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FMD3600 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is This 'Monster Bullfrog' Real? Claim summaries: A photograph of a "monster bullfrog" is real, but forced perspective makes it look larger than it actually is.
contextual information: On 25 May 2017, the South Texas Hunting Association Facebook page posted two images of a man holding an unusually large bullfrog. Markcuz Rangel wrote, "Wanted to share a monster bullfrog we got yesterday afternoon at one of our fishing ponds in South Texas ranch located in Batesville, TX. 13 lb monster frog!!! #stxha." Although the South Texas Hunting Association claimed that this image showed a real 13-pound bullfrog, we're skeptical about the creature's size. For one, 13 pounds is simply too big for a frog. Adult American Bullfrogs, the largest frogs in the United States, only weigh about 1.5 pounds. The largest frog in the world, the Goliath Frog, is also too small to meet the requirements of this claim. The Goliath Frog, which has a relatively small habitat range in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea (and not South Texas), only weighs about 7 pounds. In addition to its exaggerated weight, we suspect this picture makes the frog appear larger than it actually is by using forced perspective. The hunter is most likely using a gig pole to hold the frog closer to the camera. This places the frog in the foreground, making it appear much larger in comparison to the man, who is now standing in the background. Photographs showing people "holding up" the Leaning Tower of Pisa are good examples of forced perspective photography. The man in the following image, for instance, is not nearly as tall as the famous Italian structure. Lightfoot stated that the image was real but noted that forced perspective was used to make the frog appear unusually large: "It's not as bigly as it appears. [It's an] optical illusion created by extending the frog toward the camera -- similar to what you see with fishermen holding up fish to make them appear larger. Still a big bullfrog, though." A very similar claim, featuring a very similar photograph and using a very similar optical trick, was circulated in November 2015. That image, purportedly showing a 42-pound bullfrog, was also fake. | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD3601 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Sarah Sanders is great at getting the White House Press Corps to hurry it up The Supercut below shows the tactics used by this superstar to keep the wild press in line:Go Sarah!ONE OF OUR ALL TIME FAVORITES WAS A RARE OCCASION WHEN SARAH WASN T FINISHED :Sarah Huckabee Sanders was hot today when she went off on CNN s Jim Acosta over the fake news that s been constant the past few days. Jim Acosta also would not be quiet so Sanders had to get loud and forceful: I m not finished Sanders was making a point about reporters making a mistake vs when they report fake news on purpose There is a big difference. There s a big difference between making honest mistakes and purposely misleading the American people something that happens regularly. Sarah Huckabee SandersFox News Insider reports:White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders battled CNN reporter Jim Acosta, accusing the mainstream media of purposefully putting out false information.As he began a question, Acosta told Sanders at Monday s press briefing that journalists make honest mistakes and that doesn t mean it s fake news. Sanders started to answer but Acosta and another reported interjected. I m sorry. I m not finished! she countered. There s a very big difference between making honest mistakes and purposefully misleading the American people, something that happens regularly, she shot back.Acosta asked for an example of a story that was intentionally false and meant to mislead Americans.Sanders called out the false report by ABC News Brian Ross on former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, which earned Ross a four-week suspension.She called it very telling that Ross was suspended. Acosta kept pushing Sanders to let him ask his original question about allegations of sexual misconduct against President Trump, but she refused. | 0 | [
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"1",
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FMD3602 | 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: Obamacare has caused millions of full-time jobs to become part-time.
contextual information: Critics of the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obamas health care law, have assembled a long list of complaints about the law. One provision thats getting increasing scrutiny these days is the penalty on employers who dont provide their workers with health insurance. For workers who are on the job at least 30 hours per week, companies must offer health coverage or be hit with a financial penalty. The Obama administration twice delayed enforcement of this requirement, but it finally took effect this month for companies with at least 100 workers, and it is set to start next year for companies with between 50 and 99 workers. (The rule will not apply to small businesses with fewer than 50 workers.) Some Republicans have urged changing the rule so the cutoff is 40 hours a week, rather than 30. The House has passed a bill to do that; its now heading to the Senate, though the White House has pledged to veto it. A reader asked us to check out a Jan. 13 column on this topic in theWall Street Journal.It was written by Andy Puzder, the chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants, which is the parent company of Carls Jr. and Hardees. In the column, Puzder explained his companys thought process about whether and how it should provide health coverage to its employees. Puzders column makes clear that hes no fan of the Affordable Care Act, particularly the employer mandate: So what does Obamacares 30-hour rule accomplish? Some would argue that it does a lot, pointing to the previously uninsured who now have employer-sponsored health insurance. In our company, that would be 2 percent of total employees and 6 percent of eligible employees. For results like that, Obamacare has caused millions of full-time jobs to become part-time, imposed a tax on lower-income workers who cannot afford it, forced millions of people out of insurance they liked, restricted access to doctors for millions of others, and created an enormous bureaucracy that discourages our doctors and nurses while suppressing health-care system innovation. Here, well take a look at just one of these claims -- that Obamacare has caused millions of full-time jobs to become part-time. The bottom line, we found, is that there isnt enough data to state a number with any specificity. Suggesting that its millions, as Puzder did, is speculative -- something he acknowledged to PolitiFact. At the same time, the number of people experiencing a cut in hours isnt trivial, with informed estimates putting it into the low hundreds of thousands of people. Puzder elaborates When we reached out to Puzder, he sent us a detailed response. (Weve posted the full text of ithere, but well excerpt it in this article.) Puzder acknowledged that there is no definitive data available on the question. That said, there is also nothing definitive to the contrary of which I am aware, he added. Puzder noted -- and other economists agree -- that employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is imperfect for answering this question. The BLS threshold in hours per week for full-time employment is different than it is for the Affordable Care Act. In addition, BLS counts someone who works two 20-hour-a-week part time jobs as one full-time worker. Both of these factors complicate any calculations using BLS data. The available evidence is also murky for another reason: Its impossible to tell whether any changes actually stem from the Affordable Care Act, as opposed to the labor-market dynamics of the recovery to the Great Recession. However, Puzder provided some anecdotal evidence from his own sector -- restaurant chains -- that suggests a plausible case for millions. Many restaurant chains, he noted, are operated as franchises. In his own companys case, 230 franchisees own 73 percent of the companys 2,920 restaurants in the United States; the company itself owns the rest. While the parent company employs about 20,000 people, its domestic franchisees employ many more -- about 55,000. And industry leaders like McDonalds and Burger King have more franchises and franchise employees. The disparate nature of franchise ownership makes it difficult to calculate the number of workers who may have had their hours cut. Based on his own experience at his company and the conversations hes had with other industry CEOs, Puzder thinks its reasonable (but, he acknowledges, unscientific) to assume that 20 percent to 25 percent of their operational employees have had their hours cut to under 30 per week due to the employer mandate. And if thats the case, the math adds up quickly. TheInternational Franchise Associationcounted nearly 8.1 million employees in 2012, working at 750,000 franchise establishments. If these franchise employers lowered the hours of 20 percent of these employees, that would equal 1.6 million employees. Adjusting the hours for 15 percent would impact 1.2 million. And this number doesnt include employees of the parent company; nor does it include the employees of retail companies that do not franchise. Puzder also referenced adata setbeing compiled by Jed Graham, a journalist withInvestors Business Daily. (Editorially, Grahams publication has argued firmly against the Affordable Care Act, but several of the economists we checked with said Grahams information is valuable.) When we accessed Grahams database in January 2015, he had documented just over 450 employers that had made cuts to work hours or staffing levels as a result of Obamacare. However, this list by itself doesnt get to millions, and because it has been compiled anecdotally rather than using scientific sampling, it cant simply be scaled up to estimate a national figure. (Well also note that a full 81 percent of the employers that made cuts documented by his list are government entities; the share of private companies, which were the the focus of Puzders op-ed, accounted for just 19 percent of his list.) What all this means is that its easy build a scenario in which millions of workerscouldsee their hours cut. But neither Puzder nor our own research has produced incontrovertible evidence that it has actually happened. What the data shows That said, its likely that the law is having some impact on part-time hours, albeit a smaller one than millions. Onestudy-- authored by Bowen Garrett of the Urban Institute and Robert Kaestner of the University of Illinois and published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation -- found a modest (0.6 percentage-point) increase in the share of employees working part-time during the first seven months of 2014 compared to what would typically be expected based on previous economic recoveries. However, the authors attributed this finding to the dynamics of the recovery from the Great Recession, rather than to the Affordable Care Act. Ultimately, they found little change during the run-up to the implementation of the employer mandate -- an indication that the provision wasnt having a big effect on pushing workers involuntarily into part-time work. Anotherstudy, by Helene Jorgensen and Dean Baker of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research, did find a small rise in the share of employees working 25 to 29 hours a week during the first half of 2013 -- but this bump came at the expense of those working fewer than 25 hours a week, not at the expense of those working 30 or more hours a week. Thats not the dynamic one would expect if Obamacare was pushing employers to cut hours. Neither of the previous two studies offered hard estimates of how many workers saw their hours cut. But one analysis did -- one written by Ben Casselman, the chief economics writer at the website fivethirtyeight.com. When Casselman looked at the data, he found that the proportion of part-time workers working just below 30 hours a week had been rising for about two years, while the share working just over 30 hours was falling. Thats consistent with the trend Puzder pointed to. Heres a chart that accompanied his story: Overall, Casselman concluded that the health law has likely led a few hundred thousand workers to see their hours cut or capped. Thats small in the context of an economy with 150 million workers. But it isnt a minor issue for those workers. Most of them are among the economys most vulnerable: low-wage, part-time workers who likely have few other options. Several economists we checked with said Casselmans estimate of a few hundred thousand was more plausible than Puzders millions. I think we can safely say that at this point it's clearly not millions, because that size shift would be noticeable in the aggregate data, said Tara Sinclair, a George Washington University economist. A few hundred thousand seems a lot more plausible. Its worth noting that Casselmans a few hundred thousand and Puzders millions are not apples-to-apples figures. Casselman included employees who were already working part-time when their hours were cut, not just those who (as Puzder wrote) saw their full-time jobs shrink to part-time jobs. So Casselmans figure may actually overstate the number of employees who saw their jobs specifically shift from full-time to part-time. That makes it even harder to reach the millions threshold. Possible benefits Finally, several of the economists told us that focusing only on the negative aspects of Obamacare-inspired changes in working hours painted an incomplete picture. While its true that the law hurts employees who would like to work longer hours, the law also aids unemployed workers who are only too happy to work in newly created part-time jobs, as well as older workers who would like to retire but havent yet reached Medicare age and individuals who prefer part-time work and no longer have to take full-time jobs in order to secure health insurance. Indeed, the law makes it easier for Americans to start businesses on their own, since they are able to leave jobs where they work for someone else and still be able to secure affordable health care for themselves and their families. And it may be having that effect: Baker noticed that during the final quarter of 2014, the number of self-employed Americans rose by a whopping 400,000 compared to the previous years fourth quarter. Those 400,000 jobs are not counted in the widely reported BLS job-creation numbers, which only survey companies with payrolls. Our ruling Puzder said that Obamacare has caused millions of full-time jobs to become part-time. The statistics, in this case, are inadequate to either prove or disprove that millions of Americans have seen their job go from full-time to part-time due to the law. That number is possible, but unsupported. That said, theres evidence suggesting that hundreds of thousands of workers may have seen their hours cut as the laws impact began to be felt. Thats not millions, but its not insignificant either. On balance, we rate the claim Half True. | 2 | [
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FMD3603 | 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: That Time Chelsea Clinton Tweeted 'Happy New Year' to the Church of Satan Claim summaries: How the daughter of a former president wound up in the company of a supermodel and the Church of Satan in a Twitter thread for the ages.
