPod or another device in a raffle. One of our editors also received a message that said: "Amazon: Congratulations Bond, you came second in this week's Amazon pods raffle! Follow this link to [...]" She did not follow that link, however, as it immediately appeared to be a scam. Indeed, the link did not connect to an official Amazon webpage. According to Amazon, all of its web pages typically follow the same format, ending in amazon.com, for example: pay.amazon.com or aws.amazon.com. Any link that is an IP address or a random string of numbers should be viewed with suspicion. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) alerted users to this scam back in March, warning that if you receive a text message from a range of unknown numbers with a suspicious link for collecting your item, you should not click! The text message is not from Amazon and is the latest in a long list of impersonation scams that have emerged since the start of the pandemic, often using Amazon's brand. The bogus raffle and suspicious link are part of a con designed to trick people into visiting a phishing website, where they unwittingly share account credentials as well as personal and financial information with fraudsters. According to Amazon, any customer who receives a questionable email, text, or call from someone impersonating Amazon or an Amazon employee should report it to Amazon customer service. Amazon investigates these complaints and will take action if warranted. You can submit suspicious information to [email protected]. Amazon also offers a page to help identify whether an email, text, or phone call is genuinely from Amazon. The BBB also included a screenshot of a message similar to the one received by our editor, except the recipient was informed that they came third in the raffle. When our editor reported the number that texted her to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), it recommended several tips to block spam messages. Given that the link to collecting the so-called prize does not direct users to an official Amazon website and could potentially compromise private information, we rate this claim a scam. | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD2730 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: **Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.**
Buzz Cut:
• Carly’s momentum keeps growing
• Southern Man: Trump heads to Mobile for mega rally
• New doubts about Hillary email claims
• Iran deal doubts grow
• Be the bear
CARLY’S MOMENTUM KEEPS GROWING
No candidate in the Republican field has had a better two weeks than Carly Fiorina. Gallup polling out today compares views of the Republican contenders before and after the Aug. 6 Fox News debate in Cleveland. Favorable views of Fiorina are up an eye-popping 15 points, 3 points more than the two other debate winners, Ben Carson and John Kasich.
“I went into the debate thinking this was an opportunity. An opportunity to introduce myself to Republican people,†Fiorina said in an interview on “Power Play with Chris Stirewalt.†“It was an opportunity I was going to take full advantage of.â€
But there were others who hoped for (and needed) standout showings. They saw sentiment collapse. Gallup shows Rand Paul, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and Lindsey Graham took double-digit nosedives. Other, mostly better-known candidates saw little change. Donald Trump (17 percent net favorability) and Jeb Bush (27 percent net favorability) were essentially unchanged.
Fiorina shot past Trump and Bush to a net score of 37 percent, but along the way earned the enmity of Trump, whom she whacked for his post-debate comments. Trump has made attacking Fiorina a standard part of his speeches and interviews since then, often complaining about the sound of her voice.
“We’re not actually solving problems when we just hurl insults each other’s way,†Fiorina said in the interview. “I think we need a leader who will actually honor citizens by reengaging them in the political process and in their government…â€
The poll shows Fiorina still has room to grow.
After the debate, an all-time high of 51 percent of Republicans expressed familiarity with her name. That brings her near top-tier contender Scott Walker, who is still a relative unknown to 40 percent of his party. But she is still less known by 20 points than Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, 30 points less than Bush and 40 points less than Trump.
‘It was my personal relationship with Jesus Christ that saved me’ - In her interview, Fiorina also responded to those who have questioned her faith and resolve to fight Islamist militants because she once spoke in praise of the enlightenment of the medieval Ottoman Empire: “No one needs to question or tell me about my faith. I’ve been through some hard times in my life. I’ve battled cancer. We’ve lost a child to the demons of addiction. So I understand in deeply personal terms, that it was my personal relationship with Jesus Christ that saved me, that saved my family. So it’s unfortunate when people throw stones at anyone, but politics has sort of become that, hasn’t it? And we have candidates who encourage it.â€
SOUTHERN MAN: TRUMP HEADS TO MOBILE FOR MEGA RALLY
In what is set to be a scorcher down South today, Donald Trump plans have his biggest rally yet. After moving venues to the University of South Alabama’s 40,000-seat stadium, Trump is looking to solidify summer support into something that will last through the winter.
The Kingfish or the King? - AL.com: “‘I had an older woman call me the other day asking how I can get tickets ... she didn’t have Internet and she couldn’t get tickets,’ [Jonathan Gray of Strategy Research] said. ‘I asked her, ‘Why do you want to go?’ I asked her, ‘Are you backing Donald Trump?’ She said, ‘I don’t know think so.’ She said that she regretted ‘all my life that she didn’t see Elvis’ and didn’t want to regret the opportunity to see Donald Trump.’â€
Trumped in their home states, except Walker, Kasich - A slew of recent polls in the home states of many 2016ers show they are losing ground to Donald Trump. In Florida, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio split potential voters to trail Trump by 4 points and 10 points, respectively. More significantly, Trump also maintains a major lead in Texas over home state guys Sen. Ted Cruz and former Gov. Rick Perry. Trump bests Cruz by 8 points and Perry by a dozen points, with 24 percent support - up from 2 percent two months ago. But holding their ground are Scott Walker, who maintains a 25 percent to 9 percent advantage over Trump, and Gov. John Kasich, who tops a poll in his state, beating Trump by 6 points.
Cruz shifting to meet Trump? - Wash Ex’s David Drucker takes a look at the differing immigration policies between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Is Cruz shifting his position to meet Trump’s hard line? Drucker writes, “‘It shouldn’t be surprising that there’s some commonality between Trump’s plan and Sen. Cruz’s previously expressed positions,’ Cruz campaign senior spokesman Rick Tyler told the Washington Examiner in a telephone interview.â€
Jeb cites Rubio, Cruz in birthright citizenship - National Review: “Bush reminded voters that some popular Republicans have benefited from birthright citizenship. ‘If people are here legally, they have a visa and they have a child who’s born here, I think that they ought to be American citizens,’ he said today in New Hampshire. ‘People like Marco Rubio, by the way, that’s how he came. So to suggest that we make it impossible for a talented person like that not to be a candidate for president, or Ted Cruz? I think we’re getting a little overboard here.’â€
[Back off, eh - Cruz’s campaign was quick to point out that the candidate’s automatic American citizenship at birth in Canada derived from his mother’s status as a natural-born citizen, not the provisions of the 14th Amendment.]
Eurozone? - Federalist Ben Domenech asks whether Trump’s popularity reflects a turn toward European-style politics in America.
POWER PLAY: CADDYSHACK CAMPAIGN
Jeb Bush engaged in a political donnybrook with rival Donald Trump this week. Is this smart strategy or a potential minefield for Bush? Republican Ford O’Connell and Democrat Brad Woodhouse join Chris Stirewalt to hash out the pros and cons. WATCH HERE.
#mediabuzz - Are media watchdogs taking Donald Trump more seriously? Is Hillary Clinton’s testy relationship with the press adding to her woes? Host Howard Kurtz and guests dive in. Watch “#mediabuzz†Sunday at 11 a.m. ET, with a second airing at 5 p.m.
Dubya raises cash for little bro - USA Today: “Former president George W. Bush jumped into the 2016 presidential race Thursday with a fundraising letter on behalf of brother Jeb. ‘This is a consequential time in our nation’s history, and we need a strong leader,’ the 43rd president said in the missive. ‘Jeb took on tough challenges as Florida’s Governor and delivered results. I know he will do the same as President.’â€
[Bush is in Columbus, Ohio today for an Americans for Prosperity summit. Other speakers for the weekend event include Rubio and Cruz.]
How Walker would run - Scott Walker’s campaign previewed the kind of ObamaCare attack ad he would run against Hillary Clinton as the Republican nominee. It’s rough stuff.
[Walker announced today the backing of Alabama Senate Majority Leader Greg Reed as his state chairman ahead of Walker’s weekend visit to the Yellowhammer State.]
Rubio says Black Lives Matter movement cannot be ignored - Reuters: “Republican senator and presidential candidate Marco Rubio said on Thursday the issue cannot be ignored. ‘It’s a reality that in many communities in this country the relationship between minority communities and the police and law enforcement agencies is terrible,’ Rubio told the Detroit Economic Club.â€
[Rubio holds a town hall meeting in Valley View, Ohio.]
WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE…
Patsy Cline’s iconic recording of the song “Crazy†was made in Nashville on this day in 1961. The song was written and first recorded by a 28-year-old Willie Nelson but came to national attention when rising star Cline did her rendition later that year. Cline did not like the original demo version and told her husband Charlie Dick, who brought home the recording for her, that she wasn’t impressed. Cline decided to do the song, but due to a car crash months prior, could not record the song as Nelson intended. Her ribs had been damaged in the crash and she could not reach the high notes. After a multi-hour recording session, the country-pop tune was one of the biggest hits of the year. The album produced another enormous hit for Cline: “I Fall to Pieces.â€
Got a TIP from the RIGHT or the LEFT? Email [email protected]
POLL CHECK
Real Clear Politics Averages
Obama Job Approval: Approve – 44.0 percent//Disapprove – 50.3 percent
Directions of Country: Right Direction – 28.4 percent//Wrong Track – 62.6 percent
NEW DOUBTS ABOUT HILLARY EMAIL CLAIMS
Reuters: “While the [State Department] is now stamping a few dozen of the publicly released emails as ‘Classified,’ it stresses this is not evidence of rule-breaking. Those stamps are new, it says, and do not mean the information was classified when Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner in the 2016 presidential election, first sent or received it. But the details included in those ‘Classified’ stamps — which include a string of dates, letters and numbers describing the nature of the classification — appear to undermine this account, a Reuters examination of the emails and the relevant regulations has found. The new stamps indicate that some of Clinton's emails from her time as the nation’s most senior diplomat are filled with a type of information the U.S. government and the department’s own regulations automatically deems classified from the get-go — regardless of whether it is already marked that way or not.â€
Trust issues - How bad is it? Chris Cillizza put it well “Only one in three voters in the three largest swing states in the country think that the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic nomination is honest and trustworthy.â€
Joe gets cash jolt - NY Post: “The Draft Biden organization had raised just under $79,000 through June 30, but now momentum for Biden has been so ‘tremendous’ that the super PAC is well on its way to raise $2.5 million to $3 million by the end of September, a senior adviser for the PAC told The Post. The email list has also grown from a few thousand to more than 200,000 in recent weeks. ‘We’ve seen a tremendous boost,’ said adviser Josh Alcorn, a former Biden presidential campaign staffer who was a close friend of Biden’s late son Beau.â€
Fox News Sunday: Biden time? - Shannon Bream heads the show this Sunday with a focus on the Democrats. Draft Biden movement advisor Josh Alcorn talks Biden run, and why he thinks the vice president has a shot. Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey breaks down the legal fallout of Hillary Clinton’s continued email server problems. Watch “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace†airs at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. ET on Fox News. Check local listings for air times in your area.
POWER PLAY: A GO FOR JOE?
A recent boost in the polls adds to the drumbeat as Joe Biden mulls over a run for the White House. Republican Ford O’Connell and Democrat Brad Woodhouse join Chris Stirewalt to discuss the implications of a Biden bid. WATCH HERE.
O’Malley squeezes Hillary on Social Security - Former Gov. Martin O’Malley, D-Md., is trying to put the heat on Hillary Clinton to back big expansions of Social Security benefits. Politico got the deets from the campaign.
IRAN DEAL DOUBTS GROW
Following U.N. agency and Obama administration pushback of an initial report by the AP…“A draft document exclusively obtained by Fox News supports reports that Iran would play a major role in inspections at its controversial Parchin nuclear site, by providing U.N. inspectors with crucial materials. The so-called side deal, labeled ‘Separate arrangement II,’ says Iran will ‘provide to the [International Atomic Energy Agency]’ photos and videos of locations and environmental samples, ‘taking into account military concerns.’…The agreement also provides that the agency would ensure the ‘technical authenticity’ of activities -- in other words, ensuring nuclear work was not meant for weapons development -- but the IAEA would use Iran's ‘authenticated equipment.’ This would be followed by a visit from the IAEA director general.â€
[No sale - A CNN/ORC poll released Thursday shows 56 percent of Americans now say they think Congress should reject the deal with Iran -- up from 52 percent less than a month ago. In a recent Fox News poll respondents said they would reject the deal 58 percent to 31 percent if given the chance to vote on it.]
Webb steps up opposition - Free Beacon: “Democratic presidential candidate and former Sen. Jim Webb (D., Va.) said Friday that he opposed the Iran nuclear deal for, among other reasons, giving the rogue regime a greater balance of power in a fragile region. “The danger in the Iran agreement is in what it does not address, other than nuclear issues, that allows Iran to continue to gain a greater balance of the power in a very fragile region,†Webb said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “It affects Israel. It affects the Sunni countries.â€
“Anybody who trusts the Iranians really needs some time on the couch with someone to give them serious, serious therapy. Putting the Iranians in a position to self-inspect…this is like putting a mass murderer in charge of a gun store.†– Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., from “Fox and Friendsâ€
BE THE BEAR
Did you know that there are only two more Fridays left in the summer of 2015? That’s a lot of pressure. You were supposed to do so many things this summer – topiary gardens or extreme mountain biking or alpaca encounters or preserving your own organic gooseberries or whatever form of ambitious torture you devised for yourself three months ago. But you know who doesn’t read stupid “summer bucket list†articles or worry about people silently judging them on social media? Bears. Bears don’t care what you think about their summer plans. Bears don’t check Pinterest. Bears are not worried about their fantasy football draft. Bears do not know what FOMO is. So please watch these five bear cubs and their mom have the best time ever in a New Jersey family’s above-ground swimming pool and just chillax.
Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.
Chris Stirewalt joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in July of 2010 and serves as digital politics editor based in Washington, D.C. Â Additionally, he authors the daily "Fox News First" political news note and hosts "Power Play," a feature video series, on FoxNews.com. Stirewalt makes frequent appearances on the network, including "The Kelly File," "Special Report with Bret Baier," and "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace." Â He also provides expert political analysis for Fox News coverage of state, congressional and presidential elections. | 1 | [
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FMD2731 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: WOLFSBURG, Germany — The chief executive of Volkswagen said on Thursday that he personally apologized to President Obama this week for cheating on vehicle emissions tests, speaking up for its work force as the German carmaker negotiates penalties with United States officials. Volkswagen is in talks with American authorities about the fines it must pay for programming engines to cheat on emissions tests. The company said on Thursday that it had set aside 7 billion euros, or $7. 9 billion, for legal costs worldwide, even though in theory it faces fines of $18 billion in the United States alone, plus compensation to owners. Matthias Müller, the chief executive of Volkswagen, had what he described as a conversation with Mr. Obama during the president’s visit this week to Hanover, not far from Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg. The encounter took place on Sunday at a dinner hosted by Chancellor Angela Merkel for Mr. Obama and representatives of German industry. “I used the opportunity to personally apologize to him for our behavior,†Mr. Müller said during a news conference in Wolfsburg on Thursday. “I thanked him for the constructive cooperation with his officials. Of course I also expressed the hope that I will be able to continue to fulfill my responsibility to 600, 000 employees and their families as well as suppliers and dealers. †Mr. Müller’s mention of Volkswagen workers and their families may have reflected concern that the punishment the company faces could harm those who had nothing to do with any wrongdoing. Lawyers in the case expect the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department to demand penalties that are painful for Volkswagen, but not so severe that they destroy the company. Thousands of jobs in the United States depend on Volkswagen. The company has a factory in Chattanooga, Tenn. that is preparing to produce a new version of the Tiguan compact S. U. V. as well as an extensive dealer network in the country. Mr. Müller said on Thursday that Mr. Obama appeared receptive to his remarks. The Volkswagen chief said he felt encouraged about a solution that would ensure the company a future in the United States. The White House declined to comment on Mr. Müller’s account of the event. The German carmaker said last week that it had set aside €16. 2 billion to cover costs related to its admission that it had programmed diesel vehicles to evade clean air regulations. On Thursday, it said that within that figure was €7 billion for legal costs, which includes proceedings in other countries, like France or South Korea. Most of the rest of the €16. 2 billion will be used to repair diesel vehicles that are polluting more than allowed, or to buy back ones that cannot be fixed. The €7 billion figure disclosed on Thursday indicates that the company is confident that its legal costs in the United States will be much lower than the maximum. Volkswagen has admitted manipulating software in 11 million cars worldwide, including about 600, 000 in the United States, so that emissions equipment operated at full capacity only when the vehicles were being tested. At other times, the cars polluted much more than allowed. The €7 billion would also cover compensation to the owners of Volkswagen vehicles who have filed lawsuits. On Thursday, Volkswagen also provided details on the loss it reported last week. The company said it had lost €1. 5 billion worldwide during the year, compared with a profit of €11 billion in 2014. Volkswagen A. G. a subset of Volkswagen Group that includes core operations such as the Volkswagen brand but that excludes the Audi unit as well as some foreign holdings, reported a loss of €5. 5 billion. Though Audi has belonged to Volkswagen since the 1960s, it continues to have a small number of outside shareholders and holds its own annual meeting. Volkswagen, which owns brands including Porsche and Skoda as well as manufacturers of trucks and commercial vehicles, sold 10 million vehicles in 2015, down from 10. 2 million in 2014. Sales rose 5. 4 percent to €213 billion. Company executives said they still saw the United States as a growth market for Volkswagen, despite the enormous damage to the carmaker’s image. “We do see a lot of potential, though of course not in the short term,†Herbert Diess, the executive in charge of Volkswagen brand cars, said during the news conference. “We are starting from zero. †| 1 | [
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FMD2732 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Cosmology/ Love & the Afterlife Cosmology/ Love & the Afterlife Date Tuesday - November 22, leading astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium, Neil deGrasse Tyson discussed the latest discoveries and research in astrophysics, and cosmology. Dark matter and dark energy continue to mystify the science and physics community. 85% of the gravity in the universe has no known source, and is attributed to unmeasurable dark matter, while dark energy is a mysterious pressure in the vacuum of space, making the expansion of the universe accelerate, he explained. Regarding the threat of asteroids hitting the Earth, he suggested working on ways to deflect any incoming bodies, rather than mitigating the aftereffects of a disastrous collision.
Our early solar system was a turbulent place that may have had around 30 planets initially, with some colliding into each other. Such a collision was how our moon was formed, when a planet sideswiped Earth, he detailed. Other bodies may have become "vagabond planets" and left our solar system entirely. Interestingly, he noted that such runaway planets zooming through interstellar space could be more common than planets orbiting a star. He also touched on such topics as the Big Bang, the anomalous Tabby's Star, and the evolution of his documentary TV series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey , which revived the brand originally presented by Carl Sagan. | 0 | [
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FMD2733 | 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 Biden suggesting a 3% federal tax on properties? Claim summaries: The Democratic presidential candidate has not proposed a 3% property tax.
contextual information: During the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign, social media postings repeatedly warned readers that Democratic candidate Joe Biden was planning to impose a 3% federal tax on the value of homes, in addition to any property taxes homeowners were already paying. However, this warning about a Biden-backed federal property tax was unfounded. Property taxes in the U.S. are set and collected at the state, county, and city levels, and the announced Biden Tax Plan includes nothing that could be construed as imposing an additional federal property tax on privately owned homes. The Tax Foundation, an independent tax policy nonprofit, summarizes the Biden tax plan as including the following primary elements applicable to individuals (rather than businesses): it imposes a 12.4 percent Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (Social Security) payroll tax on income earned above $400,000, evenly split between employers and employees. This would create a donut hole in the current Social Security payroll tax, where wages between $137,700, the current wage cap, and $400,000 are not taxed. It reverts the top individual income tax rate for taxable incomes above $400,000 from 37 percent under current law to the pre-Tax Cuts and Jobs Act level of 39.6 percent. It taxes long-term capital gains and qualified dividends at the ordinary income tax rate of 39.6 percent on income above $1 million and eliminates the step-up in basis for capital gains taxation. It caps the tax benefit of itemized deductions to 28 percent of value for those earning more than $400,000, which means that taxpayers earning above that income threshold with tax rates higher than 28 percent would face limited itemized deductions. It restores the Pease limitation on itemized deductions for taxable incomes above $400,000. It phases out the qualified business income deduction (Section 199A) for filers with taxable income above $400,000. It expands the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for childless workers aged 65 and older and provides renewable-energy-related tax credits to individuals. It expands the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) from a maximum of $3,000 in qualified expenses to $8,000 ($16,000 for multiple dependents) and increases the maximum reimbursement rate from 35 percent to 50 percent. For 2021 and as long as economic conditions require, it increases the Child Tax Credit (CTC) from a maximum value of $2,000 to $3,000 for children 17 or younger, while providing a $600 bonus credit for children under 6. The CTC would also be made fully refundable, removing the $2,500 reimbursement threshold and 15 percent phase-in rate. It reestablishes the First-Time Homebuyers Tax Credit, which was originally created during the Great Recession to help the housing market. Biden's homebuyers credit would provide up to $15,000 for first-time homebuyers. It expands the estate and gift tax by restoring the rate and exemption to 2009 levels. Similar analyses of Biden's tax plan by other entities include no mention of a federal property tax. | 0 | [
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FMD2734 | 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 Congressman Jason Lewis Call for a Dress Code for American Women? Claim summaries: In his career as a radio host, Lewis said he should be able to call women "sluts" but did not demand they be dressed demurely and "fully-clothed."
contextual information: In late July 2018, Facebook users circulated a meme bearing the image of U.S. Rep. Jason Lewis (R-Minnesota) with text stating that he had "called for a dress code for American women." The meme referenced comments Lewis made in 2012, five years before he assumed office, when his primary occupation was hosting the syndicated talk radio program "The Jason Lewis Show." Those comments resurfaced on July 18, 2018, when CNN published excerpts from Lewis's former radio program (which ended in 2014) in the lead-up to his bid for reelection in the November 2018 midterms. In recordings from March 2012 released by CNN, Lewis "repeatedly expressed disbelief that people could no longer refer to women as 'sluts,'" even if those women were sexually active or dressed provocatively. He stated, "Well, the thing is, can we call anybody a slut? This is what begs the question. Take Sandra Fluke out of it, take Rush [Limbaugh] out of it for a moment ... Does a woman now have the right to behave, and I know there's a double standard between the way men chase women and running around, you know, I'm not going to get there, but you know what I'm talking about. But it used to be that women were held to a little bit of a higher standard. We required modesty from women. Now, are we beyond those days where a woman can behave as a slut, but you can't call her a slut?" He continued, "Now Limbaugh's reasoning was, look, if you're demanding that the taxpayers pay for your contraception, you must use a lot of them and therefore, ergo, you're very sexually active, and in the old days, what we used to call people who were in college or even graduate school who were sexually active, we called them sluts." He also questioned, "But have we really got to the point where you can't refer to Madonna as a slut without being sued? I mean, Madonna has had a series of lovers, as have many in Hollywood. Now in the old days, what did we call this? Madonna dresses up in these sorts of prostitute-like outfits on stage, and she goes there and she sings and she shows half of her body. What did we call those people 30 years ago? 40 years ago? 50 years ago? You can't do that today; it's too politically incorrect?" Lewis was referring to a then-current controversy over comments made by fellow conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who had termed Sandra Fluke, then a law student at Georgetown University, a "slut" and a "prostitute" for speaking before a House committee in support of mandatory insurance coverage for contraceptives. Although Lewis may have been, in a very broad sense, suggesting a "dress code" for women by criticizing figures such as Madonna for "running around [in] slutty outfits" and making statements such as "Only we can tell our young women, 'don't look like some slut and you won't get hit on,'" we found no instance of him advocating the imposition of a mandatory (i.e., legislatively established) mode of dress for women. We reached out to Lewis's spokespeople and received no response, but Lewis's campaign spokeswoman Becky Alery told CNN that Lewis's comments as a radio host were old news: "This has all been litigated before, and as Congressman Lewis has said time and time again, it was his job to be provocative while on the radio." | 2 | [
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FMD2735 | 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 Sen. Cotton Say Slavery Was a 'Necessary Evil'? Claim summaries: The Republican senator faced backlash after he criticized a school curriculum on slavery.
contextual information: A new school curriculum based on The New York Times' The 1619 Project faced opposition from U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton in July 2020, after he called it racially divisive and revisionist. based As the U.S. grappled with its history of racism amidst police custody killings of Black people in 2020, The 1619 Project, an ongoing initiative named for the year that the first slave ship arrived on American shores, became the center of a debate. The educational curriculum was launched alongside The New York Times Magazine's August 2019 special issue and aims to "reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative." Partnering with the Pulitzer Center, the curriculum is freely available online and is being used by teachers across the country. It includes essays, poems, photographs, and fiction from contributors, and was praised for its examination of slavery's impact on the present day. The 1619 Project launched special issue aims curriculum praised As Cotton launched an attack on the initiative by introducing legislation that would prevent the use of federal funds to spread the optional curriculum in classrooms, Snopes readers asked us if in his criticism of the project he had actually called slavery a necessary evil. launched He did use those words. But he also claimed his meaning was misinterpreted. In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Cotton said [emphasis ours]: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we cant understand our country. As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction. Later, Cotton took to Twitter and appeared to clarify that he himself wasnt backing the idea of slavery being a "necessary evil": Twitter Although Cotton claimed he was citing the views of the founding fathers, there did not appear to be a record of them saying this exact phrase, according to CNN. But historians argued that some of the founding fathers believed slavery to be necessary, and more believed it to be evil, while others reported there was little overlap between the two perspectives. did not appear CNN historians argued others reported But Nikole Hannah-Jones, writer and creator of The 1619 Project pushed back on his characterization of his own words and the views of the founding fathers, citing historian Joshua Rothman who categorically stated that slavery was a choice defended or accepted by white Americans for generations. Hannah-Jones argued that Cottons use of the word as denoted agreement with the statement. She also said that the curriculum was meant to be "supplementary" and was not intended to "supplant U.S. history curriculum." pushed back citing supplementary In summary, given that Cotton himself defended and clarified his use of the phrase "necessary evil," we rate this claim as Correct attribution. Foran, Clare. "GOP Sen. Tom Cotton Pitches Bill to Prohibit Use of Federal Funds to Teach 1619 Project."
CNN. 24 July 2020. Jesuthasan, Meerabelle. "The 1619 Project Sparks Dialogue and Reflection in Schools Nationwide."
Pulitzer Center. 20 December 2019. Lockwood, Frank E. "Bill by Sen. Tom Cotton Targets Curriculum on Slavery."
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. 26 July 2020. Porter, Tom. "GOP Sen. Tom Cotton Called Slavery a 'Necessary Evil' in an Attack on a New York Times Project Exploring America's History of Racism."
Business Insider. 27 July 2020. Pulitzer Center. "The 1619 Project Curriculum."
Accessed 29 July 2020. The New York Times. "The 1619 Project."
14 August 2019. Zurcher, Anthony. "US Senator Tom Cotton Defends Slavery Remarks."
BBC News. 27 July 2020. | 1 | [
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FMD2736 | 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 10,800 U.S. Children Raped by Illegal Immigrants in 2018? Claim summaries: You can reach just about any conclusion with shoddy statistics and false premises.
contextual information: On 30 December 2018, News Punch, a junk news website with a long history of spreading misinformation, published an article reporting that 10,800 American children had been raped by illegal immigrants during 2018: "The number of U.S. children raped by illegal immigrants in 2018 was a staggering 10,800, according to data compiled by NCFIRE (North Carolinians for Immigration Reform and Enforcement)." This claim has multiple dubious aspects, starting with the NCFIRE data. NCFIRE purports to compile "monthly child rape reports" covering sexual assaults committed by illegal immigrants in North Carolina. However, our inspection of their data revealed a number of issues. For starters, while the data were compiled under the title "monthly child rape reports," the supporting documents actually included a variety of sex-related crimes, such as possession of child pornography and "indecent liberties with a child," that are not classified as rape. We also found one individual who was included in the 2018 report even though he raped a child in 2011. That person was presumably included in the 2018 report because of an arrest that year for failing to report an address change. In addition to including outdated charges and crimes other than rape in the "monthly child rape reports," NCFIRE also appears to be counting arrests, not convictions. In other words, a number of individuals included in these reports have only been accused of crimes, and the charges against them may be dropped or found to be unsupported at trial. Furthermore, while some entries on this list link to genuine reports from ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the majority of entries include links to news reports or mugshot pages that make no mention of immigration status. Although this group claims that they "verify the illegal alien status of each individual we post in our Monthly Child Rape reports through the arresting agency of each individual," a spokesperson for the Raleigh Police Department told us that they "were not familiar" with NCFIRE. Despite the multiple problems with the rape reporting, News Punch used these statistics to arrive at their 10,800 figure: Meanwhile, data compiled by NCFIRE reveals that the state of North Carolina has arrested an average of 18 illegal aliens every month this year for the crime of child rape. Statistically, this means that the 50 states in America are on track to arrest 10,800 illegal aliens for raping children in 2018. This figure is a bare minimum, super-generous estimate, assuming that each illegal alien child rapist only rapes one child in America. Many will rape three, four, or a dozen before they are caught, so the "true" number could be in the range of 30,000 to 40,000 raped children. The claim that 10,800 children in the U.S. were raped by illegal immigrants did not originate with a law enforcement agency, government body, or other reputable crime-tracking source. Rather, an average figure pulled from questionable data compiled by one group in one state was extrapolated to the entirety of the U.S. without basis. That number also does not align with what we know about the criminal activities of illegal immigrants or the statistics for sexual abuse against children. Although the 2018 ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Report does not specifically list crimes against children, it does shed some light on the number of sexual crimes committed by illegal immigrants. According to the ICE report, 5,350 charges or convictions of sexual assault were levied against illegal immigrants during the 2018 fiscal year. Another 6,888 charges or convictions relating to sexual offenses (not involving assault) were also recorded. These figures are representative of the criminal history as it is entered in the ICE system of record for individuals administratively arrested. Each administrative arrest may represent multiple criminal charges and convictions, as many of the aliens arrested by ERO are recidivist criminals. The claim that 10,800 American children were raped by illegal immigrants in 2018 is also implausible due to the fact that the vast majority of sexual crimes against children are committed by parents or relatives, as the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) reported in 2016: Out of the yearly 63,000 sexual abuse cases substantiated, or found by strong evidence, by Child Protective Services (CPS), the perpetrator was most often the parent. | 0 | [
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FMD2737 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: It s pretty obvious that the FEC chairwoman is just another political hack for the left. Ann M. Ravel is determined to regulate new media like Drudge and says she s frustrated that her last bid was met with threatening misogynist responses. Be aware of this attempt at silencing free speech and political activity as we move towards the most important election of our time in 2016.Some irony from her speech: (around the 36 min. mark) We have to talk to people to get them to understand the influence of government or governmental policies on their lives. People have to realize that campaign finance and policies influenced by only a small number of people has a profound relationship on things that touch them in their daily lives. You ve gotta love how our FEC Chairman refers to people who agree with her wanting to regulate political sites on social media as regular people. After backing down amid concerns she wanted to regulate political speech, the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission has renewed talk about targeting campaign and political activities on the internet.Ann M. Ravel, discussing election regulation during a speech in New York, suggested it was time to produce thoughtful policy targeting internet political activity. She also expressed frustration that her last bid was met with threatening misogynist responses to me. She was speaking at a day-long conference hosted by the Brennan Center for Justice, the New York City Campaign Finance Board, and the Committee for Economic Development when she was asked about regulating the internet, Google and Facebook.When the Democrats on the FEC first raised the possibility of regulations, opponents feared they were going to target conservative groups, activities and news sites. A proposal to delve into the issue died in a 3-3 vote.Republican Commissioner Lee E. Goodman, the previous chairman, warned that regulations would silence voices on the internet and that sites with a political bent, even in the media, could face rules requiring them to disclose donors and finances. Read more: WEHERE S THE VIDEO OF HER SPEECH SCARY STUFF! | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD2738 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: EXCLUSIVE: Highly classified Hillary Clinton emails that the intelligence community and State Department recently deemed too damaging to national security to release contain “operational intelligence†– and their presence on the unsecure, personal email system jeopardized “sources, methods and lives,†a U.S. government official who has reviewed the documents told Fox News.
The official, who was not authorized to speak on the record and was limited in discussing the contents because of their highly classified nature, was referring to the 22 “TOP SECRET†emails that the State Department announced Friday it could not release in any form, even with entire sections redacted.
The announcement fueled criticism of Clinton’s handling of highly sensitive information while secretary of state, even as the Clinton campaign continued to downplay the matter as the product of an interagency dispute over classification. But the U.S. government official’s description provides confirmation that the emails contained closely held government secrets. “Operational intelligence†can be real-time information about intelligence collection, sources and the movement of assets.
The official emphasized that the “TOP SECRET†documents were sent over an extended period of time -- from shortly after the server's 2009 installation until early 2013 when Clinton stepped down as secretary of state.
Separately, Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., who sits on the House intelligence committee, said the former secretary of state, senator, and Yale-trained lawyer had to know what she was dealing with.
"There is no way that someone, a senior government official who has been handling classified information for a good chunk of their adult life, could not have known that this information ought to be classified, whether it was marked or not,†he said. "Anyone with the capacity to read and an understanding of American national security, an 8th grade reading level or above, would understand that the release of this information or the potential breach of a non-secure system presented risk to American national security."
Pompeo also suggested the military and intelligence communities have had to change operations, because the Clinton server could have been compromised by a third party.
“Anytime our national security team determines that there's a potential breach, that is information that might potentially have fallen into the hands of the Iranians, or the Russians, or the Chinese, or just hackers, that they begin to operate in a manner that assumes that information has in fact gotten out,†Pompeo said.
On ABC's “This Week†on Sunday, one day before the Iowa caucuses, Clinton claimed ignorance on the sensitivity of the materials and stressed that they weren’t marked.
"There is no classified marked information on those emails sent or received by me," she said, adding that “Republicans are going to continue to use it [to] beat up on me.â€
Clinton was pressed in the same ABC interview on her signed 2009 non-disclosure agreement which acknowledged that markings are irrelevant, undercutting her central explanation. The agreement states "classified information is marked or unmarked … including oral communications."
Clinton pointed to her aides, saying: "When you receive information, of course, there has to be some markings, some indication that someone down the chain had thought that this was classified and that was not the case.â€
But according to national security legal experts, security clearance holders are required to speak up when classified information is not in secure channels.
"Everybody who has a security clearance has an individual obligation to protect the information," said national security attorney Edward MacMahon Jr., who represented former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling in the high-profile leak investigation regarding a New York Times reporter. "Just because somebody sends it to you … you can't just turn a blind eye and pretend it never happened and pretend it's unclassified information."
These rules, known as the Code of Federal Regulations, apply to U.S. government employees with security clearances and state there is an obligation to report any possible breach by both the sender and the receiver of the information. The rules state: "Any person who has knowledge that classified information has been or may have been lost, possibly compromised or disclosed to an unauthorized person shall immediately report the circumstances to an official designated for this purpose."
The Clinton campaign is now calling for the 22 “TOP SECRET†emails to be released, but this is not entirely the State Department's call since the intelligence came from other agencies, which have final say on classification and handling.
"The State Department has no authority to release those emails and I do think that Secretary Clinton most assuredly knows that,"Â Pompeo said.
Meanwhile, the release of other emails has revealed more about the high-level exchange of classified information on personal accounts. Among the latest batch of emails released by the State Department is an exchange between Clinton and then-Sen. John Kerry, now secretary of state. Sections are fully redacted, citing classified information – and both Kerry and Clinton were using unsecured, personal accounts.
Further, a 2009 email released to Judicial Watch after a federal lawsuit -- and first reported by Fox News -- suggests the State Department 's senior manager Patrick Kennedy was trying to make it easier for Clinton to check her personal email at work, writing to Clinton aide Cheryl Mills a "stand-alone separate network PC is ... [one] great idea."
"The emails show that the top administrator at the State Department, Patrick Kennedy, who is still there overseeing the response to all the inquiries about Hillary Clinton, was in on Hillary Clinton's separate email network and system from the get-go,"Â Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.
Kennedy is expected to testify this month before the Republican-led Benghazi Select Committee.
Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent.
Pamela K. Browne is Senior Executive Producer at the FOX News Channel (FNC) and is Director of Long-Form Series and Specials. Her journalism has been recognized with several awards. Browne first joined FOX in 1997 to launch the news magazine “Fox Files†and later, “War Stories.†| 1 | [
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FMD2739 | 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: Keith Richards Blood Transfusion Claim summaries: Did Keith Richards have his blood changed to beat a drug addiction?
contextual information: Claim: Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards beat a heroin addiction by having his blood replaced at a Swiss medical clinic. Origins: As the clich goes, look up 'debauchery' in the dictionary, and you'll find a picture of Keith Richards. Although many tales about the depravity of the Rolling Stones were deliberately concocted for publicity purposes (especially in the group's early days), the extent of Keith Richards' drug abuse over the last several decades would be hard to exaggerate: long periods of drug use and addiction, punctuated with occasional efforts at beating the drug habit. These efforts ranged from going cold turkey to submitting to conventional medical means of ending addiction to undergoing controversial "experimental" cures. Whatever the method, the results were generally the same: Richards would quit before the end of the program or lapse back into his familiar habits soon afterwards. Although drugs have long been considered an indispensable part of the "rock 'n' roll lifestyle," too much of a good thing can be detrimental, even to rock musicians. The Rolling Stones have been a top concert draw for thirty-five years and owe much of their popularity (not to mention their income) to their live shows. But the Rolling Stones are not the Rolling Stones without a functioning Keith Richards, and at times his overindulgences have put concert tours in jeopardy due to his inability to weather rigorous and demanding tour schedules. Such was the situation during the Stones' 1973 European tour, when Richards needed to kick a heroin addiction quickly and underwent a treatment in Switzerland that lead to rumors he had undergone the human equivalent of an automotive oil change and beat his drug habit by having all his blood replaced. As Stones intimate Spanish Tony Sanchez later described the process in his tell-all book about the band: In the midst of this chaos it was time for the Stones to finalize plans for their seven-week tour of Britain and Europe. Keith knew that he was in no condition to go on the road, but there was no time for a cure. Withdrawing would have meant being laid up for weeks and that was out of the question. Marshall Chess, however, had a solution. "There's a doctor from Florida who can get you off dope in a few days by changing your blood," he told Keith. "He did it for me in Mexico a while back, and it worked perfectly." The Florida doctor would carry out the blood change for Keith in a villa called Le Pec Varp, in Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland. Keith would fly directly to Switzerland after the Stones' concert in Birmingham on September 19. He would then be cured in time to play with the Stones again in Berne, Switzerland, on September 26. Marshall was going to Switzerland with Keith to have his blood changed at the same time. Sanchez went on to describe exactly how much Richards paid the Florida doctor, where he stayed during the treatment process, and what his hotel room cost. Sanchez's accuracy leaves something to be desired, however although Richards admitted the bare facts of Sanchez's book were true, of the details he said, "I couldn't plow through it all because my eyes were watering from laughter." And the truth in this case follows that pattern: the basic facts are true, but the details have been embellished just a bit. Richards biographer Victor Bockris described the actual treatment process: The treatment involved a hemodialysis process in which the patient's blood was passed through a pump, where it was separated from sterile dialysis fluid by a semipermeable membrane. This allowed any toxic substances that had built up in the bloodstream, which would normally have been secreted by the kidneys, to diffuse out of the blood into the dialysis fluid. (According to Bockris, this treatment took place between the Rolling Stones' 23 September 1973 concert in Innsbruck, Austria, and their show in Berne, Switzerland three days later. This coincides with his statement that "Richards was frightened by the process because it required being put to sleep for three days," but according to a Rolling Stones tour chronology, the group also performed in Berne on 25 September, which wouldn't have allowed for alleged "three days" of sleep the cure required. Another passage in Sanchez's book, probably inaccurate, quotes Richards as saying the process took only forty-eight hours, but also mentions that he "spent the rest of the week just resting and building up" his strength. Obviously Richards couldn't have taken off "the rest of the week" to recuperate and still have performed in a show that took place two days after the treatment began.) Bockris also claims that when Richards was having trouble obtaining a visa for the Rolling Stones' 1975 tour of the United States, Walter Annenberg, the U.S. ambassador to Britain, "helped arrange for Keith to get a visa so long as the U.S. embassy doctor in London could certify that there were no drugs in his bloodstream." So, once again Richards supposedly made the trip to Switzerland to have his blood purified in order to pass the requisite medical certification. Keith Richards himself later explained how the rumor about his "blood change" treatment began: Someone asked me how I cleaned up, so I told them I went to Switzerland and had my blood completely changed. I was just fooling around. I opened my jacket and said, 'How do you like my blood change?' That's all it was, a joke. I was fucking sick of answering that question. So I gave them a story. Of course, Richards doesn't exactly declare in the above statement that he really went to Switzerland; he merely claims that he told people he went to Switzerland. So, did Richards have his blood changed, did he have it filtered, or is the whole thing a bit of lurid fiction? The "blood change" claim is almost certainly untrue, because Richards himself says he made up the story, no real evidence supports it, and such a procedure is medically questionable in terms of both safety and effectiveness. He probably did undergo some type of treatment involving blood filtering, however. True or not, the story's ubiquity is no mystery. What's more extravagant and outrageous than a jaded rock star who has achieved international fame and has earned all money he could possibly need, yet chooses to spend his days in a drugged stupor? A rock star who kicks the habit not by sweating it out cold turkey or by spending several weeks in a substance abuse program to kick both the physical habit and his psychological dependency on drugs, but by jetting off to Europe to swap his "dirty" blood for some fresh, clean stuff and be on his (temporarily drug-free) way in a couple of days. Although Tony Sanchez may have made up or embellished many of his tales about his days with the Rolling Stones, he hit the nail on the head with an expression of outrage that neatly summarizes the essence of public's fascination with this legend: I couldn't help wondering where all this blood was coming from or resenting the decadence of debauched millionaires regaining their health, vampirelike, from the fresh, clean blood of innocents. Last updated: 16 May 2007 Sources: Bockris, Victor. Keith Richards. New York: Poseidon Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8160-3547-4 (pp. 211-212, 234). Keith Richards Karnbach, James and Carol Bernson. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll. New York: Facts on File, 1997. ISBN 0-8160-3547-4 (pp. 144-147). It's Only Rock 'n' Roll Sanchez, Tony. Up and Down with the Rolling Stones. New York: William Morrow, 1979. ISBN 0-306-80711-4 (pp. 281-284). Up and Down with the Rolling Stones | 0 | [
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FMD2740 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The fundamental transformation of America El Salvador is the top country of birth for immigrants to Virginia. Indeed, the Migration Policy Institute found that from 2000 to 2008 Virginia saw its Salvadorian immigrant population grow by 13,000 persons. With it, this migration has brought the arrival of the feared Salvadorian gang, Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13.A remarkable transformation is underway in the Commonwealth of Virginia.The birthplace and final resting place of George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and once one of the most reliably-red of red states is being rapidly turned into a progressive stronghold.These changes are not the result of an inside agency, or a natural evolution in political thinking, but rather the result of one of the most impactful yet least-discussed policies of the federal government.Each year the federal government prints millions of visas and distributes these admission tickets to the poorest and least-developed nations in the world.A middle-aged person living in parts of Virginia today will have witnessed more demographic change in the span of her life than many societies have experienced in millennia.A census study entitled Immigrants in Virginia, released by University of Virginia (UVA) researchers, documented the phenomenon: Until 1970, only 1 in 100 Virginians was born outside of the United States; by 2012, 1 in every 9 Virginians is foreign-born. Fairfax Connection, a community newspaper, offered more detail:In the span of one generation, Fairfax County has seen an explosion in its immigrant population. In 1970, more than 93 percent of Fairfax County s population was white and middle-class. In the fall of 1970, a white 6-year-old child beginning elementary school in one of the county s developing towns could look to his left, or look to his right, and see a classroom full of children who, at least 90 percent of the time, looked like him and who spoke English. By 2010, a child entering elementary school in Fairfax County would almost certainly encounter a classmate who did not speak English as a primary language, and whose parents or grandparents immigrated from places such as Vietnam, India, Korea or a country in Africa.UVA s report explains that more than three out of four of Virginia immigrants (77 percent) are coming from either Latin America or Asia immigration from Europe, the report writes, lag[s] far behind representing only 10 percent of Virginia s immigrant population. This is consistent with trends nationwide. According to the 2013 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Immigration Yearbook, only 8.7 percent of green cards issued by the federal government went to immigrants born in Europe, a product of immigration changes pushed through by Ted Kennedy in 1965.DHS yearbook, however, does not provide information on parental nativity in other words, it doesn t say whether an immigrant from the United Kingdom may be the child of Saudi parents.Additionally, according to DHS, of those refugees issued admissions slips into the United States, 75 percent came from four countries Iraq, Burma, Somalia and Bhutan while another 15 percent came from Iran, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Dominican Republic.Large numbers of these settlers handpicked by the federal government have come to Virginia. A 2011 article from The Washington Post explains: Soaring number of Hispanics and Asians pushed Virginia s population over 8 million in the past decade. Statewide the number of Hispanics almost doubled to 632,000. Hispanics now make up 8 percent of Virginia residents. The Post continues, The state s Asian population also took off, climbing by 68 percent in 10 years. The Post notes that, as recently as 1990, non-Hispanic whites made up 76 percent of the state s residents. A decade later, their numbers had fallen to 70 percent, and [in 2010], they accounted for less than two-thirds of the state s residents. Because these newcomers to Virginia have largely been invited into the country with green cards or other visas, they can collect public benefits, fill any job, rely on federal retirement programs, and become naturalized voting citizens.Year after year, the United States continues its annual dispensation of one million plus new green cards, the admission of one million foreign workers, refugees and dependents, and the importation of half a million foreign youths sought by college administrators.One in four U.S. residents is either an immigrant himself or has immigrant parents. The Census Bureau projects that the U.S. will add another 14 million immigrants over the following ten years if green card programs aren t slashed, pushing the U.S. past all documented historical immigration records in terms of immigrant to population ratio. When a high point was hit last century, then-President Calvin Coolidge hit the pause button for roughly fifty years producing an era of explosive wage growth. That pause continued until Ted Kennedy ushered in legislation that granted millions of immigration visas to the entire world.The steady gusher of visas happens silently and with little media recognition, yet its effects are more permanent and transformative than many of the most far-reaching foreign policy accords.In 2012, the Richmond Times Dispatch highlighted the political effects of issuing visas to so many migrants from outside the Western World: The population shift, most notably in Northern Virginia, is changing the state s educational, political and social landscape. The Times Dispatch continues, Virginia s demographic changes have also transformed political leanings in the state that, before President Barack Obama s win of electoral votes in 2008, had not backed a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964. The blue-ing of Virginia brought about by continued immigration is not calculated only by measuring the voting habits of immigrants themselves, but is multiplied outward through the voting habits of immigrants children and grandchildren. As the Times Dispatch notes: Not all minority voters are foreign-born, of course, but many have participated in the changing political landscape. The increase in the minority vote share stems from immigration itself: Many immigrants come to the U.S. between the ages of 25 and 44, during the prime of their careers, and are more likely to have families here. The results, per the Times Dispatch, are striking: During the 2012 presidential election, when 71 percent of the state s voters went to the polls, two-thirds of Hispanic and Asian voters backed Obama. Obama carried 93 percent of the black vote, 64 percent of the Hispanic vote and 66 percent of the Asian vote, according to exit polls reported by The New York Times. Under current U.S. policy, any child born to an immigrant is guaranteed U.S. citizenship and voting rights. UVA researchers found that, among children of immigrants, 96 percent are U.S. citizens, either by birth or through naturalization. In today s Virginia, almost a fifth of native-born children under the age of 18 have at least one foreign-born parent. As Reuters reported in a recent article on U.S. visa policies: Immigrants favor Democratic candidates and liberal policies by a wide margin, surveys show, and they have moved formerly competitive states like Illinois firmly into the Democratic column and could turn Republican strongholds like Georgia and Texas into battlegrounds in the years to come. A 2014 report authored by University of Maryland professor James Gimpel, similarly found that, the enormous flow of legal immigrants in to the country 29.5 million 1980 to 2012 has remade and continues to remake the nation s electorate in favor of the Democratic Party. The report cites a 2012 study conducted by YouGov that, gauged the partisan preferences of over 2,900 naturalized immigrants, finding 62.5 percent to be Democratic identifiers, 24.6 percent Republican, and 12.9 percent independent. Examining the data in this study led Washington Examiner columnist Byron York to conclude: The bottom line is that more immigration favors Democrats; there is no prediction of Democratic electoral ascendancy that doesn t rely on demographic factors as the main engine of the party s dominance. Yet the effects, national and local media have observed, are not limited to electoral patterns.Crime patterns have changed markedly as well.Today, according to the Migration Policy Institute, about one-fifth of the total population of El Salvador resides in the United States. The Associated Press reports that, El Salvador is the top country of birth for immigrants to Virginia. Indeed, the Migration Policy Institute found that from 2000 to 2008 Virginia saw its Salvadorian immigrant population grow by 13,000 persons. With it, this migration has brought the arrival of the feared Salvadorian gang, Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13.As The Washington Post reported in 2011: Controlled by ringleaders or big homies imprisoned in El Salvador or at large in Central America or Mexico, MS-13 cliques with such names as the Sailors, Normandy, Peajes, Uniones and Fultons collaborate across the District, Maryland and Virginia. The Post explains that presence of the Salvadorian gang has become so problematic in the Commonwealth that federal officials have been forced to engage in a targeted, sustained effort to dismantle MS-13 and other violent gangs that threaten our neighborhoods. Describing one of the gangland slayings, The Post documents how, Victims included a 14-year-old boy, Giovanni Sanchez, who was stabbed to death and left in the street. Last year, The Washington Post reported: [A]rmed with two machetes and a sawed-off shotgun, MS-13 gang members allegedly set off in a car to carry out an assassination at a location as brazen as it was chilling: a Prince William County school. Virginia has become a study in contrasts. The attempted assassination at Prince William County school is only a two-and-a-half hour drive from Colonial Williamsburg, where themed actors create a living museum to throngs of tourists.Each year, the U.S. issues more green cards than the collective population of the 13 colonies the year Virginia s Patrick Henry was born. In a single year, the U.S. will issue five times more green cards than there are members of Daughters of the American Revolution.America s visa programs have also impacted the fiscal landscape as well.As Manhattan Institute Scholar Heather Mac Donald observed in 2005: The foreign-born Hispanic welfare rate was nearly three times that of native-born whites. This trend continues for the children of immigrants as well: Native-born Hispanics collected welfare at over twice the rate as native-born whites. Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson reported that from 1990 to 2004: The number of Hispanics with incomes below the government s poverty line [rose] 52 percent; that [represents] almost all (92 percent) of the increase in poor people Among children, disparities are greater. Over the same period, Hispanic children in poverty [rose] 43 percent; meanwhile, the numbers of black and non-Hispanic white children in poverty declined 16.9 percent and 18.5 percent, respectively. The federal government s policy of resettling poor foreign populations in U.S. communities has presented substantial challenges for educators as well. As the Washington Post reported in 2012 about Fairfax County, 31,5000 students are projected to enroll in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), representing 17 percent of the total county student population and an increase of nearly one-third from last year [2011]. Those numbers have profound implications for the schools system with 7,652 new students in ESOL this year, that represents an additional $25.3 million. A Washington Post article from last year examining Fairfax county kindergarteners noted, The white student population is receding and is being replaced with fast-growing numbers of poor students and children of immigrants for whom English is a second language The demographic changes in Fairfax are likely to have long-term implications for the school system Schools officials believe that the challenges that come with a less-affluent and less-prepared population will exacerbate the system s struggles with a widening achievement gap for minorities and ballooning class sizes. The Post notes that these changes extend into neighboring Maryland as well: School systems across the region have experienced rapid increases in the number of Hispanic students as well as the number of pupils who qualify for subsidized meals. In Montgomery County, more than 35 percent of students receive free or reduced-priced meals, compared with 22 percent in 2000. Poor students now account for 68 percent of the kindergarten class in Prince George s County, and 3 in 10 kindergartners this year received additional English instruction. The Post continues: Elementary school teachers say they spend an increasing amount of their time on remedial education Grace Choi, a kindergarten language teacher at London Towne [Elementary], said children from poor families often arrive for the first day of school not knowing the alphabet, a standard lesson in preschool. Many cannot differentiate animal words such as cat, lion and cheetah or food words such as potato, eggs and tomato. The things you think are a given, they don t know, Choi said. As one school board member told The Post, We are required to educate their children, and we want to. But there is a cost There is a cost to having these children in the system. Economist Christine Chmura told the Richmond Times Dispatch that, some members of Virginia s increasing immigrant population come from a culture in which college education is not encouraged. In particular, I m referring to the Hispanic population [Chmura] said. From this perspective, an increase in immigrants in the state could decrease our educational attainment levels, which has been one of our competitive advantages over other states. While the influence of conservative voters in the Commonwealth continues to diminish, it is ironically Republican officials in Virginia who have led the push to resettle even larger numbers of immigrants inside the state. Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, for instance, in the months before his titanic fall from power, engineered the effort to provide more labor to Virginia employers through foreign worker visas.Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has proposed two bills that would add substantially to the millions of foreign visas already annually distributed by the United States. One of those bills, the SKILLS Visa Act, would increase foreign worker visas for technology corporations. The other bill, the Agricultural Guestworker AG Act, would increase foreign worker visas issued to food manufacturers who wield substantial influence within the modern Republican Party. Since Goodlatte s foreign workers would arrive on visas, Republican donors who own businesses would be able to legally replace Americans workers with these newcomers.The Washington Post reports the effects of the visas policies supported by Goodlatte in his own district: Immigrants are a fast-growing part of the landscape and workforce from the Mexicans who pick apples and process poultry to the Indians who work in high-tech and medical fields Leader s of the state s $3.8 billion poultry industry say they favor immigration reform . Immigration reform, as used by The Washington Post in this context, refers to adding greater and greater numbers of foreign workers to the labor pool in a manner employers hope will reduce wages.UVA researchers found that more than one in seven people in Virginia s workforce are foreign-born, and positions in the workforce are more likely to go to them than those born in the state:Labor force participation for natives is at about 65 percent in comparison to more than 73 percent for the foreign-born A large number of foreign-born workers are employed as computer software engineers, managers, cashiers, accountants and auditors, and retail salespersons, making these highly common occupations for immigrants.The impact mass visa admissions has had on job opportunities for Virginia workers is representative of nationwide trends. For instance, according to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies, all net jobs created in the United States from 2000-2014 went to immigrants. In a state where recent races have been decided by razor-thin margins, and where Democrats have relied heavily on pulling huge numbers from the black vote, the addition of so many new voters from post-1970 immigration was keenly felt in the recent governor s race. Following Democratic Gov. Terry McAullife s rise to oldest occupied Executive Mansion in the country, The Atlantic wrote:Terry McAuliffe s narrow win Tuesday to become governor of Virginia was the result of the changing and growing population of Northern Virginia. It was also the product of an electorate just as diverse though not as large as the ones that twice elected Barack Obama McAuliffe won even though 56 percent of white non-Hispanic voters voted for Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, according to exit polls, thanks to the strength of McAuliffe s support among Latinos and Asians. Together, those two demographic groups contributed more than 50,000 more votes to McAuliffe than to Cuccinelli That s enormously significant, considering that McAuliffe only won by 55,220 votes.The Atlantic continued, With McAuliffe s victory, Virginia can now be looked at as sort of a purple state leaning blue, said [Ruy] Teixeira, co-author of 2002 s The Emerging Democratic Majority. That book predicted that changes in the demographics of the electorate would ultimately swing red states into the blue column; those shifts took some time to show up, but now that they are here they show little sign of abating. In fact, Senator Sen. Marco Rubio, a favorite politician of both media and donors, partnered with Arizona s Sen. John McCain and New York s Chuck Schumer on their proposal to triple green cards. There are currently more than 30 million permanent immigrants inside the U.S who are here on green cards or have already converted their green cards into citizenship: the Gang of Eight s program would have added another 30 million green card holders in the span of one decade. In interviews, Rubio described these immigration expansions euphemistically. He told Rush Limbaugh in 2013 that our legal immigration system needs to be reformed. He told Mark Levin in 2013 that legal immigration is good for America. He told Sean Hannity in 2014 that he wanted to modernize our immigration system. Rubio did not tell Limbaugh, Levin, or Hannity that he wanted to permanently resettle more than 30 million foreign citizens inside the United States within one decade. Rubio was not asked why waves of unskilled immigration from poor countries like El Salvador would be good for America as long as these intending migrants were printed green cards on their way into the United States.Rubio has never wavered or altered his stand for exploding net immigration levels. In fact, Rubio recently introduced legislation known as the Immigration Innovation Act or I-Squared which would triple wage-depressing H-1B visas and remove university green card caps. The latter Rubio policy would take the current existing policy of importing 100,000 permanent immigrants from the Middle East, and grow it significantly.Via: Breitbart News | 0 | [
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FMD2741 | 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: Ive got the spending down, Ive got the debt down a little bit, Ive got the reserves up.
contextual information: Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris, a Democratmulling a run for governorin 2014, contends that his private-sector experience would put the state on a better course. Making the media rounds thissummer, the former bank trust officer has gently criticized Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans for what he views as overly exuberant tax cuts and borrowing. Harris, as you might expect, thinks his own record on fiscal issues is more responsible. Ive got the spending down, Ive got the debt down a little bit, Ive got the reserves up, Harristold journalist Mike Goushaon WISN-TVs Upfront show July 21, 2013. Harris was first elected county executive in 2005 and previously served as mayor of Oshkosh and on the Oshkosh City Council and Winnebago County Board. He has worked as a certified public accountant in Michigan and Indiana, was a lawyer in Indiana, and worked as a trust officer and vice president at Associated Trust Company in Oshkosh from 1995 until 2005. With Harris pledging to decide on running by Labor Day, we thought it was the right time to check the books on his claims. Heres what we found: Reserves Average year-end reserves are up considerably in the Harris era, compared with the final four budget years of his predecessor, county financial records show. Under Harris, the county often has kept reserves in excess of its goal of having a cushion totalling one month of the countys annual spending. The average annual reserve is up more than 50% on average, and in 2012 reserves swelled to nearly two months of spending, prompting the county to suspend new borrowing in 2013. The increase in unrestricted reserves has not been a steady march, but the trend is clear. Spending Harris pointed us to numbers showing that the 2013 adopted county budget set operating spending at 1 percent less than the 2005 budget -- the last one adopted before his election. We confirmed those figures, and found a four-year trend of declining or flat expenditures from 2010-13, so Harris has some backup. The countys finance director, Charles Orenstein, told us savings came in part from reining in fringe benefit costs, consolidation and efficiency moves in county facilities, and savings on court and jail costs through technology. But, looking more broadly, the spending trend lines look like a roller-coaster ride. Spending went up in Harris first four years. In fact, only in 2013 could Harris make the claim that spending is lower compared with when he came in. In every other year but this one under Harris, the countys annual spending total was higher than in the last pre-Harris budget. Harris acknowledges that Walkers curbs on collective bargaining saved the county money, but he contends that state aid cuts offset most if not all of the savings, at least in 2012. The countys property tax levy has increased 24 percent in eight years under Harris as aid from other levels of government -- a category including the state -- fell off markedly, county budget records show. The property tax levy has fallen the last two years amid tight property tax caps imposed by Walker. Debt Harris said he got the countys debt down a little. Yes and no. Harris notes that Winnebago Countys outstanding general-obligation debt totalled $59.6 million at year-end 2012, down from $63 million in December 2004, months before he took office in April 2005. In noting that, he uses 2005 as his first year and 2004 as the baseline year. His numbers are correct, and defensible to a point. But, under the countys capital improvement process, many debt-funded capital projects would have received approval before Harris took office. So both the previous county executive and Harris can claim an influence on the outstanding debt level in 2005. Keeping that in mind, if you instead use 2005 as the baseline year, Harris debt claim fails. Debt added up to $57 million in 2005, slightly lower than the mark under Harris in 2012. Harris claim, though, is on target by two other measures, average annual debt per capita, and average annual debt in raw dollars. In general, this is a difficult area to judge because huge projects -- a new nursing home built on Harris watch, for instance -- spike borrowing in certain years. The Credit Game One final issue. Harris credited himself for driving the fiscal trends. But he acknowledged that the County Board deserves some credit as well. And two veteran Winnebago County Board leaders, David Albrecht and Patrick Brennand, told us that former County Executive Jane Van De Hey and others also helped instill a cautious approach to spending. Theres also the effect of the state budget, which helped the county drive down costs while also cutting aid to the county. Our rating Harris said, Ive got the spending down, Ive got the debt down a little bit, Ive got the reserves up. He was referring to his tenure as Winnebago County executive from April 2005 to the present. He makes the best case on reserves, which clearly have risen. Spending is down when viewed narrowly. The debt burden has dropped by some measures but not by all. Harris deserves some credit for the trends, but not all. We rate his claim Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD2742 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: When officers finally caught up to him late Monday, he made good on his threat, police said: He pulled out a gun and killed himself.
Lamb was the suspect in two killings: that of Ethan Schmidt, who was shot in the head in his office on the campus of Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi, and of Amy Prentiss, who was found shot to death at a home in Gautier, a coastal city about 300 miles away from the university.
A candlelight vigil is scheduled Tuesday evening at Delta State to remember Schmidt.
The hunt for Lamb brought together campus police and city police, as well as the Mississippi Highway Patrol, Bolivar County Sheriff's Department and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. At some point, Lamb spoke with police and told them "he wasn't going to jail," Gautier Police Chief Dante Elben said. Late Monday, officers spotted Lamb pull over his car near Greenville and run into the woods. Soon afterward, they heard a single gunshot and found Lamb's body. Lamb taught at Delta State with Schmidt. He lived with Prentiss, 41. But beyond that connection, authorities have not disclosed a motive. "We're not going to speculate on a motive until we have facts in hand," Cleveland Police Chief Charles Bingham said. posted a copy of the letter that read: "I am so very sorry. I wish I could take it back. I loved Amy and she is the only person who ever loved me." posted a copy of the letter that read: "I am so very sorry. I wish I could take it back. I loved Amy and she is the only person who ever loved me." CNN affiliate WLOX posted a copy of the letter that read: "I am so very sorry. I wish I could take it back. I loved Amy and she is the only person who ever loved me." At a midnight news conference, Delta State University President William LaForge said that Lamb had taught at the school for a while and had been teaching online geography courses. He recently asked to take a reduced load of classes for medical reasons, said LaForge, who did not elaborate about Lamb's supposed medical issues. Lamb's death ended a surreal day for students and staffers at Delta State, about 115 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. The school was locked down throughout the day, its buildings cleared. Only 250 of the 1,150 students remained on campus, confined to their dormitories. Classes are canceled for Tuesday but counselors are on hand to meet with anyone who needs help, said LaForge. "It was probably the scariest thing I have been through in a while," said Dean Arnold, a student who had Schmidt as a professor. A photo on the Delta State University website shows Ethan Schmidt, left, and Shannon Lamb at a holiday party. Schmidt and Lamb taught together at Delta State. A photo on the school's website shows them standing side by side, smiling at a 2013 holiday party. That same year, Schmidt thanked Lamb in the acknowledgments of his book says he received his Ph.D. from Delta State in 2014, and has taught geography and social sciences education courses there. says he received his Ph.D. from Delta State in 2014, and has taught geography and social sciences education courses there. A biography of Lamb posted on the school's website says he received his Ph.D. from Delta State in 2014, and has taught geography and social sciences education courses there. Lamb, he said, was a talented musician who played guitar and harmonica. "You know, you would have never have thought that something like this would happen. You'd want to be like him and play guitar," he said. Schmidt's Delta State biography says that he taught undergraduate courses in American history, and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Kansas in 2007. Schmidt had written several books and scholarly papers and had expertise in Native American history. "It's going to be shocking because I have Mr. Schmidt three out of five days," Arnold said. "It's going to be a lot different without him." Before working at Delta State, Schmidt taught for six years at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, where he received the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2011. "We lost one of our beloved professors today," Michelle Roberts, vice president of university relations at Delta State, told reporters. "We are grieving on this campus." | 1 | [
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FMD2743 | 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: Does an 'Increase' in Arctic and Greenland Ice Cast Doubt on the Reality of Global Warming? Claim summaries: Single data points presented without context do not interfere with the scientific consensus on climate change.
contextual information: On 1 October 2017, pseudoscientific alternative health website NaturalNews.com, which is geared primarily toward supplement enthusiasts with a discerning taste for deep state conspiracy theories, posted an article ("Dont Look Now, But Arctic Sea Ice Mass Has Grown Almost 40% Since 2012") that attempts to cast doubt on the scientific veracity of global warming by first presenting the following grotesque caricature of a straw man argument: article straw man One of the most popular pieces of "evidence" that climate alarmists just love to bring up to prove the global warming narrative is the "all the ice is melting in the Arctic and the polar bears are dying" line. Weve all seen the documentaries where a polar bear is desperately clinging to a tiny piece of ice and you just know hes going to die soon. They article then presents two observations that make the generally factual point that there has been relatively more sea ice in the Arctic and glacial ice on Greenland in 2017 than there have been at specific times in the recent past: The latest figures from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, located at the University of Colorado, show that sea ice extent has increased by 40 percent since 2012. [...] [The Danish Polar Portal reports that]: If we rank the annual surface mass balance since 1981 from low to high, the lowest on record was 2011-2012 (38 Gt) and this year is the 5th highest out of the 37 year record. Danish Polar Portal To be clear, the primary data scientists use to document global warming are records of Earth's temperature over time, not doomed polar bear imagery. Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist for the independent, nongovernmental Berkeley Earth research group told us in an e-mail that, in this area, pretty much "all groups who provide estimates" of global temperature unequivocally point to nearly uninterrupted temperature rises since the 1970s, as shown in this comparison of various estimates produced by the climate and energy policy website Carbon Brief: Zeke Hausfather produced "People interested in global warming are best-served looking at actual global temperatures," Hausfather said. While this temperature trend is uncontroversial and clear, the climate system as a whole is a complex beast with numerous entangled parts. The basic approach to writing a blog post that "debunks" the concept of global warming is to highlight without explanation various parts of that system at a single point in time. NaturalNews.com is no exception to that basic strategy here. Arctic Sea Ice Natural News cites a climate change denial blog called ClimateDepot.com as evidence of the claim that sea ice has grown 40 percent since 2012. In reality, the claim made by this website was more specific and less useful. In a post dated 18 September 2017, Climate Depot stated: stated Arctic sea ice extent is up 40% from this date five years ago. "Sea ice extent" is one of many different metrics used to characterize the presence of sea ice, and is generally defined as "the area of ocean [based on pixels in satellite imagery] where at least 15 percent of the surface is frozen". On the day of 17 September 2017, sea ice extent was indeed higher than it was on 17 September 2012: defined This does not mean, however, that sea ice has grown almost 40 percent since 2012, nor does it mean that the overall trend in arctic sea ice is toward growth it hasn't and it isn't. The issue here is that sea ice extent is quite variable from year to year, and thus looking at two discrete points is a fairly useless exercise without the full context. "We don't expect it to monotonically decrease every year," Hausfather told us. This chart (using data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center) shows September sea ice extent compared against the same average used in the maps cited by Climate Depot, showing both this aforementioned variability but also an overall trend of reduced ice extent. Note that the year 2012 was no random year to select for comparison; it is actually the record lowest year in terms of Arctic sea ice extent making anything compared to it necessarily higher: from The overall trend of declining sea ice is even clearer when you look at a different measure: sea ice volume (presented by the Polar Science Center, below). Not only do such records show a clear negative trend, they also show just how anomalous 2012 was as a data point: Polar Science Center In reality, 2017 was the eighth lowest year on record for Arctic sea ice extent since satellite measurements began in 1978. But in no world but the pseudo-scientific fringe internet would the concept of global warming rely on every single year breaking the previous year's record for sea ice minimum. eighth Tom Karl, the former director of NOAAs National Centers for Environmental Information, told us that 2017's sea ice extent was still much lower than the 1980-2010 average (by two standard deviations), and that, despite claims to the contrary, "one can't look at a trend over 5 years and say much about the impact of global warming as other factors are also important on these short time scales." director Glacial Ice on Greenland The NaturalNews.com approach for glacial ice on Greenland was similarly lacking scale and context. The main source for these arguments was a completely legitimate end-of-year report put out by the Danish Polar Portal, a website run by the Danish Meteorological Institute. In that report, the organization makes this factual statement: report Heavy snow and rain in winter with a relatively short and intermittent summer melt season have left the Greenland ice sheet with more ice than has been usual over the last twenty years in fact we have to go back to the 1980s and 90s to see a year similar to this one in terms of snow fall and ice melt. This statement, and the figures presented by NaturalNews.com, are referring to a metric known as Surface Mass Balance (SMB), which Polar Portal describes: describes Each year glaciers gain ice from snow and freezing rain and lose ice by melt that runs off. Adding these together gives the surface mass budget (SMB) in Greenland, the ice sheet typically gains mass from around September to May and loses more mass than it gains in the ablation [melting] season of June, July and August. Importantly, however, this measurement only presents half the picture in terms of how much mass is being lost from year to year from Greenland's glaciers. That's because it does not include the rather significant portion of ice that breaks or calves off into the ocean to melt elsewhere. On average this accounts for about 500 Gt [gigatons] of further ice loss. This, as stated in the Polar Portal post, nearly matches the estimated gain in SMB reported by Natural News, effectively canceling it out. In a post on Carbon Brief, analysts with the Danish Meteorological Society put this years measurement in context: post While the Greenland ice sheet has seen a neutral, or small positive, change in ice for this year, it should be noted that Greenland has lost approximately 3,600bn tonnes of ice since 2002. Like the record of Arctic sea ice earlier, when put in the context of the entire trend of Greenland's ice mass over time (presented by Polar Portal below), 2017's measurement does nothing to change larger and completely unambiguous trends of overall melting: Polar Portal Further, in the case of Greenland's ice sheet, there is not much of a mystery surrounding the lackluster amount of melting this year; a massive storm the remnants of Hurricane Nicole parked itself atop the continent, dumping a large amount of snow on the ice-covered continent: Hurricane Nicole dumping Heavy rain and snow in October in especially eastern Greenland gave record totals of precipitation in the main east coast town of Tasiilaq as the remnants of former hurricane Nicole passed by and, much as with Harvey in Houston this year, got lodged over eastern Greenland for some days. However, after Nicoles extreme precipitation, the rest of the winter was actually pretty average in terms of the amount of snow that fell. Because neither the higher-than-2012 arctic sea ice from 17 September 2017 nor the neutral amount of ice loss in Greenland in 2017 do anything to disrupt the overall trends of decreasing ice, and because climatological science does not require (nor does it expect) ice or temperature records to be broken every single year, we rank the claim that these observations are reasons to doubt the tenets of climate change as false. Watson, Tracey. "Dont Look Now, but Arctic Sea Ice Mass Has Grown Almost 40% Since 2012."