contextual information: Twitter threads sometimes make for strange bedfellows. With more than 2 million followers, Chelsea Clintoncertainly qualifies as an experienced tweeter, yet in January 2018 she found herself in the awkward position of having to publicly deny that she's a Satan worshiper all because she jumped into a Twitter thread to lend moral support to Chrissy Teigen. Chelsea Clinton Chrissy Teigen Our cautionary tale begins with a 30 December attack on Teigen by a "Pizzagate" conspiracy theorist bent on implicating the supermodel in an imagined pizza parlor pedophile ring run by and for highly placed Democrats (such as Chelsea Clinton's parents). Pizzagate Teigen found the smear quite disturbing, writing: Alright. I debated saying something about this but I'm pretty disturbed over here. The fact that there are people with these...thoughts...is really scary. pic.twitter.com/9OtWKHxUgR pic.twitter.com/9OtWKHxUgR christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 30, 2017 December 30, 2017 Yeah yeah it's "just Twitter" but I'm pretty sure this *sick* person is saying we are darksided pizzagate pedophiles who traffic our daughter. Ummmmm this is really scary shit. christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 30, 2017 December 30, 2017 Enter Chelsea Clinton, one of Chrissy Teigen's many Twitter followers. She sent Teigen a message of support and encouragement: Chrissy, sending you & beautiful Luna a huge hug. It is awful & never ok when people threaten or demean any child. I've lost count of the Twitter accounts who've threatened Charlotte with #FGM. While I never bother to report threats against me, I now report every one against her. #FGM Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) December 31, 2017 December 31, 2017 Whereupon the thread turned into something of a free-for-all. A random troll using the name "Rogue Hooters Staff" (account since deleted) hurled an obscenity at Clinton: Someone who witnessed this exchange notified Hooters (a restaurant chain most notable for the skimpy attire of its female waitstaff and passable wings) of the bogus account, prompting the official (verified) Hooters account to tweet a disavowal, in turn prompting Clinton trust us, this will all make sense as you read through the rest of the thread below to tag the Church of Satan: Church of Satan There are two ways to take that last tweet ("It's been so long! Happy New Year!"). One is in the spirit in which it was obviously intended,namely as a jocular, tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of the absurdity of sharing a Twitter thread with the likes of @Hooters and @ChurchofSatan. The other is to pretend it might actually mean Clinton is a devil worshiper. A number of scornful tweets went the latter route, stating or implying that Clinton worships Satan. One example (since deleted) said, "At least @ChelseaClinton is open about worshiping #Satan. #ChurchOfSatan If only @HillaryClinton could be as honest." Clinton replied with what amounted to a denial: Oh goodness gracious. We can be civil, cheerful, respectful to & friends with people who don't share our religious beliefs. Sometimes, we even marry them. I'm a Methodist & my husband is Jewish, thank you for asking. A very happy New Year to you Rhonda! https://t.co/8UH9SP8EWO https://t.co/8UH9SP8EWO Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) January 3, 2018 January 3, 2018 However, the reminder that she, like her mother, is a lifelong Methodist failed to hush that rather large subset of the Twitterverse devoted to spreading Clinton hatred. A former vice presidential candidate chimed in, along with others: Nope. Sadly, this is not a joke. https://t.co/74OU4tElX5 https://t.co/74OU4tElX5 Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) January 4, 2018 January 4, 2018 If you have to deny worshiping Satan, you more than likely worship Satan. #QAnon #PizzaGate #FollowTheWhiteRabbit #Pedogate https://t.co/BeLBU9ECPu #QAnon #PizzaGate #FollowTheWhiteRabbit #Pedogate https://t.co/BeLBU9ECPu JT - MAGA ??? (@jt_maga) January 4, 2018 January 4, 2018 Chelsea upside cross sways pics for years and all, thst Chrissy who goes to spirit cooking and your mom too; just talking to these people Church of Satan and owl people is too much! #sickclubofpedos #PEDOgate #QANON #FOLLOWTHEWHITERABBIT #THESTORM pic.twitter.com/Pmm69AnmIj #sickclubofpedos #PEDOgate #QANON #FOLLOWTHEWHITERABBIT #THESTORM pic.twitter.com/Pmm69AnmIj (Jamie)J.A.L.F.T (@jametteriley) January 3, 2018 January 3, 2018 @ChelseaClinton Like mother like daughter. Caught lying and you continue lying.You tweeted a message to the Church of Satan on New Year. https://t.co/wgCl1Ob4qJ @ChelseaClinton https://t.co/wgCl1Ob4qJ mzaz (@mzaz86442) January 5, 2018 January 5, 2018 We can't help but note the concerted effort to plug Chelsea Clinton's alleged Satanic sympathies into pre-existing narratives impugning the entire Clinton family. Consider the recurring hashtags in the tweets on this subject, which include #QAnon, #Pizzagate, #FollowTheWhiteRabbit and #Pedogate. In certain circles these signify conspiracy theoriesaccusing the Clinton family of all manner of "deep-state" shenanigans, from assassination plots to election rigging to pedophile rings. theories Some of the critical tweets allude to something called "spirit cooking." This refers to a series of performance art events mentioned in WikiLeaks e-mails, which were pounced upon by conspiracy theorists as proof that the Clintons and their inner circle practice occult rituals (although in reality it was nothing of the kind). spirit cooking nothing Others revisit low-resolutionimagesfloating around the Internet for years allegedly showing Chelsea Clinton wearing a necklace with an "inverted" or "upside-down" cross supposedly a sign of Satan worship. When we asked a Clinton spokesperson about it, however, we were told that she owns no such piece of jewelry. Clinton occasionally wears a Greek (equal-sided) cross that could conceivably be mistaken for (or manipulated in images to look like) an inverted one. images We asked the spokesperson, point-blank, if Chelsea Clinton is a Satan worshiper. The answer, unsurprisingly, was no. The spokesperson confirmed that Clinton is a Methodist, and could in fact be foundas recently as New Year's Eve 2018 attending her non-Satanic Methodist church services in New York City. We also checked in with a representative of the Church of Satan, the Rev. Raul Antony, who confirmed an important piece of background information, namely that prior to the Chrissy Teigen Twitter thread there had never been any direct contact between Chelsea Clinton and the Church of Satan. As Clinton said in one of her tweets, "In 2017, @ChurchofSatan & I were put on a few threads together." Antony told us they were tagged into those threads by Pizzagate conspiracy theorists. We asked him to address the widespread assumption that members of the Church of Satanwhich, to be clear, is a 50-year-old organization distinct from all other groups and individuals purporting to identify themselves as "Satanic"actually worship the devil. organization "No," he said. "We reject all theism and recognize all gods and religions [including Satan] to be man-made social institutions. Still, we find symbols and religion to be an important part of the human experience and embrace the symbol of Satan as the representation of carnality, individualism, and rational self-interest." We thought we might as well ask him if Chelsea Clinton is a Satanist. "No," he said. "She's a Methodist." Kelly, Tiffany. "'Follow the White Rabbit' Is the Most Bonkers Conspiracy Theory You Will Ever Read."
The Daily Dot. 20 November 2017. Martineau, Paris. "The Story Is the New Pizzagate - Only Worse."
New York Magazine. 19 December 2017. Church of Satan. "History of the Church of Satan."
Accessed 1 January 2018. | 1 | [
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FMD3604 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Don McGahn, a well-known campaign finance lawyer, as his White House counsel and K.T. McFarland, a national security analyst, to be his deputy national security adviser, a transition official said on Friday. (Story corrects spelling of McGahn.) | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD3605 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: These images were all taken from a Facebook page dedicated to capturing death threats against Donald Trump. I thought I had seen everything until I came upon this page. The lack of value these (mostly) young people place on the sanctity of life is stunning. How many of these people do you think have been visited by the FBI? How many of these common thugs have been arrested? What if there was a Facebook page exposing the death threats made against Hillary? Do you think it would have been all over the news? All of these images and the video below can be found on the Operation Mogul Fury Facebook page. We commend this person for their hard work in uncovering these vile threat spread out across so many social media accounts. | 0 | [
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FMD3606 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The District of Columbia has won back-to-back Miss USA titles.Kara McCullough, a 25-year-old chemist working for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, was crowned Sunday at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on the Las Vegas Strip. She will go on to compete on the Miss Universe contest.The runner-up was Miss New Jersey Chhavi Verg, a student at Rutgers University studying marketing and Spanish. The second runner-up was Miss Minnesota Meridith Gould, who is studying apparel retail merchandising at the University of Minnesota.Fifty-one women representing each state and the nation s capital participated in the decades-old competition.McCullough was born in Naples, Italy, and raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She said she wants to inspire children to pursue careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.Last year, District of Columbia resident Deshauna Barber became the first-ever military member to win Miss USA.The top five finalists where asked different questions that touched on the pros and cons of social media, women s rights and issues affecting teenagers. McCullough was asked whether she thinks that affordable health care for all U.S. citizens is a right or a privilege. McCullough said it is a privilege.Later in the competition, the McCullough, Verg and Gould were asked to explain what they consider feminism to be and whether they consider themselves feminists. Miss District of Columbia said she likes to transpose the word feminism to equalism. Watch: ABC Newshttps://youtu.be/muS063iEnIkMany Americans were cheering her response on Twitter:Miss USA is a wonderful role model! Leave it to the nasty, sneering left to attack her b/c she doesn't fit their narrative. @foxandfriends pic.twitter.com/CFmVdivTke Kristin Tate (@KristinBTate) May 15, 2017https://twitter.com/TEN_GOP/status/864121879837241345But many on the left were not as happy with the newly crowned Miss USA Kara McCullough.This Twitter user tells McCullough she doesn t deserve Miss USA 2017 title because she s not towing the liberal line:#MissUSAHealthcare = privilege! loose a job ,ok to die bcs you don't deserve helpYou dont deserve Miss USA 2017! Homes by Sylva (@sylvalisko) May 15, 2017TwitterThis Twitter user thought the results were rigged and should be decided by a democracy LOL!Retweet if you think #MissUSA was rigged!!!!! OMG shouldn't MISS USA be decided by a democracy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/TJXp0U5Yl4 Sarah Lauren (@sarahmlauren) May 15, 2017When McCullough said she d like to replace feminism with equality the triggered left immediately turned that comment into a negative, insisting that she doesn t believe in equality for women.Miss USA 2017 is a no for me she said she's against feminism and healthcare being a right? pic.twitter.com/ihPGBslN7H Jon Snow (@justkriistel) May 15, 2017 | 0 | [
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FMD3607 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: MATURÃN, Venezuela — His name was Kevin Lara Lugo, and he died on his 16th birthday. He spent the day before foraging for food in an empty lot, because there was nothing to eat at home. Then in a hospital because what he found made him gravely ill. Hours later, he was dead on a gurney, which doctors rolled by his mother as she watched helplessly. She said the hospital had lacked the simplest supplies needed to save him on that day last July. “I have a tradition that in the morning of their birthdays, I wake up my children and sing to them,†his mother, Yamilet Lugo, said. “How could I do that when my son was dead?†Venezuela has suffered from so many ailments this year. Inflation has driven office workers to abandon the cities and head to illegal pit mines in the jungle, willing to subject themselves to armed gangs and multiple bouts of malaria for the chance to earn a living. Doctors have prepared to operate on bloody tables because they did not have enough water to clean them. Psychiatric patients have had to be tied to chairs in mental hospitals because there was no medication left to treat their delusions. Hunger has driven some people to riot — and others into rickety fishing boats, fleeing Venezuela on reckless journeys by sea. But it was the story of a boy with no food, who had gone searching for wild roots to eat but ended up poisoning himself instead, that seemed to embody everything that had gone wrong in Venezuela. The country’s economic crisis had spent months encircling his family, only to snatch away its son. His neighborhood, on the edge of what was once a prosperous oil boomtown, had long been running out of basics like corn flour and bread. The cutlery factory where Ms. Lugo had worked shut down in May because it could no longer obtain the materials to make plastic, joining many across the country that have gone idle. That left the family unable to buy what food was left. At the hospital, Ms. Lugo said, there was no respite. Like so many clinics throughout the country, the one in MaturÃn ran out of basic supplies like intravenous solutions, leaving the family to search the city and haggle with sellers in the hours before Kevin died. “This boy dies this way for no reason at all,†said Lilibeth DÃaz, his aunt, looking at Kevin’s grave, his name etched in wet concrete by a friend’s fingertip. Kevin is the baby in the overalls in the picture on his mother’s wall, the one who earned the perfect attendance awards. They still hang on the walls, too. The markers in the kitchen wall ticked off his growth. By 12, he was about 4 feet 11 inches by 14, he was four inches taller. His name is scribbled in child’s writing on a light switch in the bedroom he and his mother shared. “Active Kevin†says another doodle on a cabinet there. On her cellphone, Ms. Lugo stared at a picture of her embracing her son last year, on the front porch he had painted yellow. She has changed a lot since then. Her collarbone now protrudes from her neck. “I weigh 40 kilos now,†she said, 88 pounds. Kevin was losing weight, too. By spring, everyone in the family was. Then José Rafael Castro, Ms. Lugo’s boyfriend and the only other breadwinner in the household, came home with bad news: The construction supply factory where he worked making cinder blocks had let him go because the owners could no longer find cement. First, the family ate mangoes. By summer, it had turned to yuca, which grew in a plot owned by a relative a short bus ride away. “This was our food morning, noon and night,†Ms. Lugo said. By July, there was no money even for the bus fare to the field, the family said. It started looking elsewhere. Kevin’s birthday was coming up. The family knew this would be his first without a cake, but it had devised a solution: A neighbor down the street was celebrating a birthday and had offered to set aside a slice of cake for Kevin. Still, the family needed something to eat that night. It had gone three days without food, and everyone was growing weak. There were few options. This was not the capital, Caracas, where food was often scarce in the barrios, but at least there was always another shop or seller to try. Nor was it the border, where foreign products could be bought. Instead, the family lived deep in Venezuela’s interior, where even cooking oil was scarce and products like bread and corn flour vanished almost as quickly as they arrived in stores. At times chicken was available, but the price was too high. Kevin and Mr. Castro had heard about an abandoned field a walk from their home where other neighbors had been foraging for bitter yuca. As they emerged from the field, four men with pistols surrounded them and demanded their cellphones, Mr. Castro said. It was a narrow brush with disaster, and the two men breathed a sigh of relief that they still had the yuca. They did not know the worst was to come. The family knew the risks of bitter yuca and had tried to dry it to extract the toxins, a practice used to make a dried bread served locally. “We had nothing else to eat,†Mr. Castro said. But by 11:30 p. m. on July 25, the night before Kevin’s birthday, the family was getting sick. Mr. Castro said he was vomiting. Kevin was on the floor. Because they had no car, an hour passed before they found a neighbor’s car to take Kevin to the hospital. As he finally left, Kevin remembered the piece of cake. “I will be back tomorrow for it,†Ms. Lugo recalled him saying. Yuca intoxication is treated with gastric suction, also called stomach pumping, and intravenous solutions, among other measures. But Kevin’s family said he had waited untreated for hours in the crowded halls of the Manuel Núñez Tovar hospital, without being examined by a doctor. Dr. Luis Briceño, the hospital’s director, said it was a common situation at his hospital, which is stretched thin. Sometimes his emergency room, with a capacity for 200 people, is packed with 450 patients seeking help. “There is always someone who doesn’t receive treatment,†Dr. Briceño said. He said medical shortages were so common that patients often had to find and buy their own supplies, like intravenous solutions, though he thought the hospital probably had some the night Kevin arrived. But Ms. Lugo said a nurse had told the family to go out and buy the intravenous solution itself. Relatives found it from a seller. The cost — about $4 — was more than they could afford. Finally, another family with extra bottles of the solution gave two to Kevin, but there was little change in his condition. Around 4 a. m. on July 26, the morning of his birthday, Kevin could barely speak. “His stomach felt like stone,†his mother said. Ms. Lugo was alone with her son. She recalled a black liquid oozing from his mouth. Then, at 4:45 a. m. Kevin was dead. The next morning, Jesús Maestre, a friend of Kevin’s, saw his friends gathered outside the hall in Kevin’s school. They were speaking in hushed tones. “They asked, ‘Did you hear what happened to Kevin? ’†he said. “Then it hit me — he was gone. †Kevin’s coffin was trailed by a long parade of friends the day of his funeral, a path his mother retraces every Sunday when she visits the grave. On a recent day, she pointed out the Catholic church where he was baptized and the street he played on as a child. A cousin of his walked by. “Look at him,†she said. “They look exactly the same. †And she said it again: “Since my mother raised me, and now with my children, we always had a tradition of singing ‘Happy Birthday’ in the morning. †The day of the funeral, she sang the song before the coffin was lowered. “We did everything together,†Ms. Lugo said later, pointing to the headstone where her son’s name had been etched in wet concrete. Gesturing toward the empty plot beside it, she said, “They will bury me there one day. †But back home, there were more mouths to feed. Ms. Lugo had given birth to another child two months before. Her daughter, Kimberlit, had recently given birth, too. The two spent an afternoon nursing the babies together on the porch. That was the only food in the household. There was nothing in the kitchen. | 1 | [
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FMD3608 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: License DMCA
Middle East policy has reached an inflexion point, a moment when Official Washington seems to be caught in the middle between escalation and retreat.
On one hand, the rhetoric has not been more militant since Hillary Clinton's famous "we came, we saw, he died" moment in October 2011. With Barack Obama halfway out the door and Clinton all but crowned, Washington's laptop bombardiers are rejoicing that the half-measures are over and judgment day nearly at hand.