Natural News. 1 October 2017. Mottram, Ruth, et al. "Guest Post: How the Greenland Ice Sheet Fared in 2017."
Carbon Brief. 1 September 2017. Polar Portal. "End of the SMB Season Summary 2017."
12 September 2017. Morano, Marc. "Massive Arctic Ice Gain (Up 40%) Since Low Point of 2012.
Climate Depot. 19 September 2012. Hausfather, Zeke. "State of the Climate: Warm Temperatures and Low Sea Ice Mark First Half of 2017."
Carbon Brief. 21 July 2017. National Snow and Ice Data Center. "Arctic Sea Ice at Minimum Extent."
19 September 2017. Polar Science Center. "PIOMAS Arctic Sea Ice Volume Reanalysis."
Accessed 4 October 2017. NASA. "End-of-Summer Arctic Sea Ice Extent Is Eighth Lowest on Record."
19 September 2017. NASA. "NASA Sees Tropical Storm Nicole Going Extra-Tropical."
18 October 2016. | 0 | [
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FMD2744 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: WASHINGTON — American lawmakers have for years been assailing companies for dodging taxes with overseas maneuvers. But now that the European Union has done something about it by trying to wrest billions of dollars from Apple, those officials have offered a response viewed by many as rife with hypocrisy: collective outrage. Tax avoidance has become a lightning rod as the presidential campaign has taken on a strong populist cast, and leading Republicans and Democrats in Congress have demanded that companies be forced to pay their fair share. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump have vowed to crack down on deals that allow companies to relocate their headquarters overseas to lower their tax bills, and the Treasury Department has made limiting international loopholes a priority. Despite all that, Apple — a company long accused of being overly creative at avoiding taxes — now has the federal government standing up for it after the European Union’s executive commission ordered Ireland on Tuesday to collect $14. 5 billion in taxes from the company. And for at least some American politicians, the anger stems from a simple calculation: The tax money that the European Union extracts from Apple should be going to the United States Treasury, not that they have figured out how to make that happen. “It’s remarkable to think that the administration has been flying over to Brussels on taxpayers’ dollars to lobby the European Union against collecting taxes owed in Europe when they’re not collecting the taxes owed here,†said Clark Gascoigne, deputy director of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition. “It’s terribly ironic. †Most lawmakers and business groups do not see it that way. They defended Apple by arguing that the European Union was overstepping its authority and reinterpreting international tax law to unfairly penalize the company. Some called it a new brand of protectionism. The Treasury Department said the ruling was “deeply troubling. †The Business Roundtable, a lobbying organization for America’s largest companies, called the move a “reckless and dramatic overreach†and an “act of aggression†against a company and a sovereign government. In Congress, lawmakers in both parties have urged the Treasury Department to be tougher on European officials as they aggressively investigate what they call undue tax benefits given by member nations to leading American companies. Members of the Senate Finance Committee sent a letter in May to Jacob J. Lew, the Treasury secretary, urging him to consider retaliation that would include doubling taxes on companies and individuals in Europe. The European Commission “is using a theory to make tax law, is doing it in a way that is retroactive and that overrides national tax law authority, in our view,†Mr. Lew said Wednesday at a Brookings Institution event previewing this weekend’s meeting in China of the Group of 20 largest industrial economies. He pushed back against the idea that Treasury is condoning tax evasion, saying legislation that prevents companies from parking income overseas to avoid being taxed in the United States “will see action probably not in my tenure but early in the next administration. †The European Commission’s ruling has even managed to forge a rare moment of agreement between the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, and Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat who is likely to become the next leader of his party in the Senate. “This decision is awful,†Mr. Ryan said in a statement. “Slamming a company with a giant tax bill — years after the fact — sends exactly the wrong message to job creators on both sides of the Atlantic. †Mr. Schumer said in an interview that he and Mr. Ryan had been discussing possibilities for a corporate tax overhaul for next year. He said he was optimistic about the prospect of requiring corporate money to return to the United States at a lower tax rate, with some of the proceeds being used to fund a large investment in infrastructure. The action taken by the European Union, he said, should be an impetus to get moving on such legislation. “The European Union is going to grab this money, instead of the U. S.,†Mr. Schumer said. “It’s a big signpost here for us. Let’s get moving. †He added: “We’re trying to protect our U. S. tax base. That money sitting over there should be here in the U. S. not in Ireland and not in the E. U. †The bipartisan “consensus†that the corporate tax rate should be cut in exchange for loopholes closures emerged in President Obama’s first term, yet Congress has not formally drafted a bill, much less voted on one. Tax experts said that without a deep cut in the tax rate, companies like Apple would be better off paying back taxes in Europe than repatriating their overseas cash. “This is not taking 13 billion euros out of the U. S. Treasury’s pocket and U. S. taxpayers’ pocket and putting it into Europe,†said Jeffery M. Kadet, a tax lecturer at the University of Washington School of Law. “They wouldn’t be bringing this money back to the U. S. anyway. †Reuven S. who directs the international taxation program at the University of Michigan Law School, said that the European Union had a strong case for collecting the taxes from Apple and that if the situation were reversed, Americans would be clamoring to collect taxes from a foreign company. “Just because it happens to be an American company, to say that the European Union should not take action, I think, is the height of hypocrisy,†Mr. said. While most lawmakers condemned the treatment of Apple, one prominent former senator said he was pleased to see Europe take action. Carl M. Levin, Democrat of Michigan, who was chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations when it examined Apple’s use of tax havens in 2013, said the European Commission should fill the vacuum left by lackadaisical tax enforcement in the United States. “The royalties Apple collects for its overseas sales of products designed and developed in the U. S. should be taxed in the U. S.,†Mr. Levin said. “But Apple has avoided the billions of dollars of taxes it owes the U. S. by transferring its intellectual property to itself in Ireland. †Blaming Apple and the Internal Revenue Service, he added, “When Apple used those tax avoidance schemes, it is understandable that Europe would try to go after them. †It remains to be seen if corporate tax reform will be a priority for the next administration, but the language used by both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump on the campaign trail suggests that it is a strong possibility. Mrs. Clinton has released a formal proposal to prevent corporate inversions and to reward companies that keep their operations in the United States. Mr. Trump, who has called for a boycott of Apple products, has threatened to punish companies that relocate to other countries by imposing taxes on products they sell in the United States. The news that a corporate giant might have evaded billions of dollars in taxes could become another populist rallying cry. “There’s a reason Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders did so well in the campaign this year,†Mr. Gascoigne, of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition, said. “People are fed up with the kinds of deals that are happening at the large multinational companies at the expense of the American people. †| 1 | [
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FMD2745 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Tom Barnes mocks Taylor Swift in his latest article, as he writes: One Instagram is the only evidence we have that Nashville elite Taylor Swift even knew there was an election taking place in 2016. Today is the day, she wrote on Election Day. Go out and VOTE. Today is the day. Go out and VOTE A photo posted by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Nov 8, 2016 at 8:01am PSTSo thirsty was the public for hints of Swift s political affiliations, that even an innocent picture of a voting line, stirred up a frenzy. Who is Taylor Swift voting for? skyrocketed in search queries, proving at the end of the cycle to have been one of the most popular search terms of the entire election.Fans read deeply into the symbolism of Swift s outfit and posture. Others took it as an opportunity to try to bait her into the political arena, pointing out her hypocrisy of having once styled herself as an outspoken feminist, only to back down at this most crucial moment. Admittedly some of those commentators had a point. It s difficult to look away from the fact that one of the most staunchly anti-woman candidates gallivanted into Washington followed by scores sexual assault accusations in tow, and Swift just watched.It is wrong to exploit feminism in order to sell records but then stand idly by as a misogynist ravages the country. Just FYI Casey Mink (@Casey_Mink) November 8, 2016Swift remains to this day one of the only major A-list celebrities who has not weighed in on the election. Lady Gaga comforted fans distraught by Trump s successful attempts to reduce rape culture to locker talk. Kesha, Madonna, Beyonc , Nicki Minaj and Adele all connected with their fan bases to explain why Hillary Clinton offered the best way forward. Katy Perry literally did not stop singing and speaking for Clinton for the entirety of 2016. In a Time op-ed alongside a handful of clickier stunts, Swift bestie Lena Dunham said her support for Clinton was about far more than just anatomy or girl power Scores of artists have outright shamed the presidential inauguration committee for even asking to perform.Given her election silence, Swift has undoubtedly been approached, but her team has yet to offer a comment.A carefully chosen word of warning about the effect a successful Trump bid on normalizing misogyny or discrimination would have made for a natural extension of Swift s past desires to increase the level of public discourse around feminism. One could say the election is just another narrative she never asked to be a part of, and they would be correct. But if you re Swift, why not speak up? For every time she made sure that the word feminism was as close to her name in headlines, it feels odd she would pass on a lay-up as easy as helping clarify what locker room talk actually means. A close look at the fans she needs to please helps explain the silence. She caters to a white audience that used to be country and then crossed over into pop, Ani Johnson, associate professor of Music Business at Berklee College of Music and international lecturer and consultant in music licensing, marketing and strategic startups, said in an email. She has to stay sweet, stay demure the perfect picture of the blond, blue-eyed, true blue, young American girl. She can t afford to speak up and lose sales from her red state, Republican base. It s clear to Johnson what that base wants: a pretty girl who sings about love and has effectively nothing in her head. Music.MicMeryl Streep s acceptance speech at the Golden Globes Award ceremony really backfired on her when conservatives in social media, and even some on the Left, were taken aback by her petulant attack on our President-elect Donald Trump. Streep really gave her viewers an opportunity to see her mean, bully streak when she stood on the stage, and without any credible evidence to back it up, accused Trump of being a racist and demeaning a disabled reporter. Both of those claims are false, but who the hell needs facts when you re an Academy Award winning actress and can PRETEND they re true?The Left s obsession didn t start with Meryl Streep. As a matter of fact, some of the worst activists who mocked, lied and falsely accused Donald Trump of horrible things, were some of Taylor Swift s best friends.Hillary Clinton sycophant Lena Dunham, who admitted to sexually abusing her younger sister and lied to the world about being raped, likes to call Taylor Swift her best friend. She also promised to leave the country if Trump was elected. Unfortunately, she s still here. Her promise to leave the country was as honest as her manufactured claims about Donald Trump being a misogynist.Donald Trump hit back when Lena Dunham (along with a long list of celebrities ) said she d leave the US if Trump won the election:Gigi Hadid can be seen frequently hanging out with Taylor Swift on Instagram and in the tabloids. Here s one of Swift s many photos with Hadid on her Instagram account:A photo posted by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Apr 29, 2016 at 1:25am PDTKudos to Taylor Swift for sticking to performing, and staying out of the fray when it comes to President-elect Trump; even when it means she will be harshly criticized by the people in her business for not jumping on the Hate-Trump bandwagon. It can t be easy to keep out of discussion when the very people she calls her besties are some of the loudest anti-Trumpers in the business. | 0 | [
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FMD2746 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Greg Zimmerman, an environmental activist, was scrolling through the website of a coal industry association when he came across a presentation that startled him: “Survival Is Victory: Lessons From the Tobacco Wars. †What surprised Mr. Zimmerman, the deputy policy director at the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation advocacy organization based in Denver, was that the coal industry was, at least in this presentation, deliberately drawing a comparison between itself and the tobacco companies. That is more typically the argument of environmentalists, who often compare fossil fuel companies to the tobacco industry. They note that the tobacco giants for many years funded science and advocacy groups to spread doubt about risks of smoking. Fossil fuel companies, they argue, have engaged in similar efforts, and investigations by state attorneys general have focused on the tactics of Exxon Mobil, which has funded groups that deny the scientific evidence that human activity has increased global warming. Fossil fuel companies and their allies generally ridicule the comparison to tobacco. But here was an internal document from the industry that, as Mr. Zimmerman said, “has sort of done our job for us. †Others have taken note of it as well. After reviewing the presentation, shared with him by a reporter, the state attorney general leading the investigation of Exxon Mobil, Eric T. Schneiderman of New York, called it important. “This is just the latest example of the fossil fuel industry explicitly adopting the Big Tobacco playbook,†he said. Mr. Schneiderman reached a settlement last year with Peabody Energy, the giant coal company, after finding that it had not properly disclosed to the public and its shareholders the risks of climate change and regulation to its business — an investigation similar to Mr. Schneiderman’s efforts to determine whether Exxon Mobil had committed fraud in its public statements about climate change. The “Survival Is Victory†presentation was given a year ago at the convention and annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute, an industry group representing coal interests in Western states. The author of the presentation, Richard Reavey, is the vice president for government and public affairs at Cloud Peak Energy, a mining company based in Wyoming. From 1990 to 2007, Mr. Reavey served as an executive with Philip Morris International, working in communications and government affairs. The slides did not acknowledge the scientific consensus on climate change, but stated that public opinion had shifted so substantially that the question was moot. “We need to get out of the binary debate on climate change,†one slide read. “Right, but dead, is not a victory. †The presentation called on the industry to prepare for more stringent regulation, and to build a better future for the industry and its workers by pushing for more research into technology that can capture carbon dioxide from smokestacks, which could extend the use of coal. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recognized a possible role for carbon capture in meeting global goals for limiting carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, but commercial development of the technology has proved somewhat troublesome. Mr. Reavey noted that the tobacco industry had settled lawsuits with 48 states in 1998 and agreed to regulation by the Food and Drug Administration. The deal looked to some like the “End of Days,†he wrote in a slide, but “a much more heavily regulated tobacco industry is viable and profitable. †Like so many elements of climate change, coal is a polarizing issue for political parties. The 2016 Republican Party platform strongly supports a continued role for coal, referring to it as “an abundant, clean, affordable, reliable domestic energy resource,†and calls for killing the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which would continue the process of reducing dependence on coal for producing energy. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate for president, has promised to “defend and implement†the Clean Power Plan while providing economic opportunities in coal communities affected by it. For its part, Exxon Mobil has stated that it now accepts the validity of climate science and favors a carbon tax it also says that since the it has not funded groups that play down scientific evidence of the human role in global warming. In an interview, Mr. Reavey, who developed the slide presentation, said it simply recognized the “political reality†that Americans accepted climate science in increasing numbers. And while the presentation compared coal and tobacco, the two industries are “completely different,†he added. “At the end of the day, energy is something that we, as a society, require. Tobacco is not. †But a string of recent bankruptcy filings by coal companies has shown the extensive support from the industry for groups that deny the scientific validity of climate change and oppose environmental regulations. Mr. Reavey said that his company, Cloud Peak, “has never fought climate change — never fought it, never denied it or funded anyone who does. †The executive director of the industry group, Judy Colgan, recalled that Mr. Reavey’s presentation delivered a message the audience was ready to hear. The industry, she said, has recognized that the time for arguing over climate science has passed. “We can fight this climate debate all we want to it’s not going to help the industry survive,†she said, adding that very few people are going to change their minds. Instead, she added, developing carbon capture should be the top priority. Naomi Oreskes, a historian who has compared the science and public relations of the tobacco and fossil fuel industries, said that while much of the investigative attention in the past year has focused on Exxon Mobil, the coal industry presentation “is a reminder that this is a much more complicated story than just Exxon Mobil. †Money the coal industry spent on attacking climate science might have been invested to develop effective carbon capture technology, she said. “That, to me, is a little bit heartbreaking,†she added. “Now I think, ‘Guys, that’s a day late and a dollar short. ’†| 1 | [
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FMD2747 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: GULFThe Making of an American SeaBy Jack E. DavisIllustrated. 592 pages. Liveright. $29. 95. SUNSHINE STATEEssaysBy Sarah Gerard359 pages. Harper Perennial. $15. 99. Florida is a place and a state of mind. As the former, it’s lovely but afflicted, like Fay Wray in the hands of King Kong (developers). As the latter, it leaves much to be desired. I went to high school in southwest Florida. The malcontents pronounced it . Florida is a supposedly fun place that has a lot of sadness clinging to it, like barnacles to a boat’s hull. The novelist Cynthia Ozick is not someone I can imagine enjoying blender margaritas down at the beach bar, with sand in her toes. Yet Ozick was not far off, in her short story “Rosa,†when she wrote: “The whole peninsula of Florida was weighted down with regret. Everyone had left behind a real life. †One of the themes of “Sunshine State,†Sarah Gerard’s striking book of essays, is how Florida can unmoor you and make you reach for shoddy, solutions to your psychic unease. Gerard grew up in Clearwater, a beach city near Tampa. She writes about how her otherwise incredulous parents (they met in a biker bar he was wearing a Jimmy Buffett ) fell into New Thought, a movement. Almost as bad, they signed on with Amway. That company, by the of Betsy DeVos, the secretary of education, can, many have argued, resemble a pyramid scheme. Gerard decides that dabbling with Amway was, in her perfect phrase, a form of “achievement tourism. †She writes, “We left reality for a moment and believed the impossible was possible. †Gerard’s essay collection is one of two new books that examine the Florida experiment. The other is Jack E. Davis’s “Gulf: The Making of an American Sea,†a sensitive and sturdy work of environmental history. Obviously, the Gulf of Mexico does not belong solely to Florida. It is the body of water in the world. It touches several other countries — indeed, it is named for one of them — as well as other American states. But Davis lives in Florida, and that state’s wet western edges run along a vast amount of the Gulf’ like salt on the rim of a cocktail. He can’t help but dwell often upon his home place. Thanks to books by John Jeremiah Sullivan (“Pulpheadâ€) and Leslie Jamison (“The Empathy Examsâ€) and a handful of other young writers, the essay collection has new impetus and drama in American letters. The essay has gained ground on the short story. “Sunshine State†deserves to be talked about in this company, even if its essays are . When Gerard is on, she is really on. She’s the author of one previous book, the novel “Binary Star†(2015). The first essay is a knockout, a lurid red heart wrapped in barbed wire. It’s called “BFF,†and it’s about the author’s intense friendship with a girl who grew up to become a stripper and who spent time in shelters for battered women. This essay is about attraction and betrayal, and has the sinister propulsion of a Mary Gaitskill short story. “You shinier,†Gerard writes about her friend. “You prettier. You taller. You thinner, more popular. In middle school, you had friends and I had you. †They’d had tattoos on their hips that read, when they stood side by side, “Forever ever. †Their eventual split was devastating. The author had the means to get out of town the friend did not. Gerard catalogs the lies her friend told her, then she lists her own. She writes about her damage, splitting her face open while jumping from a train. This essay draws blood. Many of the essays in “Sunshine State†fall somewhere between memoir and journalism. Two of the longer pieces, about work to care for the homeless in Florida and about a troubled bird sanctuary, are serious and impeccably reported. But the author’s voice is lost in the telling. She’s best when her evocations of the frenzy that is Florida are personal. Historians, inspired by Fernand Braudel’s epic 1949 study of the Mediterranean Sea (1949) have written books about most of the world’s important bodies of water. Davis’s “Gulf†is the first comprehensive history of the Gulf of Mexico, a place that tends to be, he persuasively argues, “excluded from the central narrative of the American experience. †Texas and Louisiana also have a great deal of real estate, and Davis’s book does not skimp on their histories. But since Gerard, Davis and I each grew up staring at the same water off Florida, I will stick with Florida in this review. Davis carefully relates its history, from the state’s native people and its earliest European explorers, through the early history of the United States and the arrival of tourists, developers and those who would fish and hunt Florida to depletion. The author has a mind, and frequently views the history of the Gulf through the prism of artists and writers including Winslow Homer, Wallace Stevens, Ernest Hemingway and John D. MacDonald. His prose is supple and clear. About the arrival of motorized shrimp boats on the Gulf, he writes: “They pushed farther out into the Gulf, the classical music of a sea passage drowned forever by the heavy metal of internal combustion and snorting exhaust. Fishers discovered that if they worked past sunset, their trawls were filling with a new kind of shrimp, browns, which rose near the surface at night. †Davis’s book functions, as well, as a cri de coeur about the Gulf’s environmental ruin. His book runs up through the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. That event aside, he writes, “Every day in the Gulf is an environmental disaster, originating from sources near and far, that eclipses the spill. †“Goodbye North, Hello South,†Bessie Smith sang in “Florida Bound Blues. †“It’s so cold up here that the words freeze in your mouth. †The words in Gerard’s and Davis’s books are and, in their way, optimistic. Both writers make the effort, essential to any form of love, to see their state plain. | 1 | [
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FMD2748 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: SAN FRANCISCO — Gerald Harris was walking along Ocean Beach, the blustery coastline at the western edge of the city, when he passed Danny Glover, a star of Hollywood action movies and a San Francisco native. The men exchanged glances. “We were the only two black people in the area,†Mr. Harris said. San Francisco was once a national beacon of culture, home to a thriving jazz scene that had so many clubs it was known as the Harlem of the West. But these days, blacks say they take notice when they see another in affluent and neighborhoods. The jazz clubs of the Fillmore neighborhood have been replaced with upscale shops. Marcus Books, a cultural anchor of the black community and one of the first bookshops in the nation to focus on topics, closed in 2014. Other black landmarks that have long since disappeared are commemorated with remembrances embedded in the sidewalk like tombstones to a forgotten culture. The decline has been steady and noticeable. One of seven residents was black in 1970. Today, it is nearly one of 20, with most of the city’s 46, 000 blacks living in public housing. “My prediction is 10 years from now, we won’t have 20, 000 blacks in this city,†said the Rev. Amos C. Brown, the pastor of Third Baptist Church, a historically black church founded in 1852. While San Francisco residents agree that the loss of black culture is palpable, there is disagreement over what to do about it. City officials say they are trying to retain the remaining black population, largely through expanding and improving public housing, and want to lure more affluent blacks to the city. They are also confronting accusations of racial profiling by the police force, which has spurred protests throughout the city. Yet one of the city’s most prominent Willie Brown, a former mayor and former speaker of the California State Assembly, said he did not believe the shift could be reversed. There is no point in trying to engineer the city’s ethnic population, he said. “I don’t think I would put a whole lot of time and energy into doing anything,†Mr. Brown said, “except making sure there’s equal access and equal opportunity and equal resources. †He called the current mix — with whites, Asians and Latinos making up the largest segments of the population — a “new reality. †The reasons for the migration are in large measure economic: Skyrocketing real estate prices fueled by tech jobs have priced out residents of all ethnicities. But the exodus was also accelerated by a domino effect of black businesses and families moving away, many of them to Oakland and other cities along the East Bay. When black communities, which were splintered into three areas in San Francisco, lost their barber shops, restaurants and clubs, they lost their centers of gravity, according to Mr. Brown. Black residents moved to places where they felt more “comfortable socially,†he said. The tech industry, the motor of San Francisco’s economy in recent years, has accelerated the decline. The tech industry skews white and Asian. John William Templeton, a local historian and an advocate for greater black participation in the industry, said it was disappointing that blacks were not more involved in one of America’s most successful industries. Around 1 percent of employees at tech companies in the Bay Area are black, down from 4 percent in 1998, according to Mr. Templeton. The shift was also partly encouraged by what is now recognized as an extensive and misguided city policy of eradicating what was called “urban blight. †Thousands of homes in black neighborhoods were razed in the name of redevelopment from the 1950s to the 1970s. Theodore Miller, an aide to Mayor Edwin M. Lee, called it a “terrible undertaking that had catastrophic consequences. †The final draft of a report, published in January, said redevelopment benefited prominent members of the business community whose “real motivation was the replacement of ‘slums’ with commercial and residential development. †The city is by no means empty of especially in the business district many blacks commute to work from other cities in the Bay Area. Still, Mr. Harris said he often found that he was the only in restaurants or at the Commonwealth Club, where he helps organize seminars on science and technology. Frederick E. Jordan, a business leader who talks about the need for a “Marshall Plan†to woo more blacks to the city, says “there are no jobs and no contracts†for blacks. “Our backs are against the sea we’re almost out,†said Mr. Jordan, who owns an engineering firm and is the chairman of the San Francisco African American Chamber of Commerce. “We have to rebuild our middle class,†said Mr. Miller, the mayor’s aide. The majority of blacks who remain are disproportionally poor, with median incomes for blacks at $27, 000 compared with $89, 000 for whites, a disparity twice as large as the national average. Blacks who remain have been subject to racial profiling by the police, according to the public defender’s office, and a recent report commissioned by the city cited a host of actions by the police against blacks that appear to be discriminatory. The report found that while make up about 6 percent of the city’s residents, they constituted about 40 percent, 20 of 51, of the victims of shootings from January 2010 through July 2015. In addition, the study found evidence of racial disparities in the rate of police stops and searches of . Those racially charged shootings, including of a black man and woman, forced the police chief, Gregory P. Suhr, to resign in May. From the days of the gold rush, San Francisco was a place of opportunity for pioneering blacks, as it was for Jews, Italians, Irish and other ethnic groups. The city’s black population was small until around World War II, when tens of thousands of blacks migrated from the South to work in shipyards and other wartime jobs. The population increased by nearly 800 percent in the 1940s and reached its peak around 1970, when 13 percent of the city was black. San Francisco also played a role in the civil rights movement. In 1968, black students at what was then San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University) held a prolonged strike that led to the creation of the nation’s first black studies program, a campaign chronicled in the recent documentary “Agents of Change. †Mr. Glover, who took part in the protests as a student, said the black exodus from the city made him “sad and angry. †The larger question, he said, is whether San Francisco is becoming an enclave for the rich. “It’s a question about who we are and our responsibility to build our communities,†he said, “and not just based upon who has the ability to pay. †The frustration is keenly felt among those whose neighborhoods have lost their core. Many say they feel like strangers in their own city. “You get the feeling that people are thinking, ‘You’re still here? ’†said Barbara Gainer, a probation officer and a jazz singer. She lives in the western reaches of the city, a neighborhood that was once predominantly black but now is mostly a segment that now makes up 34 percent of the city’s population, up from 13 percent in 1970. Ms. Gainer says she is regularly asked if she wants to sell her house her mailbox fills up with solicitations. The inquiries were flattering at first because they reminded her of the value of her property, but now she feels singled out. She remembers one couple in particular who approached her four or five times about selling. She tried to dissuade them. “I said: ‘Even if I sold you my house and you gave me this big price, why would I do that? Where would I live? ’†The reply stunned her: “You should go to Antioch. That’s where your people go. †Antioch, a city about 50 miles northeast, has a sizable population. At Mr. Brown’s Third Baptist Church, attendance has been steadily declining on a recent Sunday, around 150 parishioners worshiped in a sanctuary that seats 1, 100. “We pray that we would never be cut flowers, that we would always have roots,†Mr. Brown told the congregation. Mr. Brown then told the story of hearing a radio program lamenting the looming extinction of a type of butterfly. “And yet,†he said, “we don’t have the basic compassion and common sense to realize that blacks are an endangered species in the city of San Francisco. †| 1 | [
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FMD2749 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Wow! This compilation of blatant blocking for Hillary is beyond embarrassing and these journalists should be serving time for journalistic malpractice.We all know the mainstream media is guilty of supporter the Democrat candidate for President in almost every election for decades, the question is: Are we going to allow them to define the narrative and cover for a criminal while destroying the reputation of Trump, who is truly the only ally we have against this corrupt media, or are we going to stand up and shout, NO MORE! ? A few examples of journalistic malpractice: We have chosen to cut off that microphone. Let me be clear here, obviously the majority of Donald Trump supporters are not African American, I don t know how many African Americans were in that building. But that is one person we have chosen to cut off the sound off for. This is happening every day in America are you doing your part to discredit them? After all, silence is consent | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD2750 | 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: Jews Ordered to Register in East Ukraine? Claim summaries: Have Jews in eastern Ukraine been ordered to register with the government?
contextual information: A small group of people in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk distributed leaflets ordering local Jews to register with the government. Examples include a flyer demanding, "Jews must register or face deportation," which was signed by Donetsk's pro-Russian interim government and handed out on Passover evening in the eastern Ukrainian city. On April 16, 2014, English-language news media began reporting that Jews in Donetsk had received leaflets instructing them to "register" with the (unrecognized) Donetsk government, declare their assets, and pay a registration fee or face severe penalties, including loss of citizenship and deportation. Some of the leaflets were posted near a local synagogue, while others were reportedly distributed outside a Jewish center by "three unidentified men wearing balaclavas and carrying the flag of the Russian Federation." Jews in Donetsk, where pro-Russian militants have taken over government buildings, were told they must "register" with those attempting to make the city part of Russia, according to Israeli media. Jews emerging from a synagogue reported being handed leaflets that ordered them to provide a list of their property and pay a registration fee "or else have their citizenship revoked, face deportation, and see their assets confiscated," as reported by Ynet News, Israel's largest news website. Donetsk is the site of an "anti-terrorist" operation by the Ukrainian government, which has moved military columns into the region to force out militants demanding a referendum on joining Russia. The identity of those who distributed the leaflets and their motives remain unclear. The material purportedly bore the signature of Denis Pushilin, supposedly the self-proclaimed leader of the pro-Russian separatist group, but he has claimed that his group had nothing to do with the leaflets and that they were issued by someone else to discredit the separatists as anti-Semitic. Novosti Donbassa reported that the leaflet was distributed by "three unidentified men wearing balaclavas and carrying the flag of the Russian Federation" with the aim of inciting conflict and then blaming the attack on separatists. The authenticity of the leaflet could not be independently verified. The purported anti-Semitic leaflet follows a UN investigation that found ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine intentionally exaggerated reports of attacks by Ukrainian nationalists to justify Russian involvement in the region. The report also dismissed fears regarding the far-right Pravy Sektor (Right Sector), which has been at the forefront of the Ukrainian revolution and accused of violence against ethnic Russians, as "disproportionate." Pushilin has denied Novosti Donbassa's report and assured reporters that the flyer is not from his organization. It appears that whoever distributed the leaflets fabricated the alarming documents to provoke fear, generate negative publicity, and/or make money, without having the means or intent to enforce the provisions outlined therein. Even if it resembled the start of a racist purge, the flyer was more likely part of an ill-conceived extortion plot or a propaganda ploy against the separatists. For one thing, the sign-off at the bottom of the flyer, "Yours, the People's Governor of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin," seemed off. This referred to the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, formed a week and a half earlier by armed separatists who seized the regional government headquarters. Their territory is confined to that one building and a small area around it. Since April 7, they have barricaded themselves inside with a cache of weapons and demanded a referendum on secession from Ukraine. The bottom of the flyer included a reproduction of the stamp these separatists use on press badges issued to journalists. However, Denis Pushilin is not the individual who calls himself the "People's Governor" of this pseudo-state; that title belongs to Pavel Gubarev, who claimed it in early March during a separatist rally in Donetsk. Three days later, he was arrested on charges of separatism and taken to jail in Kiev, where he remains. The alleged author of the anti-Semitic flyer, Pushilin, is Gubarev's ally and comrade-in-arms, but he has never used the title "People's Governor." His preferred title is "co-chairman of the temporary coalition government" that he and his allies declared inside that building. Pushilin denied any involvement with the flyers, stating, "In reality, this is a fake, and a pretty unsuccessful one. It was all done with Photoshop." Suspicion fell on their political opponents as soon as the flyers began circulating online. Dmitro Tkachenko, who helped organize a large rally in Donetsk to support Ukrainian unity, called the flyer "a brilliant piece of disinformation" against the separatists. When asked if one of his fellow activists for Ukrainian unity could have staged it, Tkachenko acknowledged the possibility but expressed doubt, saying, "But this is a sophisticated trick, and to be honest, I don't think any of our folks are that smart." More likely, Tkachenko suggested, the flyers were the work of an opportunistic splinter group of separatists looking to profit from their newfound impunity. Over the past week, they have seized numerous government buildings in Donetsk, most recently the city hall, without any resistance from the police. "But their movement is very divided," Tkachenko noted. It includes various groups of armed thugs who answer to no single leader, making it plausible that some of the more entrepreneurial individuals among them sought to make a bit of extortion money on the side. | 1 | [
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FMD2751 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: During the Ukraine-NATO Interparliamentary Council (UNIC) in Dnipr, a French politician demanded proof of Russian aggression in Ukraine. | 0 | [
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FMD2752 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Trump Proudly Declares: Most Of The People I’ve Insulted Deserved It By Andrew Bradford on October 27, 2016 Subscribe
Arrogance is defined as “an insulting way of thinking or behaving that comes from believing that you are better, smarter, or more important than other people.” In other words, Donald Trump perfectly exemplifies arrogance, and he just proved that fact yet again.
Appearing on Good Morning America Thursday morning, the GOP nominee readily defended the insulting posts he’s made on Twitter: “It’s ok, most of them deserved it.”
Trump then declared : “I believe in fighting back when people are against me, when they tell lies, you know, I have the power of this instrument and frankly sometimes I’ll use that. And I agree sometimes it will revert back or sometimes maybe it doesn’t come out — you have to be careful with it.”
When exactly has Trump been careful with what he posts on social media? Try never.
Melania Trump, who was also interviewed, said that if she becomes First Lady, one of her primary areas of focus would be social media: “What’s going on is very hurtful to children, to some adults as well.”
Does that mean she’ll take away Donald’s cell phone and duct tape his hands to his sides so he can’t tweet out hateful and hurtful shit the way he normally does? Yeah, good luck with that, Melania!
Earlier this week, the New York Times ran a two-page spread listing all of the insults and unkind postings Trump has made on Twitter since he announced he would be running for President in 2015. If you want to see a completely unhinged, uninformed, and unfiltered mind at work, just take a look at the Times article and recall what Hillary Clinton said regarding the Donald: “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.”
Donald Trump cannot be trusted with a smart phone, let alone the reins of power for the most important nation in the world.
Featured Image Via YouTube Screengrab About Andrew Bradford
Andrew Bradford is a single father who lives in Atlanta. A member of the Christian Left, he has worked in the fields of academia, journalism, and political consulting. His passions are art, music, food, and literature. He believes in equal rights and justice for all. To see what else he likes to write about, check out his blog at Deepleftfield.info. Connect | 0 | [
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FMD2753 | 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: IRS Refund Notification Claim summaries: Is the IRS sending out e-mail notices about tax refunds?
contextual information: Phishing bait: Notice from the IRS indicating the recipient is eligible for a tax refund. Examples: [Collected on the Internet, 2006] IRS Notification - Please Read This. After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity, we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $163.80. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days to process it. A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons, such as submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline. To access the form for your tax refund, please click here. Regards, Internal Revenue Service. Copyright 2006, Internal Revenue Service U.S.A. All rights reserved.
Origins: Notices purporting to come from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) make effective phishing bait for several reasons. Notices from federal government institutions, especially an agency with the ominous reputation of the IRS, grab people's attention. Unlike other phishing schemes that emulate mailings from various private financial institutions (e.g., Bank of America) and are therefore easily recognized as phony by many recipients (because they do not do business with those companies), a forged IRS notice has the potential to ensnare a much larger pool of victims, as most adult U.S. residents have dealings with that agency. Many people find the federal income tax filing process complicated and confusing, so the idea that they might have unclaimed tax refunds waiting for them seems plausible. A March 2006 mass phishing email took advantage of these points, spamming millions of Internet users with phony notices that included the IRS logo, advising recipients they were eligible to receive tax refunds (of $63.80 or $163.80), and inviting them to click on a link that took them to an IRS website form through which they could claim those refunds. Of course, the links included in the messages did not actually send users to the genuine IRS website; they redirected claimants to imposter IRS sites (hosted on servers in various countries) and instructed them to enter all sorts of sensitive personal information (credit card number, expiration date, CVV code, and ATM PIN) into an online form so that the supposed refunds could be posted directly to their debit/credit card or bank accounts. Any information entered into such forms can be harvested by scammers and used for identity theft and other financial crimes. The IRS never offers refunds through email or sends out unsolicited emails to taxpayers. When the IRS needs to contact a taxpayer, they send notice via U.S. Mail, and every such notice includes a telephone number that the recipient can call for confirmation. Should you need to visit the IRS website for any reason, go there directly (by entering the www.irs.gov URL into your web browser) rather than following links in email messages. Last updated: 17 March 2006
Sources: Miller, Anita. "Internet Scammers Using IRS Logo for Bait." San Marcos Daily Record. 17 March 2006. Speier, Drew. "E-Mail Scam Uses Fake IRS Web Site." WFIE-TV. 2 March 2006. KPHO-TV. "Consumers Warned of IRS 'Phishing' Scam." 2 March 2006. KXAN-TV. "New E-Mail Scam Promises Money From the IRS." 17 March 2006. WFSB-TV. "Latest Scam Targets Tax Returns." 2 March 2006. WHEC-TV. "IRS Warning Taxpayers About Fake E-Mail Scam." 2 March 2006. WLNS-TV. "Beware of Tax Scam." 7 March 2006. | 0 | [
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FMD2754 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: WASHINGTON — The Trump administration moved on Friday to sweep away most of the remaining vestiges of Obama administration prosecutors at the Justice Department, ordering 46 holdover United States attorneys to tender their resignations immediately — including Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan. The firings were a surprise — especially for Mr. Bharara, who has a reputation for prosecuting public corruption cases and for investigating insider trading. In November, Mr. Bharara met with then Donald J. Trump at Trump Tower in Manhattan and told reporters afterward that both Mr. Trump and Jeff Sessions, who is now the attorney general, had asked him about staying on, which the prosecutor said he expected to do. But on Friday, Mr. Bharara was among federal prosecutors who received a call from Dana Boente, the acting deputy attorney general, instructing him to resign, according to a person familiar with the matter. As of Friday evening, though some of the prosecutors had publicly announced their resignations, Mr. Bharara had not. A spokesman for Mr. Bharara declined to comment. Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said in an email that all remaining holdover United States attorneys had been asked to resign, leaving their deputy United States attorneys, who are career officials, in place in an acting capacity. “As was the case in prior transitions, many of the United States Attorneys nominated by the previous administration already have left the Department of Justice,†she said in the email. “The Attorney General has now asked the remaining 46 presidentially appointed U. S. Attorneys to tender their resignations in order to ensure a uniform transition. †The abrupt order came after two weeks of increasing calls from Mr. Trump’s allies outside the government to oust appointees from President Barack Obama’s administration. Mr. Trump has been angered by a series of reports based on leaked information from a sprawling bureaucracy, as well as from his own West Wing. Several officials said the firings had been planned before Friday. But the calls from the acting deputy attorney general arose a day after Sean Hannity, the Fox News commentator who is a strong supporter of President Trump, said on his evening show that Mr. Trump needed to “purge†Obama holdovers from the federal government. Mr. Hannity portrayed them as “saboteurs†from the “deep state†who were leaking secrets to hurt Mr. Trump. It also came the same week that government watchdogs wrote to Mr. Bharara and urged him to investigate whether Mr. Trump had violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which bars federal officials from taking payments from foreign governments. In Mr. Hannity’s monologue, he highlighted the fact that the Clinton administration had told all 93 United States attorneys to resign soon after he took office in 1993, and that “nobody blinked an eye,†but he said it became a scandal when the George W. Bush administration fired several top prosecutors midway through his second term. Several Democratic members of Congress said they only heard that the United States attorneys from their states were being immediately let go shortly before the Friday afternoon statement from the Justice Department. One senator, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect the identity of the United States attorney in that state, said that an prosecutor had been instructed to vacate the office by the end of the day. Although it was not clear whether all were given the same instructions, that United States attorney was not the only one told to clear out by the close of business. The abrupt nature of the dismissals distinguished Mr. Trump’s mass firing from Mr. Clinton’s, because the prosecutors in 1993 were not summarily told to clear out their offices. Michael D. McKay, who was the United States attorney in Seattle under the George Bush administration, recalled that even though he had already made plans to leave, he nevertheless stayed on for about three weeks beyond a request by General Janet Reno for all of the holdover prosecutors to resign. He also recalled at least one colleague who was in the midst of a major investigation and was kept on to finish it. “I’m confident it wasn’t on the same day,†he said, adding: “While there was a wholesale ‘Good to see you, thanks for your service, and now please leave,’ people were kept on on a basis depending on the situation. †Two United States attorneys survived the firings: Mr. Boente, the top prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia, who is serving as acting deputy attorney general, and Rod Rosenstein, the top prosecutor in Baltimore, whom Mr. Trump has nominated to be deputy attorney general. “The president called Dana Boente and Rod Rosenstein tonight to inform them that he has declined to accept their resignation, and they will remain in their current positions,†said Peter Carr, a Justice Department spokesman. It remains possible that Mr. Trump and Mr. Sessions could put others on that list later. It is not unusual for a new president to replace United States attorneys appointed by a predecessor, especially when there has been a change in which party controls the White House. Still, other presidents have done it gradually in order to minimize disruption, giving those asked to resign more time to make the transition while keeping some inherited prosecutors in place, as it had appeared Mr. Trump would do with Mr. Bharara. Mr. Obama, for example, kept Mr. Rosenstein, who had been appointed by George W. Bush. The abrupt mass firing appeared to be a change in plans for the administration, according to a statement by Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “In January, I met with Vice President Pence and White House Counsel Donald McGahn and asked specifically whether all U. S. attorneys would be fired at once,†she said. “Mr. McGahn told me that the transition would be done in an orderly fashion to preserve continuity. Clearly this is not the case. I’m very concerned about the effect of this sudden and unexpected decision on federal law enforcement. †Still, the cases the various federal prosecutors were overseeing will continue, with their career deputies becoming acting United States attorneys in their place for the time being. Mr. Bharara has been among the United States attorneys, with a purview that includes Wall Street and public corruption prosecutions, including of both Democratic and Republican officials and other influential figures. His office, for example, has prosecuted top police officials in New York and the powerful leader of the city correction officers’ union they have pleaded not guilty. It is preparing to try a major public corruption case involving former aides and associates of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and is looking into allegations of around Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York. But Mr. Bharara is also closely associated with the Senate minority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York. Mr. Bharara was formerly a counsel to Mr. Schumer, who pushed Mr. Obama to nominate Mr. Bharara to be the top federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. At the time of the November meeting at Trump Tower, Mr. Schumer was saying publicly that Democrats should try to find common ground and work with the . But relations between Mr. Trump and Mr. Schumer have since soured. Mr. Trump has called Mr. Schumer the Democrats’ “head clown†and accused him of shedding “fake tears†over the president’s efforts to bar refugees from entering the United States. For his part, Mr. Schumer has called for an independent investigation into contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and demanded that Mr. Sessions resign for having testified that he had no contacts with Russians even though he had met with the Russian ambassador. The White House officials ascribed the reversal over Mr. Bharara as emblematic of a chaotic transition process. One official said it was tied to Mr. Trump’s belief in November that he and Mr. Schumer would be able to work together. | 1 | [
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FMD2755 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee County, Wisc., is possibly in line to become the next Secretary of Homeland Security. He s ruthless, he s extreme right, he s abusive, and he s just flat terrifying. Prisoners have died under his watch, too, for reasons such as labor and thirst. When the Milwaukee County medical examiner released standard reports on two of these deaths, Clarke absolutely lost it.Brian Peterson told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that Clarke called him at the end of October and verbally pummeled him because of those reports. He threatened to contact the state s medical licensing board to have Peterson s license revoked, or at least to get him sanctioned. Peterson said: I haven t been talked to like that since I was probably 5. Is this really someone we want in charge of an entire federal department? Someone who s going to threaten to destroy those who expose the truth about him? It s actually no wonder Trump would consider him that s what Trump does. Eliminate anyone who makes you look even slightly bad.What s worse is that Peterson contacted the county s executive office about it a day later, and it came out that they aren t totally unfamiliar with Clarke s bullying behavior. This isn t an isolated incident.Clarke has excoriated Black Lives Matter as an anarchist group and a hate group, and predicted that they d join forces with ISIS at some point to destroy America. He s also a member of an extreme anti-government group known as the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Organization, which should make him unfit to serve as Secretary of anything at all.That organization promotes the idea that the county sheriff is the supreme law enforcement entity in the country, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.Clarke s office contacted the county executive s office to claim that they had a recording of the entire conversation and paint Peterson as a liar. But, surprise, surprise, they refused to provide it even though it could have cleared Clarke. Then again, nonexistent tapes can t clear anybody, so that answers that.This disgusting excuse for a law enforcement officer and human being is the one who should lose his job. Nobody should be allowed to abuse anyone, and Clarke is guilty of many, many abuses.Featured image by Joe Raedle via Getty Images | 0 | [
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FMD2756 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The Trump administration is committed to overhauling the tax code this year, according White House Economic Advisor Gary Cohn. [Cohn said that overhauling the tax code is one of the top priorities for the Trump administration in 2017, claiming specifically that they have spent an “enormous amount†of time discussing the topic. “I don’t know if it’s August or not,†Cohn said in an interview Friday morning on Bloomberg TV. “Getting it done well and getting it done right is more important than getting it done soon. †Cohn, who serves at the head of the National Economic Council, claims that Congress will work on putting together “one cohesive†tax plan when it returns from recess in . Trump’s aides have insisted that, unlike the failed effort to repeal Obamacare, the tax code rewrite will be driven by the White House. President Trump claimed he would introduce a “phenomenal†tax plan at the outset of his presidency but has yet to do so, leading some to believe that there is an internal debate over portions of the new code, such as the controversial tax, which would enact a tax on companies’ domestic sales and imported goods. Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart. com | 1 | [
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FMD2757 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: We Are Change
Remember, remember, the 5th of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
-Old English folk rhyme (anonymous)
By Barrie Zwicker (Special thanks to Truth and Shadows )
Today, November 5 th , is Guy Fawkes Day, also known as Gunpowder Day. In 2016 it’s the 411 th anniversary of The Gunpowder Plot or Gunpowder Treason, as it was first called.
It also happens to be my 78 th birthday. So I’ve been more aware of Guy Fawkes Day than most. I’m especially happy about how ubiquitous the Guy Fawkes mask has become.
The mask was hugely popularized in the movie V for Vendetta . As stalwart 9/11Truther Kevin Barrett wrote, a year ago, in a piece entitled “ Unmasking Media Lies: Why BBC’s V-for-Vendetta Mask Piece is Fawked Up ”:
“V for Vendetta may be the most revolutionary film ever made. Its obvious message is: Let’s get out there and visit some rough justice on the treasonous bastards who created the 9/11 and 7/7 media spectaculars, and destroyed the freedoms for which we’ve been fighting for centuries.
Watch (on YouTube) V for 9/11 Vendetta: Past, Present and Future
It is also possible to read the film from an interior, psychological perspective: Rather than just a call to action, it’s about the psychological process of coming to terms with the 9/11 and 7/7 inside jobs, by allowing oneself to feel the overwhelming anger that is the natural response. Once one has faced the facts, overcome fear, and come to terms with one’s own righteous anger, THEN it’s time for revolution.
The real message of the V mask is simple: We know you bastards blew up the Trade Center. We know you’re blowing up the economy. We know you’re lying to us 24/7/365. We know you’re trying to keep us poor and weak and fearful and impotent. Well, guess what? We’re not afraid of you. We’re not afraid to die. And we’re coming to get you.
No wonder the BBC is afraid to admit what the V mask really means.”
Yet for the first 71 years of my life I had entirely the wrong idea about the gunpowder plot: what happened, who was really behind it, and its impact on history. An impact that continues to this day. It was in 2005 that I read I read Webster Tarpley’s superb book 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA right after it came off the press. He introduced me to the historical element.
True, the brazen events of 9/11 and the mind-boggling cover-up that followed opened my eyes to state-executed terror frauds and the power they deliver to the dark forces that order them. But I didn’t know from nuthin’ about the Gunpowder Plot.
Nor at that time did I appreciate that it and 9/11 are but two examples from thousands of false flag operations that have changed history.
False flag ops are the least-recognized, highest-impact category of human deceit. In terms of emotional wallop, even the most brilliant lies perpetrated by the most talented demagogues pale, in comparison to a big false flag op, for the power to manipulate the public. On this anniversary let’s look more closely at this particular false flag op for some lessons. As William Faulkner put it in his Requiem for a Nun : “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Then we will touch briefly on one of the most recent false flag ops – a leading edge digital one that perversely misappropriates the Fawkes name.
…
On the Throne of England in 1605 sits James the First, a Protestant, the King who ordered the translation of the Christian Bible that bears his name.
As midnight approaches on November the 4th – the eve of the traditional opening of Parliament – armed agents of the King raid a basement room of the Houses of Parliament. They discover and apprehend one Guy Fawkes. His age, 36, coincides with the number of barrels of gunpowder they find with him. They find a tunnel leading to the room. Fawkes is a known agitator for the rights of English Roman Catholics. In his possession are a pocket watch (a rarity in those days).
Had he succeeded in detonating the gunpowder, the next morning King James and his queen would be mangled bodies, as would all the members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Smoking rubble would be all that would remain of the Palace of Westminster complex, including historic Westminster Abbey.
So goes the palace version of the events of the late evening of November the 4 th , 1605. The English public is stunned. It’s the equivalent of 9/11. “A cataclysm,” Adam Nicolson describes it in his book God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible . Upon his arrest, according to the official account, Fawkes admits his purpose was to destroy king and Parliament.
That there was some kind of plot is not in doubt. By November the 8 th , on the rack, Fawkes names 12 co-conspirators. Those not killed where they are tracked down are found guilty of treason later in a trial lasting less than a day. They and Fawkes are hanged, drawn and quartered.
The following Sunday, November the 10 th, the King James Version of the plot is broadcast from the leading pulpit of the Church of England, that of William Barlow, Bishop of Rochester. Barlow thunders that the enemy, meaning papists, is satanic in its wickedness. The King, their hoped-for victim, on the other hand is, Mr. Nicolson writes, characterized as an unqualifiedly good man . . . virtually a Christ-figure.
Soon all the pulpits of England echo the official account. Between 1606 and 1859 the Fifth is remembered in an annual service of thanksgiving in every Anglican church, writes James Sharpe in Remember, Remember: A Cultural History of Guy Fawkes Day. Until 1959 , it was against the law in Britain not to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day. Celebrate, because from the beginning the public was giving thanks that the realm was saved and the treasonous conspirators dispatched. For centuries effigies of Fawkes were burned.
The palace version becomes historical truth for humankind including me – duped again! – for most of our lives.
Mr. Nicolson and others now cast serious doubt on that version. Many anomalies concerning the events have surfaced.
Fawkes was not apprehended in a basement room but rather a ground floor room, one remarkably easily rented by the plotters. There was, accordingly, no tunnel. The authorship of the letter by which the King learned of the plot is murky. It was turned over to the King by the Royal Chancellor, Sir Robert Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury.
Sir Cecil I would characterize as the Dick Cheney of his day. Because plots were common at that time Cecil had an efficient network of spies seeded among Roman Catholic dissidents. He kept tabs on all plots the spies discovered. This one featured a large cast of characters from several cities.
Cecil kept the King in the dark about the plot except for the obscure letter. The gunpowder, it turned out, was of an inferior nature, unlikely to have achieved much result. This was odd, as Fawkes definitely knew a thing or two about gunpowder. He had developed expertise with it while serving with distinction in Spain’s army against Protestant rebels in the Netherlands. It’s conceivable the gunpowder could have been switched by someone; loads of it existed because of all the hostilities. Some handwriting on Fawkes’s confession differed from the rest.
Ignored until recently is a book by Jesuit historian John Gerard, What Was the Gunpowder Plot: The Traditional Story Tested by Original Evidence . Gerard died in 1606 but his book was not published for almost three centuries, in1897, an interesting temporal fact in itself. While it’s true, as Sharpe writes, that accounts of the plot differ as per the biases of the authors, I find Gerard’s account pretty compelling. He writes:
“When we examine into the details supplied to us as to the progress of the affair, we find that much of what the conspirators are said to have done is well-nigh incredible, while it is utterly impossible that if they really acted in the manner described, the public authorities should not have had full knowledge…”
Exactly. The evidence points to a particular kind of false-flag operation. There are many variations. In some (9/11 being the leading example) an outrageous event is carried out by the perpetrators and blamed on the chosen enemy. In others (example, Gulf of Tonkin) nothing happens but a fiction blames the chosen enemy. The Gunpowder Plot is midway: a plot was underway but the precise intentions of the plotters can never be known. The main feature is that, with or without taking a hand in the plot, the Cecil elements manipulated events brilliantly.
Cecil was heavily involved in an influential London group known as “the war party.” It wanted to push James into a confrontation with the Spanish Empire, from which the group’s members hoped, among other things, to extract great personal profit.
The war party considered it politically vital to keep persecuting Roman Catholics. Sir Cecil set out, writes Tarpley, to sway James to adopt his policy by means of terrorism.
It amounts to this: Either Cecil and the war party made the Gunpowder Plot happen or they let it happen –and made sure of a brilliantly timed “exposé.” And if they let it happen they made it happen.
James himself had negotiated peace with Spain the previous year. His other advisors told him there was no chance of a general Catholic uprising and that no foreign Catholic powers were involved in the plot.
The King knew, Sharpe writes, that “the reality of Catholicism in England around 1600 was very different from the image conjured up in government propaganda and contemporary Protestant myth.” Sharpe again: “…even in the face of … persecution it seems that most of England’s Catholics remained loyal to their monarch and wanted nothing more than to be allowed to practice their faith unmolested.” (The parallel with most Muslims living in the UK and Canada today springs to mind.)
For his part, James downplayed the plot. “James and his ministers,” Sharpe writes, “showed more restraint than many modern regimes faced with similar problems.”
Nevertheless, the power of the imagery of what might have happened burned itself into the public’s psyche, and was repeatedly fanned by the Protestant and war promoting establishments.
The outcomes of this ongoing propaganda campaign are incontestable. Tolerance for English Roman Catholics is replaced by a period of terrible bloodletting for them. Numbers are killed. Catholics’ homes are burned. A string of laws is passed restricting their rights and liberties.
The English become “fixated on homeland security,“ Nicolson writes. An inclusive, irenic idea of mutual benefit between Spain and England – trade between the two countries, because of the peace treaty, had been growing –“is replaced in England by a defensive/aggressive complex.” All Catholics, of all shades, never mind their enthusiasm or not for the planned attack, are identified as the enemy.
Most significantly, war with Spain ensues. England’s course is set for a century of wars against the Spanish and Portuguese empires. England for various reasons comes out victorious and on these war victories the British Empire is founded in blood, deception and conquest.
…
There’s no way of knowing whether the British Empire – and all the consequences of its rule from Capetown to Canada to Iraq to its American colonies — would have emerged anyway or in what form or at what pace, but we can see in retrospect that the Gunpowder Plot was pivotal in what did transpire.
It would be a failure of imagination not to see the parallels with 9/11 and society in our day of blanket war propaganda, teeming with covert agents, ever-encroaching surveillance, ever decreasing civil rights and liberties, and either helpless or conniving leaders.
Let’s look at false flag ops generically. It’s difficult in my opinion to over-estimate their terrible place in history, and their place in making history terrible. Think of the wars and millions of deaths that followed the Gunpowder Plot, the sinking of the Maine in Havana Harbour in 1898 that kick-started the US Empire’s expansion to the Philippines and beyond, the sinking of the Lusitania that brought the USA into World War I, the torching of the German Reichstag that boosted Hitler to power and enabled his bloody grab for world domination, the assassination of John F. Kennedy that yanked U.S. foreign policy onto a warpath, the alleged attacks during LBJ’s presidency the next year by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on U.S. warships in the Gulf of Tonkin — attacks that simply did not take place but that provided the basis for the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, passed 88-2 in the US Senate. That resolution constituted the “legal” basis for escalating the Vietnam War with an eventual death toll of more than 3-million. And 9/11. To name a few.
Without false flag ops most wars would be harder to launch. Some would barely be possible. Think of the unprecedented millions of peace marchers who took to the streets prior to the invasion of Iraq. If the deceptions are used to justify such wars were exposed earlier by a skeptical, independent, ferociously investigative media, we all would be living in a different world. Millions of horrible deaths and all the accompanying grief could have been avoided. And the military would have to put on bake sales to raise funds.
There always has been a yearning for peace among the normal everyday citizenry: finding meaningful work, marrying and raising a family, tilling the soil, writing poetry, inventing things, or — as Pierre Berton said was his favourite thing – “getting smashed with your friends.”
There are exceptions, but the horrible norm is that for wars to be launched, maintained or expanded the people have to be fooled. And history proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the most surefire way to accomplish that is to lumber them with an iconic outrage allegedly perpetrated by the designated “enemy” of the day. And we go on sinking ever further into the mire of deaths – the deaths of innocents, the death of promise for a better future, the death of honest history, the death of coming to grips with reality – because each new false flag op draws power from the fictions planted about all the previous ones.
And so the elites continue to hide their four aces in a rigged game. Their most closely guarded secret retains the potency of the first one. Remember, remember, the 5 th of November, the 11 th of September, Faulkner, and George Santayana’s comment that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
But today we also have to remember the future. Added to the false flag ops, false flag agents and false flag organizations of old are false flag digital organisms, sent to infect particular publics. One of the most recent of which I’ve become aware is a rogue individual or group identified as ” This tricky entity “FawkesSecurity” on Monday, October 22, released via YouTube and Pastebin a bomb threat against an unidentified U.S. Government building.
I for one smell digital gunpowder.
“FawkesSecurity” claims to be associated with the Anonymous collective. The threat of violence, however, goes against everything Anonymous says it stands for. Sources at Anonymous are denouncing “FawkesSecurity” and its bomb threat.
A report on this , from which I am quoting, can be found at Examiner.com
Following is an excerpt from the message of “FawkesSecurity:”
Dear citizens of the world, ? We are anonymous. As of today 200 kilograms of composite Nitroglycerin and commercial explosives have effectively been concealed in a government building, situated in the united states of America. on the 5th of November 2012 … ? we are anonymous ? we are legion ? we do not forget ? we do not forgive ? on the 5th of November, you will expect us.
As the Examiner report says, “the video displays many of the standard trappings of associated with Anonymous [and yet] the threat of violence is completely out of step with the ethos that guides Anonymous.” The Examiner report adds:
“Multiple social media accounts have denounced FawkesSecurity and their bomb threat. Many speculate FawkesSecurity is a false flag operation conducted by government agents in an attempt to discredit Anonymous. Others speculate that FawkesSecurity is simply misguided, and unfamiliar with the bullet proof idea that is Anonymous.”
Whatever the case, those who wrote the text above can’t punctuate or capitalize worth a damn.
The digital and physical worlds are not separate. Agents of the state infest both. Although unlikely, if the threat by “FawkesSecurity” were to be carried out today, one outcome could be to seriously besmirch Anonymous. (The question of whether Anonymous itself might be a false flag op, or is, or could be infiltrated or otherwise manipulated, is one to be asked and answered further down the rabbit hole. Such is the ultra-elusive nature of “reality” today.)
We’ve come a long way from 1605 technically, but the general scheme is the same: deception rides high, wide and ugly.
Segments of this post were originally published in an op ed page piece the author had published on November 5 th , 2005 in The Globe and Mail; others come from notes for a talk given by the author in London, Ontario November 5 th , 2011.
The post Guy Fawkes, The Gun Powder Plot & How False Flags Have Shaped History appeared first on We Are Change . | 0 | [
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FMD2758 | 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: Comparing the price of oil and gas in June 2008 to March 2022 shows that oil companies are price gouging. Claim summaries: Experts who study the price of oil and gas said it can take weeks for gasoline prices to respond to changes in crude oil costs., In 2008, an economic recession caused a supply shortage that drove up oil and gas prices., Currently, Russias invasion of Ukraine, increased labor costs, the pandemic and additional taxes and inflation have all contributed to rising gasoline prices.
contextual information: In early March, the price of oil shot up rapidly in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine and the United States decision to ban imports of Russian energy. Coupled with inflation, increased labor costs and other factors that had already raised the price of gasoline, drivers in the U.S. quickly saw much higher prices at the pump. By March 14, the price of oil started todrop, but gasoline prices have been slow to follow, prompting some social media users to make comparisons to 2008 and accuse oil and gas companies of price gouging. Thetermis generally used when businesses take advantage of rising demand during a crisis and charge exorbitant prices for necessities. One Facebook post claimed that the price of oil was $141.71 per barrel in June 2008 while gas cost $4.10 per gallon on average. In March 2022, the post said oil cost $99.76 per barrel, while the average price of gas was $4.32 per gallon. If youre blaming anyone but greedy oil companies for their price gouging, youve bought into propaganda that hurts you more than anyone else, theMarch 14 postsaid. The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more aboutour partnership with Facebook.) Other posts similarly claimed that because oil prices fell and gas prices didnt, companies must be exploiting consumers. Posts with misleading claims about the relationship between the price of oil and the price of gasoline. Experts who study the price of oil and gas told PolitiFact that it takes more time for gas prices to respond to changes in crude oil costs and noted that there are factors in 2022 that werent at play in 2008, which make direct comparisons misleading. The numbers are also cherry-picked, and the difference in pricing between 2008 and 2022 isnt as large as the post suggests. Crude oil prices are set in the global market. And the price of crude oil has the biggest impact on the price of gasoline thats been the case for nearly all changes in retail gasoline prices in the past 35 years, said Mark Finley, afellowin energy and global oil at Rice Universitys Baker Institute for Public Policy. When Russia the worldsthird-largestoil producer attacked Ukraine at the end of February, the uncertainty, fear of further conflict and international efforts to reduce reliance on Russian oil drove upcrude oil prices. High oil prices can quickly drive up prices at gas stations nationwide, experts said. After oil prices fall, it typically takes a while for gas prices to decrease and consumers often assume foul play even when there isnt any, said Nicole Petersen, a GasBuddy spokesperson. Gas stations lose profit when oil prices increase sharply because they cannot drastically lift gas prices due to local competition, Petersen said. Then, when oil prices fall, gas stations try to recoup any losses before lowering their prices, she said. Unique factors in each states gasoline market also affect gas prices, said Devin Gladden, a AAA spokesperson. Locally, gas stations might have contracts with gasoline dealers that lock in prices at a certain rate for set periods of time sometimes weeks or months, he said. The March 14 Facebook postcorrectlycited the average priceof a gallon of gas that day: $4.32. But it cherry-picked its $99.76 figure for the price of crude oil. West Texas Intermediate crude oil is traditionally used as a U.S. benchmark when discussing and comparing oil prices. On March 14, WTI crude oil hit a low of $99.76, but the closing price was$103.01. Gas rose to $4.32 per gallon on March 14 as a result of oil prices being around $130 per barrel at times in the first half of March, Gladden said. The Facebook post was wrong about prices in June 2008. Themonthly averageprice of a gallon of gasoline was $4.05, and the average price ofWTI crude oilwas $133.88 per barrel, less than what the post claimed. The data set in this posting is misleading because it gives people this impression that crude prices are more stationary than they are, Gladden said. In all actuality, they are highly volatile. Posts comparing June 2008 prices to current prices also mislead because they compare a full month of data to half a month in 2022, experts said. Different global conditions are also at play. In 2008, the spike in oil and gas prices was tied to the financial crisis. The recession caused a drop in demand for gasoline, and as the economic recovery began, there was an immediate ramp-up in production to meet growing supply needs. That supply crunch, caused prices to spike, Gladden said. In March, the Russia-Ukraine conflict caused panic and speculation that contributed to the rapid price rises, Gladden said. But its also normal for prices to rise this time of year due to the demand from the spring and summer driving season, he said. In part, that will keep prices elevated even though oil prices have declined, Gladden said. Also, an ongoing truck driver shortage, increased labor costs and high inflation in the U.S. have caused gas prices to rise. On top of that, Gladden said the oil industry is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, which decreased gas prices due to decreased demand. State-level taxes on gasoline are also about 7 centshigherper gallon now than they were in2008, Finley said. A Facebook post claimed that comparing the price of oil and gas in June 2008 to March 2022 shows that oil companies are price gouging. Experts said it takes time for gas prices to respond to drops in crude oil costs, and thats not necessarily indicative of price gouging. The posts numbers are cherry-picked; the difference in prices isnt as great as it suggests. The current situation differs from 2008 because increased labor costs, the pandemic, additional taxes and inflation were all already contributing to rising gasoline prices before Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Direct comparisons lack important context, experts said. We rate these posts False. RELATED:Ask PolitiFact: Why are gas prices going up? RELATED:How much blame does Putin deserve for high gasoline prices? | 0 | [
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FMD2759 | 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 $1 Donated for a Girl's Kidney Transplant Every Time Her Photo Is Shared on Social Media? Claim summaries: Nobody is paying for ailing children's organ transplants or life-saving surgeries based on how often a social media post is shared.
contextual information: Many social media users have encountered a post showing a picture of a little girl in what appears to be a hospital bed, accompanied by various captions indicating she is awaiting a kidney transplant and will receive $1 every time her picture is shared on social media. The message states, "She gets a dollar for every pic that's shared on Messenger; it goes towards her kidney transplant.... you gotta share, please, she is my neighbor's kid." However, the child pictured is not awaiting a kidney transplant (or any other organ). According to Click Paran, she is, as of October 2017, a four-year-old Brazilian girl named Aninha who is undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia in Paraná, one of Brazil's 26 states. This item is just another iteration of a long-running online hoax or scam that entreats users to share posts and photographs under the false premise that doing so will help secure an organ transplant or money for surgery needed by a desperately ill child. Even if no money actually changes hands in connection with these posts, sharing them indirectly assists scammers by driving followers, shares, and likes to their social media pages, creating popular platforms from which they can launch other fraudulent schemes. | 0 | [
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FMD2760 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen goes to Congress on Tuesday for the first time since Republicans took control of the White House and both houses of the legislature with less clarity on the direction of U.S. economic policy than at any time of her three-year tenure. The details of President Donald Trump’s economic policies remain largely unknown. He has announced a rollback of financial regulation with few details and there is no clarity on the size, scope and timing of the tax cuts he has promised. Possible new taxes on imports and increased infrastructure spending could boost inflation and send the dollar soaring, uncertainties that make it unusually difficult for the Fed to chart a course for interest rate policy. “There is quite significant uncertainty about what’s actually going to happen, I don’t think anyone quite knows,†Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer said on Saturday. Even at the best of times, the Fed’s ability to see shifts in the economy is limited. In 2012 it said that interest rates would start to rise in 2014 but policymakers waited until December 2015 for their first rate hike. A forecast of four interest rate rises in 2016 turned out to be one. Yellen is due to give semi-annual testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday at 10 a.m. EST. She will address the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday. The American economy is now, by many estimates, around what the Fed considers to be “full employment,†inflation has ticked up to 1.6 percent and the economy grew 1.6 percent last year. Based on the Fed’s economic projections for this year, it could raise interest rates three times in 25 basis-point steps. Little was changed in the central bank’s Feb. 1 policy statement, a reflection of how little insight Fed officials have into Trump’s policies. “There are just a lot of ways this could go wrong, like spinning off toward a trade war,†said Jon Faust, a Johns Hopkins University economics professor and former special adviser to the Fed’s Board of Governors. Some Trump advisers, including National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro, have criticized the trade policies of China and Germany, fueling concerns Washington might disrupt global commerce. At the same time, the new president’s Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, has stressed Washington will continue to participate in global economic forums. On Tuesday, Yellen will likely face renewed pressure from lawmakers to set rate policy with a publicly disclosed mathematical formula. The head of the financial services committee in the House of Representatives has said he will resubmit a proposal to make the Fed adopt a policy rule. Yellen has publicly opposed the proposal, saying it would damage the Fed’s ability to respond to crises, but it could win traction in the central bank as Trump has a raft of appointments to make. Trump can name members to the central bank’s Washington-based Board of Governors. There are currently two empty seats on the seven-member body, and Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo said on Friday he would resign around early April. The president may also appoint a new chair as Yellen’s 4-year term as chair comes up in January 2018, while Fischer’s term as vice chairman ends in June of that year. | 1 | [
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FMD2761 | 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: Research performed by economists has shown no consistent, positive impact on jobs, income or tax revenues arising from stadiums or sports franchises.