Thus, The New York Times assures us that that the Middle East is "desperate for American leadership" while the Washington Post reports that "the Republicans and Democrats who make up the foreign policy elite are laying the ground work for a more assertive American foreign policy."
Leading think tanks are publishing "a flurry of reports" urging stepped-up intervention, including U.S.-backed "safe zones to protect moderate rebels from Syrian and Russian forces" and even "limited" cruise-missile strikes. But while differing on the details, all agree something must be done. The time to act is now.
As Vox puts it: "The hot new policy idea in Washington is the hottest old idea: direct US military intervention in Syria's civil war." - Advertisement -
But reading between the lines, a very different picture emerges, a realization that the U.S. has painted itself into a corner and that there is little it can do after all. Thus, the Times observes that while the Middle East is clamoring for U.S. leadership, it is not clamoring for Bush-style intervention but for some mythical "middle ground" in between him and Obama.
While reporting that pro-escalation sentiment is unanimous in Washington's vast foreign-policy establishment -- sometimes known as " the blob " -- the Washington Post notes that "even pinprick cruise-missile strikes designed to hobble the Syrian air force or punish [President Bashar al-]Assad would risk a direct confrontation with Russian forces" and wonders whether a war-weary public will support any intervention at all.
"My concern is that we may be talking to each other and agreeing with each other," it quotes one expert as saying, "but that these discussions are isolated from where the public may be right now."
Official Washington in a Bubble
Thus, even the Establishment worries that it lives in a bubble. Washington wants war, it needs war, and yet it admits in practically the same breath that it can't have it. So what will it do? - Advertisement -
Then there are the mild liberals over at Vox, the hip and successful Washington website founded by journalistic wunderkind Ezra Klein. Voxers pride themselves on being sharp and practical yet in the end they are sealed off as well. The poster boy for this tendency is Zack Beauchamp, a young writer who stars in a recent Vox video entitled, " The crisis in Aleppo, explained in 4 minutes ."
As Beauchamp lectures away amid fancy graphics and cool background music, the video faithfully toes the Washington line, both the stirring gung-ho part and the downbeat refrain that inevitably follows. Thus, he describes the Syrian civil war as a "story of flip-flops," with Assad seemingly on the ropes until Iran and Russia put him back on his feet, at which point the Saudis and Qataris put the rebels back on their feet so the game can continue.
But the real turning point, he says, occurred in September 2015 when Russia stepped in with airstrikes that allowed the government to besiege the Salafists in eastern Aleppo.
"A siege," Beauchamp then explains, "involves trapping a group of people, civilians and fighters both, inside a certain territory and denying them supplies until they can no longer fight. Assad's strategy has a vicious logic to it. When you deprive people of food and you bomb them over and over again, they're likely to give in just to make the fighting stop." | 0 | [
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FMD3609 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A U.S. citizen accused of attempting to subvert President Robert Mugabe s government was released from Zimbabwe s maximum security jail on Friday, a day after the High Court ordered her to be freed on bail, Reuters witnesses said. Judge Clement Phiri ruled on Thursday that there was a patent absence of facts in the state s case against 25-year-old Martha O Donovan, whose arrest last week centered on accusations she insulted 93-year-old Mugabe in a Twitter post. She denies the accusation. Reuters witnesses saw O Donovan leaving prison in a United States embassy vehicle. O Donovan and her lawyers did not speak to reporters waiting outside Chikurubi Maximum Prison on the outskirts of Harare. State prosecutors accuse O Donovan of writing a Twitter post in October calling Mugabe a selfish and sick man . The government has since last year been targeting activists and government critics who use social media to speak out against Mugabe, cash shortages in banks and a foreign currency crunch that has caused a sharp rise in prices. Amnesty International said it feared O Donovan would not be the last to be arrested in the government s clamp down on social media platforms . Activist pastor Evan Mawarire, whose #ThisFlag movement last year organized the biggest stay-at-home demonstration in a decade, is on trial on a charge of subversion. He faces a separate trial for a similar offence. | 1 | [
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FMD3610 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • A recount effort in the United States presidential election that began in Wisconsin may extend this week to two more states narrowly lost by Hillary Clinton. Donald J. Trump dismissed the effort as a “scam†and unleashed a daylong storm of Twitter posts, including asserting without evidence that his shortfall in the popular vote was because of “millions of people†voting illegally. The Twitter outburst also came as Mr. Trump is laboring to fill crucial positions in his cabinet. An adviser assailed Mitt Romney, one the top candidates for secretary of state, as having gone “out of his way to hurt†the in the primaries. _____ • Mr. Trump’s business dealings around the globe are raising widespread concerns over conflicts of interest. One example is a postelection telephone call with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, in which the praised his business associate in the Trump Towers in Istanbul, above. In Scotland, Mr. Trump built a wall on the border of his golf course, blocking the sea view of local residents, and then sent them the bill. _____ • François Fillon, a conservative government veteran who called for economic sacrifice, major changes in the workplace and a crackdown on immigration and Islam, won a runoff to represent France’s Republican Party in April’s presidential contest. The outcome paved the way for a likely with the country’s party. _____ • The Cuban government is rolling out plans for a period of “Duelo Nacional,†or national pain, after the death of Fidel Castro, 90. The country, which defied the United States for nearly half a century before hostilities eased, remains firmly in the grip of his brother, Raúl Castro. The capital, Havana, has been quiet, but Cuban exiles celebrated in Miami. Mr. Castro’s ashes will be interred on Sunday. _____ • In Tbilisi, Georgia, a apartment shared by a computer science student and his younger brother is an unlikely offshore outpost of America’s fake news industry. “I did not write to make Trump win,†the student said. “I just wanted to get viewers and make some money. †_____ • Swiss voters rejected a proposal to phase out nuclear power by 2029. • American retailers have geared up for Cyber Monday, the last day of deals in what has become an annual shopping weekend. Sales rose 18 percent over last year, to $5. 3 billion. Visits to stores dipped. • The European Court of Justice will hear arguments on Tuesday that will most likely determine how Uber can operate across the European Union. • Our business columnist tracked the fortune of J. K. Rowling, the “Harry Potter†author. He estimates Ms. Rowling’s net worth at $1. 2 billion, noting that she pays taxes and gives generously to charity. • A thinks it may have found the secret to growing truffles. • Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • In Montenegro, a detained mercenary is slowly spilling his guts on a purported plot orchestrated by two Russians to kill the prime minister and install a new government hostile to NATO. [The New York Times] • Viktor F. Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine, said that he regretted not ordering troops to disperse the mass protests that forced him into exile in Russia. [The New York Times] • The U. K. Independence Party is expected to announce its new leader today. [The Financial Times] • The Vatican is seeking a grand compromise with China’s Communist leaders to heal a rift that has divided generations of Chinese Catholics. [The New York Times] • A Moroccan state broadcaster instructed women on ways to hide signs of domestic violence with makeup. [The Guardian] • U. S. officials say they will close a protest camp that has drawn thousands of Native Americans opposed to an oil pipeline in North Dakota. [The New York Times] • “I see the anger I was raised with rocking the nation. †A young American who renounced white nationalism considers the wave of white rage that aligned behind Donald J. Trump as he ascended to the White House. [The New York Times] • A weekslong chess battle between Sergey Karjakin of Russia and the defending world champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, could end today. Simmering Cold War tensions have given the match weightier geopolitical overtones. A Russian spokesman said that President Vladimir V. Putin receives constant updates. • Anger rooms let customers smash objects to release their rage. Sessions are meant to be therapeutic, but mental health professionals question the efficacy of rampaging in a faux cubicle. • Nico Rosberg, driving for Mercedes, became the second son of a Formula One world champion to win the title himself. • “Hero of the Empire,†an account of Winston Churchill’s time in South Africa, and “Iza’s Ballad,†a meditative Hungarian novel, are among our 100 Notable Books of 2016. Here’s the full list. • And just look at these trees in Lapland, Finland’s northernmost region. They are so coated in frosty rime that they could be mistaken for towers of shaving foam. That banana you might be having for breakfast is probably a Cavendish, the most widely available variety of one of the world’s most popular fruits. But a deadly fungus is on the march, and the Cavendish’s lack of genetic diversity is raising fears of a possible “bananapocalypse. †The killer, a strain of Panama disease called Tropical Race 4, has spread to China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Northern Territory of Australia, and has recently been found in Africa and the Middle East. With its yellow peel and seedless fruit, the Cavendish makes up 95 percent of bananas sold worldwide, according to the U. N. Food and Agriculture Organization. The previous dominant variety, the Gros Michel, was devastated by another form of the fungus in the 1950s. Growers turned to the Cavendish, whose strength lies more in disease resistance than flavor. (One expert said it “had been considered something close to junk. â€) The Cavendish is thought to have arrived in England in the 1800s from Mauritius, taking its name from the family in whose greenhouse it was cultivated. Missionaries eventually carried it to the Pacific islands. One scientist sees a silver lining in newly urgent efforts to save the seeds from wild bananas. “Race 4 is a threat,†he says, “but it’s also an opportunity to start growing more diversity. †Remy Tumin contributed reporting. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings. What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes. com. | 1 | [
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FMD3611 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Turkey will never be a member of the European Union as long as it is governed by Tayyip Erdogan, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Thursday, accusing the Turkish president of failing to take accession talks with the bloc seriously. His remarks in an interview with mass-selling newspaper Bild are likely to further inflame relations between the two NATO allies after Erdogan urged German Turks to boycott Germany s main parties in next month s general election. It is clear that in this state, Turkey will never become a member of the EU, Gabriel said. It s not because we don t want them but because the Turkish government and Erdogan are moving fast away from everything that Europe stands for. EU leaders have been critical of Erdogan s crackdown on opponents before and after a failed military coup against him in July last year. Accession talks have ground to a virtual halt though Turkey remains a candidate for membership. Turkey s Western allies fear that sweeping new powers Erdogan won in a tightly fought referendum in April are pushing Turkey away from democratic values. Erdogan says both the crackdown and the increased presidential powers are needed to help tackle serious challenges to Turkey s security both at home and beyond its borders. At a highpoint in tensions earlier this year, Erdogan angered Germany, home to 3 million Turks about half of whom can vote in the election on Sept. 24, by accusing German authorities of Nazi-like behavior. Relations between the two countries have also been strained by Turkey s arrest of a Turkish-German journalist and a German human rights activist. | 1 | [
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FMD3612 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Voting started in the wee hours of Tuesday in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary.
In Dixville Notch, residents did their traditional first voting just after midnight, bringing smiles to the faces of Bernie Sanders and John Kasich.
Sanders swept Hillary Clinton in Dixville Notch, 4-0, while Kasich topped Donald Trump, 3 votes to 2.
In nearby Millsfield, Ted Cruz won the Republican vote over Trump, 9-3. Several other candidates got one vote apiece. Clinton beat Sanders, 2 votes to 1.
In Hart’s Location, population 43, Kasich bested Trump again, 5 votes to 4, with Chris Christie gathering 2 votes. Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, and Marco Rubio got one vote each. Sanders edged Clinton, 12 votes to 7. Mark Stewart Greenstein, who calls himself a “liberty-leaning Democrat,†got 2 votes, the Union Leader reported.
But the real deal starts as polls across the state open later Tuesday morning, and New Hampshire has a record of making history in its primaries. Here's what to watch for:
Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have both been leading in the New Hampshire polls by double-digit margins for months. They both crushed it in a statewide poll of 11,000 K-12 students in the state last week. If either one of them loses the New Hampshire primary, it will be the equivalent of a political earthquake. So the real eyes are on the second-place finishers, and in the Republican race, perhaps third. On the Democratic side, if Hillary Clinton can get Sanders' margin of victory down below 10%, she can claim some success in challenging Sanders on his home turf (he's from neighboring Vermont). On the Republican side, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Jeb Bush have all averaged between 10% and 15% in the polls. If one of them can break away from the pack and finish more than 5% (or so) ahead of the rest of the field, it will give them the opportunity to claim to be the standard-bearer for the "Not Trump" lane of the party.
If Sanders and Trump do not win by large margins, prepare for a bunch of hand-wringing from pollsters, who are already under fire for unanimously failing to predict Ted Cruz's Iowa victory last week. There are a lot of good reasons to be skeptical of the polls — there are a lot of candidates in the GOP field so it is hard to narrow down the level of support among them; New Hampshire voters notoriously make their decisions late in the race; and it can be very difficult to predict turnout for non-traditional candidates like Trump and Sanders. (Here's a good podcast by pollsters Margie Omero and Kristen Anderson breaking down the Iowa polls.)  Still, for months polls have been the only real measure of who is up and who is down in the presidential race; those of us who cover politics for a living would feel better if the polls turned out to be right.
There are more registered independent voters in New Hampshire (390,000) than Democrats (231,000)Â and Republicans (262,000), and under state law any voter can walk into a polling pace and choose a primary ballot for any party. So independent voters will have a dramatic impact on the outcome, and watching how these voters align in New Hampshire might provide an interesting signal for which candidates could reach independents in November's general election.
The New Hampshire secretary of state is predicting more than 550,000 people will vote in the primaries Tuesday, which would be historically high and good news for "outsider" candidates Trump and Sanders who draw a lot of support from new voters. Keep in mind that new Hampshire allows out-of-state college students to declare residency in the state and vote there, which is also good news for Sanders, who is doing very well among young voters. Weather should not be a significant factor:Â It snowed in much of the state Monday and more snow is forecast for Tuesday, but not enough to keep these hearty New Englanders at home.
Most polls close in New Hampshire at 7 p.m. Eastern; the Iowa caucuses did not begin until 8 p.m. Eastern. So we should have meaningful results before the 11 p.m. news.