contextual information: Debate has begun over a proposal by the new owners of the Pawtucket Red Sox to move the team to Providence, where they want to build a new riverfront stadium. The project is still in the planning phase, but the owners have said they intend to ask for some financial support from the state and the city, including possibly getting the state-owned land for the stadium for free. But would a new stadium be worth the price tag? Rhode Islands Republican National Committeeman Steve Frias says no. Ina Feb. 24, 2015 commentaryin The Providence Journal, he said giving away the valuable land, which was freed up by the relocation of Route 195, would be a mistake. Research performed by economists has shown no consistent, positive impact on jobs, income or tax revenues arising from stadiums or sports franchises, Frias argued. We thought that claim was worth checking out. When we contacted him, he immediately referred us toa 2008 summary of research in the fieldby economistsDennis Coatesof the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, andBrad Humphreysof West Virginia University. The authors reviewed more than 40 academic studies, spanning nearly two decades, that examined public subsidies for professional sports teams. Their findings were clear. There now exists almost 20 years of research on the economic impact of professional sports franchises and facilities on the local economy, they wrote, reporting that studies published in peer-reviewed economic journals show there is almost no evidence that professional sports franchises and facilities have a measurable economic impact on the economy. And that's for major-league teams. In this case, we're talking about a minor league team, said Humphreys when we contacted him by phone. For example, he and Coates found no difference in economic impact between the years when teams were playing their regular schedules and five time periods when they didn't, due to strikes. And in a subsequent analysis, they found that having postseason games did not affect real per-person income in a city. Money may shift from one part of the economy to another, but there's no net benefit. The evidence is overwhelming,Coates and Humphreys wrote. Economists reach the nearly unanimous conclusion that tangible economic benefits generated by professional sports facilities and franchises are very small; clearly far smaller than stadium advocates suggest and smaller than the size of the subsidies. They also noted that in 2005, when a random group of economists was asked if they agreed or disagreed with the statement, Local and state governments in the U.S. should eliminate subsidies to professional sports franchises, 28 percent agreed and 58 percent strongly agreed. That's a whopping 86 percent. Only 5 percent disagreed. There are special-interest reports that claim an economic benefit and contend that every dollar invested in a sports franchise generates a specific amount of money, Humphreys said, but those are never published in reputable journals because you can make them say whatever you want them to say by tinkering with the assumptions that influence how the numbers are crunched. We posed the question to other experts, including Rick Eckstein, professor of sociology at Villanova University and author of Public Dollars, Private Stadiums: The Battle over Building Sports Stadiums. There are absolutely no publicly subsidized stadiums and arenas that generate enough direct or indirect tax increases to balance the initial (and ongoing) public outlay, he said in an email. In fact, some research suggests that sports stadiums actually decrease economic activity and tax revenue in areas where they are built, said Eckstein. However, strategically placed stadiums and arenas can sometimes ride existing redevelopment trends, but they are never the cause of these trends. Coates and Humphreys said there are several reasons to explain a lack of economic benefit. In many cases -- and this would be particularly true in Rhode Island -- the state would simply be transferring the economic activity from one city to another. And even if more people went to see the Sox in a new stadium, when people spend to go to a ballgame, local entertainment spending on sports increases and local entertainment spending on other activities like movies, bowling, etc. decreases. There are other costs people need to weigh, they wrote. For every individual who derives enjoyment from the presence of the sports franchises in the community, there are likely to be other individuals who are uninterested in sports or even resent being taxed to subsidize an activity they have no use for. And the money used to subsidize a move might be better spent for other public projects with higher social rates of return than a stadium such as construction and maintenance projects, or even reducing taxes. Supporters of public support for professional sports teams often point to intangible benefits, such as boosting civic pride. But that argument is beyond the scope of this item. So here's the box score. Steven Frias said, Research performed by economists has shown no consistent, positive impact on jobs, income or tax revenues arising from stadiums or sports franchises. It appears that he belted this one out of the park. We rate his claimTrue. (If you have a claim youd likePolitiFact Rhode Islandto check, email us at[email protected]. And follow us on Twitter: @politifactri.) | 1 | [
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FMD2762 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The first thing that Donald Trump had planned on doing upon taking office was issue a bunch of executive orders canceling a bunch of executive orders. That s one promise he s making good on already, but rescinding a lot of things Obama did will harm a lot of people.During Obama s last week in office, he announced a reduction in FHA fees from .85 percent to .60 percent. That may not sound like a lot, but given that mortgages are in the hundreds of thousands, that reduction can actually provide some relief to low-income and first-time borrowers. That s what Trump has canceled.The Department of Housing and Urban Development is now under the auspices of the less-than-experienced-and-intelligent Ben Carson, who was disappointed that Obama didn t consult him about this. He was also disappointed that Obama and the FHA announced it so close to the end of his presidency.Which is, of course, ridiculous until Obama had officially left office and Trump was officially sworn in, he could continue his work as the leader of this country. But Republicans have spent the last year acting like a president has no right to act during his entire last year of office, though, so of course Carson was upset.Republicans claim that lowering those rates will hurt taxpayers because it will hurt funding for the FHA. From the group that wants to destroy the mortgage-interest deduction homeowners claim on their taxes, though, that s rich. In reality, this is another attack on the poor and the young.It s important to note that what the FHA program does is provide insurance for mortgages, rather than doing the actual loans themselves. On a $200,000 home, the annual fee is $1,700. The reduction Obama wanted would have reduced that to $1,200. An extra $500 per year doesn t sound like much, but for both low-income and first-time homebuyers, that extra $500 can go a very long way.What does Trump and his administration care, though? Their logic very likely boils down to, If you can t afford to buy, then just freaking rent. It s not that hard. Well, actually, yes it is in many markets where average rents are higher than average mortgages. In fact, in August 2016, monthly rents were higher than monthly mortgage payments in markets across 42 states.Housing groups were divided on this, but many did want Obama s reduction because they believed it could have helped spur some home-buying. Without that reduction, though, there will be fewer low-income people who can afford a loan, and will have trouble affording to rent housing too. That can push them into worse areas with fewer jobs, and it s a downward spiral.Thanks, Trump.Featured image by Alex Wong via Getty Images | 0 | [
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FMD2763 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The United States hopes there will be some very good deliverables when President Donald Trump visits China, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Monday, striking an upbeat tone amid trade tensions between the two countries. Trump will likely visit China in November as part of a trip that will take him to an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in the Philippines and an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam. China s relationship with the United States has been strained by the Trump administration s criticism of China s trade practices and by demands that Beijing do more to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons and missiles programs. Meeting in Beijing, Ross told Chinese Premier Li Keqiang he and his delegation had been greeted very warmly which augurs well for Trump s forthcoming trip to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. We are looking forward to a very good session including a lot of American CEOs and we hope there will be some very good deliverables, Ross said, in comments in front of reporters. Li told Ross that the two countries common interests far outweighed their differences and their economic and trade relationship had enormously benefited both countries and the world. China is the world s largest developing country while the United States is the world s biggest developed country, Li said. In addition to that, China and the United States are the largest trading partners with each other, so I think it is fair to say that our common interests far outweigh our differences and divergences, he added. Over the years, economic and trade relations between our two countries have always served as a ballast for our overall bilateral relationship and also these important trade and economic relations have benefited enormously our two peoples as well as the whole world. State media quoted Li as further saying that China hopes the United States will give fair treatment to Chinese companies investments there, as well as ease restrictions on high-tech exports. Meeting earlier in the day, Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan told Ross that there was huge potential for cooperation and China was willing to manage and control disputes, the ministry said in a statement. China was willing to create good conditions for Trump s visit and ensure his trip was fruitful, Zhong added. Xi and Trump met for the first time in person at Trump s Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida in April. Trump has since played up his personal relationship with Xi, even when criticizing China over North Korea and trade. The two sides launched a 100-day economic plan at that meeting, including some industry-specific announcements such as the resumption of American beef sales in China. There has since been limited progress on trade relations. Ross s visit comes at a time of heightened trade tensions between the United States and China following Trump s decision earlier this month to block a Chinese-backed private equity firm from buying a U.S.-based chipmaker. In August, Trump authorized an inquiry into China s alleged theft of intellectual property | 1 | [
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FMD2764 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Christians don t decapitate their bosses Well, you can t argue with that logic Maybe they ll re-think their open-minded decision post-radical Islam massacre On Thursday the administrative tribunal of Grenoble suspended a judgement of the municipality of Charvieu-Chavagneux, in Is re, which said it only wanted to accept Christian refugees because they don t decapitate their bosses . The judgement was pronounced after a request for summary suspension filed by the prefecture of Is re, the latter declared in a statement.The prefect initially asked the mayor to withdraw his judgement then initiated legal action when he refused to comply with his request. The Charvieu-Chavagneux judgement seems to me to be liable to a double criticism on the basis of discrimination and the infringement of equality. In this judgement approved unanimously by the municipal council on 8 September, Charvieu-Chavagneux town council said it wanted to mitigate the irresponsible foreign policy of the state by welcoming a family of refugees, on the express condition that it is a Christian family. The municpality explained its choice by declaring that Christians don t jeopardise the security of anyone else, they don t attack trains armed with Kalashnikovs, they don t shoot journalists in editorial meetings and they don t decapitate their bosses as we saw happen only a few kilometres away from our town. Via: Diversitymachtfreiblog | 0 | [
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FMD2765 | 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: There's not a single, solitary example that signing the bill to end Glass-Steagall had anything to do with the financial crash.
contextual information: Recently, activists have shown up at Hillary Clintons campaign events to urge her to bring back Glass-Steagall. What is Glass-Steagall? Its the Depression-era bank regulation that kept different types of financial institutions separate; then-President Bill Clinton signed legislation reversing it in 1999. Some Glass-Steagall supporters argue that its demiseled to the 2007 financial crisis, and some Democrats have put a good amount of effort into restoring it -- such as presidential candidates Martin OMalley and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. But Hillary Clintonwon't pledge to reinstateGlass-Steagall if she becomes president. And Bill Clinton says criticism over the laws repeal is unfounded. Look at all the grief I got for signing the bill that ended Glass-Steagall, Bill Clinton said in an interview with Inc. magazinefor its September issue.There's not a single, solitary example that it had anything to do with the financial crash. Given the significant attention on Glass-Steagall among Democrats, we wondered if its true that it didnt have anything to do with the financial crash. Our research shows the laws demise was part of a broad deregulatory push that greatly contributed to the financial crisis. But Clinton has a point that a direct line from the 1999 repeal to the market crash in 2007-08 is hard to identify. Too big to fail Congress passed Glass-Steagall in 1933, in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash that led to the Great Depression. The law kept commercial banks (where customers deposit money and take out loans) separate from investment firms (which hold securities and make investments) -- more colloquially, the law separated Main Street from Wall Street. Some experts and lawmakers want to keep these kinds of activities separate, because theyre worried that merging them could put the publics money at risk. Heres a simple hypothetical: A bank merges with an investment firm to create a massive company. The investment side makes a huge bet on an investment that fails big time, so the commercial bank sides money -- money individuals have deposited for safe-keeping -- could be at risk. Because those deposits are federally insured, it might require a government bailout. (Think too-big-to-fail.) Supporters of the law say keeping these activities separate prevents this kind of domino effect. Is this what caused the most recent financial crisis? Theres plenty of room for debate here, given that thereisnt a single what-caused-the-crisis narrativethat every economist accepts. Its safe to say, though, that there is not a prominent group of economists who argue but for the 1999 repeal of Glass-Steagall, the crisis would not have happened. Lawrence White, an economist at New York University, doesnt see Glass-Steagall playing any role in the financial crisis whatsoever. He pointed to the crisis biggest culprits: firms such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs and AIG, to name a few. He added that much of the crisis hinged on activity by these institutions that would have been possible with or without Glass-Steagall, such as mass investment in notoriously bad mortgage loans. (Clintons staff linked us to commentary by several other experts who share Whites view.) We also contacted Barry Ritholtz, a wealth management expert and commentator, whosaidGlass-Steagall would have done nothing to stop the financial crisis, but not having it made the crisis worse. It encouraged banks to get bigger and to take on riskier investments, so the ripple effects of the crisis were bigger than they would have been otherwise, he said, adding that itwasnt just the headline-making banksthat struggled. The extent over Glass-Steagalls effect on the financial crisis is a topic on which reasonable people can disagree. More so in Clintons favor is the fact that Glass-Steagall was a shadow of its former self by the time 1999 rolled around. Deregulating like its 1999 A few decades out from the Depression, starting in earnest in the 1970s, there was a push to roll back financial regulations that continued throughout the administrations of former presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. As part of that movement, banks and lawmakers steadily chipped away at Glass-Steagall and took advantage of loopholes. Banks were engaging in the kinds of activity Glass-Steagall was intended to stop even though the law was still on the books. By the time Clinton signed the Financial Services Modernization Act, commonly known as Gramm-Leach-Bliley, repealing the key components of Glass-Steagall in 1999, the regulation was nearly toothless. The law was simply catching up to what the market had already accomplished in the previous 10 to 15 years, said Kathleen Day, a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University and an expert in financial crises. Take for example the poster child of the end of Glass-Steagall: The merger of Citicorp, a bank, and Travelers Group, a financial conglomerate, was announced in 1998 before Glass-Steagall was repealed. Even though this was the exact type of merger Glass-Steagall was intended to halt, the financial industrydid not see many obstaclesfor the creation ofCitigroup. Citigroup and others wanted and got the repeal of Glass-Steagall in order to validate what they had already been allowed to do, said Simon Johnson, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. So the overall, decades-in-the-making decline of Glass-Steagall might have contributed to the financial crisis and its fallout, as it was part of the deregulatory push. But Clinton putting pen-to-paper on the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999 probably didnt make any meaningful difference. But Clintons hands arent clean of the financial crisis, because his administration played no small part in the longer term deregulatory trend. Clinton and his administration did not make an earnest attempt to maintain oversight over the big, hybrid banks created by the demise of Glass-Steagall, Day said. Additionally, the administrations firm decision not to regulate other aspects of the financial market played a meaningful role in the crisis -- for example, the absence of regulations regarding over-the-counter derivatives, which were becoming increasingly prevalent,despite internal warnings. Clintons claim might be technically true, but its a sin of omission, Day said. Our ruling Clinton said, There's not a single, solitary example that signing the bill to end Glass-Steagall had anything to do with the financial crash. By focusing on the bill that officially repealed Glass-Steagall, Clinton's statement ignores the fact that the demise of Glass-Steagall took place over decades, amid a deregulatory push in which the Clinton administration played a role. By the time the law to repeal hit his desk, Glass-Steagall had been whittled down so much that it wasnt very meaningful. It's a matter of debate how much of a role the overall demise of Glass-Steagall had in causing the financial crisis, but we couldn't find any economists who argue that the regulation was the sole linchpin keeping the financial system stable until its official repeal in 1999. Overall, we rate Clintons claim Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD2766 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Never mind that a new poll shows Americans oppose bringing Syrian Refugees to America by a 2-1 margin! Carry on King Barry to hell with the American people For five days a coordinated DC Media has been attacking as racists anyone opposed to President Obama s plan to resettle thousands of Syrians refugees here in America. A new poll shows that the emotional blackmail being hurled by both Obama and his DC Media allies has failed miserably. By nearly 2-to-1 (53% to 28%), Americans oppose the resettlement program.The Obama administration launched a hashtag last night to promote the concept of welcoming Syrian refugees into the United States after a growing number of governors proposed halting the program after the terrorist attacks in Paris.The White House debuted a hashtag on their Facebook page last night: #RefugeesWelcome Even as we intensify our efforts in coordination with our partners to take out ISIL, we cannot turn our backs on those most threatened by the terrorist group, the message on the White House page read.A video on the page insisted that U.S. law enforcement officials were vetting each of the refugees before allowing them to settle in the United States.On the White House website, Deputy Assistant to the President for Homeland Security Amy Pope denounced Republicans for calling to block refugees in the country. The Administration rejects the flawed view that we can t ensure our own safety while also welcoming refugees desperately seeking their own safety, she wrote. The truth is: America can and must do both. Via: Breitbart News | 0 | [
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FMD2767 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: PRESIDENT TRUMP ON OVERREGULATION: They spent $29 million for an environmental report weighing 70 lbs. and costing $24,000 per page. I said, do me a favor, I m going to make a speech in a little while, do you mind if I take that and show it? So I m going to show it. The president then walked away from the podium and flipped through the pages of the binder, then let each one hit the ground with a thud.With Trump s speech, the White House s so-called infrastructure week came to an end Friday. The effort was meant to highlight the need to speed up the permitting process before roads, bridges, ports and tracks across the country can be built. It took only four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge and five years to build the Hoover Dam and less than one year to build the Empire State building but today it can take 10 years just to get the approvals and permits needed to build a major infrastructure project, Trump said.On Monday, the White House kicked off a weeklong focus on infrastructure, announcing a series of events and speeches where the president would draw attention to the issue his advisers say they hope can be tackled this year. We have structurally deficient bridges, clogged roads, crumbling dams and rocks, our rivers are in trouble, our railways are aging and chronic traffic that slows commerce and diminishes our citizens quality of life, Trump said Friday. Other than that, we are doing very well. Read more: WE | 0 | [
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FMD2768 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Of course, all the contenders genuflected at the memory of Reagan while trashing President Obama’s Iran deal — yet nobody mentioned Reagan’s role in bolstering the Iranian hardliners by violating an embargo to sell them arms in exchange for help to the Nicaraguan contras and a possible hostage release.
We learned as well that when it comes to Donald Trump vs. the right wing media, it’s Trump 2, conservative media personalities 0. Just like Trump got Fox to bow to him after he savaged Megyn Kelly following the last debate, he humiliated radio host Hugh Hewitt – unbelievably, a “panelist†at this CNN debate — by getting Hewitt to say that it wasn’t Trump’s fault that he confused the Kurds with the Quds force. “It was my fault,†Hewitt told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,†and he seconded that Thursday night.
Hewitt also lobbed a softball question to Trump (which he actually kind of flubbed) giving him a chance to blast President Obama’s Syria policy, and some of his 2016 rivals for not supporting military intervention in 2013. It looked as if Trump’s campaign against Hewitt as a “third-rate†radio host asking “gotcha†questions – backed by Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter – actually worked.
Oh, if you’re waiting for me to tell you definitively who “won†the debate, and who might begin to rise or fall in the polls as a result? I’m sorry, I really have no idea. Dr. Ben Carson looked like he confused his One-A-Day vitamin with Lunesta; he was barely able to keep his eyes open and talked in sleepy non-sequiturs. But I thought Carson blew the last debate, and he rose in the polls. So what do I know?
Jeb Bush clearly had another mediocre night, which he can’t afford. He came out kind of peppy – even Trump praised his “energy†– and accused Trump of exactly the kind of special interest lobbying he rails against, saying the real estate mogul gave him money back when he ran for governor, and then unsuccessfully lobbied to place casinos in Florida. But Trump denied it and loudly talked over Bush; there was brief confusion about whether the former governor was telling the truth (PolitiFact later confirmed it); and the moment faded.
Likewise, Bush was later given a chance by CNN’s Jake Tapper to call Trump out on a Twitter insult to Bush’s Mexican-born wife Columba. Bush started strong, demanding an apology, but then faded again as Trump filibustered.
But Bush’s worst moment was when Hewitt asked him – in another kindness to Trump – about the fact that a lot of his foreign policy advisors worked for his brother, the last GOP president, who got us into disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trump then jabbed Bush – “Your brother, and your brother’s administration, gave us Barack Obama†– which led Bush to retort, “My brother kept us safe.†As if he didn’t remember his brother was president during the Sept. 11 attacks. It was that kind of night for Jeb!
Trump didn’t have a great night either, but he has one thing in common with Reagan – so far he’s seemed to share an impermeable outer political coating with the Teflon president. He engaged in a juvenile spat with Rand Paul early on that ended in his insulting Paul’s looks, and looking kind of silly. Carly Fiorina absolutely owned him when she was asked about the episode when Trump clearly insulted her appearance —  ‘Look at that face!’ he told Rolling Stone. ‘Would anyone vote for that?†— then insisted he was actually talking about her “persona.â€
“Women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,†Fiorina shot back. “I think she’s got a beautiful face and I think she’s a beautiful woman,†Trump countered, with characteristic sexism, but looking uncharacteristically sheepish. This was an establishment crowd, heavy on donors, and they were tougher on Trump than the Fox audience was. Perhaps most damaging, Trump himself seemed relatively “low-energy†– his constant jibe against Bush. He told reporters later that it was his attempt at looking presidential, but whatever: he was much less a factor than in the last GOP go-round. Still, pundits have predicted Trump’s decline before, including after his boorish performance in the last debate, and they’ve been wrong. Trump himself crowed about a Drudge Report poll showing him the winner of the debate, again. That poll was right last time, so who knows. Once again, lots of the punditocracy claimed Sen. Marco Rubio was one of the debate winners, but that’s crazy. The young Florida senator fell flat on his face with an early joke about the California drought: “I brought my own water!†he said with a big dumb smile. That was a twofer: He made fun of a local tragedy on a day when the death toll of the state’s drought-fueled wildfires continued to mount, and he reminded everyone of his humiliating big-gulp moment when he got to reply to Obama’s State of the Union address two years ago. When Trump dinged Rubio – accurately — for having the worst absentee record in the Senate, Rubio essentially defended it by saying Congress isn’t getting anything done. So he stopped doing his job because it was frustrating? In the real world, he’d get fired. Score one for Trump. Anyway, lots of smart-ish folks thought Rubio did well in the last debate to0, but he went nowhere in the polls. Fiorina probably had the best night — if you don’t fact check anything she said. She flat out lied about what the doctored, bogus Planned Parenthood videos showed, claiming they featured a still living intact aborted fetus, killed for its organs, when they did no such thing. When she insisted she’d call Iran’s Supreme Leader to call off the recent nuclear deal on her first day as president, the CNN moderators missed a chance to ask her why, as CEO of Hewlett Packard, she skirted anti-Iran sanctions — rather like the night’s patron saint, Ronald Reagan — and sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment to the anti-U.S. regime. She was allowed to misrepresent her awful HP record, and inaccurately trash Hillary Clinton on Benghazi and her controversial email practices. Still, she’s a poised, practiced debater, and she may get another small bump in the polls. I don’t think any of the rest, including the occasionally statesmanlike John Kasich, did enough last night to significantly change their campaign standing. Gov. Scott Walker was a bit more energetic but probably didn’t make enough of an impression to reverse his sinking fortunes. Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Mike Huckabee continued stridently narrow-casting to the far-right evangelical community, which might matter if Trump suddenly left the field. But the twice divorced libertine billionaire and born-again Republican is leading among that group, too. Whoops, I haven’t mentioned the pumped up, inauthentic “It’s not about me, guys†flailing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Oh well. Now I have. At any rate, the seemingly interminable three-hour debate – I accidentally typed “three-month debate,†because that’s how it felt – worked against anyone who had a good moment or two. Still, remember that most post-debate predictions were wrong last time. Once again, we learned that the GOP has moved far to the right of Ronald Reagan – but little else. | 1 | [
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FMD2769 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Parkinson’s Disease and the Uric Acid Sweet Spot VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
The link between Parkinson’s and dairy may not just be explained by the pesticides and lactose. Close Transcript Transcript: Parkinson’s Disease and the Uric Acid Sweet Spot
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s. Characterized by a slowness of movement, rigidity, tremor, and stooping posture that all gets worse and worse—and, there’s also non-movement symptoms, like cognitive impairment, sleep, smell, and mood disturbances, as the disease spreads to other areas of the brain.
The cause of Parkinson’s is perhaps one of the most important questions posed by the science of aging. For example, why is the consumption of dairy products associated with increased risk for Parkinson’s? Maybe, because they contribute to “our exposure to pesticides and other neurotoxins,” like dieldrin, which continues to be found in the autopsied brains of Parkinson’s victims—even though it was banned decades ago. But, it lingers in the environment, and we continue to be exposed to the pesticide through contaminated dairy, and other animal products.
It’s “unlikely to be due to milk compounds such as calcium,…D,…fat, or…protein,” since there’s no association with Parkinson’s when they’re “derived from other sources.” It could be the milk sugar, though (lactose), accounting for the increased risk of death and bone fractures, as well as Parkinson’s, and earlier onset Huntington’s disease.
But, there’s a third possibility, as well. Milk lowers uric acid levels, and uric acid may be protective against Huntington’s, and also slow the decline of Parkinson’s—and, most importantly, may lower the risk of getting Parkinson’s in the first place, thought to be because uric acid is an important antioxidant in the brain, something we’ve known for over thirty years now.
This can be shown directly in human nerve cells in a petri dish. Add the pesticide rotenone, and oxidative stress shoots up. Add the pro-oxidant homocysteine, and it goes up even more. But, add some uric acid, and it completely suppresses the oxidative stress caused by the pesticide.
But, drinking milk has a uric acid-lowering effect, citing this study, describing it as “[A] cute effect of milk.” But it turned out to be just a cute typo. An “Acute effect of milk on uric acid levels” in the blood. Drink cow’s milk, and uric acid levels drop 10% within hours. Drink soy milk, and they go up 10% within hours. Now, for the painful arthritic disease, gout, which is caused by too much uric acid, the uric acid-lowering effect of dairy is a good thing.
But, uric acid is a double-edged sword. If our uric acid levels are too high, we can get gout. But, if they’re too low, it may increase our risk of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, and MS. Here’s the five-year risk of gout in men for various uric acid levels. If our uric acid is over 10, we have a 30% chance of suffering an attack of gout within the next five years, whereas at levels under 7, our risk is less than 1%.
So, it might make sense to have levels as high as possible, without going over 7, to protect the brain, without risking our joints. But, having excessive uric acid in the blood puts more than just our joints in jeopardy. Yes, having too low levels may increase our risk of MS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and even cancer—but, having too high levels may increase our risk of gout, kidney, and heart disease.
So, having a uric acid level over 7 isn’t just associated with an increased risk of gout, but an increased risk of dying from all causes. But, having a low uric acid level may also shorten our lifespan by increasing mortality. High uric acid is associated with increased risk of death from heart disease, but low uric acid is associated with increased risk of fatal stroke, for example. So, keeping uric acid at optimum levels—the sweet spot between 5 and 7—may protect the brain in more ways than one.
If you measure the uric acid levels in those with Parkinson’s, they come in down around here, which can explain why dairy consumption may increase risk for Parkinson’s, because milk pushes uric acid levels down. Dairy may also explain the differences in uric acid levels between meat-eaters, vegetarians, and vegans. If you plot men out, vegans are significantly higher than vegetarians—presumably because they don’t drink milk, with those eating meat and milk somewhere in between. Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
Lactose and Parkinson’s? See Could Lactose Explain the Milk – Parkinson’s Disease Link? .
Uric acid as an antioxidant? I’ve touched on that before in Miocene Meteorites and Uric Acid .
If levels are too high, consider cutting down on Flesh and Fructose and eating cherries (see Gout Treatment with a Cherry on Top and Treating Gout with Cherry Juice ). Check out Preventing Gout Attacks with Diet .
Can a plant-based diet be used to treat Parkinson’s? See Treating Parkinson’s Disease With Diet . Any plant foods in particular that may help? Try nightshade veggies: Peppers and Parkinson’s: The Benefits of Smoking Without the Risks?
If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here . To post comments or questions into our discussion board, first log into Disqus with your NutritionFacts.org account or with one of the accepted social media logins. Click on Login to choose a login method. Click here for help. Comment Etiquette Joe Caner
I have an uncle with Parkinson’s and diabetes. It is a terribly debilitating disease. It is very frustrating for him. He is there, but has been slowly loosing his ability to communicate coherently. It is difficult to see this once witty, cosmopolitan and articulate man become a prisoner within his own body. The last time I saw him he offered me ice cream. There were several gallons of the stuff in their freezer, and he scooped out a large bowl with several different varieties for himself. My aunt told me that is all he wants to eat now a days. I declined telling him I no longer eat animal products. I told him that he would do well to adopt the same eating pattern. One of my cousins told me don’t bother because he has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, and that it would be a shame to deprive him of one of his last pleasures. It is very sad. WFPBRunner
I’ve been there. I had a patient who weighed 250 and Parkinson’s. I explained to the family that if he lost weight he would get around a lot better. They said the same thing. We feel so bad for him that we give him treats. After busting them many times they finally got the message. He got down to 160 and his medication was decreased. He was able to get around much better-even able to take long walks without assistant. Food and our attachments are a funny thing. Thea
Joe Caner: I’m sorry to hear about your uncle. It can be so heart breaking to see loved ones making these types of decisions. My heart goes out to you. Blair Rollin
I think , when they get to that point, they’re not really enjoying life anyway. Food consumption is the last bit of control they have in their lives. Eating fat and refined sugar is probably one of the few happinesses that they can even experience. My friend eats, and always has, a diet of mostly processed meats and dairy. “Very few vegetables.” He went on bp meds when he was 40, suffers debilitating gout and is in terrible health. When I suggest to him that his health problems are due to his diet and he should switch to a vegan diet his response is, “You have to die, right?”. I think this is a common attitude. Most of the diet related health problems manifest gradually and are confused with normal aging. They suffer from health hopelessness and can’t even remember what it was like to be healthy. Rachel
To Joe and everyone who responded to Joe: I, too, have watched loved ones succumb to the chronic diseases of our times and die slow painful deaths. It is painful for us, the living, as well. And hopeless feeling. But this is also why those of us on this site need to stay the course and show others that the fates of our loved ones do not have to be our fate too. I hold my good health (63, BMI 21, no meds, no diseases, no doctors necessary) out as an example of what we CAN have as we age if we so choose. I try not to miss an opportunity to tell people, when they ask me about my WFPB diet, about the diabetes, blindness, cancer in my family and how my lack of those diseases in myself is no mistake. Every day I get to be an example to my community of the good health anyone can also have. But this topic intersects with another larger topic and that is ObamaCare. We are all paying gigantic insurance premiums – including myself – to pay for the ill health of those we love and are ill. The meat and dairy industry continues to cost us all. So I try to not miss an opportunity to delicately remind the curious of that fact – especially those who complain about the high cost of insurance. Because it isn’t the high cost of insurance that is the problem. It is the high cost of medical treatment for a very sick society. It took many years to get the word out about the cigarette industry. It will take decades on this topic as well. But each day we can all take great pride in honoring our loved ones by standing – and eating – for good health in their names and memories. That is the only way that I can deal with the pain of missing those I still love so much. Thea
Rachel: Nice. Thank you for your thoughts. susan
Beautifully said Rachel, thank you Toni Aparici Galindo
How do i raise uric acid, i’m vegan and i have it in 3,77 mg/dl. I suppose i need to increase the protein intake by consuming more beans? lemonhead
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/apple-juice-may-be-worse-than-sugar-water/ Toni Aparici Galindo
I eat at least 5 pieces of fruit a day. Very complex science nutrition. I,m 35 may be you get more uric acid as you get old, so my levels are normal. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12242321 Don Forrester MD-NF Moderator
I wouldn’t go out of my way to increase uric acid levels. Lifestyle practices associated with elevated uric acid levels (e.g. alcohol, increased body fat, meat, fish, shellfish, low fiber, low folate, low physical activity) are on balance more harmful. There is no association of increased uric acid with consumption of animal or plant protein or purine rich vegetables (e.g. asparagus, cauliflower, peas). Keep up with NF.org as the science keeps coming! Have a happy holiday season. HaltheVegan
In the graph shown in the video, it looks like soy milk raises uric acid levels at least for a few hours after drinking it. If one has slightly low uric acid (4.5 mg/dl), would it be advisable to drink some soy milk to raise it to the 5 to 7 mg/dl range suggested in the video? (PS, I’m WFPB and do moderate exercise. ) David J
Coffee and supplemental C lower uric acid, so you might want to avoid those. susan
Very interesting video. I went searching for info about the connection between heart disease and uric acid levels. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/472684_3 According to this link women are at mant times greater risk of death due to ischemic heart disease when uric acid levels rise above 7.0 … 300% greater risk for women (!!!) vs 77% for men. How is it that this is not even mentioned by doctors? even when I suffered gout one summer, the doctor laughed and said I was hardly henry the Vlll type being fit and slim, and said, ‘next time, dont suffer, come in and get meds’
My question is, is the connection to heart, kidney, and other diseases in fact weak, and if not why are doctors not mentioning this as a matter of course to patients? George
It’s impossible to have percentages over 100% because then everyone would have it! Basic level statistics susan
hi George, thanks, I just took it from the medscape page.. so it could be written, 0.77 vs 3.0 ? anyway the fact remains that women are at high risk of cvd with elevated uric acid levels independent of other factors. And, I wonder if family members suffering gout increases risk ? I have to look into this more John
George, it’s about risk. If one way you had 10% risk, then you changed something and now your risk is 30%, you had 300% of the risk you had before. John S susan
yes, thank you John for your comments. I find this and related topics so interesting. I have been viewing the other videos linked under Doctors notes having to do with uric acid levels, diet as in cause and treatment etc. Dr Forrester posted some causes of elevated uric acid levels above, but in my case (I dont drink etc) they say my one gout attack could be dehydration related since I joined the running club that year. In any event, once was enough! Here today reading about parkinson’s and other devestating diseases, I have to agree with Rachel that in going forward the thing to do is stay informed and be the best example we can be. John
They probably don’t know. The majority of their continuing education is paid for by Big Pharma. WHy would Big Pharma care about that? John S
Hello, so would ghee (clarified butter) have any effect on uric acid? George
M. D.: The only dairy product I consume is 1 tsp of ghee a day, which is the only thing that keeps me from having to deal with dry eyes, so i’m interested in your question. Please read under the possible mechanisms in the following article; https://www.dairynutrition.ca/index.php/scientific-evidence/roles-on-certain-health-conditions/milk-products-and-gout Ghee is all lipids and based on the information given they don’t seem to have anything to do with the effect of dairy on serum uric acid levels. But this site promotes dairy products, so without reading the papers, we shouldn’t come to conclusions. susan
This link may offer some ideas MD, if you scroll down and look undet Appendix 1 , dietary advice for gout patients. They advise fresh fruits and vegetables, daals, and similar dishes are good. Fat laden ‘party foods’ are to be avoided. http://doctor.ndtv.com/topicdetails/ndtv/tid/60/Gout_and_high_blood_uric_acid_levels_(hyperuricaemia) .html Skeptic Steve Billig
Many (most?) metabolic activities in the body fall into the “Goldilocks” category of those with a sweet spot (range actually) above which and below which are unhealthful [body temperature, respiration, blood pressure, blood pH, many minerals (iron), many vitamins (A), dietary protein, calories and on and on]. Happily, a well designed vegan diet often is helpful in keeping the body in the healthy range. I hope there is a follow-up to this video that describes the food and food group strategies that help keep uric acid levels in the healthy range, and vegetarian dietary patterns that push the body out of the healthy uric acid range. broccolu
Sometimes it is hard to differentiate when it is sciences and when it is the anti meat anti dairy stance from the good doctor.