Results were not yet compete in Iowa before the first candidate — former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee — dropped out of the Republican race, followed quickly former senator Rick Santorum and Sen. Rand Paul, and, on the Democratic side, former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley. Elections have results, and candidates who did poorly in Iowa like Kasich, Bush, Chris Christie, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina will have a hard time continuing their campaigns if New Hampshire gives them a second weak result. | 1 | [
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FMD3613 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is This a 1950s Women's Magazine Ad for a Handgun to Shoot 'Depraved Creeps'? Claim summaries: A vintage women's magazine advertisement for a Colt Cobra revolver for use against 'that strange, depraved creep who won't leave you alone' is a recent fabrication.
contextual information: "Smart gals know what it takes to be confident around a masher," reads a vintage-looking magazine that has been making the social media rounds since mid-2017. What does it take to be confident, according to this print advertisement? A .38 caliber Colt Cobra snub-nose revolver "for that strange, depraved creep who won't leave you alone." Here's an example of the ad via Twitter: For that strange depraved creep who won't leave you alone #advertisement pic.twitter.com/tnnTT5HFCH PANTHERA ? (@Panthera156) March 28, 2018. The copy continues with its pitch as follows: Some lunkheads just won't go away. You change your schedule, you wear a hat, you even try the old false beard gag, but no, he's still there, breathing through his mouth, leering at your bosom with those droopy, lifeless fish eyes. Face it, girls, there are times when subterfuge isn't enough—you may need to take fast action, FAST! That's why a girl couldn't find a finer new friend than the Colt Cobra .38 Snub Nose. You'll enjoy the modern styling as you draw it from your purse. You'll sense the velvet smoothness of the action as you cock the hammer. You'll appreciate the crispness of the trigger pull, designed with your long nails in mind, as you fire again and again. Although the overall appearance of the ad is convincing at first glance, the closer one looks, the more preposterous its content reveals itself to be. The image is a parody of 1950s advertising, but a number of inconsistencies and anachronisms stand out. The magazine named in the lower right-hand corner, supposedly called "Ladies Life & Household," never existed (or if it did, every trace of it has been expunged from modern records). The handgun's finish is described as "Colt's beautiful pacifier blue"—an obvious satirical reference to 1950s gender role stereotypes (if Colt ever manufactured a "pacifier blue" firearm, no examples of it exist today). The pistol shown in the illustration, allegedly a Colt Cobra .38 (the same kind of revolver Jack Ruby used to kill JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963), appears to be a different model altogether. The image matches up fairly closely to one we found in a mid-1970s ad for a Colt Detective Special (third series, introduced in 1973). And what about that leering creep? The face of the "mouth-breathing lunkhead" with "droopy, lifeless fish eyes," who serves as the villain of the tableau, shows unmistakable signs of digital tampering. It isn't just the eyes that droop: From all of the above, it makes sense to suppose that there was an existing scanned image, most likely of another vintage ad, that served as a template for the Colt Cobra parody. A reverse-image search provided instant confirmation that this is the case—the Colt Cobra ad is a reworking of a full-page advertisement for Gleem Toothpaste that appeared on page 110 of Life magazine on 11 February 1957. Image credit: SenseiAlan / Flickr Trask, Mike. "From Jack Ruby to Las Vegas: A Gun's Trajectory." Las Vegas Sun. 11 March 2008. | 0 | [
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FMD3614 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: October 28, 2016 Susan Rice: U.S. Must Integrate LGBT Rights into Gov’t and Foreign Policy
National Security Advisor Susan Rice told students at American University in a speech on LGBT rights Wednesday that the “United States must continue to integrate LGBT rights into our government and foreign policy,” including “creating a more diverse national security workforce.”
“This is an issue that I’m particularly passionate about, and one that President Obama has prioritized,” Rice said, “because without tapping America’s full range of races, religions, ethnicities, social and economic experiences—without embracing people of every sexual orientation and gender identity—we’re leading in a complex world with one hand tied behind our back.”
Rice, who once served as U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said that “whether we are talking about race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, this fight for equal rights is what our history and values demand.” | 0 | [
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FMD3615 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Share on Facebook When is environmental damage too much? When is it acceptable? In what is being called “ a relatively tiny ” marine oil spill, for the Heiltsuk First Nations of the Central Coast of BC, the question is being asked in quite real terms, forcing government to answer the questions that it might have preferred to have evaded. Since running aground in mid-October , a small boat has been leaking oil into the Pacific Ocean, and along BC's Central Coast. Despite the fact that this spill comes in the aftermath of the Royal Visit to the region — a visit that sought to place the health of the coastline and all the life that dwells there within the global lens — there appears to be very little international interest. Making matters worse, there appears to be little interest from Canadian lawmakers on how best to reduce the potential for disasters like this. Along the Central Coast of British Columbia, the Great Bear Rainforest is seen as “one of the most pristine wilderness environments on earth.” Stretching approximately 400 kilometers along this sparsely populated area, the Great Bear Rainforest has long represented the very idea of conservation and intrinsic preservation to Canadians and environmentalists around the world. Along with the Kermode Bear , the area made National Geographic's “ Places of a Lifetime ” list and has been called the planet's last large expanse of coastal temperate rain forest by people like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Natural beauty, conservation projects , and provincial parks are not, however, all the region is known for. Of all things, the Central Coast offers access to the Pacific Ocean. It also provides a more-or-less direct line for fossil fuel exportation from various LNG (liquefied natural gas) sites around the province, as well as tar sands oil from the neighbouring province of Alberta. North of Bella Bella, the town of Kitimat serves as the proposed terminal destination of Enbridge's Northern Gateway Pipeline , a project that has seen a great deal of protest that, in many ways, echoes the issues coming to a head in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. One of the most attractive aspects of the region, insofar as fossil fuel extraction is concerned, is the access it offers to Asian markets , pitting the desires of big oil corporations against those of First Nations and environmentalists , alike. Even with the legislative death of Northern Gateway, the region continues to be the focal point for resource extraction. October's oil spill — which is ongoing — provides a visceral reminder of what is at stake in such discussions, pushing many local residents to demand a full tanker ban along the Central Coast . Yet, while the Coastal Rainforest is inundated with thousands of litres of oil, the federal government seems content to remain reactive . Rather than agreeing to the suggested ban, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instead proposed a $1.5 billion (CDN) fund to help deal with oil spills after they occur. Reactive policies like this leave the fragile ecosystems found in the Central Coast region to suffer contamination before they are dealt with, and offer no change for the way issues of sovereignty are evaluated between First Nations and the colonial Canadian government. Since his election in 2015, PM Trudeau has taken several quick steps back from his promises to respect First Nations' sovereignty and deal with environmental issues . Although this “ relatively tiny marine oil spill” can be seen as just that, a minor environmental issue that will be cleaned up with more federal money, there is a deeper implication that can be seen — one that pits ongoing environmental degradation and cultural assimilation and genocide against neoliberal economic policy . Related: | 0 | [
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FMD3616 | 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 the meme an accurate portrayal of 'the significance of Kamala Harris being Vice President'? Claim summaries: Harris made history several times over when she was sworn in as U.S. vice president on Jan. 20, 2021.
contextual information: Voting in the 2020 U.S. Election may be over, but the misinformation keeps on ticking. Never stop fact-checking. Follow our post-election coverage here. here On Inauguration Day, Kamala Harris made history several times over. In being sworn in on Jan. 20, 2021, the outgoing California senator became the first Black person, first woman, and first person of South Asian heritage to be elevated to the vice presidency. Inauguration Day The historic nature of her achievement was placed in stark context in a viral meme that showed Harris, whose parents immigrated to the United States from India and Jamaica, respectively, juxtaposed with a long list of official portraits of white men. (Charles Curtis, who served with Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1933, had some Native American heritage and was therefore the first person of color to hold the office of vice president). Charles Curtis The meme also highlighted several purported landmarks in the slow progress of women's rights and racial desegregation in the United States, as follows: Dont understand why its a big deal that Kamala Harris is VP? Until Red box? She would have been enslaved. Until Blue box? She couldnt vote. Until Yellow box? She had to attend a segregated school. Until Green one? She couldnt have her own bank account. The following screenshot shows a selection of instances of the meme on Facebook and demonstrates its popularity on social media in January 2021: popularity The vice presidents highlighted in various colors were as follows (along with the dates of their tenure as vice president): Red: Andrew Johnson, March 4 to April 15,1865 Andrew Johnson Blue: Calvin Coolidge, March 4, 1921, to Aug. 3, 1923 Calvin Coolidge Yellow: Richard Nixon, Jan. 20, 1953, to Jan. 20, 1961 Richard Nixon Green: Spiro Agnew, Jan. 20, 1969, to Oct. 10, 1973 Spiro Agnew The claims made in the meme were therefore that: until Johnson's tenure as vice president (in 1865), Harris would have been enslaved due to her racial heritage; until Coolidge's tenure as vice president (1921 to 1923), she would have been denied the right to vote due to her gender; until Nixon's tenure as vice president (1953 to 1961), she would have been forced to attend a segregated school due to her racial heritage; and until Agnew's tenure as vice president (1969 to 1973), she would have been denied the right to her own bank account, due to her status as a married woman. On the whole, the claims contained a high degree of historical accuracy, though in some cases they over-simplified certain discriminatory practices and made some relatively minor errors in identifying the vice president in office during certain major reforms. As a result, we're issuing a rating of "true." The following is our assessment of each of those claims. The creator of the meme appears to have chosen the year 1865, and therefore the tenure of Johnson, because that is the year in which the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery, was passed. The text of the amendment reads as follows: text Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress passed the amendment in January 1865, while Johnson was vice president-elect to President-elect Abraham Lincoln, but it was not ratified by the states until December 1865, by which time Johnson had ascended to the presidency after Lincoln's assassination, leaving the vice presidency vacant for the duration of his presidency. So the sequence of events is a bit muddled, but it is certainly reasonable to place the 13th Amendment, and the abolition of slavery, during the Johnson era. Until the passing of the 13th Amendment, Black people in the United States lacked legal protection against enslavement. That doesn't mean that all Black people before 1865 were slaves, but the vast majority were. Based on figures included in the 1860 U.S. Census (page 14), some 89% of Black people in the country at that time were slaves. page 14 Slavery was far more prevalent in the southern states, but on average, a Black woman in the U.S. shortly before the 13th Amendment had close to a 90% likelihood of being enslaved. From a human rights perspective, Black people had no legal or constitutional protection from slavery, which is likely the thrust of the point made in the meme. The 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was passed by Congress in June 1919 and ratified by the states in August 1920. The text of the amendment read: text The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. On both those dates, Thomas Riley Marshall was vice president, under President Woodrow Wilson. So the meme was incorrect in stating that women could not vote until the vice presidency of Calvin Coolidge. In fact, women voted for the first time in the November 1920 election, which saw Warren Harding and his running mate Coolidge elected president and vice president, respectively. Thomas Riley Marshall That inaccuracy does not impinge upon the truth of the broader point being made in the meme, namely that Harris, as a woman, would not have been able to vote in the United States until the early 1920s. However, the meme does miss an important additional barrier to voting rights that Harris, as a Black woman, could have faced even after the passage of the 19th Amendment. While the 15th Amendment in principle gave Black men the right to vote, and the 19th Amendment gave all women the right to vote, states continued to discriminate against Black voters by imposing obstacles such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and "grandfather clauses" all of which were designed to suppress Black voters. 15th Amendment obstacles It wasn't until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that such practices were prohibited by federal law, although many activists argue that present-day voter-ID rules continue the legacy of electoral restrictions that have a disproportionate impact on voters of color. Voting Rights Act argue The creator of the meme appears to have selected the vice presidency of Nixon (1953 to 1961) because that was the period during which the U.S. Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public schools constituted a violation of the Equal Protection clause in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, in the landmark 1954 ruling in Brown vs. the Board of Education. In a follow-up ruling in 1955, the court ordered school districts to arrange for the desegregation of public schools "with all deliberate speed." declared follow-up ruling Most, though not all, schools were racially segregated in the 19th and early-20th centuries in the United States. So a Black student, such as Harris, would very likely have been forced to "attend a segregated school," as the meme claims. Brown vs. the Board of Education marked the beginning of the end of school segregation, but it did not bring about integration overnight. Over the course of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, state lawmakers and local authorities fought protracted and often bitter battles to resist the Supreme Court's clear mandate. battles So while the meme was right to point out that Black students would be very likely forced to attend segregated schools before the decision in Brown vs. the Board of Education, it's also the case that many Black students were forced to attend segregated schools for many years after the ruling, as well. What changed in 1954 was that the nation's highest court clearly declared that system of racial segregation to be unconstitutional. The meme appears to refer to the enactment of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) in the early 1970s, which made it illegal for financial services companies to discriminate against customers on the basis of anything other than their creditworthiness. The legislation stated that: stated It shall be unlawful for any creditor to discriminate against any applicant, with respect to any aspect of a credit transaction(1) on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex or marital status, or age (provided the applicant has the capacity to contract)... However, the law wasn't enacted until October 1974, when the office of vice president was vacant. Spiro Agnew resigned in late 1973, after he was charged with bribery and tax fraud, and his replacement, Gerald Ford, ascended to the presidency in August 1974, after Nixon resigned. So the meme is again mistaken on the precise sequence of events. While Agnew was vice president, banks could (and did) legally deny credit to a woman on the basis of extraneous considerations such as her marital status, her husband's income and credit history, and so on. and did The meme also somewhat overstated the restrictions in place before 1974. Women, including married women, could open their own bank accounts before the ECOA was passed, but often faced difficulty and discrimination in doing so. It was particularly difficult for women to obtain a line of credit or a credit card, in her own name. In 1972, the National Commission on Consumer Finance published a report that found the following common discriminatory practices in lending: report What the ECOA changed in 1974, and what the meme appears to allude to, is that banks and lenders could no longer legally engage in such discriminatory practices. | 1 | [
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FMD3617 | 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 'Not a Single Republican' Clap When Biden Mentioned Cutting Child Poverty? Claim summaries: Left-leaning critics accused the GOP of universal callousness during U.S. President Joe Biden's first address to Congress in April 2021.
contextual information: In April 2021, after U.S. President Joe Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress, the left-leaning Facebook page Occupy Democrats posted a meme that claimed Republican Congress members had abjectly failed to applaud Biden's stated goal of drastically reducing the rate of child poverty in the United States. The meme, posted on April 28, the evening of the speech, contained what appeared to be a screenshot from a video stream, showing the Democratic side of the House of Representatives chamber standing and applauding, while members on the Republican side (circled in red) largely sat and did not appear to applaud. The meme contained the following text: posted Everything you need to know about today's Republican party is that Biden just said that because of his stimulus bill, America is cutting child poverty in half... And not a single Republican clapped. As events with a significant element of ritual and political theater, the newly elected president's first Congressional address and subsequent State of the Union addresses are the frequent subjects of political points-scoring and at times divisive analysis. Partisans on both sides habitually scrutinize the actions and body language of politicians from the opposite side, and Snopes has examined such claims several times in the past. examined such claims It's also worth noting that representatives and senators, in the context of an address by a president from the other party, might choose to applaud or stand, or not, for various reasons, even when the president has made a statement that some might interpret as worthy of universal support or celebration. For example, during then-President Donald Trump's equivalent address to a joint session of Congress, in February 2017, he touted the retention of manufacturing and jobs within the United States, saying various major companies "have announced that they will invest billions and billions of dollars in the United States and will create tens of thousands of new American jobs." In response, Republicans stood, cheered, and applauded, while cameras showed that Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remained impassive. remained impassive A politically motivated interpretation of her body language might be that she failed to applaud because she hates American jobs, or resented economic growth under Trump's tenure. However, a more plausible explanation is that she doubted the underlying sincerity of Trump's commitment to increased employment, that she objected to his presenting those commercial decisions as one of his own accomplishments, and so on. Similarly, during his 2018 State of the Union address, Trump said "Since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs," which was greeted with cheering and applause by Republicans, but almost total silence among Democrats. That could be a sign that those Democrats despise job creation, but it's much more likely to mean that they objected to Trump's touting employment figures as one of his own accomplishments, for example. silence Those important disclaimers should be borne in mind when considering the actions and body language of Republicans during Biden's April 2021 address. As is customary, Biden listed what he presented as the achievements of his first 100 days in office: expanded access to health care; the provision of stimulus checks; added investment in veterans' health care; and H.R. 1319, the "American Rescue Plan" a major stimulus and relief package to aid in the federal government's response to the public health and economic crises engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic. H.R. 1319 Biden went on to say: Were making one of the largest one-time ever investments ever in improving healthcare for veterans. Critical investments to address the opioid crisis. And, maybe most importantly, thanks to the American Rescue Plan, were on track to cut child poverty in America in half this year. That declaration was met with a standing ovation and universal applause among Democrats in the chamber: The screenshot included in the Occupy Democrats meme was authentic and showed a snapshot of the reaction to Biden's child poverty remarks on both sides of the chamber. Here's roughly the same view, taken from the CBS News live stream of the speech. Democrats can be seen on the right-hand side, while the Republican side is on the left: live stream However, Occupy Democrats' claim that "not a single Republican" applauded Biden's remarks seriously misrepresented what actually happened. As a result, we are issuing a rating of In reality, our analysis of video footage from the address shows that at least 11 individuals seated in the Republican half of the chamber applauded in response to Biden's remarks on child poverty. We have positively identified two of those as cabinet secretaries Lloyd Austin and Anthony Blinken, who are not Congressional Republicans and therefore don't factor into our debunking of the Occupy Democrats meme, but for the record, can be seen below, with Austin standing on the left and Blinken standing on the right: The remaining nine individuals who applauded were all highly likely to be Congressional Republicans, providing ample evidence to discredit the "not a single Republican" claim. Those 11 individuals are highlighted in the screenshot below, and we have positively identified the following three Congressional Republicans: To view a larger, more detailed version of this annotated screenshot, click here. click here Although clearly not as enthusiastic as their Democratic counterparts, the extent of Republican applause for Biden's remarks is fully revealed by carefully viewing the following footage: The claim that "not a single Republican clapped" when Biden mentioned halving child poverty was manifestly false. In fact, several of them clearly did, three of whom we have so far been able to positively identify. If and when we confirm the identity of additional Congressional Republicans, we will update this fact check accordingly. | 0 | [
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FMD3618 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The week of Donald Trump s election, white nationalists celebrated.In the bowels of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, three blocks from the White House, members of the so-called alt-right movement gathered for what they had supposed would be an autopsy to plot their grim future under a Clinton administration. Instead, they celebrated the unexpected march of their white nationalist ideas toward the mainstream, portraying Mr. Trump s win as validation that the tide had turned in their fight to preserve white culture. It s been an awakening, Richard B. Spencer, who is credited with coining the term alt-right, said at the gathering on Saturday. This is what a successful movement looks like. Source: NY TimesWhile they still agree with Trump s agenda, or at least what they think Trump s agenda is, they aren t celebrating anymore. They aren t happy with many of Trump s cabinet picks. Right after the election, I think it was euphoria, says Kevin MacDonald, a retired evolutionary psychology professor at California State, Long Beach and another white nationalist mainstay. But as we get into it now, there s more trepidation. MacDonald says Trump s appointments also have rattled the movement, especially his propensity for tapping rich Wall Street bankers. These are globalists in general. They love free trade, they love immigration big red flags for us, he says.Source: NPRSo odd that a businessman who brags about his international business ventures would hire globalists. Who could have seen that coming? Anyone who paid attention, that s who, but cheer up our neo-nazi brethren, there s hope for you still (just not for the rest of us). Trump still has his (bad pun ahead) Trump card: Jeff Sessions, who s been tapped for Attorney General. They also like Rex Tillerson, Trump s pick for Secretary of State.MacDonald hopes Sessions, Trump s nominee for attorney general, will clamp down on immigration. White nationalists also like the nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who s seen as being close to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, a darling of the alt-right.While Trump s cabinet might be a little too globalist for these mouth breathers, there s still plenty for them to love. There s little chance under this Republican government that anyone other than white men will make any sort of advances.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 0 | [
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FMD3619 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: With Thanksgiving approaching, the transition team is putting the last touches on Donald J. Trump’s national security leadership even as Mr. Trump pivots to his domestic and economic policy cabinet posts. One visitor to Trump Tower on Monday is of note: a Democrat, Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. Another, Secretary of State Kris Kobach of Kansas, let the world see part of his plans for the Department of Homeland Security. Trump has yet to hold a news conference, but he did release what aides said should suffice for now, a video news release on his immediate plans: Scrap the Partnership trade deal with 11 other Pacific Rim countries, junk President Obama’s environmental regulations to boost production of coal and natural gas and ban administration officials from lobbying for five years, among other items. Mr. Kobach, the conservative Kansas secretary of state, may have been a little too loose with his plans for the Department of Homeland Security. Entering Trump Tower, the up for the job of secretary of homeland security, was photographed carrying a document titled “Kobach Strategic Plan for First 365 Days. †Some of it was obscured by his arm, but not all. Under “Bar the Entry of Potential Terrorists,†the document called for reintroducing the “National Security Registration System†implemented after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and suspended a decade later. It also calls for “extreme vetting questions†for “ aliens. †Questions included support for Sharia law, jihad and the equality of men and women. The document also calls for an end to entry for Syrian refugees. Ms. Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran and former Bernie Sanders supporter, defended her visit Monday to the office of the saying she needed to talk foreign policy with Mr. Trump “before the drumbeats of war that neocons have been beating drag us into an escalation of the war to overthrow the Syrian government. †Her statement, lengthy and somewhat defensive, allowed, “While the rules of political expediency would say I should have refused to meet with Trump, I never have and never will play politics with American and Syrian lives. †She then made the case against any intervention in a war that has pulled in Russia and left hundreds of thousands slaughtered. Her case is a break from the position that her fellow Democrat, Hillary Clinton, campaigned on. It fits nicely with Mr. Trump’s reluctance to engage — and with warnings against American involvement from the president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin. And speaking of Ms. Gabbard, Kellyanne Conway, a Trump senior adviser and his campaign manager, took some time on Monday to laud the fledgling rebellion in Democratic ranks against the liberal old guard. Speaking to reporters, Ms. Conway praised Ms. Gabbard’s willingness to buck the party, boosted Representative Tim Ryan, a Democrat from Youngstown, Ohio, who is challenging Representative Nancy Pelosi’s leadership, and had kind words for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has said Democrats need to focus more on economic struggles and less on the grievances of minorities and women. “Bernie Sanders today was also quoted as saying they should stop identity politics in the Democratic Party. Whoa. He can call and we’ll tell him how to do that and win,†she said. Mr. Sanders struck back in his way, declaring the Trump infrastructure a scam for investors. Ms. Conway also weighed in on the growing scrutiny of the ’s business pursuits, which appear to be continuing even as he prepares to lead the free world. She also made it clear she did not like reporters questioning his continuing business pursuits. “Do you ask people how long they will play golf and do the transition? Are you suggesting he is doing something illegal?†she snapped. “I already said he is not. But the presumption is that he is. †A coterie of leading television executives and personalities met Monday with the for an meeting. Depending on the accounts, it may or may not have gone swimmingly. The New York Post wrote it up as a battle royal. “Trump kept saying, ‘We’re in a room of liars, the deceitful, dishonest media who got it all wrong,’†the ’s favorite tabloid wrote. Ms. Conway said the meeting had been “mischaracterized. †“No, he did not explode in anger,†she said. Among those spotted were NBC’s Deborah Turness, MSNBC’s Phil Griffin, CNN’s Jeff Zucker and Wolf Blitzer, Fox News’s Bill Shine, Jack Abernethy, Jay Wallace and Suzanne Scott, and CBS’s John Dickerson and Charlie Rose. Former Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts emerged from the gilded elevators of Trump Tower on Monday to do what most visitors have not: Make a public case to be in the ’s cabinet. Specifically, the man who lost a Senate seat to Elizabeth Warren, then failed to win another in New Hampshire, wants to be secretary of veterans affairs. “We obviously spoke about my passion and his passion, which are veterans and veterans issues,†he told the news media. “The toughest job in the cabinet is to lead the V. A. because it has, while it has so many angels working there, it has so many great problems as well. So he’s obviously going to take my application, or interest, under consideration. I’m glad that he called. †He did acknowledge he was not a sure thing, despite his early and passionate advocacy for candidate Trump in New Hampshire, which Mrs. Clinton narrowly carried. “I think I’m the best person, but there are some tremendous people out there, and I don’t look at it as a competition,†he said. Perhaps it was impolitic of Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s senior adviser, to praise conservative women like Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter by saying their leadership “would be they would have husbands, they would love their children. †“They wouldn’t be a bunch of dykes that came from the Seven Sisters schools up in New England,†he said in a 2011 radio interview. Now the heads of Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Smith College, Vassar College and Wellesley College are asking the future senior White House adviser to “take a more expansive, informed and tolerant worldview. †“Our alumnae are accomplished leaders in all spheres of public and professional life they are committed to their work, their families and their countries. Now more than ever, we look to those who would lead the United States of America for a message of inclusion, respect and unity,†they wrote in an open letter to Mr. Bannon. Hillary Clinton’s popular vote lead surged above 1. 72 million on Sunday night, with millions of votes still to count. At 1. 3 percentage points, she has built a lead not seen in a losing campaign since Rutherford B. Hayes’s bitterly disputed election of 1876. The 2016 results have no such disputes, however. Mrs. Clinton’s lead keeps rising on her strength in California, where her margin stands at 29 percentage points, up from President Obama’s 23 percentage points 2012. She has failed to close the gap in any of the swing states that she lost, though Mr. Trump’s lead in Michigan has dwindled to 11, 612 votes, a bad night in Tiger Stadium. Florida certified its results on Sunday, sealing Mr. Trump’s margin of victory at 1. 2 percentage points. candidates in Florida easily took enough votes to swing the results. But more Americans seem prepared to give Mr. Trump a chance. A new Morning Consult poll found that 46 percent of registered voters view the favorably, the same number that see him unfavorably. Just before the election, 37 percent of voters viewed him favorably, while 61 percent viewed him unfavorably. | 1 | [
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FMD3620 | 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: Sen. Rubios (tax plan) would cut taxes for households making around $3 million a year by almost $240,000, which is way more than three times the earnings of a typical family.
contextual information: Hillary Clinton outlined her economic vision in detailfor the first time during her presidential campaign, calling for a growth and fairness economy in a speech at the New School in Manhattan on July 13, 2015. She also lambasted a select groupRepublican presidential candidates for their purportedly out-of-touch approach toward the working class.Among the targets were Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. Clinton singled out Rubiosproposed tax plan: Another priority must be reforming our tax code. Now, we hear Republican candidates talk a lot about tax reform. But take a good look at their plans. Sen. Rubio's would cut taxes for households making around $3 million a year by almost $240,000, which is way more than three times the earnings of a typical family. We decided to fact-check the somewhat intricate claim. Rubios plan Clintons campaign directed us to ablog postfrom the Tax Policy Center,an independent think tank that analyzes tax policy. The article concerns Rubios plan in general, but the pertinent part reads, Those in the top 0.1 percent, who make $3.3 million and up, would be in line for an average tax cut of $240,000 a boost in after-tax income of 3.8 percent. Is $240,000 more than three times the earning power of a typical family? Her campaign pointed usto U.S. Census Bureau data that showed median household incomeas $53,046 for the period 2009 to 2013. So those numbers back up Clintons statement. But there is one minor complication: The article from the Tax Policy Center is based on an analysis of Utah Sen. Mike Lees 2013 plan,notRubios plan (actually a joint venture with Lee) that was released in 2015 and is similar to the original Lee plan. Generally speaking, the Rubio-Lee plan groups people into two income tax brackets, 15 percent or 35 percent, the higher of which would kick in at an individual income of $75,000. Thats a decrease from the seven brackets currently in place. Another centerpiece of the plan is a $2,500 tax credit given to parents for each child under sixteen. Thats the broad outline, but the plan still lacks some details. There are critical unresolved issues that make it difficult for us to do an analysis of Rubios current plan, said Howard Gleckman, resident fellow at the Tax Policy Center and author of the blog post. For example, Gleckman points out that the Rubio-Lee plannever specifiesexactly what would happen to apersonal tax credit of $2,000, a subsidy that would be available to anybody who claimed it on their tax returns. If it were included as a refundable tax credit (meaning people could get a check back), it would have a significant impact on low-income families. As of now, their incomes would actually decrease under the Lee plan, according to the Tax Policy Centers analysis. Qualitatively, the rough sense is a very generous tax cut for high-income people, said Gleckman, adding, What were not sure about is low-income people. So low-income people might get some kind of tax break under Rubios plan, or they might not. The other thing to know about Clintons statement is that the wealthy get a tax break under Rubios plan because he wants tax reductions, and the wealthy pay the most taxes. The reason why the top is getting whats seemingly a big tax cut is that theyre already taxed at a much higher rate, said Kyle Pomerleau, an economist at the Tax Foundation, a business-backed group. Under the Rubio plan, the top tax rate would drop from 39.6 percent to 35 percent. Pomerleau added that its crucial to remember that the plan proposes tax cuts across all income brackets, not just the top ones, and often at higher percentages for those with lower incomes. Pomerleau, however, did say that he found Clintons claim plausible. Our ruling Clinton said that Rubios tax plan would cut taxes for households making around $3 million a year by almost $240,000, which is way more than three times the earnings of a typical family. It is possible to take issue with the statement in some ways. The source of her claim uses an earlier version of Rubios plan in its analysis, and she said $3 million when she should have said $3.3 million. But the thrust of her statement is sound. An analysis of a plan extremely similar to the one put forth by Rubio would cut taxes for those making $3.3 million and more by nearly $240,000, which is more than three times the U.S. median household income of $53,046. We rate her statement MostlyTrue. | 1 | [
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FMD3621 | 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 Olive Garden in the process of closing down permanently? Claim summaries: An online ad promoting a list of restaurants closing in 2020 may have stopped breadstick-lovers in their tracks.