First of all, pesticides are everywhere, in plant foods and animal foods. If you eat GMO plant foods and don’t wash them thoroughly then you will eat a load of pesticides.
Secondly, about the uric acid, I look at all the research articles and they said that low uric acid is associated with Parkinson’s disease. Nowhere does it say about dairy products. So a lot of people have low uric acid for a number of reasons. For instance eating cherry will lower your uric acid too. Should we stop eating cherry because of this? Does Dr Greger talk about not eating cherry to avoid Parkinson’s?
At the Parkinson’s web site, they talk about taking inosine supplement to raise the uric acid level which can be low in some people due to a number of reasons (not because of milk or cherry, LOL). | 0 | [
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FMD2770 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: It s been more than a week since the election of Donald Trump and his supporters have been teaching us a big lesson namely that they re really bad winners and that their sense of entitlement to nearly everything just escalated because their orange candidate won a few more swing states.At a Starbucks near the University of Miami, a man who thought his coffee was taking just a little too long went on a racist rant that shows exactly the type of attitude of entitlement that Trump supporters are sporting now. Fortunately, it was all caught on video by another Starbucks customer, Jorge de C rdenas.The Starbucks was crowded, as many are at any given point during any given day. The white Trump (complete with Trump-like hair and a tall, leggy blonde companion who would surely win the approval of the President Elect) voter, though, thought he deserved to get his coffee faster than the others, and if he didn t, it had to be because Starbucks employees, some of whom happen to have dark skin, hate white people.The man was, by his standards, anyway, waiting too long in line, so he started screaming Trump! at an African-American employee. Then he claimed that there was anti-white discrimination and that s why he was waiting.He said it was anti-white discrimination,' C rdenas says, so he started disparaging the staff. One patron called him an asshole, so he said, Fuck you, bitch. That s when I started filming. C rdenas whipped out his phone to take a video just as the man called the black employee trash, demanded his money back, and started shouting, I voted for Trump! Trump! You lost, now give me my money back, at the staff:Here s the video:#trump supporter in #miami @Starbucks attacks & threatens patrons & staff bc coffee took too long, blames anti-white discrimination pic.twitter.com/HRj9EahrMy jorge de c rdenas (@Jbdcl) November 16, 2016If you think this is an isolated incident, just Google Trump supporter and you will find dozens of examples of the so-called winners behaving very badly toward People of Color, toward LGBT people, toward Jewish people and toward Muslims. Trump, unfortunately, has uncovered the ugly underbelly of angry white people. They aren t angry because they are economic victims. They are angry because they are white and increasingly, their neighbors aren t.Featured images via video screen capture. | 0 | [
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FMD2771 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a rousing and inspiring commencement speech to the graduating class of Northeastern University on Saturday, defining the diverse and educated Americans as Donald Trump s worst nightmare. Kerry addressed the students as they prepare to go out into the world and truly begin their adult lives, finding the careers, the friends and the partners that will form the focus of their lives. They will be America s next doctors, educators, carers, scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and yes, lawmakers. Standing before the, Kerry described what he saw as the basic failure of the Trump campaign why the politics of hate and division cannot win the whole of America today, and certainly not tomorrow. You are the most diverse class in Northeastern s history. he said. In other words, you are Donald Trump s worst nightmare. The room broke out into massive applause, the students signaling clearly that they have not been dragged into the gutter politics fomented by the Trump campaign.The Secretary of State hit out at Donald Trump s bizarre and basic plans on immigration and foreign policy too the sum total of which seem to be a) insult people and b) build a wall. There are no walls big enough to stop people from anywhere, tens of thousands of miles away, who are determined to take their own lives while they target others, Kerry reminded the GOP candidate.Kerry also had something to say about exactly what makes America great, and that it involves more than simply repeating it over and over again while parading about in front of a flag. We re not exceptional because we say we are. he said, adding. Greatness isn t about bragging, it s about doing! It s about never being satisfied, it s about testing the limits of what we can achieve together. The speech totally lit up the graduating students, and serves as a reminder of the stark choice facing Americans come Election Day 2016. Whomever the Democrats choose as their candidate, the offer to America will be one of hope, progress, building America from the ground up every child, every school, every hospital, every road, every bridge to invest in a nation fit to face the challenges of the 21st century.The GOP will be offering the grim prospect of American regression. The blending of church and state, the withdrawal of women s reproductive rights, backward steps on understanding and prosecution of rape and sexual assault, a disrespect for education, science and technology which could push America even further behind in the most important fields of our time. A hollowed out, asset-stripped shell of a once great nation stripped of all value, its people left to pick up the pieces.It is a serious choice, and it will be life and death not only in terms of Trump s likely disastrous foreign policy, but because of what will happen to Obamacare, Medicare, and Medicaid if he comes to power. Make the right choice America.Featured Image via Screengrab | 0 | [
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FMD2772 | 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: Buried Atari Cartridges Claim summaries: Did Atari bury millions of unsold 'E.T.' game cartridges in a New Mexico landfill?
contextual information: Claim: Atari buried millions of unsold E.T. game cartridges in a New Mexico desert landfill. LEGEND Origins: In 1982, Warner Communications could honestly claim to own a goose that laid golden eggs. Its money-producing fowl was called Atari, a video game company it purchased for $28 million in 1976 which had since burgeoned into a $2 billion concern. In the early 1980s Atari owned 80% of the video game market, it accounted for 70% of Warner's operating profits, and in the fourth quarter of 1982 the Wall Street "whisper number" concerning Atari's expected earnings predicted a 50% increase over the previous year. The goose died at 3:04 P.M. EST on 7 December 1982, when Atari reported only a 10% to 15% increase in expected earnings, not the 50% figure so many people had been counting on. By the end of the following day Warner stock had plummeted to two-thirds of its previous value, and Warner closed out the quarter with its profits down a mind-boggling 56%. (Even worse, a minor scandal erupted when it was revealed that Atari's president and CEO had sold 5,000 shares of Warner stock a mere 23 minutes before announcing Atari's disappointing sales figures.) Atari racked up over half a billion dollars ($536 million) in losses in 1983, and by the end of 1984 Warner had sold the company. What accounted for the sudden death of Warner's prized goose? A number of interrelated factors brought about its fatal illness: Most of Atari's top programmers, disenchanted with the lack of respect, compensation, and freedom they were afforded under Warner management, left to work elsewhere. Atari was selling its game consoles as cheaply as possible and expecting to make its profits from sales of game cartridges, but other companies such as Imagic and Activision (founded by some of the disenchanted Atari programmers mentioned above) cut into Atari's sales by creating their own cartridges for Atari consoles (and their games were far superior to what Atari itself was producing). Atari's VCS game console was several years old by 1982, and its established customer base was being eroded by newer, better systems such as Mattel's Intellivision and Coleco's ColecoVision (especially when those systems started offering adapters that allowed customers to play VCS game cartridges without needing to own Atari consoles). Even worse, the "next generation" system Atari finally unveiled in late 1982 ,the Atari 5200, was a huge disappointment (in part because its joysticks were poorly designed and difficult to use, and because it was incompatible with the huge existing base of VCS cartridges). Atari's home consumer division had garnered huge profits by producing home versions of popular arcade games created by its own coin-op division (Asteroids) or licensed from other manufacturers (Taito's Space Invaders and Namco's Pac-Man), but let the licensing of that year's smash arcade hit, Donkey Kong, slip away from them. (The license for Donkey Kong was instead snapped up by Coleco, who probably could not have successfully launched its competing ColecoVision game system without it.) The first signs of the goose's fatal illness came with Atari's Pac-Man cartridge. Atari was so sure its home version of the world's most popular arcade game would reach new sales heights that it manufactured 12 million Pac-Man cartridges in 1982 (even though at the time only about 10 million people owned and used Atari VCS consoles), counting on the game's popularity to spur additional sales of the VCS. With most of Atari's best in-house programmers long since having fled the company, the result was a colossal disappointment. Pac-Man's animation was jerky, its moving images flickered annoyingly, and the Pac-Man character produced only a grating "bong" sound that was nothing like the arcade version's amusing sound effects. Atari did eventually sell 7.7 million copies of Pac-Man, earning almost $200 million in gross profit sales for the company, but Atari was still stuck with millions of unsold Pac-Man game cartridges, and the poor quality of the game in comparison to the arcade version seriously tarnished Atari's image among consumers. As Goldberg and Vendel noted of the Pac-Man issue in their history of the company, Atari, Inc.: Business Is Fun: The result backfired on Atari by causing consumers to behave differently when purchasing games. There was already a growing mass of new low quality third party 'spam' titles on the market, and now with the experience of from rushing to buy Pac-Man for a premium and getting disappointed at its look, the tipping point for a new buyer environment was created. An environment where people would no longer blindly rush out to buy a newly released game, but would cautiously wait for reviews or feedback from others who'd bought the game. As a result, games purchases appeared to be curtailed in the second half of 1982, causing another new complication that sales and marketing would have to grasp and account for. If one game cartridge could be selected as the symbol of the sudden demise of Atari's golden goose, however, it would have to be the ill-fated E.T.: The Extraterrestrial game. Steve Ross, the head of Warner Communications, made a deal with Steven Spielberg to produce a home video game version of Spielberg's blockbuster E.T. film. Basing a video game on a movie rather than an established arcade hit or a tested game premise and expecting it to sell simply because of the popularity of the film might have been a questionable enough decision on its own (although Atari did enjoy moderate success with its video game version of Spielberg's previous blockbuster, Raiders of the Lost Ark), but on top of that Ross forked over a whopping $21 million to acquire the rights to the title, committing Atari to sell a whopping 4 million cartridges just to recoup their costs. Moreover, Ross made the deal in late July 1982 and insisted the game be ready in time for the Christmas sales season, leaving only a five week timeframe (rather than a more typical six months) for the E.T. game to be conceived, programmed, debugged, and put into production. The sheer awfulness of the finished product was unprecedented. Atari rushed E.T. through development in a matter of weeks to get it onto the market in time for Christmas, and the result was something many consumers found to be a virtually unplayable game with a dull plot and crummy graphics in which frustrated players spent most of their time leading the E.T. character around in circles to prevent him from falling into pits. Atari produced 5 million E.T. cartridges, and according to Atari's then-president and CEO, "nearly all of them came back." That statement was a bit of an exaggeration, but Atari was once again stuck with millions of unsold cartridges for a game that moved far fewer units than were produced: In total, five million copies of E.T. were produced. Initially, only 500,000 games were sold, with another million eventually joining the sales. Out of the five million E.T. carts that would ship out to distributors, a staggering three and a half million games would be returned in total, many still in the distributor boxes; the retailers hadn't even sold enough to break open additional distributor shipping boxes to require a restock. [T]here were three and a half million unsold games and in the end, the E.T. licensing deal was a complete loss for Atari. In a bout of hubris at the end of 1981, Atari had told its distributors to place their orders for 1982 all at once. The distributors, anticipating another strong sales year, ordered aggressively, but when 1982 sales didn't meet expectations, those distributors were stuck with a lot of unsold Atari game cartridge inventory, which they returned to Atari in droves. When ordinary distributor returns were added to the millions of unsold Pac-Man cartridges and more millions of useless E.T. cartridges, Atari found itself with tons of unsellable merchandise to dispose of, which led to the rumor that Atari buried millions of E.T. cartridges in a landfill in the New Mexico desert. There is no question that Atari dumped and buried a whole lot of stuff in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in September 1983, as the New York Times (and other sources) reported at the time: With the video game business gone sour, some manufacturers have been dumping their excess game cartridges on the market at depressed prices. Now Atari Inc., the leading video game manufacturer, has taken dumping one step farther. The company has dumped 14 truckloads of discarded game cartridges and other computer equipment at the city landfill in Alamogordo, N.M. Guards kept reporters and spectators away from the area as workers poured concrete over the dumped merchandise. An Atari spokesman said the equipment came from Atari's plant in El Paso, Tex., which used to make videogame cartridges but has now been converted to recycling scrap. Atari lost $310.5 million in the second quarter, largely because of a sharp drop in video game sales. Due to the all the bad publicity over Atari's recent negative experiences with its Pac-Man and E.T. games, when news of the company's New Mexico landfill disposal became public knowledge many people assumed that those truckloads of discarded material included nothing but millions and millions of unsold E.T. cartridges (with perhaps some of those millions of unsold Pac-Man carts thrown in as well), all shamefully and furtively buried by Atari in an attempt to keep those embarrassingly colossal failures out of sight. Exactly what Atari buried in that New Mexico landfill remains a subject of dispute, and in recent years various sources have challenged the notion that what Atari dumped there was millions of unsold E.T. game cartridges (or other unsold game titles). According Goldberg and Vendel, the New Mexico site was actually used for disposal of a relatively small amount of unused and faulty stock and parts for cartridges, consoles, and computers from the company's El Paso plant, which was being retooled and automated to focus on the of manufacture of game consoles and home computers rather than the production of game cartridges (the latter operation being shifted to Asia). While Atari did bury some millions of units of unsold game cartridge overstock, that (unpublicized) action took place near the company's headquarters in California, not in New Mexico: Manufacturing game cartridges had been a large part of the El Paso plant, but the new retooling left no room for them in this time of overstock ... The resulting clearance of truckloads of faulty and unused stock starting on September 22nd [1983] resulted in anything but positive press for the company, though, as it seemed Atari just couldn't catch a break from the media. Under cover of the night, several semi-trailers convoyed out of the [El Paso] plant to drive about an hour and a half south west. They were bound for a city dump in Alamogordo, New Mexico, chosen because New Mexico had a state law forbidding scavenging of landfills. The landfill was run by Browning Ferris Industries (BFI), who contracted with the city and was making $300-$500 a truckload from Atari, all to cover their dumped contents with garbage and dirt and then steamroll them. [Three days later] Atari had already dumped eight truckloads when promising BFI only three a week, and still more were on the way. But that wasn't the worst of it; the public had found out. First it was the locals, who when word got out that Atari was dumping lots of cartridges, consoles and computers in their backyard, started sneaking into the dump to pilfer what they could. The hardware may have been crushed beyond use, but many of the games were still salvageable. It was when those games started showing up around town, titles like E.T., Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, that the local media picked up on the story. Atari had brought in a security guard to watch over the site to stop the pilfering, but it did little to stop the prying eyes of the media, and by [September 26th] the national press was all over the story. This innocent dumping, a miniscule amount when compared to the entire size of Atari's actual overstock across the country, was done as an afterthought. However, thanks to article titles like UPI's "City dump gobbles Pacman," the dumping was fast becoming a symbol of the industry's problems. [Y]ou don't pour concrete over unusable scrap, [but] that's exactly what Atari did on September 29th, which only further fueled the interest over the dumping. Around 14 truckloads had been dumped before the PR nightmare was over. Yes, this is the very happening that gave rise to the myth of the supposed dumping of almost 3.5 million E.T. cartridges in the Alamogordo dump. Most of the overstock of game cartridges languishing in warehouses around the U.S., comprised of a wide breadth of Atari's home titles, were indeed disposed of that's where myth meets reality. But this occurred in a dump in Sunnyvale [California]. In May 2013 Alamogordo's City Commission approved a deal for a Canada-based film production company (Fuel Industries) to excavate the Atari landfill site and produce a documentary about the legend of the buried E.T. cartridges. That excavation was scheduled to take place on 26 April 2014 and to be open to the public: excavation Become a part of gamer history. Unearth the truth behind the ultimate urban legend. We're excited to announce that the excavation of the long-rumored "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" video game burial site will occur on April 26, 2014 and will be open to the public. Spectators are invited to watch the team uncover the infamous Atari game cartridge grave. The Atari Corporation faced with overwhelmingly negative response to the "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" video game allegedly disposed of millions of unsold game cartridges by burying them in the small town of Alamogordo, New Mexico in 1983. Fuel Entertainment took an interest in the legend, and in December 2013, with help from local garbage contractor Joe Lewandowski, acquired the exclusive rights to excavate the Alamogordo landfill. Fuel Entertainment brought the opportunity to Xbox Entertainment Studios, and now, as part of a documentary series, the team will excavate the legendary New Mexico landfill to reveal the true story of Atari's bizarre burial. Director Zak Penn will be documenting the dig and the events around it. In addition to fans and media, a variety of people tied to the dig, video game, and film will be in attendance including "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" video game designer Howard Scott Warshaw, a team of archeologists, and representatives from Xbox Entertainment Studios. We hope you'll join us as we get to the bottom of one of gaming's biggest mysteries. A lucky handful of fans could even be interviewed for the film. See you in Alamogordo! On that date, news accounts reported the recovery of "hundreds" (not millions) of E.T. game cartridges from the Alamagordo landfill: A documentary film production company has found buried in a New Mexico landfill hundreds of the Atari "E.T." game cartridges that some call the worst video game ever made. Film director Zak Penn showed one "E.T." cartridge retrieved from the site and said that hundreds more were found in the mounds of trash and dirt scooped by a backhoe. About 200 residents and game enthusiasts gathered in southeastern New Mexico to watch backhoes and bulldozers dig through the concrete-covered landfill in search of up to a million discarded copies of "E.T. The Extraterrestrial" that the game's maker wanted to hide forever. "I feel pretty relieved and psyched that they actually got to see something," said Penn as members of the production team sifted through the mounds of trash, pulling out boxes, games and other Atari products. Whatever the answer, it seems Atari sent its goose away not with the traditional gold watch, but with a pair of cement overshoes. Additional information: Atari's E.T.: The Extraterrestrial (AtariAge) Last updated: 26 April 2014 Goldberg, Marty and Curt Vendel. Atari Inc.: Business Is Fun. Carmel, NY: Syzygy Company Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-9855974-0-5. Kent, Steven L. The First Quarter: A 25-Year History of Video Games. Bothell, WA: BWD Press, 2000. ISBN 0-9704755-0-0. Llorca, Juan Carlos. Diggers Find Atari's E.T. Games in Landfill. Associated Press. 26 April 2014. The New York Times. "Atari Parts Are Dumped." 28 September 1983 (p. D4). | 1 | [
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FMD2773 | 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: According to statistics, a large majority of individuals born in the 1940s experienced greater financial success than their parents. However, in contrast, individuals born in the 1980s, often criticized as Millennials, face only an even chance of surpassing their parents' level of financial success, despite being the most educated generation in history.
contextual information: Candidate for California governorDelaine Eastinsays she wants to create an economy that works for everyone. But with the states affordable housing crisis and deep poverty, Eastin believes thats not happening now, especially for young people. People become cynical, she wrote in an Oct. 11, 2017op-edin theSan Francisco Chroniclebecause the path to a brighter future is becoming more remote. Eastin continued: Ninety percent of people born in the 1940s ended up doing better financially than their parents. But those born in the 1980s, the much-maligned Millennials, have only a 50-50 chance of doing better (financially) than their parents, despite being the best-educated generation in our history. Millennialsare typically considered the children of the Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers. They were born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s. We wanted to know whether Eastin was right about this dramatic decline in children doing better than their parents. We set out on a fact check. Eastins background Eastin is one of several Democrats vying to succeed Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018. She served in the State Assembly from 1986 to 1994 and then as State Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1995 to 2003. She was the first, and remains, the only woman to hold that position. In addition to her desire to create a more equitable economy, Eastin has advocated for greater investment in education, the adoption of universal health care and continued work on climate change during her run for governor. Our research We asked Eastins campaign for evidence supporting her claim about millennials and their financial prospects. Jon Murchinson, her campaign spokesman, told us the statement is based on conclusions in aDecember 2016 studyby the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. The study is called The Fading American Dream: Trends in Absolute Income Mobility since 1940. Its findings, indeed, show that the fraction of children earning more than their parents has plummeted -- from 90 percent for children born in the 1940s to 50 percent for those born in the 1980s. The study accounted for inflation, taxes and other changes between the generations. Its basically a coin flip as to whether youll do better than your parents, Stanford economistRaj Chetty, one of the studys authors, said in anews releaseannouncing the studys publication in December 2016. SOURCE:The Equality of Opportunity Project Reached by email this week, Chetty told us Eastins characterization of this trend appears accurate. David Grusky, the studys co-author and director of Stanfords Center on Poverty and Inequality, added that Eastins statement is a fair summary of our headline conclusion. The Stanford study doesnt examine whether millennials are the best-educated generation in our history. That part of Eastins statement, however, was substantiated in a recentsurveyby the Pew Research Center. It found 27 percent of millennial women and 21 percent of millennial men had completed at least a bachelors degree by age 33. That was slightly higher than the percentages for men and women at the same age from Baby Boomer to Generation X populations. Inside the study While Eastin appears to have correctly represented the reports findings, we wanted to know how the Stanford researchers came to their conclusions and whether other researchers agreed with them. Grusky told us the report used millions of Internal Revenue Service records and Census data to compare income between parents and children. The report specifically looked at people born between 1940 and 1984 and measured household income for parents and children when both were 30 years old. Even after accounting for changes between the generations, such as millennials entering the workforce at an older age than their parents, Grusky said the findings on upward mobility did not change significantly. Only slightly more than 50 percent of children at age 40 had higher income compared with their parents income when their parents were 30 years old. Unequal growth The Stanford study also accounted for the rapid economic growth experienced during the Baby Boomer generation, when the nations post-World War II economy created a surge of new jobs and industries. Assuming both generations had experienced the same economic growth rates, Grusky said only 62 percent of millennials would do better than their parents. The key factor holding back broader financial success of this younger generation, the report concluded, was todays inequality of growth. Financial success, Grusky said, has become concentrated among a smaller share of families compared with the recent past. Ensuring that financial success is distributed more widely would make a lot of headway toward millennials doing better than their parents in future years, the researcher added. The report found declines in upward mobility for millennials across all 50 states. The biggest drops took place in Rust Belt states such as Ohio, Illinois and Michigan, Grusky said. Millennials in states such as California, New York and Massachusetts saw, on average, less substantial declines. SOURCE:The Equality of Opportunity Project For this study, Grusky said, researchers were not able to factor in student debt or address how people of different races and ethnicities are affected by the mobility trends. Behind the starting line Tom Allison, deputy policy and research director atYoung Invincibles, said the Stanford research is right in line with theconclusions reachedby his Washington D.C.-based group. Young Invincibles advocates for expanding economic opportunities for young adults and encouraging them to get involved in the political process. Allison said the Stanford study is both transparent and relies on credible public data. Factors from the Great Recession to student debt to globalization have all put millennials behind the starting line compared with their parents, he said. That is a cornerstone of the American Dream, Allison continued, that if you work hard and play by the rules, then you can exceed the living standards of your parents. And weve seen a precipitous decline in that. Our ruling Delaine Eastin recently claimed millennials have only a 50-50 chance of doing better financially than their parents, while those born in the 1940s had a 90 percent chance of doing better than their parents. Her claim is supported by a 2016 Stanford study, The Fading American Dream: Trends in Absolute Income Mobility since 1940. Stanford researchers found stronger economic growth combined with a broader distribution of that growth during the Baby Boomer generation drove greater upward mobility for people born in the 1940s. They said financial success has become more concentrated in recent decades, leaving millennials with much lower odds of doing better than their parents. Even after accounting for changes, such as inflation and millennials starting work at older ages, they found todays younger generation faces comparatively smaller odds of earning more than their parents. Other research, notably by the advocacy group Young Invincibles, agreed with the Stanford findings. We rate her claim True. TRUE The statement is accurate and theres nothing significant missing. Click here formoreon the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check. | 1 | [
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FMD2774 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: We ve been reporting on this unbelievable trend in non-citizen (green card holders AND illegal aliens) voting across Maryland since August. The city of College Park, Maryland is the latest to decide on non-citizen voting by a slim margin. Tucker Carlson is as outraged by this as we are:A city council in Maryland has voted in favor of allowing resident non-citizens such as illegal immigrants to participate in local elections. The charter amendment passed with its original wording with a vote of 4-3, with one abstention from District 1 Councilman Fazlul Kabir.The city council in College Park, home to the University of Maryland campus, has joined six other towns that allow green-card holders, illegal immigrants and other non-citizens to vote in local elections.In August, most of the residents voiced their opposition to the amendment letting all non-citizen residents to vote in local elections, but by Tuesday night, the majority wrote to the mayor in support of the proposal, Wojahn told the Post.The city hall meeting was packed and almost two-dozen people spoke against or for the motion expanding the voting privileges, Fox 5 DC reported. Local police were on hand due to previous threats and harassment over the motion.Both sides clashed verbally with one man allegedly being called a Nazi while waiting to voice his opinion against the motion.The College Park City Council meeting is about to begin @thedbk pic.twitter.com/09ZVCwv3WA Leah Brennan (@allhaeleah) September 12, 2017THIS IS SHOCKING! THE HISTORY OF ILLEGAL VOTING:The shocking thing is that Wikipedia says people who feel like they are citizens can vote Huh???The right of foreigners to vote in the United States has historically been a contentious issue. A foreigner, in this context, is an alien or a person who is not a citizen of the United States.Since 1996, a federal law has prohibited non-citizens from voting in federal elections, punishing them by fines, imprisonment, inadmissibility, and deportation. Exempt from punishment is any non-citizen who reasonably believed at the time of voting that he or she was a citizen of the United States, had a parent who is or was a citizen, and began permanently living in the United States before turning 16 years old. The federal law does not prohibit non-citizens from voting in state or local elections, but no state has allowed non-citizens to vote in state elections since Arkansas became the last state to outlaw non-citizen voting in 1926. 12 local governments, 11 of them in Maryland, allow non-citizens to vote in their local elections (Takoma Park, Barnesville, Martin s Additions, Somerset, Chevy Chase Sections 3 and 5, Glen Echo, Garrett Park, Hyattsville, College Park, and Mount Rainer). San Francisco allows noncitizens parents to vote in School Board elections (beginning in 2018).However, over 40 states or territories, including colonies before the Declaration of Independence, have at some time given at least some aliens voting rights in some or all elections. For example, in 1875, the Supreme Court in Minor v. Happersett noted that citizenship has not in all cases been made a condition precedent to the enjoyment of the right of suffrage. Thus, in Missouri, persons of foreign birth, who have declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, may under certain circumstances vote. By 1900, nearly half of the states and territories had some experience with voting by aliens, and for some the experience lasted more than half a century. At the turn of the twentieth century, anti-immigration feeling ran very high, and Alabama stopped allowing aliens to vote by way of a constitutional change in 1901; Colorado followed suit in 1902, Wisconsin in 1908, and Oregon in 1914. Just as the nationalism unleashed by the War of 1812 helped to reverse the alien suffrage policies inherited from the late eighteenth century, World War I caused a sweeping retreat from the progressive alien suffrage policies of the late nineteenth century. In 1918, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota all changed their constitutions to purge alien suffrage, and Texas ended the practice of non-citizen voting in primary elections by statute. Indiana and Texas joined the trend in 1921, followed by Mississippi in 1924 and, finally, Arkansas in 1926. In 1931, political scientist Leon Aylsworth noted: For the first time in over a hundred years, a national election was held in 1928 in which no alien in any state had the right to cast a vote for a candidate for any office national, state, or local. Read more: Fox News | 0 | [
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FMD2775 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Sean Hannity was on fire with his opening comments on the Clinton-Uranium One deal bombshell last night. He ripped the Clintons and called on Trump s intelligence and law officials to investigate the scandal. It s a classic Hannity rant: After President Trump won in November, President Obama and his administration they were telling anyone who would listen, Russia! Russia! Russia! Russia interfered with our election. Russia was creating a direct threat to American democracy Hannity mocked. Well if that s the case, why when they have mountains of evidence that we will reveal tonight of Russian bribery going back to 2009, why then would the Obama administration and Hillary in particular sign off on the sale of 20% of America s uranium to Vladimir Putin and the Russians? Tonight, with this new evidence, what we have discovered is that the evidence against the Clintons is overwhelming, it is incontrovertible, Hannity continued. Hillary Clinton and her husband sold out America to the Russians while millions of dollars flowed to their family foundation. And in the process, Clinton created a massive national security risk for every man, woman, and child giving Vladimir Putin control over American uranium. IN CASE YOU HAVEN T HEARD ABOUT THE LATEST ON THE CLINTON-URANIUM ONE BOMBSHELL:Yesterday, the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange sent a cryptic tweet that contained a series of number and letters. Someone out there knows what that code means, and they are very likely shaking in their boots today.4767 5774 6a7a 4d6c 6330 666b 314a 3453 0000 0907 84b4 f787 7616 86f7 a737 5707 5736 Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) October 15, 2017On another front, two writers from separate publications were set to publish what Sean Hannity was calling a huge bombshell story that was due to break today.Last night on Fox News Hannity show, Sean Hannity warned that a huge bombshell would be breaking today. Sean told his audience that Circa News Sara Carter and The Hill s John Solomon have HUGE BREAKING NEWS. Hannity told his audience, Let me put it this way, if I m Hillary or fake news, I won t be sleeping well tonight. Watch:.@seanhannity TICK TOCK Tonight Folks Get ready @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/PxbRCgyPwm 'GITMO' BAMA (@President1Trump) October 17, 2017Well, John Solomon and Alison Spann s story did indeed break first thing today in The Hill, and it s a doozy. Will justice finally be delivered to these corrupt, anti-American, self-serving and lying players? Not providing information on a corruption scheme before the Russian uranium deal was approved by U.S. regulators and engage appropriate congressional committees has served to undermine U.S. national security interests by the very people charged with protecting them. The Russian efforts to manipulate our American political enterprise is breathtaking. Former House Intelligence Chair Mike Rogers (R-MI)The Hill Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.They also obtained an eyewitness account backed by documents indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill.The racketeering scheme was conducted with the consent of higher level officials in Russia who shared the proceeds from the kickbacks, one agent declared in an affidavit years later.Rather than bring immediate charges in 2010, however, the Department of Justice (DOJ) continued investigating the matter for nearly four more years, essentially leaving the American public and Congress in the dark about Russian nuclear corruption on U.S. soil during a period when the Obama administration made two major decisions benefitting Putin s commercial nuclear ambitions.The first decision occurred in October 2010, when the State Department and government agencies on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States unanimously approved the partial sale of Canadian mining company Uranium One to the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom, giving Moscow control of more than 20 percent of America s uranium supply.When this sale was used by Trump on the campaign trail last year, Hillary Clinton s spokesman said she was not involved in the committee review and noted the State Department official who handled it said she never intervened on any [Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] matter. In 2011, the administration gave approval for Rosatom s Tenex subsidiary to sell commercial uranium to U.S. nuclear power plants in a partnership with the United States Enrichment Corp. Before then, Tenex had been limited to selling U.S. nuclear power plants reprocessed uranium recovered from dismantled Soviet nuclear weapons under the 1990s Megatons to Megawatts peace program. The Russians were compromising American contractors in the nuclear industry with kickbacks and extortion threats, all of which raised legitimate national security concerns. And none of that evidence got aired before the Obama administration made those decisions, a person who worked on the case told The Hill, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by U.S. or Russian officials.The Obama administration s decision to approve Rosatom s purchase of Uranium One has been a source of political controversy since 2015.That s when conservative author Peter Schweitzer and The New York Times documented how Bill Clinton collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in Russian speaking fees and his charitable foundation collected millions in donations from parties interested in the deal while Hillary Clinton presided on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.The Obama administration and the Clintons defended their actions at the time, insisting there was no evidence that any Russians or donors engaged in wrongdoing and there was no national security reason for any member of the committee to oppose the Uranium One deal.But FBI, Energy Department and court documents reviewed by The Hill show the FBI, in fact, had gathered substantial evidence well before the committee s decision that Vadim Mikerin the main Russian overseeing Putin s nuclear expansion inside the United States was engaged in wrongdoing starting in 2009.Then-Attorney General Eric Holder was among the Obama administration officials joining Hillary Clinton on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States at the time the Uranium One deal was approved. Multiple current and former government officials told The Hill they did not know whether the FBI or DOJ ever alerted committee members to the criminal activity they uncovered.Spokesmen for Holder and Clinton did not return calls seeking comment. The Justice Department also didn t comment.Mikerin was a director of Rosatom s Tenex in Moscow since the early 2000s, where he oversaw Rosatom s nuclear collaboration with the United States under the Megatons to Megwatts program and its commercial uranium sales to other countries. In 2010, Mikerin was dispatched to the U.S. on a work visa approved by the Obama administration to open Rosatom s new American arm called Tenam.Between 2009 and January 2012, Mikerin did knowingly and willfully combine, conspire confederate and agree with other persons to obstruct, delay and affect commerce and the movement of an article and commodity (enriched uranium) in commerce by extortion, a November 2014 indictment stated.His illegal conduct was captured with the help of a confidential witness, an American businessman, who began making kickback payments at Mikerin s direction and with the permission of the FBI. The first kickback payment recorded by the FBI through its informant was dated Nov. 27, 2009, the records show. The investigation was ultimately supervised by then-U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, an Obama appointee who now serves as President Trump s deputy attorney general, and then-Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe, now the deputy FBI director under Trump, Justice Department documents show.On August 6, 2017, The Washington Times questioned Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein s fishing expedition aimed at digging up dirt on President Trump in his investigation in the Trump-Russia investigation. The special counsel is subject to the rules and regulations of the Department of Justice, and we don t engage in fishing expeditions, Mr. Rosenstein said on Fox News Sunday. In his first Sunday show interview, Mr. Rosenstein added that special counsel Robert Mueller understands and I understand the specific scope of the investigation and so, it s not a fishing expedition. Mr. Rosenstein s comments come amid reports citing unnamed sources that the investigation has expanded into Mr. Trump s finances unrelated to possible Russian interference in last year s election.Mr. Rosenstein played down the reports: That s not anything that I ve said. That s not anything Director Mueller has said. We don t know who s saying it or how credible those sources are. Both men now play a key role in the current investigation into possible, but still unproven collusion between Russia and Donald Trump s campaign during the 2016 election.McCabe is under congressional and Justice Department inspector general investigation in connection with money his wife s Virginia state Senate campaign accepted in 2015 from now-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe at a time when McAuliffe was reportedly under investigation by the FBI.The connections to the current Russia case are many. The Mikerin probe began in 2009 when Robert Mueller, now the special counsel in charge of the Trump case, was still FBI director. And it ended in late 2015 under the direction of then-FBI Director James Comey, who Trump fired earlier this year.Bringing down a major Russian nuclear corruption scheme that had both compromised a sensitive uranium transportation asset inside the U.S. and facilitated international money laundering would seem a major feather in any law enforcement agency s cap.But the Justice Department and FBI took little credit in 2014 when Mikerin, the Russian financier and the trucking firm executives were arrested and charged.The only public statement occurred an entire year later when the Justice Department put out a little-noticed press release in August 2015, just days before Labor Day. The release noted that the various defendants had reached plea deals.The lack of fanfare left many key players in Washington with no inkling that a major Russian nuclear corruption scheme with serious national security implications had been uncovered.On Dec. 15, 2015, the Justice Department put out a release stating that Mikerin, a former Russian official residing in Maryland was sentenced today to 48 months in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $2.1 million.Ronald Hosko, who served as the assistant FBI director in charge of criminal cases when the investigation was underway, told The Hill he did not recall ever being briefed about Mikerin s case by the counterintelligence side of the bureau despite the criminal charges that were being lodged. I had no idea this case was being conducted, a surprised Hosko said in an interview.Meanwhile, Julian Assange is jumping on the bandwagon, as he teases that he has a major announcement of his own that is coming soon Russian nuclear bribery investigation reveals that Russia routed millions to the Clintons https://t.co/ti7ycn7auf Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) October 17, 2017 | 0 | [
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FMD2776 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Get short URL 0 13 0 0 A new government report released this week states that the Pentagon spent at least $58 billion over the last 20 years on weapons systems that not only were never built, but often never made it past the design phase.
The report, released by the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Frank Kendall, is an internal review of the Defense Department’s acquisition activities, and contains a chart of 23 pricey projects that received billions in initial funding but were later canceled. The report shows this happening as far back as 1997. © REUTERS/ Master Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald Pentagon Prepares to Start Raqqa Offensive Within Weeks
The Army’s Future Combat System was one of the most expensive of the doomed military-money pits, costing over $20 billion, with the RAH-66 Comanche attack and reconnaissance helicopter second with a $9.8 billion price tag before operations were ceased. Taken together these two programs account for 50 percent of what was deemed “sunk costs,” according to the Washington Examiner. The $3.7-billion National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, the $2.7-billion Lockheed Martin VH-71 helicopter, and the $2.5-billion JLENS air-defense blimp are a few of the other pricey and failed ventures detailed in the report.
Out of 23 projects, eight were able to spend all of their allocated money before the plug was pulled. ... | 0 | [
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FMD2777 | 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 Eyeball Tattoos a Real Thing? Claim summaries: The practice of permanently inking the eyes is real, but it isn't as novel as it may seem.
contextual information: Humans have been modifying their bodies as long as there have been tools available to do so. Tattoos, piercings, corseting, and other practices generally characterized as "transgressive" actually come with centuries of historical weight, and even newer types of body modification generally have precedents. Eyeball tattooing is no exception to this, despite popping up mostly in news stories after 2015, when an inmate in Alaska appeared in court with one of his sclera evidently tattooed: Jason Barnum, also known as "Eyeball," was sentenced to 22 years in prison for shooting a police officer. His face and eye tattoos came up during the sentencing hearings as well; the prosecution said that his tattoos showed a specific behavior pattern, and Barnum argued that poor decisions earlier in life had left him unable to find work. sentenced At any rate, eye tattoos are real -- and permanent. The BBC weighed in on the practice of eyeball tattooing in 2015, concluding that the tattoos are a strikingly visible way to proclaim one's individuality to the world: Looking a little out-of-this world is something that appealed to Kylie Garth, a body piercer who works in Luna Cobra's Sydney studio. Before deciding to change the colour of her eyeballs, Garth had experimented with a number of body modifications including face tattoos, piercings, elf-like pointed ears and a bifurcated tongue. "It was mentally intense," she says of the several injections needed to colour her eyeballs a delicate blue-green, a colour she refers to as sea foam. "It feels like somebody is poking at your eye, then it feels like strange pressure and then it feels you have a bit of sand in your eye, but there's no pain." In 2007, a handful of stories ran on the practice of eyeball tattooing, mostly focusing on a tattoo artist named Luna Cobra who tattooed Garth's sclera and who claims to have invented the modern practice: practice First and foremost, I, Luna Cobra, am the inventor of eyeball, or sclera, tattooing (tattooing the white of the eye in a solid or mix of colours). I first attempted the procedure on sighted human eyeballs in 2007 on three well-informed and consenting parties. Since then, I have fine-tuned both the technique and materials to increase the safety and minimize the risks of tattooing the eyeball. There are still risks involved, of course, but in the 8 years I have been performing this procedure, all my clients are all still ok. Secondly, I personally have not trained anyone else to do this procedure. I have appeared on various tv/news segments though, and have inspired many copycats worldwide. This is important to know because without the proper education, training, experience and guidance, these practitioners have caused vision impairments like blurred vision, spots or floaters, and even blindness. YES PEOPLE ARE NOW BLIND FROM EYEBALL TATTOOING. The practice of tattooing the sclera or the cornea (mostly the cornea, over the iris of the eye) stretches back to at least the first century A.D. and has been documented as a cosmetic enhancement (e.g., a way to alleviate unsightly scars on the iris) since then: documented Permanent colouring of unsightly corneal scars has been known for almost 2000 years. During the final decade of the 19th and the first decades of the 20th century it was a commonly applied technique. Owing to the tremendous progress in microsurgical reconstructive procedures, corneal tattooing today will only apply for a minor and carefully selected group of patients. However, the procedure of coloring the whites of the eyes for elective cosmetic purposes has gained ground since Luna Cobra apparently developed it. That procedure is slightly less invasive, consisting of sandwiching pigments between the sclera and the conjunctiva of the eye, rather than depositing bits of ink just beneath the upper layer, as with a more traditional tattoo: tattoo Using the injection method of eyeball tattooing, where a larger area of ink is injected via a single hole, complex designs are not possible, and although fades from one color to another are possible to some extent, they can be difficult to control and master. The difficulty in controlling the spread of the ink makes this method inadvisable for the cornea (ie. over the iris and pupil) because of the danger of obscuring vision if the ink spreads over the pupil. Because only a few injections are required to completely cover the white of an eye with ink, many of the risks in the traditional method such as significant ink loss and ulceration are largely mitigated (although they are not eliminated). However, the injections can be difficult to control, and over-injection or injections that are too deep or too shallow carry significant risk the appropriate zone is less than a millimetre thick, with serious consequences for missing it. The medical community uses almost exclusively the traditional tattoo method although even after 150 years they have not come up with an agreed upon technique, which is very telling whereas the body modification community uses almost exclusively the injection method. To date, attempts to tattoo the white of the eye using traditional needle methods have been extremely unsatistfactory, almost completely falling out. The general consensus is that injection is the only acceptable method of scleral tattooing. The end result of this method permanently turns the whites of the eyes another color to create an otherworldly, striking look. Gifford S.R., Steinberg A. "Gold and silver impregnation of cornea for cosmetic purposes."
American Journal of Ophthalmology. 1927. Gold and silver impregnation of cornea for cosmetic purposes Larratt, Shannon. "The Eyeball Tattoo FAQ."
Body Modification Ezine. 21 November 2012. The Eyeball Tattoo FAQ Pitz, S., et al. "Corneal Tattooing: An Alternative Treatment for Disfiguring Corneal Scars."
British Journal of Opthamology. April 2002. Corneal Tattooing: An Alternative Treatment for Disfiguring Corneal Scars. | 1 | [
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FMD2778 | 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: Lithium Mine vs. Oil Sands Extraction Claim summaries: An image purportedly showing the environmental differences between a lithium mine and an oil sands extraction facility is misleading.
contextual information: In May 2016, an image purportedly showing the visual difference between lithium mines (from which a key element of rechargeable batteries is extracted) and oil sands (i.e., an unconventional type of petroleum deposit) began circulating online, with text suggesting that using the latter as a fuel source was actually less harmful to the environment than electric or hybrid automobiles: The image, however, does not feature a photograph of a lithium mine. The top portion of the image shows BHP's Escondida copper mine in Chile, one of the largest such mines in the world: largest Rio Tinto has a 30% interest in Chile's Escondida, the worlds largest copper-producing mine, which is managed by BHP Billiton. The bottom photograph was taken in Canada, but it shows a type of oil sands drilling site that isn't really comparable to a copper mine. Instead of selecting a picture of an open tar sand pit, the creator of this image chose a "cleaner" photograph showing an in situ oil sands facility that operates deep underground with little surface impact: Canada operates MEG Energy uses steam-assisted gravity drainage, or SAGD, technology to recover bitumen from the oil sands. In SAGD operations, pairs of stacked horizontal wells are drilled into the reservoir about 400 metres beneath the surface. The top well injects steam to heat the bitumen, which separates from the sand and collects with the produced water in the lower well, approximately five metres below. The bitumen is then pumped to the surface, where it is separated from the water. The water is treated and recycled into the system: Other pictures show very different views of oil sands extraction sites, such as this 2009 National Geographic photograph of an Alberta oil sands site: photograph Dust clouds the sunset above this open-pit mine, a close up view of a small fraction of the areas surveyed in the Landsat satellite images. Oil sands mining operations are conducted on a massive scale. Similarly, this photograph shows an aerial view of Syncrude Aurora tar sands mine in the Boreal Forest north of Fort McMurray, Alberta: tar sands In short, this attempt to portray oil sands as an energy source much more environmentally-friendly than (batteries derived from) lithium mines used a photograph of a completely different type of mine for the latter, and a misleading photograph of a non-representative site for the former. | 0 | [
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FMD2779 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Senator John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, is trying to win support from the Midwest corn lobby for a broad legislative overhaul of the nation’s biofuels policy, according to sources familiar with the matter. The effort comes as President Donald Trump’s White House mediates talks between the rival oil and corn industries over the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires oil refiners to blend increasing amounts of corn-based ethanol and other biofuels in the nation’s fuel supply every year. Oil refiners say the regulation costs them hundreds of millions of dollars a year and is threatening to put a handful of the nation’s refineries out of business. Ethanol interests have so far refused to budge on proposals to change it. Cornyn “is working hard to unify all stakeholders in a consensus effort to reform the Renewable Fuel Standard,†an aide to the senator told Reuters. The aide, who asked not to be named, did not provide details. Cornyn, of Texas, the U.S. state that is home to the most oil refineries, is part of the Senate’s leadership team, responsible for securing the votes needed to pass the Republican party’s legislative agenda. Two lobbyists for the oil refining industry said Cornyn was having some success cobbling together a coalition of lawmakers and stakeholders around a potential RFS reform bill that could be dropped early next year. However, similar efforts to unify these rival factions have fallen flat in the past. Any such effort would need the buy-in of legislative backers of the ethanol industry, like Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa, the top-producing state for corn. Officials for the senators did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Both Grassley and Ernst have previously repeatedly expressed their intention to defend the RFS in its current form. The White House has been hosting negotiations between both sides of the issue over short-term remedies that can provide relief to refiners struggling with the existing regulation. The refining industry says compliance now costs it hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and threatens to put some refineries out of business. Refineries that do not have adequate facilities to blend ethanol into their gasoline must purchase blending credits, called RINS, from rivals that do. RIN prices have risen in recent years as the amount of biofuels required under the RFS has increased. Refineries that buy RINs include Philadelphia Energy Solutions and Monroe Energy, both of Pennsylvania, and Valero Energy Corp of Texas. Valero said RINs cost it around $750 million last year, though there are competing arguments over whether refiners pass along those costs. Senator Ted Cruz, also of Texas, last week sent a proposal to the White House to cap the price of RINs at 10 cents each, a fraction of the current price. The proposal was widely rejected by the ethanol industry. The ethanol industry has said in the past that placing caps on the credits was a non-starter, and has instead argued for policies to increase volumes of ethanol in the U.S gasoline supply. The industry claims this would boost supplies of the credits, lowering their prices. Prices of renewable fuel credits have fallen in recent weeks on reports of the discussions in Washington. The price hit 68 cents on Wednesday, nearing a seven-month low, according to traders and Oil Price Information Services. The White House has not yet commented on Cruz’s proposal. The RFS was introduced by former President George W. Bush as a way to boost U.S. agriculture, slash energy imports and cut emissions. It has since fostered a market for ethanol amounting to 15 billion gallons a year. The refining industry has pressed the Trump administration repeatedly to adopt reforms that would lower the credit costs or otherwise ease the burden on refineries, but the ethanol industry has successfully defeated those efforts so far. | 1 | [
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FMD2780 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along side Andy Nowicki (the Alt Right Novelist) and FunkSoul & Randy J (21WIRE & ACR contributors), for the hundred and nineteenth episode of BOILER ROOM. Turn it up, tune in and hang with the ACR Brain-Trust for this weeks boil downs and analysis and the usual gnashing of the teeth of the political animals in the social reject club.This week on the show the ACR Brain-Trust is back with another meeting of the Social Reject Club in the No Friends Left Zone! This week on the show the ACR Brain-Trust is back with another meeting of the Social Reject Club in the No Friends Left Zone! The gang is covering a number of topics this week including the rise in public displays of pathological ego & mental illness, Trumps tweets on transgenders in the military, an upcoming 9/11 movie with Charlie Sheen, Grenfell Tower and some thoughts on the deaths of Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell..Direct Download Episode #119Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved! Reference Links, for your consideration and research: | 0 | [
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FMD2781 | 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: A voucher school that closed after 9 days this year collected $5.4 million in taxpayer subsidies since first opening.
contextual information: Less than two weeks into the 2015-16 school year, the Milwaukee voucher school Daughters of the Father Christian Academy closed its doors, leaving the families of about 150 children scrambling to find new schools. The closure, triggered by a state Department of Public Instruction order questioning the qualifications of school administrators, prompted Democratic opponents of vouchers to cite it as evidence that the program needed better oversight. Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) tweeted: "GOP voucher school that closed after 9 days this year collected $5.4 million in taxpayer subsidies since first opening." Is she right?
About the program: Voucher schools are private institutions, usually religiously affiliated, that receive taxpayer dollars to cover the tuition of lower-income students. As part of the 2015-17 state budget, the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Scott Walker raised the limit on how many students statewide can participate in the program. The program, which began in Milwaukee, had been extended statewide two years earlier. According to the Department of Public Instruction and the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, about 26,900 Milwaukee students are enrolled in voucher schools. Additionally, there are approximately 1,700 students in Racine and 1,000 statewide who participated in the program during the 2014-15 school year. The Milwaukee program cost about $191 million, while other schools statewide incurred an additional $22 million.
Supporters argue that voucher schools provide parents with valuable choices regarding where to send their children, especially in areas where local public schools may be underperforming. Critics contend that the voucher program drains public school budgets and that private schools do not always adhere to the same educational standards.
What about Daughters of the Father? Shilling's claim seems straightforward, but her tweet may imply that the school received the money and then quickly closed, suggesting that the school was new and that the $5.4 million was immediately lost to taxpayers. However, that is not exactly what happened. Daughters of the Father first opened its doors in the 2007-08 school year and had just begun its ninth year. Records indicate it had 153 students in 2014-15 and, through the state's voucher program, received about $7,200 for each student that year, totaling more than $1.1 million. The school encountered financial difficulties that led to canceled bus service at the end of the school year. In a May 14, 2015, press release, executive director Doris Pinkley attributed the issues to lower-than-expected enrollment. After a change in the school's leadership, the state Department of Public Instruction determined that the school had failed to comply with statutory and administrative rules governing participation in the voucher program. The department issued an order on Aug. 4, 2015, banning the school from participating in the voucher program because it did not have a qualified administrator on staff; the principal held only an expired substitute teacher's license. The $5.4 million represents the total amount the school has received since its inception. In total, the state has terminated 57 schools from the voucher program since the 2003-04 academic year, although some of these schools ceased operating on their own. Those schools had received a total of $176 million.
Our rating: Shilling tweeted that the Daughters of the Father Christian Academy closed after 9 days this year and collected $5.4 million in taxpayer subsidies since first opening. The school did not simply open its doors, receive $5.4 million, and quickly close; it had operated for eight years, and the money represents the total received since its opening. We rate the claim Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD2782 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: “Deep state†officials are withholding intelligence from President Donald Trump, despite the fact that he is the nation’s according to a report by the Wall Street Journal published Wednesday evening. [Journal reporters Shane Harris and Carol E. Lee cite “current and former officials†who say that “U. S. intelligence officials have withheld sensitive intelligence from President Donald Trump because they are concerned it could be leaked or compromised. †The intelligence officials who are withholding the information are doing so because they fear that Trump could leak secrets to Russia, or because of political battles with the president, according to the anonymous sources cited in the Journal report. While the White House told the Journal that it does not believe agencies are withholding information, theoretically there would be no way for White House officials to know. The Office of Director of National Intelligence also disputed the claims. But if the report is true, it would compound growing suspicions that intelligence agencies are leaking classified information illegally to media outlets to damage and confuse the Trump administration. On Wednesday, former CIA officer and 2016 presidential candidate Evan McMullin declared on CNN and Twitter that it was right for intelligence officials to leak illegally, because they had sworn an oath to protect the Constitution and the country. He described the president as a “security threat. †The unfolding crisis is the most serious challenge to the Trump administration, still in its infancy. But it is also quickly enveloping the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Central Intelligence Agency as well, calling their public credibility into question. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential†people in news media in 2016. His new book, How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 1 | [
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FMD2783 | 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 Sberbank in Russia restricted cash withdrawals to $20? Claim summaries: After Russian forces invaded Ukraine in late February 2022, rumors spread on social media that Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, had imposed a very low cash withdrawal limit.
contextual information: In late February 2022, a rumor went viral on TikTok and Twitter that said Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, had imposed a cash withdrawal limit that would be equivalent to $20 in the U.S. The rumor began to spread just after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. TikTok Twitter Russia Russia invasion Ukraine On Feb. 25, the person behind the @bantg Twitter account tweeted: "Sberbank, Russian largest bank, has limited cash withdrawals to $20." tweeted The tweet cited no sources. Another tweet posted on Feb. 26 claimed: "JUST IN: Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia, has limited cash withdrawals for its customers to $20 ? #PutinWillFeelThePainSoon." The hashtag referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin. tweet Vladimir Putin Replies under the tweet asked for a source for the information, but @nick82gh did not respond to them. While this second tweet didn't receive many engagements, it was shared the same day to TikTok as a screenshot. Within 48 hours of being posted, that TikTok video received 80,000 likes and was viewed more than 1.4 million times. The person speaking in the video said: "The bank run has started. Russia is going bankrupt. This is the end of [the] Russian economy completely." video Here are the facts: It's true that Sberbank is Russia's largest bank by its amount of assets, according to The Wall Street Journal. However, at the time, we found no reporting or evidence of any kind that backed up the claim that the Sberbank had limited cash withdrawals to $20. We also found no data about anything related to Sberbank causing the entire country of Russia to go bankrupt, as mentioned in the TikTok video. The Wall Street Journal By email, a spokesperson for Sberbank told us: "This information contradicts reality. Sberbank continues to fulfill all of its obligations in full, including the withdrawal of funds from accounts. All funds are available to customers at any time." On Feb. 28, ABC News and The Associated Press reported that Sberbank had been hit with "tough U.S. sanctions," leading to some limits on cash withdrawals: ABC News Associated Press Sberbank and VTB banks are Russias two largest state-run banks and own roughly half of the assets in the Russian banking system. They were targeted last week by tough U.S. sanctions aimed at limiting their businesses internationally and over the weekend barred from the international SWIFT payment system. SWIFT In both Slovenia and Croatia, Sberbank temporarily closed its branches or limited cash withdrawals following a rush by its clients last week. In Croatia, the banks clients will be allowed to withdraw a maximum of about 1,000 euros per day over the next two days. In Slovenia, the branches will be closed for the next two days and then the withdrawals will be limited to 400 euros per day. At the time that this news was published, 1000 euros was equivalent to $1,121, while 400 euros converted to $448. Neither of these figures was anywhere close to a $20 limit. We asked Sberbank for information on cash withdrawal limits for other countries but did not receive a response before this story was published. While we found no evidence regarding Sberbank branches having a $20 cash withdrawal limit, the conflict in Ukraine did lead to fears that the bank could fail, according to a report from Reuters, which cited a warning from the European Central Bank. Ukraine report Also, on a similar subject, The National Bank of Ukraine imposed cash withdrawal limits after the invasion began, according to The Wall Street Journal. However, again, those limits were reported to be nowhere near $20. Instead, the reporting said the limit was "100,000 Ukrainian hryvnia a day, equivalent to about $3,339.13." according to The Wall Street Journal This story will be updated if we receive further information. | 0 | [
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FMD2784 | 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: Bill O'Reilly Loses Custody Battle Due to Domestic Violence? Claim summaries: A misleading February 2016 article was randomly republished in May 2016 to suggest Bill O'Reilly "lost" custody of his children due to incidents of domestic violence.
contextual information: On 10 May 2016, the Facebook page "Occupy Democrats" published a post claiming that Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly lost custody of his two children because he abused his ex-wife: post Clicking through the link led to an articlefromOccupy Democrats, this one in February 2016: Notorious FOX pundit Bill OReilly has been denied custody of his children by a New York appeals court after they were convinced that he was unfit to care for them after a vicious domestic violence incident. His kids, a 12-year-old boy and 17-year-old girl, will stay with his ex-wife Maureen McPhilmy. The court ruling announced that: Viewing the totality of the circumstances, there is a sound and substantial basis for the Supreme Courts determination that it is in the best interests of the children for the mother to be awarded primary residential custody. Particularly relevant in this case are the clearly stated preferences of the children, especially considering their age and maturity, and the quality of the home environment provided by the mother. The right-wing propagandist and shameless liar initially lost custody of his kids following OReillys horrific attack on his ex-wife; his daughter told a court psychologist that he was choking her mom or had his hands around her neck and dragged her down some stairs. Thearticle did not back theheadline's assertions: it stated first that O'Reilly specifically lost custody of the children because he was deemed "unfit to care for them" following a "vicious domestic violence incident." But the portion of a court document quotedsimplysaid thatit was in the best interest of the children to remain in their mother's care. Occupy Democrats cited Raw Story, which in turn cited Gawker,which reported that O'Reilly had "lost custody" of his children in February 2016, but that article, again, did notsuggestthat O'Reilly was denied custodial care of the children due to violent behavior: Raw Story Gawker The lengthy decision affirms the holding of a Nassau County Supreme Court justice last year that the children, now aged 13 and 17, should live full-time with their mother (the former couple had been splitting residential custody). As we reported at the time, OReilly appealed that ruling, thereby delaying its enforcement (and, of course, extending his multi-front battle against McPhilmy and her new family). The Appellate Division issued its 1,400-word opinion on February 24, a little over a month after attorneys for OReilly and McPhilmyknown in court documents as Anonymous 2011-1 and Anonymous 2011-2presented oral arguments at the divisions courthouse in Brooklyn Heights. According to the opinion, the courts four justices unanimously ruled in McPhilmys favor based upon the clearly stated preferences of the children[.] The February 2016 court documents fromto the hearing can be read in full here. They make little mention of contentionbetween O'Reilly and his ex-wife (aside from a brief description of ongoingacrimony, not violence): here Here, viewing the totality of the circumstances, there is a sound and substantial basis for the Supreme Court's determination that it is in the best interests of the children for the mother to be awarded primary residential custody. Particularly relevant in this case are the clearly stated preferences of the children, especially considering their age and maturity, and the quality of the home environment provided by the mother (see Matter of Manfredo v Manfredo, 53 AD3d 498, 500 [2008]; Matter of O'Connor v Dyer, 18 AD3d 757 [2005]). Moreover, under the circumstances of this case, the Supreme Court did not err in denying the father's motion for an award of sole decision-making authority with respect to the children, and continuing instead the existing provisions of the judgment of divorce, which call for joint legal custody and joint decision-making authority. While ordinarily it is not appropriate to award joint legal custody and decision-making authority where the parties are antagonistic toward one another (see Irizarry v Irizarry, 115 AD3d 913 [2014]), in this case, the record supports the court's finding that, despite their antagonism, the parties have been able to agree on most decisions concerning the children (see Matter of Thorpe v Homoet, 116 AD3d 962, 963 [2014]). Moreover, the record supports the court's finding that if either parent were awarded sole decision-making authority, there would be a danger that it would be used to exclude the other parent from meaningful participation [*3]in the children's lives. In addition, the court appointed a parenting coordinator, who can assist the parents in resolving any disputes they may have concerning decisions about the children. It ispossible that arguments or physical altercations between Bill O'Reilly and his ex-wife were a factor in the court's 2016 decision to uphold the family's custody arrangements, but if that were the case, the ruling on which news reports did not indicate such a circumstance. The appellate court's opinion read as a standardcustody arrangement, and the sole factor emphasized in it was the preference (not safety) of the children. Occupy Democrats' May 2016 rehash of the February 2016 news insinuated that custody hinged on allegations made by his "young daughter." However, that "young daughter" was described as 17 yearsoldas ofFebruary 2016 court documents, and no reference was made to any "damning" accusations levied by her. It istrue O'Reilly was accused byGawkerin May 2015 of abusing his ex-wife verbally and physically, but despite reporting to the contrary those accusations weren't referenced or hinted at in the February 2016appellate court's decision to uphold a custody arrangement involving his children. Garcia, Arturo. "Foxs Bill OReilly Loses Custody Of Teen Children After New York Appeals Court Ruling."
Raw Story. 29 February 2016. Taylor, Colin. "Family Values Hypocrite Bill OReilly Loses Custody Of Kids After Choking His Wife."
Occupy Democrats. 20 February 2016. Trotter, J.K. "Bill OReilly Loses Custody Of Children In New York Court Ruling."
Gawker. 29 February 2016. Trotter, J.K. "Court Transcripts: Bill OReillys Daughter Saw Him 'Choking Her Mom.'"
Gawker. 20 May 2015. | 0 | [
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FMD2785 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A rap on the knuckles from the EU s top court will not end Hungary s opposition to accommodating asylum seekers, and may even help Prime Minister Viktor Orban in his campaign for re-election next year. Rightwinger Orban has been one of the bloc s most vocal opponents of attempts by Brussels to force member states to take in quotas of mainly Syrian refugees, and the fence that Hungary built on its southern border to keep them out has been criticized by other governments and rights groups. But that unapologetic stance has gone down well with voters at home and, with Orban s Fidesz party already firmly ahead in opinion polls, initial responses from Budapest to Wednesday s ruling suggested the legal setback would help keep the issue of migration high on the domestic political agenda. Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said the European Court of Justice s dismissal of appeals by Hungary and Slovakia against the migrant quota system the European Union launched in 2015 was entirely unacceptable . The real battle only starts today, he told a news conference. I want to assure all citizens ... that the Hungarian government will do everything it can to protect Hungary and the Hungarian people. Hungary argues that the obligatory relocation of asylum seekers arriving in Greece and Italy from the Middle East would undermine its sovereignty and social fabric, and Orban s government held a referendum in 2016 on whether to accept any future EU-wide migrant relocation quotas. More than 3 million Hungarians, an overwhelming majority of participants, rejected the EU initiative then | 1 | [
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FMD2786 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: In the dark for days, Fox News staffers finally got word on Thursday about the future of their network. The news was delivered in person by Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who started Fox News with Roger Ailes 20 years ago. It was an unexpected visit, and with stunned employees listening in Fox’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters, Mr. Murdoch announced that Mr. Ailes was out as chairman and chief executive. Mr. Murdoch himself would be taking over Fox News in the interim. Mr. Ailes was not there. Mr. Murdoch had barred him from the building starting on Wednesday, according to one person briefed on the matter. The person said Fox News’s parent company, 21st Century Fox, had learned Mr. Ailes was trying to get some of his stars to criticize those who cooperated with investigators looking into accusations of sexual harassment against him. The announcement was the culmination of an unsettling stretch for the network that began on July 6, when Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox anchor, filed a lawsuit accusing Mr. Ailes of sexual harassment. That led to an internal investigation by 21st Century Fox. It was a stunning fall for one of the most powerful people in the media industry, who built Fox News into a ratings juggernaut and a hugely influential platform for Republican politics. Mr. Ailes will walk away with about $40 million as part of a settlement agreement, according to two people briefed on the matter, which essentially amounts to the remainder of his existing employment contract through 2018. As part of the agreement, Mr. Ailes cannot start a competitor to Fox News. He will continue to make himself available as an adviser to Mr. Murdoch on an interim basis, the two people said, though he will not be directly involved with Fox News or 21st Century Fox. In a statement, Mr. Murdoch praised Mr. Ailes, 76, and his “remarkable contribution†to the company, without making mention of the sexual harassment scandal that felled him. “Roger shared my vision of a great and independent television organization and executed it brilliantly over 20 great years,†Mr. Murdoch said in a statement. “Fox News has given voice to those who were ignored by the traditional networks and has been one of the great commercial success stories of modern media. †Among those who cooperated with investigators looking into the allegations against Mr. Ailes was one of his stars, Megyn Kelly. She had been among a small group of employees who resisted a campaign to rally support for Mr. Ailes, which came to be viewed as a “loyalty test,†according to several staff members, who declined to be identified. Ms. Kelly told investigators that she received repeated, unwanted advances from Mr. Ailes, which she rejected, according to two people briefed on her account. The entreaties, which happened in the early part of her career at Fox, bothered Ms. Kelly to the point that she retained a lawyer because she worried that her rejections would jeopardize her job, though they ultimately did not. In a statement earlier this week, Mr. Ailes’s lawyer said he never sexually harassed Ms. Kelly. During the investigation, led by the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton Garrison, around 10 women have come forward with stories of inappropriate conduct from Mr. Ailes while at Fox News, according to a person briefed on the investigation. In a letter to Mr. Murdoch on Thursday, Mr. Ailes wrote: “Having spent 20 years building this historic business, I will not allow my presence to become a distraction from the work that must be done every day to ensure that Fox News and Fox Business continue to lead our industry. †A copy of the letter was provided by Mr. Ailes’s lawyer, Susan Estrich. She did not respond to further requests for comment. Though Mr. Ailes made no mention of the investigation into his workplace behavior or the sexual harassment lawsuit, he said, pointedly: “I take particular pride in the role that I have played advancing the careers of the many women I have promoted to executive and positions. Many of these talented journalists have deservedly become household names known for their intelligence and strength, whether reporting the news, fair and balanced, and offering exciting opinions on our opinion programs. †The terms of Mr. Ailes’s departure were negotiated over several chaotic days that transfixed the media world and spurred intense coverage. Mr. Murdoch, on vacation in the French Riviera with his wife, Jerry Hall, had been working in tandem with his sons, James and Lachlan, with whom he leads 21st Century Fox, but it was not until he returned to New York that a deal was reached. Mr. Murdoch will assume the role of chairman and will be an interim chief executive of the Fox News channel and Fox Business Network until a permanent replacement for Mr. Ailes is found. His interim role is intended to ensure stability during the rest of the presidential race, and to be taken as a signal that the network is not on the verge of a overhaul, said a person briefed on the matter. Mr. Murdoch plans to be “extremely engaged†and had already been attending some news meetings because Mr. Ailes has had health issues recently, the person said. In the same statement as their father, James and Lachlan Murdoch praised Mr. Ailes but alluded to the trouble at Fox News, saying they were committed “to maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect. †Lachlan joined his father in the newsroom on Thursday, but James was not present because of a previously scheduled business trip in Europe. Mr. Ailes’s position atop Fox News was thrown into doubt two weeks ago after Ms. Carlson filed a sexual harassment suit against him. Mr. Ailes denied the accusations, but 21st Century Fox began the internal review and, earlier this week, determined that he could no longer remain in the job. The campaign to rally support for Mr. Ailes ultimately became a problem for him. It included declarations casting doubt on Ms. Carlson’s charges from hosts including Greta Van Susteren, Jeanine Pirro and Neil Cavuto, who in an described the accusations as “sick. †Several female staff members had said on Wednesday that they feared that campaign was making younger female staff members with their own stories to tell too frightened to speak with investigators — something the investigators feared as well, people briefed on their inquiry said this week. A friend of Ms. Kelly, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Ms. Kelly resisted pressure to support Mr. Ailes, and cooperated with the investigation so that those other staff members would “feel more comfortable coming forward to tell the truth. †Ms. Kelly has not spoken publicly about the matter. On Thursday night, Kirsten Powers, a Fox contributor for 11 years, said: “While I understand loyalty, I was disappointed that so many senior members of Fox’s team rushed to defend Roger in a way that seemed to prejudge an investigation into sexual harassment. I would hope that in 2016 people would know that just because you weren’t harassed, or didn’t witness harassment by a certain man, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. †For hundreds of Fox employees gathered in Cleveland for the Republican National Convention, the week had been surreal. Those who left New York just days ago will return this weekend to a workplace turned . “There are people in tears,†said Chris Wallace, the host of “Fox News Sunday. †“I shed mine a couple of days ago. †During an interview, Mr. Wallace’s anchor baritone occasionally grew faint Bret Baier, his colleague, was also emotional. Notably, Mr. Baier and his fellow Fox anchors Brit Hume and Ms. Van Susteren declined to say definitively whether they would remain at Fox, although Mr. Baier, after some hesitation, said: “I couldn’t be happier. †Several of the network’s most recognizable faces — including Bill O’Reilly, Ms. Kelly and Mr. Baier — are known to have contract clauses that allow them to leave the network if Mr. Ailes is not in charge. The lawyer for Ms. Carlson, Nancy Erika Smith, released a statement that her client’s “extraordinary courage has caused a seismic shift in the media world. †She added, “We hope that all businesses now understand that women will no longer tolerate sexual harassment, and reputable companies will no longer shield those who abuse women. †| 1 | [
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FMD2787 | 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 Brian May from Queen an Astrophysicist? Claim summaries: His guitar skills aren't the only thing that's out of this world.
contextual information: In July 2015, many online viewers were intrigued by a meme reporting that Brian May, the lead guitarist for the band Queen, is also an astrophysicist. While Brian May's educational history is certainly no secret, interest in the rock legend's other life as an astrophysicist was renewed when the musician visited the team behind NASA's New Horizons interplanetary space probe to discuss results from the probe's recent fly-by of Pluto: visited New Horizons As lead guitarist for the legendary rock group Queen, Brian May has spent an entire career in the spotlight. But May traded the music for his other passion science and spent some time backstage with the New Horizons team as it dived into the first results from the Pluto flyby. May, who has a doctorate in astrophysics, was awed by the opportunity to meet the team and sift through images and other Pluto system data in real time. And he'll have other opportunities down the road, as mission principal investigator Alan Stern added May as a New Horizons science collaborator. May also wrote about his time with the New Horizon's team in a blog post on his web site dated 20 July 2015: blog post I had an unforgettable 3 days with the amazing New Horizons team. Im still 'coming down. Alan Stern, leader of the Science Team at APL in Laurel, Maryland, personally made sure I was treated like one of the family, as a collaborator, and I felt privileged to the nth degree. I was, of course, as always, obsessed with finding stereoscopic opportunities while I was there, and the Gods of the Underworld must have been with me, because I was there when the first 2 by 2 mosaic full-planet picture was downloaded from the probe, and assembled into exactly the required highish res partner to the iconic last-look photo which preceded the final fly-by. Baseline must be a few hundred thousand miles, but Ill need to check that. Of course the New Horizons guys were already doing serious science on this image as it arrived, but I was able to assemble the two images to make the most satisfying stereo view I can ever remember making. I got some help making some prints on site, so I was able to show this 3-D to the entire team through the lenses of some OWLS I took over. So this is definitely the first REAL high quality stereo image of Pluto in history. And we can say its officially NH approved ! No fiddling this time. The right image is the last-look photo from 15th July, and the left image is the two-by-two downloaded from NH on the 17th. All I did was fine-adjust the orientations to match up, and match up the colouring by eye. According to May's official biography, he was working toward his PhD in astrophysics when he put his education on hold to go on tour with Queen after the group's "popularity first exploded." In 2007, more than 30 years after May left school to pursue a career as a musician, he turned in his 48,000-word thesis for the Imperial College, London: biography thesis It's been the longest gap year ever. It was a tough decision back then to leave my studies for music. I'm so proud to be here today. Astronomy has always interested me. I used to love sitting at home and watching Sir Patrick Moore on the Sky at Night." https://youtu.be/E-zurr9PHKg In terms of educated rock guitarists, music fans may also recall that Tom Scholz, founder of the popular band Boston, holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked for Polaroid Corporation as a senior product design engineer prior to hitting it big in the music world. Tom Scholz | 1 | [
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FMD2788 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: U.S. President Donald Trump has begun paying his own legal bills related to the Russia investigation and will no longer cover the costs using political donations to his re-election campaign or the Republican Party, his attorneys confirmed on Friday. Trump defense lawyer John Dowd said that following payments by the Republican National Committee, the president began paying the bills and now wants to make the party “even.†The RNC confirmed it is no longer paying the bills. The expenses cover personal lawyers representing Trump in special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s probe of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in last year’s election. Moscow has denied meddling in the election, and Trump has denied any collusion. The investigation has hounded Trump’s presidency. Mueller already has secured an indictment of Trump’s former campaign chief and another aide, while a third former adviser pleaded guilty. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has offered shifting accounts of his Russia contacts while he was a campaign adviser, including with Moscow’s former ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, and his knowledge of contacts between the campaign and Russian intermediaries. But Sessions made light of the investigation during a speech on Friday before a conservative lawyers’ group. “Is Ambassador Kislyak in the room? Before I get started here, any Russians?†Sessions said, prompting applause and laughter from the crowd at the Federalist Society event. “Anybody been to Russia? Got a cousin in Russia or something?†Special White House counsel Ty Cobb said the administration was working with others to establish a legal fund for current and former staffers. Dowd said White House counsel Don McGahn and campaign lawyer Ben Ginsberg of Jones Day are working to structure that fund, which would be subject to rules that prohibit staff from receiving gifts or pro bono legal service. The president is exempt from those rules, Dowd said. “The geniuses are working on it,†Dowd said. “If it passes muster with the tax lawyers and accountants, then it has to pass muster with the Office of Government Ethics.†During former President Bill Clinton’s administration, private funds were raised to cover Clinton’s legal expenses related to the Whitewater investigation. Under former President George W. Bush, a legal fund was set up to help former Bush staffer Lewis “Scooter†Libby, but only after he had left White House employment. In August, Reuters first reported that the RNC was paying Trump’s legal bills, which amounted to more than $230,000 that month. The payments were made to Trump’s outside legal team, which includes Dowd. Additionally, Trump’s re-election campaign paid more than $300,000 this year in bills to lawyers representing his son, Donald Trump Jr., according to public disclosures. The campaign did not respond to a request for comment on whether it will continue to pay for Trump Jr’s legal expenses. The Federal Election Commission allows use of private campaign funds to pay legal bills arising from being a candidate or elected official. While previous presidential campaigns have used these funds to pay for routine legal matters such as ballot access disputes and compliance requirements, Trump is the first president in the modern campaign finance era to use such funds on the costs of responding to a criminal probe, said election law experts. | 1 | [
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FMD2789 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Wednesday 9 November 2016 by Davywavy Vladimir Putin declares victory in US Presidential elections
Vladimir Putin has been elected the 45th President of the United Stares after a stunning victory last night.