contextual information: In December 2020, an online advertisement displayed a picture of an Olive Garden Italian Restaurant sign along with text that read: "Closing Time: Here's All The Restaurant Chains Closing in 2020." This advertisement was misleading. Olive Garden is not closing all of its restaurants. Readers who clicked the advertisement were led to a 50-page story on the website Money Pop. 50-page story While the advertisement promised a list of restaurant chains that would be closing in 2020, the headline on the actual story was different: "These Popular Restaurant Chains Are Losing Money Fast." headline The story mentioned Olive Garden, but it only mentioned that two locations had closed in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Birmingham, Alabama, in March and April, respectively. Springfield, Massachusetts Birmingham, Alabama Olive Garden did not go out of business in 2020, but that's not to say it hadn't faced financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus had led to the closure of dine-in services at thousands of different restaurants across the United States. This meant less revenue, which resulted in lost jobs. In many cases, restaurants closed. lost jobs restaurants closed On June 22, 2020, Nation's Restaurant News reported that National Restaurant Association President and CEO Tom Ben said the restaurant industry had faced "catastrophic losses." reported Darden Restaurants owns the Olive Garden brand, as well as LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze, and Eddie V's. On Dec. 9, 2020, InvestorPlace.com reported that Darden had managed to survive the pandemic thus far, but it also asked: "What's next for Darden Restaurants?" reported The bull case is built on a bear case regarding other restaurants. Without government help, small operators are closing by the score. This means chains like Darden may be all thats left when people again feel safe to eat out. Darden has managed to make money at Olive Garden while closing half its tables. It reinstated the dividend and paid back its $270 million emergency loan. Once the pandemic is over, Cramer predicts, fast-casual chains like Olive Garden will be the height of fine dining. the height of fine dining. Darden is expected to report earnings Dec. 18, for the quarter ending in November. The estimate is for 72 cents per share of net income on $1.7 billion of sales. That would beat last years profit on 17% less revenue. on $1.7 billion of sales on 17% less revenue The Money Pop story also mentioned The Cheesecake Factory on its list. We previously covered that rumor as well. previously covered Snopes debunks a wide range of content, and online advertisements are no exception. Misleading ads often lead to obscure websites that host lengthy slideshow articles with lots of pages. It's called advertising "arbitrage." The advertiser's goal is to make more money on ads displayed on the slideshow's pages than it cost to show the initial ad that lured them to it. Feel free to submit ads to us, and be sure to include a screenshot of the ad and the link to where the ad leads. submit ads to us | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD3622 | 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: Delaware Child Support Card could be rephrased as "Card for Child Support in Delaware". Claim summaries: A fake news story about a new Delaware "Child Support Card" hit the online world in January 2016.
contextual information: On 8 January 2016, the entertainment web site The Reporterz published an article reporting that Delaware had created a new "child support card" that controlled "what mothers can and cannot buy" with their child support funds: This measure was taken to prevent parents from misusing funds that are meant to help with costs associated with raising children, such as school related expenses, food, etc. This card will not be allow the parent to purchase alcohol, cigarettes or pay car payments the card will be used exactly like a food stamp card. We spoke to Tasha Brown who was upset after she couldn't purchase a bottle of Hennessy at her local liquor store. she says "Its' [sic] unfair its [sic] my money I should be able to do what i want with it how will I pay for my new weave?" The article was ambiguous about whether the card would apply to all funds received for the care of children (such as support monies paid by former spouses) or funds made available through government assistance programs. It didn't matter either way, though, as the story was a complete fabrication that originated with a fake news web site that does not publish factual stories. A disclaimer on The Reporterz states that "every article is based on a true story, only the facts have been changed." In this case, Delaware really does have a card that makes it easier for single parents and guardians to receive funds. The First State Family Card is a pre-paid debit card that does not require bank account: The First State Family Card is a pre-paid VISA card that is credited whenever a payment is posted to any/all of a client's child support case(s). Benefits to the debit VISA card include: While Delaware does have a card that makes it easier for parents to collect child support, the handbook for the First State Family Card (not the "Child Support Card") does not mention any restrictions on how the funds may be utilized. mention | 0 | [
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FMD3623 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: By Julian Assange / counterpunch.org
In recent months, WikiLeaks and I personally have come under enormous pressure to stop publishing what the Clinton campaign says about itself to itself. That pressure has come from the campaign’s allies, including the Obama administration, and from liberals who are anxious about who will be elected US President.
On the eve of the election, it is important to restate why we have published what we have.
The right to receive and impart true information is the guiding principle of WikiLeaks – an organization that has a staff and organizational mission far beyond myself. Our organization defends the public’s right to be informed.
This is why, irrespective of the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential election, the real victor is the US public which is better informed as a result of our work.
The US public has thoroughly engaged with WikiLeaks’ election related publications which number more than one hundred thousand documents. Millions of Americans have pored over the leaks and passed on their citations to each other and to us. It is an open model of journalism that gatekeepers are uncomfortable with, but which is perfectly harmonious with the First Amendment.
We publish material given to us if it is of political, diplomatic, historical or ethical importance and which has not been published elsewhere. When we have material that fulfills this criteria, we publish. We had information that fit our editorial criteria which related to the Sanders and Clinton campaign (DNC Leaks) and the Clinton political campaign and Foundation (Podesta Emails). No-one disputes the public importance of these publications. It would be unconscionable for WikiLeaks to withhold such an archive from the public during an election.
At the same time, we cannot publish what we do not have. To date, we have not received information on Donald Trump’s campaign, or Jill Stein’s campaign, or Gary Johnson’s campaign or any of the other candidates that fufills our stated editorial criteria. As a result of publishing Clinton’s cables and indexing her emails we are seen as domain experts on Clinton archives. So it is natural that Clinton sources come to us.
We publish as fast as our resources will allow and as fast as the public can absorb it.
That is our commitment to ourselves, to our sources, and to the public.
This is not due to a personal desire to influence the outcome of the election. The Democratic and Republican candidates have both expressed hostility towards whistleblowers. I spoke at the launch of the campaign for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, because her platform addresses the need to protect them. This is an issue that is close to my heart because of the Obama administration’s inhuman and degrading treatment of one of our alleged sources, Chelsea Manning. But WikiLeaks publications are not an attempt to get Jill Stein elected or to take revenge over Ms Manning’s treatment either.
Publishing is what we do. To withhold the publication of such information until after the election would have been to favour one of the candidates above the public’s right to know.
This is after all what happened when the New York Times withheld evidence of illegal mass surveillance of the US population for a year until after the 2004 election, denying the public a critical understanding of the incumbent president George W Bush, which probably secured his reelection. The current editor of the New York Times has distanced himself from that decision and rightly so.
The US public defends free speech more passionately, but the First Amendment only truly lives through its repeated exercise. The First Amendment explicitly prevents the executive from attempting to restrict anyone’s ability to speak and publish freely. The First Amendment does not privilege old media, with its corporate advertisers and dependencies on incumbent power factions, over WikiLeaks’ model of scientific journalism or an individual’s decision to inform their friends on social media. The First Amendment unapologetically nurtures the democratization of knowledge. With the Internet, it has reached its full potential.
Yet, some weeks ago, in a tactic reminiscent of Senator McCarthy and the red scare, Wikileaks, Green Party candidate Stein, Glenn Greenwald and Clinton’s main opponent were painted with a broad, red brush. The Clinton campaign, when they were not spreading obvious untruths, pointed to unnamed sources or to speculative and vague statements from the intelligence community to suggest a nefarious allegiance with Russia. The campaign was unable to invoke evidence about our publications—because none exists.
In the end, those who have attempted to malign our groundbreaking work over the past four months seek to inhibit public understanding perhaps because it is embarrassing to them – a reason for censorship the First Amendment cannot tolerate. Only unsuccessfully do they try to claim that our publications are inaccurate.
WikiLeaks’ decade-long pristine record for authentication remains. Our key publications this round have even been proven through the cryptographic signatures of the companies they passed through, such as Google. It is not every day you can mathematically prove that your publications are perfect but this day is one of them.
We have endured intense criticism, primarily from Clinton supporters, for our publications. Many long-term supporters have been frustrated because we have not addressed this criticism in a systematic way or responded to a number of false narratives about Wikileaks’ motivation or sources. Ultimately, however, if WL reacted to every false claim, we would have to divert resources from our primary work.
WikiLeaks, like all publishers, is ultimately accountable to its funders. Those funders are you. Our resources are entirely made up of contributions from the public and our book sales. This allows us to be principled, independent and free in a way no other influential media organization is. But it also means that we do not have the resources of CNN, MSNBC or the Clinton campaign to constantly rebuff criticism.
Yet if the press obeys considerations above informing the public, we are no longer talking about a free press, and we are no longer talking about an informed public.
Wikileaks remains committed to publishing information that informs the public, even if many, especially those in power, would prefer not to see it. WikiLeaks must publish. It must publish and be damned.
Julian Assange is the founder of Wikileaks. His most recent book is The Wikileaks Files (Verso). 0.0 · | 0 | [
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FMD3624 | 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: Christopher Reeve Birthday Greeting Claim summaries: Can you trigger a $1 donation to paralysis research by sending a birthday greeting to actor Christopher Reeve?
contextual information: Claim: In 2002 you could trigger a $1 donation to paralysis research by sending a birthday greeting to actor Christopher Reeve. . Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2002] Please forward this email to your friends and encourage them to sign Christopher Reeve's birthday card at https://www.christopherreeve.org. For every signed birthday card, an anonymous donor will contribute $1 to the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. Help support CRPF and Christopher by telling your friends! Together we can raise even more money for paralysis research. Origins: Most everyone familiar with actor Christopher Reeve (most famous for his portrayal of comic book superhero Superman in a series of four films between 1978 and 1987) knows that he had been paralyzed from the shoulders down since being thrown from a horse in a 1995 accident. Reeve fell on his head, fracturing his first and second cervical vertebrae and damaging the nerve fibers of his spinal cord just below the brain stem; the injury left him a quadriplegic, dependent upon a ventilator to breathe and a power wheelchair for movement. Christopher Reeve Superman Reeve (who died in 2004) again came into the news in 2002 with the announcement of some small but extraordinary improvements in his condition. Although doctors believed he had permanently lost all instantaneous and voluntary motor control and sensation below the shoulders, Reeve was able to move his right wrist and the fingers of his left hand, straighten his arms and legs and move them around in a swimming pool, breathe on his own for up to two hours without the aid of a respirator, and had regained the ability to distinguish between hot and cold and up to two-thirds of a normal sense of touch. For the years prior to the improvements noted in 2002, Reeve had also devoted a good deal of his time and effort to raising funds for research to develop treatments and cures for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury and other central nervous system disorders and for programs aimed at improving the quality of life for people living with disabilities, causes he supported as Chairman of the Board of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation (CRPF). CRPF In honor of Christopher Reeve's 50th birthday celebration on 25 September 2002, the CRPF web site offered visitors a chance to send virtual birthday greetings to the actor. An anonymous donor offered to contribute $1 to the CRPF for every birthday greeting sent. birthday greetings The usual question is: "Is this for real?" The CRPF wouldn't provide us with details of who was funding the birthday greeting donations (that's what "anonymous" is all about, after all), but there's no reason to believe this program was anything other than what it claimed to be. Participants didn't need to provide anything other than their names and addresses, and for the cynical who believed this was just another address-harvesting scheme, the CRPF's privacy policy promised that they "will not disclose your e-mail address or any other contact information you have provided." (For the ultra-cynical, we point out that you can always lie to the computer; it won't know the difference.) privacy policy Last updated: 8 October 2007 Sources: Kluger, Jeffrey. "Against All the Odds." Time. 16 September 2002. Talan, Jamie. "Reeve's 'Exciting' Progress Lifts Hopes." Newsday. 24 September 2002. | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD3625 | 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: The latest stimulus package sends stimulus checks to imprisoned murderers, rapists, and child molesters. Claim summaries: Incarcerated people are eligible for stimulus checks under broad criteria outlined in the latest COVID-19 relief package., This was also true of relief bills passed last year under the Trump administration
contextual information: Another round of stimulus payments is hitting the bank accounts of eligible Wisconsinites, but some state lawmakers have strong opinions about who should be able to receive them. State Sen. Julian Bradley, R-Franklin, and state Rep. Joe Sanfelippo, R-New Berlin, introduced legislation that would require money sent to Wisconsin prisoners under the latest COVID-19 relief package to be spent on any restitution they owe. Bradley made his argument for the bill in a March 15, 2021 report from the Associated Press. "President Biden's irresponsible stimulus package sends stimulus checks to imprisoned murderers, rapists, and child molesters," he said. This issue has been discussed often amid the debate over how to respond to the COVID-19 crisis and has even factored into packages passed under former President Donald Trump. Let's break it down. Are prisoners eligible? Our friends at PolitiFact National dug into this question after U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, said Democrats voted to give stimulus checks to criminals in prison. They rated the claim Mostly True. While Bradley described some crimes in detail for dramatic effect, the crux of his claim is the same as Cotton's. Before the Senate passed the relief package, Democrats rejected an amendment from Cotton and Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana that would have barred stimulus checks from going to prisoners. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., argued this would harm the Black and brown families of prisoners already disproportionately affected by mass incarceration. Without that amendment, the bill that was passed stated that incarcerated people were eligible for stimulus checks as long as they are citizens or legal U.S. residents and either filed a tax return or requested a payment from the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS further notes that inmates can't be denied relief if they meet those criteria. That said, this isn't new. Prisoners were eligible for checks through similarly broad requirements in the CARES Act and a supplemental package passed in 2020 with Republican support under the Trump administration. The IRS attempted to block that group from receiving payments under the CARES Act, but a federal court ultimately rejected that effort. So, Republicans like Bradley, who want to pin the blame solely on President Joe Biden and other Democrats, are a bit off the mark. In an interview, Bradley said the latest stimulus checks are going to imprisoned murderers, rapists, and child molesters. Prisoners can, in fact, receive payments under the latest COVID-19 package—something that has been true since the federal government started providing pandemic relief. Implying that this is the work of Democrats, as Bradley did, leaves out the fact that the same was true of packages passed under Trump. We rate his claim Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD3626 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Hundreds of protesters seeking to remove Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe from office heeded a call from a leader of the powerful liberation war veterans on Saturday to march on the 93-year-old s residence in the capital. Let us now go and deliver the message that grandfather Mugabe and his typist-cum-wife should go home, war veterans secretary-general Victor Matemadanda told an anti-Mugabe rally in the Harare township of Highfield. As he spoke, people started leaving the rally to head towards Mugabe s lavish Blue Roof residence, live television pictures showed. | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD3627 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A recent viral video showed a woman wielding a Bible overhead and marching through a Target, ringing out her message through the brightly lit aisles. “I’m a mother of 12 and I’m disgusted by this wicked practice,†she cried. “Mothers, get your children out of this store … it’s a dangerous place!â€
The woman, who has not been identified, is not the only one incensed by Target’s announcement that it would allow transgender customers to use the restroom that matches their gender identity. More than 700,000 people have pledged to boycott the store. Target’s move, meanwhile, was seen as a response to a new North Carolina law that requires people in government buildings to use the bathroom that corresponds with the sex on their birth certificate—in effect forcing post-transition transgender people to use the bathroom of the opposite sex.
The idea that children, especially girls, will somehow be hurt by relieving themselves alongside transgender women has been one of the main arguments of the law’s proponents. In the words of Texas Senator Ted Cruz, “Men should not be going to the bathroom with little girls.â€
There’s no evidence that municipalities that have protected trans people’s restroom access have seen a spike in public-safety issues. But according to some studies, not having protected restroom access can be harmful for trans people.
According to a study by Georgia State University’s Kristie L. Seelman, being denied bathroom access is correlated with an increased risk of suicide attempts among trans people.
Transgender people have said bathroom access is one of their “most pressing challenges,†Seelman writes in the study, which was published in February in the Journal of Homosexuality. Trans people have reported getting stared at or being asked to leave, something that causes them “great stress,†according to researchers. Seelman highlights an earlier study of 93 trans people that found 68 percent had been verbally harassed in bathrooms, and 9 percent were physically assaulted. | 1 | [
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FMD3628 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Imagine a world with no boundaries, it is not hard to do, there is even a word for it, globalism.
Recently, in a feverish nightmare, I realized I am a globalist. Ultimately, I do see the world without countries. That is about as much intellectual use as one can glean from John Lennon’s famous song about a hippy commune utopia. He and I, though, are both globalists indeed, at least in a technical sense. I believe that the ultimate goal of humanity should be to live under a global tent in unity with a shared understanding, total integration, and one economy.
I believe in an objective moral truth, that I am certain others agree with when they truly think about it internally. Morality is the foundation of all that is good in the world, and one day it will be the beginning of a global community. So I agree with Hillary Clinton, with Leftists who want open trade and open borders, not only in this hemisphere but worldwide.
I agree that one day, the laws and values I hold, will be the same all over the world. Then all people can come together and live in peace. Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists, and Clinton want this too. Even Adolf Hitler was smart enough to see that there is no utopia where there are still nations with goals that do not perfectly align with each other. Hitler, despite all his obvious flaws and hate, was attempting to shape the world in his image, which he believed would bring peace and prosperity.
Even Adolf Hitler was smart enough to see that there is no utopia, where there are still nations with goals that do not perfectly align with each other. Despite his obvious flaws and hate, he was attempting to shape the world in his image, which he believed would bring peace and prosperity.
People disagree on how to achieve a global society and how it will look. Most agree that Hitler’s means were not justified, and his ends looked a bit too white-washed. Regardless of his disgusting views on how to achieve it, he believed that a society and government focused on globalism was not only achievable but inevitable. So who in their right mind would not want this? – Damned dirty conservatives.
Wait, there are conservatives who might be thinking, “Hey! I want that, too!” Those who prefer peace and accept people of all races and religions. Those who would appreciate the opportunity to visit other lands without the hassles of obtaining a passport and exchanging currency. Why not damned dirty Atheists, or Clinton, or all the other things listed? Because conservatives are mentally defective, obviously. People are even worse than Hitler, in fact, he would have cleansed them at Auschwitz, after the mentally handicapped and just before the Jews and POWs.
People are reactionary, scared of change, of Islam and homosexuals, scared of a little competition. They are stupid, too. How stupid? More stupid than Hitler.
Alright, calm down. The truth is, conservatives believe in globalism, too. The problem is, people do not like the means of achieving a global state and asserting a generalized morality, which is the great irony of the age.
Fundamentally, there are two basic ways of achieving a globalism, though it is more of a spectrum: the Force Method and the Hearts and Minds Method. Hitler was obviously an advocate of using force to achieve his goals and it almost worked. The clear weakness of the Force Method is, as one could guess, the force. People do not like to be coerced or threatened into doing something. Even if the moral reasoning is sound, coming at a person and forcing certain values upon them, does not work.
People are resigned to compromise their convictions in order to rule a force-based empire. The Romans had a particular problem forcing the Jewish people to let go of the God of Abraham and bow to the Emperor. So, Rome left them alone, for a time. China currently is trying to rid
China is currently trying to rid their country of Christianity. Some provinces are working harder than others in this attempt. They value not only a secular government but a secular citizenship, yet they are bending their values because Christians are pesky and rebellious. They are finding ways to worship in secret. This is a simple truth in rulership, even in democracies, governments will bend in the ways they have traditionally allocated resources, but in their moral values toward minorities to keep the peace.
There is an objective moral truth, and it will never change. Though people may disagree on some of the nuances. Values change, but morality does not. Murder is wrong, regardless of what the culture says. Real morality is objective, regardless of cultural values.
The Spartans would kill babies they deemed unfit to maintain their ideals of physical prowess. Some will argue against casting judgment, that is wrong, as morality is subjective. Who are humans, to tell a culture how to behave? A culture does not need to be told how to behave to believe their actions are immoral. This is one of the great ironies of America and part of why limiting government is such a foreign concept to some of the nation’s citizens.
A large segment of the American population believes they should not be told how to behave by society. These same people want the government to tell others to bake a cake for people, who they believe are committing an act against God. They are confused between their God and the nation’s encouragement for other nations to become democratic, or when the country intervenes with genocide.
Democracy is encouraged and is proven to give citizens more power and greater stability, which is good for everyone. Encouraging democracy is like a Christian encouraging Christianity. Intervening in genocides or the use of chemical weapons is upholding of ideals most of the world has agreed upon, despite vast differences in religious values.
The group I am referring to are Leftists, not liberals nor democrats in general, specifically Leftists (The alt-right is guilty of this to an extent, too). Their confusion is understandable, though indicative of a lack of thought, at least in this area. This leads them to think the government can intervene whenever they perceive an injustice, they are wronged, or they perceive their world as unfair. They fail to see the market correcting for racism and bigotry, as competition increases.
If the local baker will not bake a cake for a gay wedding. There are plenty of liberal bakers that want more business. Leftists fail to see personal responsibility as a higher moral position than sanctioning abortion. Why advocate for abortion before personal responsibility? That seems incredibly foolish.
The freest countries have been the most disciplined, and the ones that fail give into hedonism and selfishness. Individuality is important, but individuality and selfishness are entirely different things. Individuality is merely recognition that I am an individual with perspectives and desires unrelated to others and I can pursue them so long as I respect others. Selfishness is putting your individualism above a neighbor’s. This is also an ignorant and hypocritical view considering people are forced to apply this morality selectively. However, others choose to apply it when they think a baker should make a cake for someone but ignore it when someone tells them to donate some of their money to pay reparations.
Leftists like the force method, as it applies to their ideals, even when they conflict with basic American ideals written in the Constitution. It is shocking that people believe the Founding Fathers did not know what the future would hold, therefore, their morality and philosophy needs to be adjusted, and must be.
There is nothing new under the sun, every reason society has collapsed are the same ones constantly being fought against in society. Overspending, overextending, underproducing, the breakdown of societal norms in favor of selfish endeavors.
Leftists believe globally, people are beyond these problems. Sometimes I do too, but I recognize that I have been lulled into a false sense of security by the media and the ease with which I have attained creature comforts. Modern life is a struggle, but I do not have to work hard to find a means to put a roof over my head. That roof might not be as great as the American dream described, but it is strong.
The Hearts and Minds Method is much harder to achieve than the Force Method, and that is its biggest weakness. The strength is that convincing someone through reason is a far better way to get them on board with like-minded goals and keep them there. If the Third Reich wore short-sleeved button down shirts, black ties, and black slacks while using unrelenting reason to convince the Jewish people they are a scourge on the world, thus they should all kill themselves, I do not think I would have a problem with Nazism. If they could use irrefutable reason to prove their claims, then sure, but how does one even begin to reason that genocide is okay?
One of the greatest things about the Hearts and Minds Method is that it incentivizes people to act as role models. It is difficult to convince a foreign nation to try democracy when my own democracy is impregnated by a face-hugging creature and is currently in the throws of a painful, internal c-section birth, a la the movie “Aliens.” Democracy is easy to promote when people can see what it has accomplished.
As a young nation, people marveled at American universities and churches and how well established they were. They knew these institutions were the backbone and muscle of the nation, even if they disagreed with Christianity.
Democracies are rather young and do not seem to have as long a lifespan as other governments. Why is holding on to it so hard? Pure democracies and republics do not seem to last as long as kingdoms and empires with oligarchic, plutocratic, monarchic, and dynastic rules. The simple explanation is that in other governments, rulership can drastically shift to hold things together and still adhere to their morality. A king can change his rule to fit his country’s needs and values at the time. Nevertheless, when his son succeeds the throne with entirely new ideas, suddenly ruling with an iron fist, the morality of divine right still holds. A constitution is not quite so malleable. When the constitution fails, the democracy fails.
One would think it would be easier to hold on to democracy in the U.S. Most of the people believe these rights afforded by the Constitution are inalienable, they are rights regardless of whether people adhere to them or not. Americans believe them to be objectively moral. The difficulty is that these rights are unflinching, people are the opposite. When a few stories about horrible mass murderers fill the media, for weeks at a time, people flinch. Everyone knows what it feels like to flinch, but what is it really? It is that momentary lapse in reasoning and sudden reliance on instinct.
In that moment, people are unable to override natural instincts with reason. I can tell someone that I am going to go through the motions of punching them in the face but stop just before hitting them. They can keep telling their body that I will not hit them, however, when I pull back my fist and get ready, the body will start naturally tensing up, and when the punch comes, the body takes over, even though there should be no fear of pain. That is flinching.
So, in moments when Americans are particularly afraid, naturally, morals shift to fit the feeling of the moment. Despite the morality of the Constitution. It is a time to be as unflinching as the Constitution, in order to uphold it. Americans need to trust that these ideals are ultimately in line with the Constitution, even when there are moments in history that it seem to hinder, or it seems the nation has evolved past it.
Based on the relentless history of empires rising and falling, and accurately map out what steps lead to a collapse, it is easy to prove that the rate of failure is directly related to how far the people strayed from the morality established in their youth. Sometimes those moral shifts were rightly made, however, it was made in haste opening the door for exploitation.
For example, I think most agree women and minorities should have the right to vote, so long as they are citizens. Nevertheless, what happened as the country correctly shifted morality to include them as equal voters? Once, the only people allowed to vote were landowners who were white men. Therefore, remove the “white man” part and decide what it means to only let property owners vote. It essentially guarantees that the people at the polls are at least somewhat informed on the issues. They at least understand the topics that will protect their personal assets.
anyone can vote, the uninformed, the infirm, even the dead from time to time. These people are not informed enough or sometimes even capable of making an intelligent choice. Nevertheless, they are bussed to polling stations and encouraged to vote for politicians, regardless of whether those politicians really have their best interests at heart. This is not meant to blame a particular party for this practice, it is merely meant to point out that the exploitation is possible because of a shift in morality. The consequences not fully comprehended, at the time.
It is foolish to have so many people vote, who have little idea what they are actually voting for. I do not advocate taking their votes away. It would be far better to educate people, so they can make informed decisions. Clearly, though, the moral shift toward a greater good, left the door open to exploit America’s election process. This also led to a reduction in the quality of political discourse. It incentivized pandering and dishonest rhetoric.
In the wake of the Great Depression, the United States gave more power to a centralized bank, which the Founding Fathers advised against. After the Cold War, Americans gave the CIA more power than perhaps they should have. In the wake of terrorism, citizens gave up protections for their privacy. Every time the nation is threatened, Constitutional morality is challenged and people flinched, giving up rights or the protection of those rights.
This is how empires begin to crumble, and this is also why conservatism is failing. Conservatives want to conserve ideals but even they sometimes flinch. As these ideals give way to legitimate worries about threats to the American ways of life, conservatives began to look like the group standing in the way of progress. Conservatives have been painted into a corner by the nation’s fears.
How does this make globalists like everyone else? What would the nation look like without all those historical threats to society and subtle shifts in morality? It is pretty simple, people would state their cases with reason. Spread the message by openly debating and convincing people honestly. America would not force these ideals on other nations but openly express the belief that democracy is better. It would be proven through success and testimonies from a citizenship freer than any nation has ever been.
America would remain with the free market economy and intelligently make trade deals that maintain it and be competitive. When another country, like Mexico, failed and wished to model their new government closer to the U.S., the nation would do more business with Mexico. Maybe one day, if ideals aligned close enough, they would ask to come under the Constitution. Again, this is in a perfect world. If the nation could hold it together long enough, the American way of life and governance would spread globally. It would be a glorious world where ability, hard work, and discipline would ensure a better life. Unity would be strong due to naturally aligned morality that came through reason and observation, rather than aggressive annexation and expansion.
Conservatives are indeed globalists, but they want to maintain sovereignty over themselves and will not willingly give that up. Globalism would only be accepted if it came from a mutual respect for American ideals and it came through natural processes of the free market and democratic ways of this nation.
This is by far the hardest government to achieve globally because it has the slowest burn. It necessitates nations advocating it and not actively pursue it. Allow other nations to meet America where it is and choose to be part of it, only if the nation believes they are true. It advocates expansion due to choice, not war. The time involved makes this impossible, yet it is something I still want to strive for. What makes this strategy strong is its moral foundation, what makes it weak is how strictly people must adhere to American ideals from generation to generation in order to achieve it.
That is why conservatives are so fervently fighting for their ideals because they believe this is the how globalism has promise in achieving world peace without becoming tyrannical. Even if American morality is not exactly right, this same strategy, when followed strictly by another nation should convince people to join them because the nation would be convinced rationally they have the better ideas. This is only after America has scrutinized their views meticulously against the Constitution and determined, beyond all doubt, that their way is better. This is the only intellectually honest way to govern, but it is the most difficult. Leftists will never agree to this because their frame of reference is so short-sighted, but more traditional liberals I’m sure can agree with this principle even if they disagree that it is worth following such an ideal so strictly. Leftists seek to destroy this ideal, they may not realize it, but they seek power before identity and control before peace. They are intellectually enemies to the ideals of the Constitution, but they are our brothers and sisters under the Constitution, and reason can win them over.