Putin, who was a surprise contender when he entered the race last year, consistently outperformed expectations outpolling all challengers and besting his competition in debates.
Putin has announced that he will run the United States through a proxy as he is much too busy running the far more important country of Russia.
In a shock victory, American voters showed they were prepared to overlook Putin’s history of running the KGB in favour of his perceived strong leadership and no-nonsense attitude.
Doubts over his economic record were also waved aside, with uncomfortable facts such as Russian GDP halving in the last three years being dismissed as scaremongering.
“You fellow Americans,” said Putin in his acceptance speech.
“I have so many people to thank for my victory; Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, but not least of all the Democratic Party, who put up the only candidate even I could beat.
“Oh, and I mustn’t forget to congratulate myself too for putting the whole thing together.
“God bless America,” he added with a smile. Get the best NewsThump stories in your mailbox every Friday, for FREE! There are currently | 0 | [
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FMD2790 | 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 Kelly Clarkson 'Forced' by 'The Voice' to Lose Weight? Claim summaries: An online article bearing the logo for NBC's "Today" show read, "Kelly Clarkson Forced To Lose 30 Pounds By 'NBC' Producers ... She Lost 50!"
contextual information: In May 2023, an old rumor began to spread in a scammy article that claimed singer and talk show host Kelly Clarkson was "forced" by producers of NBC's "The Voice" to lose weight. However, this was a false story. It was created in order to push a scam meant to fool consumers into signing up for expensive monthly subscription charges for keto and apple cider vinegar (ACV) weight loss gummies. The scam article appeared on exclusiveinsiderdeals.com. The website's domain was registered with Namecheap, while its hosting was with Cloudfare. exclusiveinsiderdeals.com registered The story showed the false headline, "Kelly Clarkson Forced To Lose 30 Pounds By 'NBC' Producers... She Lost 50! (Her Diabetes Finally In Control)." The page was misleadingly designed by scammers to resemble the "Today" show website. According to the story, Clarkson consulted with Dr. Mehmet Oz of the former "Dr. Oz" talk show, who told her to try to start her supposed weight loss journey with keto and ACV gummies. None of this was true. Clarkson, Oz, NBC, "The Voice," and "Today" had no involvement with any of this. Names and faces were used completely without permission. Over the years, a large number of CBD and keto products have been featured with this same sort of scammy article. For example, in 2018, we previously published a very similar fact check about Clarkson being fired from "The Voice." It, too, led to a diet supplement scam. fact check As of May 26, one of the products that was being pushed with Clarkson's name was SlimDNA Keto + ACV Gummies. Dr. Oz's name and a number of other scammy aspects also appeared on a SlimDNA product page on slimdnabrands.com. This domain was registered with Tucows and received hosting from Cloudfare. slimdnabrands.com If any readers were victim to one of these gummy scams, we recommend reaching out to your credit card company to alert them of the matter. These sorts of CBD and keto gummies scams often attempt to rope customers into hidden subscription charges of hundreds of dollars per month. We recommend being proactive and calling your credit card company immediately in order to stop further charges from taking place. Brockington, Ariana. "Blake Shelton Announces He Is Leaving 'The Voice' after Season 23." TODAY.Com, 12 Oct. 2022, https://www.today.com/popculture/tv/blake-shelton-leaving-voice-season-23-rcna51798. Evon, Dan. "Was Kelly Clarkson Fired from 'The Voice'?" Snopes, 20 Dec. 2018, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/clarkson-fired-voice/. "WHOIS Domain Lookup." GoDaddy.Com, https://www.godaddy.com/whois/. | 0 | [
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"2"
] | 0 |
FMD2791 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: In an interview with a Toledo, Ohio news station, Donald Trump accidentally admitted that his big 20-second announcement that Barack Obama was born in the United States, period, was just a ruse. Speaking to ABC6/FOX28, Trump seems to have again picked up the birther ball in a wink and nod fashion. This announcement earlier this week with you saying that you believe President Obama was in fact born in the United States, after all the years where you ve expressed some doubt, what changed? interviewer Ben Garbarek asked, prompting Trump to explain that he caved because he didn t want to talk about it anymore no other reason: Well I just wanted to get on with, I wanted to get on with the campaign. A lot of people were asking me questions. We want to talk about jobs. We want to talk about the military. We want to talk about ISIS and get rid of ISIS. We want to talk about bringing jobs back to this area because you ve been decimated so we just wanted to get back on the subject of jobs, military, taking care of our vets, etc. Yes, being able to get on with his campaign without being bothered by inconvenient questions about the five years he spent attempting to delegitimize the President by demanding his birth certificate, college transcripts and applications, and other documents he was sure would prove that Barry Soetoro (as the President is known in birther circles) is a Kenyan-born conman who managed to install himself as President through what we can only assume is magic.Sadly, this accidental admission that his views on the President s birthplace and eligibility for office had not changed one iota is perhaps the most honest thing Trump has said lately, with much of his attention being focused on defending the Trump Foundation s misuse of charitable funds to pay The Donald s personal legal fees, attacking African-American communities, and practically publicly masturbating over the recent attacks in New York and New Jersey.Watch the interview below:Featured image via screengrab/Getty Images (Win McNamee) | 0 | [
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"2"
] | 0 |
FMD2792 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: U.S. President Donald Trump sought to push his crusade for fair trade and more manufacturing jobs back to the top of his agenda on Friday by ordering a study into the causes of U.S. trade deficits and a clampdown on import duty evasion. The executive orders came a week after Trump’s promise to replace Obamacare imploded in Congress and a week before he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida, a summit that promises to be fraught with trade tensions. Trump said at a White House signing ceremony that he and Xi were “going to get down to some serious business†next week and vowed that “the theft of American prosperity†by foreign countries would end. One of the orders directed the Commerce Department and the U.S. trade representative to conduct a 90-day review of the causes of massive U.S. trade deficits. It will study the effects of abuses such as the dumping of products below costs, unfair subsidies, “misaligned†currencies and “non-reciprocal†trade practices by other countries. “We’re going to investigate all trade abuses, and, based on those findings, we will take necessary and lawful action to end those many abuses,†Trump said, adding that he wasn’t beholden to any businesses. Trump administration officials have said they plan tougher enforcement of U.S. trade remedy laws and will initiate more unilateral trade deals. In his 2016 White House bid, the New York businessman campaigned heavily against free-trade deals and accused China of draining jobs from U.S. factory towns with cheap exports. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang on Friday said the U.S.-China trade imbalance was mostly the result of differences in the two countries’ economic structures and noted that China had a trade deficit in services. “China does not deliberately seek a trade surplus. We also have no intention of carrying out competitive currency devaluation to stimulate exports.†Zheng told a briefing about the Xi-Trump meeting. The study of trade abuses appeared aimed at justifying unilateral retaliatory trade actions by the United States, said Matt Gold, a former deputy assistant U.S. trade representative who is now an adjunct trade law professor at Fordham University in New York. “They probably think it will give them better political ammunition,†Gold said. But he added that it would not likely reveal anything that is not already in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s annual list of trade barriers, which also was released on Friday. The report criticized China’s excess industrial capacity and requirements for technology transfers and cyber security, which it said are aimed displacing foreign products with domestic versions. The trade abuses study will focus on those countries that have chronic goods trade surpluses with the United States. China tops the list, with a $347 billion surplus last year, followed by Japan, with a $69 billion surplus, Germany at $65 billion, Mexico at $63 billion, Ireland at $36 billion and Vietnam at $32 billion. The study also will examine past trade deals that have failed to produce forecast benefits for the United States, as well as World Trade Organization rules that U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said do not treat countries equally, such as on taxation. The United States has long complained that WTO rules allow exports from other countries to be exempt from value-added taxes (VAT), but do not allow equivalent corporate income tax benefits for U.S. exporters. The Trump administration is considering a border tax that would be levied on imports and which would aim to put the United States on a similar tax basis for trade as countries that have VAT. The second trade order will fight nonpayment and under-collection of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties the United States slaps on many foreign goods. White House National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro said some $2.8 billion in such duties went uncollected between 2001 and the end of 2016 from companies in some 40 countries. Navarro said the order directs the Commerce and Homeland Security departments to close these gaps by imposing tougher bonding requirements to ensure duty collections and new legal requirements for assessing risks associated with importers. | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD2793 | 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 there a leaked email where Hillary Clinton allegedly stated that it was necessary to destroy Syria for Israel? Claim summaries: Controversy around military action in Syria led to the recirculation of an inaccurate claim about Hillary Clinton.
contextual information: Following controversial airstrikes on Syria in April 2018, a 2017 article published by repeat offender YourNewsWire.com with the claim that Hillary Clinton voiced support for destroying Syria in a "leaked" e-mail popped up and began to circulate again: Syria article Lest We Forget Hillary Clinton: We Must Destroy Syria For israel https://t.co/VxkzUu1IkE pic.twitter.com/Zf4iagpqsv https://t.co/VxkzUu1IkE pic.twitter.com/Zf4iagpqsv Michael Lee (@MichaelLee2009) April 15, 2018 April 15, 2018 The piece included a screenshot of what were purportedly Clinton's views taken from an e-mail, as well as quotes: Clinton Email: We Must Destroy Syria For Israel [...] The best way to help Israel deal with Irans growing nuclear capability is to help the people of Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad, Clinton forthrightly starts off by saying. Even though all US intelligence reports had long dismissed Irans atom bomb program as a hoax (a conclusion supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency), Clinton continues to use these lies to justify destroying Syria in the name of Israel. She specifically links Irans mythical atom bomb program to Syria because, she says, Irans atom bomb program threatens Israels monopoly on nuclear weapons in the Middle East. A nearly identical claim (since deleted) was published by a separate site in March 2016. Both attribute the text of the purported e-mail to Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State, a position she held for approximately four years between 2009 and 2013. published held The text is indeed a part of WikiLeaks' "Hillary Clinton Email Archive," and the title search returns three documents in that data set. The same document was also available via FOIA.state.gov [PDF]. three FOIA.state.gov PDF Although its content was characterized as an e-mail authored by Hillary Clinton, that is misleading. It appears that she actually received and forwarded an attachment from James P. Rubin. In all three documents (two forwards and an attachment) it is clear that Rubin authored and sent the commentary to Clinton, stating in his preface that the then-Secretary of State "may not agree" with his stance on Syria: forwarded attachment James P. Rubin commentary From: James P. RubinSent: Monday, April 30, 2012 11:03 AMTo: H Subject: Best of luck on China trip First, I want to wish you and Kurt best of luck getting out of the pickle Mr Chen has you in as you arrive in China. I wanted to pass on something I intend to publish on Syria and Iran, because I think it is worth trying to urge the President and his political advisers to act. As you can see from today's column by Jackson Diehl, the pundits and many in the media will push the Syria issue very hard for the foreseeable future. It may not be on the front burner every day, but it will be close to or at the top of the media's attention indefinitely. Interestingly, the Republicans have showed their hand on the foreign policy debate, in which inaction on Syria is pretty much the only serious criticism they can offer that will stick. As you will see from the attached piece, I believe that action on Syria will forestall the biggest danger on the horizon, that Israel launches a surprise attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Although the pressure has now eased for a variety of reasons, it will return. Action by Washington on Syria, on the other hand, I believe will eliminate much of the urgency for Israeli action. In other words, a more aggressive policy on Syria will eliminate the best case the republican's have going into the November election, will ease substantially the pressure on Israel to attack Iran and possibly spark a wider war in the Middle East, and finally would be the right stance on Syria going forward. I know you may not agree but I thought it was better to share this with you first as at least a new way to look at the problem. All best, your friend,Jamie James P. Rubin Walsh, Nick Paton. "What Do The US, UK And French Airstrikes Mean For Syria's War?"
CNN. 15 April 2018. | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD2794 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Trump has been the leader for several months now, but Carson appears to have broken through with key demographics, particularly evangelicals. The CBS report sums up Carson’s advantages well:
Carson has made gains across many key Republican groups. In a reversal from earlier this month, he now ahead of Trump among women and is running neck and neck with him among men. Carson’s support among evangelicals has risen and he now leads Trump by more than 20 points with this group. Carson performs well among conservative Republicans and those who identify as Tea partiers.
It’s not terribly surprising that Carson leads Trump among women and evangelicals: Trump is the misogynist par excellence and Carson is a proud religious fanatic – these are natural demographics for Carson. But Carson’s rising support among men and Tea Partiers, relative to Trump, is somewhat surprising.
Tea Partiers don’t do policy. Their project is essentially negative, which is why the GOP’s nihilism and obstructionism began in earnest when Tea Partiers were elected to Congress in 2010. Neither Carson nor Trump have anything resembling a platform or a plan. They’re outsiders with no political experience who want to disrupt the status quo – that’s a message that resonates with conservative men and Tea Partiers.
If there’s a difference, it’s that Trump is louder and more aggressively obnoxious than Carson, which ought to endear him to these demographics. Evidently, though, Carson’s unhinged nice guy routine is working. His new campaign ad perfectly illustrates both his appeal and his vacuousness.
In a 30-second TV spot, Carson manages to hit all the right conservative notes without coming close to explaining what he’s going to do. “I’m Ben Carson and I’m running for president,†he says. “The political class and their pundit buddies say: ‘Impossible. He’s too outside the box.’ Well, they do know impossible. Impossible to balance the budget, impossible to get border security, impossible to put aside partisanship…I’m Ben Carson, I’m running for president, and I’m very much outside the box.â€
If you’re waiting for the part where he says how he’s going to balance the budget or get border security or put aside partisanship, you don’t know Ben Carson or the new GOP. Carson is basically doing the same thing as Trump: bashing the “political class†and promising to fix everything that’s broken – only Carson does so with a lukewarm smile whereas Trump pounds his fist on the table with Tri-State bravado. It doesn’t matter that neither candidate has a discernible plan to accomplish any of these things – the empty rhetoric is more than enough for Republican voters. One of the more interesting findings in the new CBS/NYT poll is that 55 percent of Trump backers say their support is firm, while 80 percent of Carson supporters say they could change their minds. This is good news for Trump; it suggests Carson is far more of a flavor of the month candidate than Trump. Whatever the reason, Trump has real staying power – he’s proven that. Carson, however, remains a question mark. He may well win in Iowa, thanks to his support among evangelicals, but the GOP’s last two Iowa winners – Santorum and Huckabee – lost the nomination. Trump, moreover, is well-positioned in the other early primary states like New Hampshire and South Carolina, where he remains comfortably ahead of Carson. Carson’s boost in the polls will be a boon to his campaign, but his long-term viability is still debatable. If this trend continues for another month or two, however, Trump might be in real trouble. | 1 | [
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"1",
"2"
] | 1 |
FMD2795 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The White House said it supports legislation, aimed at helping Puerto Rico dig out of its $70 billion debt crisis, that is set for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday. However, the Obama administration does oppose provisions in the bill “on minimum wage and overtime that put in jeopardy important protections for workers, do nothing to address the crisis, and further exacerbate the economic disparities between Puerto Rico and the mainland United States,†the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement. | 1 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 1 |
FMD2796 | 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 the U.S. Government Pay for Mitch McConnell's Polio Care in the 1940s? Claim summaries: Partisan web sites misrepresent the source of funding for the Republican senator's care as an infant in Alabama.
contextual information: On 22 June 2017, the Occupy Democrats Facebook page posted a meme claiming that the United States government paid for Mitch McConnell's care and rehabilitation when the Republican senior senator contracted polio as an infant in the 1940s. meme This claim is contrasted, in the meme, with McConnell's support for the Senate Republican health care plan published that day: plan As a kid, Mitch McConnell had polio, and the government paid for ALL of his care and rehabilitation. Now, as the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, McConnell is taking government-funded care away from tens of millions of Americans. Let that sink in. An article accompanying this meme reports that government-sponsored, publicly funded healthcare saved the young McConnell's life: article Mitch McConnell has been relentlessly working to roll back Medicaid and deprive millions of Americans of government-sponsored healthcare coverage for eight years now. But if it werent for the government, McConnell wouldnt be able to walk at all. Young Mitch came down with a terrible case of polio as a child in Alabama. My mother was, of course, like many mothers of young polio victims, perplexed about what to do, anxious about whether I would be disabled for the rest of my life he admitted in a 2005 interview. But luckily for him, his mother took him 50 miles to the Warm Springs, where President Roosevelt won his own battle with polio and established a polio treatment center that was paid for by the public. President Roosevelt asked the people of America to send in dimes to the White House as part of his March of the Dimes foundation. Over two and a half million dimes were mailed in, and they paid for Mitchs physical therapy and treatment. A Death and Taxes article posted on the same date reports a similar story: article How did Warm springs fund McConnells therapy, you ask? This was two decades before Lyndon Johnson launched federal health coverage by signing into law the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. In the mid-30s, Roosevelt and his law partner Basil OConnor founded the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation and started organizing fundraising balls around the country. By 1938, however, the balls grew less effective and the president needed a new strategy. Using a phrase coined by vaudeville entertainer Eddie Cantor, March of Dimes a spin on the popular newsreel series March of Time Roosevelt founded the March of Dimes foundation and launched a campaign asking the public to mail ten-cent donations to the White House. Within a month, Roosevelt received around 2,680,000 dimes. The campaign continued through WWII. McConnell started visiting Warm Springs in 1944. In other words, he overcame polio with the help of public money allocated by the White House. Mitch McConnell has often told the story of his childhood affliction with polio, and the role of FDR's Warm Springs rehabilitation center in his recovery. In his 2016 memoir The Long Game, McConnell recounted how he was struck with polio at the age of two while staying with his mother in his aunt's home in Five Points, Alabama. memoir It's one of my life's great fortunes that Sister's home was only about sixty miles from Warm Springs, Georgia, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt had established a polio treatment center and where he'd often travel to find relief from the polio that paralyzed him at the age of thirty-nine. My mother took me there every chance she had. The nurses would teach her how to perform exercises meant to rehabilitate my leg while also emphasizing her need to make me believe I could walk, even though I wasn't allowed to. So it's clear that Mitch McConnell did indeed receive significant help primarily in the form of physical therapy and physical therapy training for his mother from the polio rehabilitation center established by Roosevelt at Warm Springs, Georgia. However, neither this particular center nor the care given to McConnell were government-funded. Roosevelt purchased the property at Warm Springs, Georgia and established a center there in 1927, having visited frequently for therapy for his own polio, which he contracted in 1921. He (and others) set up the Warm Springs Foundation, a nonprofit organization that depended on wealthy philanthropists and donations from members of the public. 1927 In 1934, Basil O'Connor (once a partner at Roosevelt's law firm and a close associate of the recently-elected President) began organizing fundraising for the Warm Springs Foundation, set around the President's birthday celebrations each year. Within four years, these birthday balls had raised $1,350,030 for the Warm Springs rehabilitation center (the equivalent of $23.3 million in 2017). equivalent In September 1937, Roosevelt reconstituted the Warm Springs Foundation as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (as polio was then widely known); in January 1938, the directors of the foundation launched the first "March of Dimes", a phrase coined by vaudeville star Eddie Cantor who helped promote a nationwide fundraising drive which attracted the support of Hollywood stars as well as charitable middle-class families giving 10 cents each. In six months, the March of Dimes raised $81,073 (which would be about $1.4 million in 2017). In July 1938, the New York Times published a detailed auditor's report, which offered a breakdown of donations and expenditure. report Some aspects of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis perhaps reflect a more innocent time. For example, the hundreds of thousands of dimes sent by members of the public were processed at the White House and a cheque was given to Roosevelt, who then turned it over to O'Connor for distribution via the Foundation. However, in many ways the operation was a precursor of the professional, almost corporate style of non-profit fundraising and campaigning that has followed since. For example, a large portion of funds raised in 1938 came from attendees at 8,000 Presidential birthday balls throughout the country, labor organizations contributed the equivalent of $760,000, and the Western Union and Postal Telegraph companies wrote off the cost of thousands of birthday greetings sent to the President at 25 cents per message. The following year, charity sporting events were held throughout the country, and badges were distributed to donors as part of an awareness-raising "Give a Dime and Wear a Button" campaign. year Funds raised for the Warm Springs Foundation and National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis were also distributed in the form of research grants to scientists hoping for a breakthrough in the treatment of polio. grants This came to fruition in the 1950s when Dr. Jonas Salk who had received a grant from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis developed a successful polio vaccine. Jonas Salk The Warm Springs center that helped in Mitch McConnell's recovery was indeed founded by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was President at the time McConnell was struck by the disease, in 1944. Roosevelt was the driving force behind both the Warm Springs Foundation and its successor, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, and used his political office to energetically promote fundraising for polio care and research. The funding came from the kindness and charity of the public, as well as wealthy celebrities and large corporations. However, it was operated as an innovative, nationwide nonprofit organization, not a federal or state agency, and it was not taxpayer or government-funded. The Warm Springs center visited by McConnell remained owned and operated by a nonprofit organization until 1974, when the state of Georgia took it over, making it truly government-run. Since 2014, it has been owned and operated by Augusta University. Augusta University McConnell, Mitch. "The Long Game." (pg 9,10).
Penguin Random House. 31 May 2016. New York Times. "$1,350,030 Raised for Warm Springs."
New York Times Archive. 16 January 1938. New York Times. "Net of $1,021,034 to Paralysis Fund."
New York Times Archive. 7 July 1938. New York Times. "Sport World Aids in Paralysis Drive."
New York Times Archive. 27 December 1938. | 0 | [
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"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
FMD2797 | 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 Sheryl Underwood Leaving 'The Talk' After Making CBS 'Furious' for Endorsing Weight Loss Gummies? Claim summaries: An online article purportedly published by People magazine said Underwood had "shocked everyone when she announced her departure from the show."
contextual information: In November 2023, multiple Facebook ads were displayed to users that led to an article that bore the People magazine logo and claimed that Sheryl Underwood, the longtime co-host of "The Talk," would be leaving the TV talk show to work on expanding her own line of keto gummies for weight loss. However, this was not true. Underwood has nothing to do with any keto gummies for weight loss, nor did People magazine ever publish any such story. Underwood was simply the latest person in a long line of famous people who had had their image and likeness used without permission to sell keto gummies. Further, this false rumor that mentioned Underwood led to a dangerous scam that could potentially cost victims thousands of dollars per year. a long line of famous people One version of the Facebook ad claimed, "Producers are furious that she came forward." The headline in the ads read, "Sheryl Abandons 'The Talk' After Confessing Her Trick." Two of the false Facebook ads that promoted the scam. These ads led to a fake People magazine article on scam websites including emperorsland.pro, sizzlingpear.pro, mindfulmovement.pro and chillytreats.info. (We were unable to provide an archived link to the article since scammers design these websites so that the scam version of the page is cloaked from prying eyes that is, unless users specifically came from a Facebook ad.) This is not a true story, nor did People.com ever publish any such article. The fake People magazine article, which was nothing more than fiction and a scam, began as follows: Sheryl Underwood Confirms She Is Leaving 'The Talk' After Her Accidental 'Live' Confession On-Air... The host said that it was 'time for a break', but she may actually have bigger things in mind. (People) - Sheryl Underwood, the 60-year-old host on CBS's show 'The Talk', shocked everyone when she announced her departure from the show after 12 record-breaking years on-air. Sheryl, who has earned the reputation of being one of the most business savvy women in the industry, made sponsors (and CBS) FURIOUS. Why? Because Sheryl failed to disclose her new weight loss line to the network. Sheryl's new company is actually a HUGE competitor to CBS's current sponsor Weight Watchers because Sheryl's product is 90% cheaper and five times more effective than Weight Watchers's competing product. According to sources, CBS made Sheryl decide on which direction she was going to focus on in the future. Being so turned off by the reaction of the network and their power move she has decided to pursue her new weight loss line and dream. The scam article went on to falsely claim that other celebrities had joined with Underwood to promote the products, whether they be Belly Blast Keto Gummies, Total Fit Keto Gummies or other products. It is a fact that no celebrities have ever endorsed keto gummies that are purportedly intended for use in weight loss. Websites that promote sales of keto gummies for weight loss usually lack information about the true creators of the products and the source of where they were packaged. In the past, some consumers who fell victim to these scams told Snopes that the post office box numbers included in return addresses for the products don't exist. The rabbit hole for keto gummies goes even deeper, however. Two odd scenarios have been laid out by numerous victims of the scams, which usually involve monthly subscription fees often reported as being around $200 or more, or around $2,400 per year. Some consumers said that they never ordered the products but kept receiving shipments that they had no way of returning, due to fake return addresses. On the flip side, other customers said that they received charges for the products on their credit card statements despite never having ordered them, and then never received any products in the mail. Further, listings for keto gummies for weight loss on Amazon.com and Walmart.com often feature the words "Shark" and "Tank," although not consecutively as "Shark Tank." The two words are included in product listings on Amazon.com and Walmart.com so that any customers searching online for keto gummies with the words "Shark Tank" after those same customers saw false claims that said the TV show's investors endorsed the products would then fall victim to the scam and purchase the products based on the "Shark Tank" lie. Again, to be clear, no investors associated with "Shark Tank" ever endorsed gummies. false claims If any readers have been victimized by these scams, we recommend contacting your credit card company immediately, reporting fraud to the FTC and also searching the U.S. Better Business Bureau's (BBB) website to perform a search for the product name associated with the purchase on your account or the product that arrived at your doorstep, so that you can find the company or LLC connected with the scam. reporting fraud to the FTC website Liles, Jordan. Shark Tank Keto Gummies Weight Loss Reviews Are a Scam. Snopes, 14 Mar. 2023, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/shark-tank-keto-gummies-weight-loss-reviews/. | 0 | [
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FMD2798 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: BEIRUT, Lebanon — A double bombing near Shiite shrines often visited by foreign pilgrims in Damascus, Syria, killed at least 40 people on Saturday, shattering the capital’s efforts to isolate itself from the war raging elsewhere in the country. Many of the dead were from neighboring Iraq. The Syrian state news service, SANA, said militants set off two explosive charges near the Bab cemetery, just south of the Old City. Syria’s interior minister, Mohammed who visited the site after the blasts, said they had killed 40 people and wounded 120. Other reports cited a higher death toll. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which opposes the Syrian government and monitors the conflict from Britain with the help of contacts in Syria, said that one of the blasts was from a suicide bomber and that the nature of the second was unclear. It put the death toll at 46. The spokesman for Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Jamal, said the attacks killed more than 40 Iraqi pilgrims and wounded 120. The Iraqi government said it was sending medical teams to Damascus to help care for the wounded and airplanes to transport them home. Video from the blast sites showed large buses with their windows blown out and bodies peppered with shrapnel holes, as well as blood and scattered shoes in the street nearby. The attacks were a blow to the government of President Bashar which has sought to ensure quiet in the capital. As Syria’s war enters its seventh year, Mr. Assad’s forces have rolled back rebel advances and consolidated their grip on Damascus. That has led to a rise in the number of Shiite pilgrims arriving from abroad to visit the city’s sacred shrines, from Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but there are many militants in Syria who aim both to kill Shiites and to undermine Mr. Assad’s grip on the capital. They include the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda and the jihadists of the Islamic State, both of which are Sunni and consider Shiites apostates. Since neither group holds significant territory near the site of the attacks, they point to a major security breach. Last year, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a suicide attack south of Damascus near the Sayeda Zeinab shrine, which is revered by Shiites. Also Saturday, Mr. Assad said in an interview with the Hong Phoenix TV that his military planned to target the city of Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State’s caliphate, but that any foreign troops entering Syria without permission would be considered “invaders. †forces backed by the United States are also advancing on Raqqa. When asked how he felt about President Trump, Mr. Assad said he was optimistic because Mr. Trump had said that he intended to step up the fight against the Islamic State. “I said since the beginning that this is a promising approach to what’s happening in Syria and in Iraq, because we live in the same area and we face the same enemy,†Mr. Assad said. He added that as of yet he had no direct lines of communication with the American president. | 1 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 1 |
FMD2799 | 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: 3-on-3 Basketball at the 2016 Olympics? Claim summaries: Rumor: The IOC has announced that 3-on-3 basketball will be an official sport at the 2016 Olympics.
contextual information: Claim: The IOC has announced that 3-on-3 basketball will be an official sport at the 2016 Olympics. Example: [Collected via Twitter, January 2015] The 2016 Olympics will feature 3-on-3 basketball. Who would you choose? pic.twitter.com/4VZhxLLy2i pic.twitter.com/4VZhxLLy2i BALL UP NBA (@BallUpNBA) January 15, 2015 January 15, 2015 Origins: On 14 January 2015, the satirical Australian website Betoota Advocate published a fake news article claiming that 3-on-3 basketball would be an officially sanctioned sport at the 2016 Summer Olympics. After decades of pressure and debate, as well as an official application submitted by the International Basketball Federation, the IOC confirmed this week that a three-on-three basketball variant will be included as part of the official event program for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The final decision was made quietly during an annual committee meeting late last month. After nearly a decade of exploring different options, the International Olympic Committee's executive board confirmed that they would go ahead with the proposal despite the fact that the request would result in a higher number of athletes and an increased number of medals, thereby adding to the cost and complexity of the Games. While the Betoota Advocate's article was shared only a few hundred times on social media, the rumor about 3-on-3 basketball becoming an official Olympic sport received a viral push when Deadspin reported the hoax as real news: The IOC has officially added a new half-court 3-on-3 basketball event to the competitions to be held in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. This rules. Right away, you'll have to throw a big bucket of calm down on your head because, as the IOC put it in a 2012 letter discussing its interest in 3-on-3, a large part of the impetus is to focus more on the amateurism of sports and get the event away from being "somewhat of an exhibition for the American NBA." When reporter Kyle Wagner realized his mistake, he added an update at the top of the article stating he had been duped by a satire site: Nah, this isn't happening. I wrote a post based on a satire website, which is just about the dumbest way to mess up. Sorry. Mess me. Would have been cool though. Last updated: 16 January 2015 | 0 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
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