This is the only intellectually honest way to govern, but it is the most difficult. Leftists will never agree to this because their frame of reference is so short-sighted. More traditional liberals, I am sure can agree with this principle even if they disagree that it is worth following such an ideal so strictly. Leftists seek to destroy this ideal, they may not realize it, but they seek power before identity and control before peace. They are intellectually enemies to the ideals of the Constitution, but they are brothers and sisters under the Constitution, and reason can win them over.
Opinion by Michael Phillips
Image Courtesy of Neil Hester’s Flickr Page global , globalism | 0 | [
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FMD3629 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did a Holocaust Museum Display a Poster Listing 'Early Warning Signs of Fascism'? Claim summaries: The poster was not an exhibit but instead was at one point available in the gift shop of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
contextual information: In January 2017, a photograph appeared to show a poster on display at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., listing off early warning signs of looming fascism: In the US Holocaust Museum.I'm shook. pic.twitter.com/EeuHEXWusE pic.twitter.com/EeuHEXWusE Sarah Rose (@RaRaVibes) January 30, 2017 January 30, 2017 The picture wasshared with criticism of President Donald Trump, as people claimed that his administration had alreadychecked off several of the boxes on the list: shared checked The posteris real, in the sense that it exists in a physical form; however, it was not created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, nor was it on display at one of the museum's exhibits. You can see a price tag in the bottom right corner of the viral image. Sarah Rose, who first shared the photograph on social media, confirmed to us that she took thepicture in the museum's gift shop. We reached out to the USHHM to confirm that it sold a poster showing "early warning signs of fascism," and they told us that themuseum no longer carries theposter. The list was originally created by Laurence Britt in 2003, for an article published by Free Inquiry magazine (a publication for secular humanist commentary and analysis). While subsequent postings of thelist often attribute it to "Dr. Laurence Britt," the author saidthat he was not actually a doctor (nor did he claim to be). Britt himself said that he could be more accuratelydescribed as an amateur historian: Laurence Britt said I've read this thread with interest. For your information I never made a claim that I was a "Dr." Someone on the internet made that ASSUMPTION when they passed on the artice. I am a retired bsunessman with a life long interst in history and current events. I have a personal book collection on these subjects of over 3000 volumes. I've contributed chapters to three books, written another, and am working on a second. I've written aproximately 25 magazine and newespaper articles on political and econmic affairs. I spent about 200 hours researching the fascism article building on a lifetime interst in the subject. My novel, "June , 2004" was written in 1997 and published in 1998. It was a fictional treatment of a future of fascism in America, which has turned out quite predictive of actual events since it was published.Regards, Larry Britt Britt created this list during George W. Bush's tenure as president of the United States. While he did not actually nameBush, he wrotein theoriginal articlethat some of the early warning signs had alreadymanifested in the United States: Does any of this ring alarm bells? Of course not. After all, this is America, officially a democracy with the rule of law, a constitution, a free press, honest elections, and a well-informed public constantly being put on guard against evils. Historical comparisons like these are just exercises in verbal gymnastics. Maybe, maybe not. While the text in the image is difficult to read, another version of theposter sold bySyracuse Cultural Workers carries the same (more legible) disclaimer: Syracuse Cultural Workers Laurence W. Britt wrote about the common signs of fascism in April 2003, after researching seven fascists regimes. Those were Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, Benito Mussolini's Italy, Francisco Franco's Spain, Antontio de Oliveira Salazar's Portual, George Papadopoulos's Greece, August Pinochet's Chile, Mohamed Suharto's Indonesia. These signs resonate with the political and economic direction of the United states under Bush/Cheney. Get involved in reversing this anti-democratic direction while you still can! While it is true that this poster exists, it was not displayedtheUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and has since been removed from its gift shop. Riese, Monica. "Holocaust Museum Poster on 'Warning Signs of Fascism' Goes Viral." The Daily Dot. 30 January 2017. Britt, Lawrence. "Fascism Anyone?" Free Inquiry. 31 March 2003. The Right Stuff. "14 Warning Signs of Nothing in Particular." 22 January 2014. | 2 | [
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] | 2 |
FMD3630 | 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 Carl Nassib a Registered Republican Voter? Claim summaries: After Nassib made history as the first openly gay active NFL player in June 2021, attention quickly turned to his political affiliations.
contextual information: In June 2021, Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib came out as gay, making history as the first openly gay active NFL player. Given the high-profile nature of his announcement, it was perhaps unsurprising that the episode quickly turned political, with claims that Nassib is registered to vote as a Republican. came out as gay On June 22, for example, right-wing activist Brigitte Gabriel tweeted: tweeted "FUN FACT: The first openly gay active NFL player, Carl Nassib, is a registered Republican voter." Some left-leaning and LGBTQ observers expressed disappointment at such claims, and others posted what appeared to be screenshots of voter registration details relating to Nassib. expressed disappointment at such claims others posted In general, readers should be wary of claims about a specific individual's party affiliation and voter registration, which often crop up in the aftermath of arrests, scandals and other controversies. Links and screenshots purporting to contain such details often come from unofficial and unreliable sources. often crop up aftermath It should also be noted that Nassib's personal political beliefs and party affiliation are of no inherent interest to the writers and editors at Snopes, and that this fact check is simply in response to widespread and substantive factual claims about a public figure currently in the news. In any event, Snopes has checked official, reliable voter registration data from Nevada and Florida, and can confirm that Nassib is indeed registered to vote as a Republican, and has been in at least two states, since May 2019 at the latest. We are therefore issuing a rating of Nassib joined the Raiders in March 2020, and lives in Las Vegas. On June 23, Snopes downloaded voter rolls from the 16th state assembly district, from the official website of Clark County, Nevada. official website That database contains an entry for Carl Paul Nassib, born in 1993, with an address in Las Vegas, and shows that he is an active voter who registered as a Republican on Nov. 3, 2020 the date of the most recent general election. In the screenshot below, we have redacted certain columns which, although public record, contained personal details including Nassib's home address: Before joining the Raiders, Nassib played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and lived in Hillsborough County, Florida. We checked registration information on the official website of the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections, and found that Nassib registered as a Republican there on May 15, 2019. We have redacted Nassib's voter registration number, as well as his residential and permanent addresses, from the screenshot below: official website Before joining the Buccaneers, Nassib played for the Cleveland Browns. Information found on the official website of the Medina County Board of Elections showed that he voted there in the 2016 general election, on Nov. 8, but did not indicate his party affiliation at that time, if any. official website As we have shown, Nassib has been registered as a Republican in two different states Florida and Nevada since May 2019 at the latest, and he was registered as a Republican for the most recent general election, in November 2020. The claim that Nassib is registered to vote, as a Republican, is therefore undoubtedly accurate, as of June 2021. | 1 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 1 |
FMD3631 | 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 Pic of Antelope With Spiderweb Between Its Horns Real? Claim summaries: A spider's home is where the heart is.
contextual information: In March 2021, a photograph supposedly showing an antelope with a large spiderweb between its horns started to circulate on social media: These are genuine photographs of a gemsbok, a large antelope that lives in South Africa, with spiderwebs between its horns. photographs These photographs were taken by Dr. Jess Isden, a research associate with the animal conservation group WildCRU, during a safari at the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana. Isden originally shared these pictures to "The Spider Club of Southern Africa" Facebook page in an attempt to find more information about what sort of spider would make this web. While we still don't know the type of spider some users suggested it could be a golden orb spider Isden's post did provide some additional information about these photographs. Isden wrote: At first I thought the gemsbok must have walked through the web, but on closer inspection it was clear that it was much more intricate than that, and there were living spiders in the webs too. Seen on several animals. They could have easily wiped the webs off their face and horns, yet seem to tolerate it. We also saw the same animal multiple times over 4 days with the web still intact! Seen in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana. This is not the first time a spider has chosen an animal's horns or antlers for placement of a web. Photographer Frank Solomon has also captured pictures showing spiderwebs between an animals antlers. You can see those images here. Below is a a photograph from wildlife photographer Hector Astorga: here Correction [30 March 2021]: Previous version of this article mistakenly said "antlers" instead of horns.
| 1 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 1 |
FMD3632 | 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 Kohl's providing $250 vouchers to individuals on social media platforms? Claim summaries: Coupon scams are pervasive on social media.
contextual information: In April 2020, a coupon purporting to offer $250 in merchandise from the Kohl's department store circulated in Facebook posts directing viewers to click on a survey question: This was a scam. Such efforts that trick viewers by offering free goods or money are long-standing. Kohl's is also a frequent target of such scams, but this fraud can target any business, from airlines to beer makers. A good rule of thumb to follow: If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. also frequent any airlines beer makers These types of viral "coupon" scams often involve websites and social media pages set up to mimic those of legitimate companies. Users who respond to those fake offers are required to share a website link or social media post in order to spread the scam more widely and lure in additional victims. Then those users are presented with a survey that extracts personal information such as email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and even sometimes credit card numbers. Finally, those who want to claim their "free" gift cards or coupons eventually learn they must first sign up to purchase a number of costly goods, services, or subscriptions. Despite the latest coupon scam above, Kohl's was indeed celebrating its 57th year as a department store, as of September 2019. It opened its first store in Brookfield, Wisconsin, according to company literature. In 2016, a variation of the same type of scam circulated, offering viewers $75 off purchases. literature variation The Better Business Bureau offers consumers several general tips to avoid getting scammed: offers consumers WHP. "Scam Alert: Kohl's $75 Off Coupon Is Too Good to Be True."
24 May 2016. Better Business Bureau. "Scam Alert: Giveaway Scam Poses as Facebook."
14 April 2017. | 0 | [
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"1",
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] | 0 |
FMD3633 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Brave White House press secretary Sean Spicer had an odd appropriate reaction after his boss abruptly fired the man who was leading an investigation into his administration s ties to Russia. Spicer had just finished a brief interview with Fox Business from the White House grounds late Tuesday night then he took cover in the bushes to avoid questions, according to The Washington Post. Spicer huddled with his staff behind a tall hedge. To get back to his office, Spicer would have to pass a swarm of reporters wanting to know why Trump abruptly fired FBI director James Comey.The White House press secretary had to get back to his office somehow but to do that he needed to pass a swarm of reporters.Spicer and his staff turned themselves into pretzels for hours in an attempt to defend Trump s bizarre decision to fire Comey.The Washington Post reports:Spicer had wanted to drop the bombshell news in an emailed statement, but it was not transmitting quickly enough, so he ended up standing in the doorway of the press office around 5:40 p.m. and shouting a statement to reporters who happened to be nearby. He then vanished, with his staff locking the door leading to his office. The press staff said that Spicer might do a briefing, then announced that he definitely wouldn t say anything more that night. But as Democrats and Republicans began to criticize and question the firing with increasing levels of alarm, Spicer and two prominent spokeswomen were suddenly speed-walking up the White House drive to defend the president on CNN, Fox News and Fox Business.Between appearances, Spicer spent several minutes hidden in the bushes, as one does when their boss is totally not guilty. Janet Montesi, an executive assistant in the press office, emerged from the bushes (and this does not look suspicious at all) and told reporters that Spicer would answer some questions, as long as they did not film him. That s when Spicer came out of his safe place to face questions from reporters. Just turn the lights off. Turn the lights off, Spicer demanded. We ll take care of this. Can you just turn that light off? Spicer s wish was granted and he found himself standing in near darkness between two tall hedges, with more than a dozen reporters closely gathered around him. For 10 minutes, he responded to a flurry of questions.Spicer had to answer questions as he stammered and hemmed and hawed. Spicer was asked when Trump and Comey spoke? last. Uh, I don t know. I don t know. There s some I don t know. I don t know, he said.Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images. | 0 | [
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"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
FMD3634 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: LISTEN TO THIS WOMEN SPEAK OF VOTING RIGHTS LIKE IT S 1960. WE DO NOT HAVE A VOTING RIGHTS PROBLEM. LYNCH THEN SPEAKS ABOUT GOING INTO THE SCHOOLS AND CHANGING THE DISCIPLINE FOR MINORITIES VS WHITES SHE S THE ONE WHO DECIDED THE MINORITIES NEEDED TO HAVE LESS PUNISHMENT SIMPLY BECAUSE THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN. UNREAL! A Republican-controlled U.S. Senate voted to confirm an attorney general today who says that illegal aliens have a right to work in the United States but that partially born babies do not have a right to life.The Senate took two votes on the nomination of Loretta Lynch: first, a cloture vote to end debate and allow a final vote on confirmation, and, then, the final vote itself.Neither of these votes would have taken place had not Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell not brought her nomination to the floor for consideration. Thanks to a change in the interpretation of Senate Rule XXII that he Democratic leadership pushed through in 2013, only 50 votes (as opposed the historical 60) was needed to invoke cloture and end debate on the nomination. In fact, 66 senators voted for cloture including 20 Republicans.Lynch, who has been serving as U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York, then won confirmation as attorney general of the United States by a vote of 56 to 43. Nine Senate Republicans voted to confirm her.At a confirmation hearing in January, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R.-Ala.) asked Lynch: Who has more right to a job in this country? A lawful immigrant who s here, a green-card holder, or a citizen, or a person who entered this country unlawfully? Well, Senator, said Lynch, I believe that the right and the obligation to work is one that s shared by everyone in this country regardless of how they came here. And certainly, if someone s here, regardless of status, I would prefer that they be participating in the workplace than not participating in the workplace. Under the laws of the United States, which as attorney general Lynch will be responsible for enforcing, foreign nationals illegally present in the United States are not permitted to work here.In 2006, Lynch joined with a group of fellow former U.S. attorneys in signing an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart, which sought to overturn the law that Congress enacted in 2003 that bans partial-birth abortion in the United States. Arguing that the ban should be overturned and partial-birth abortions permitted Lynch and her fellow former U.S. attorneys said that the language of the law, including the term living fetus, was too vague to be properly understood by those responsible for obeying it and enforcing it. Furthermore, said the brief Lynch signed, the ban s specific provisions, such as the phrase living fetus, are hopelessly vague as a legal proscription. It is unclear, she and the others said, whether a living fetus must be intact. A physician or prosecutor could not possibly know whether a given overt act kill -ed the fetus under the ban without having a clear definition of living,' wrote Lynch and her fellow defenders of legalized partial-birth abortion.In a 5-4 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court rejected the argument that Lynch had made. The act is not vague, said the court.In its opinion, the court quoted the description of a partial-birth abortion given by a nurse who assisted in one.The doctor, said this nurse (according to the U.S. Supreme Court), went in with forceps and grabbed the baby s legs and pulled them down into the birth canal. Then he delivered the baby s body and the arms everything but the head. The doctor kept the head inside the uterus. The baby s little fingers were clasping and unclasping, and his little feet were kicking, said the nurse. Then the doctor stuck the scissors in the back of his head, and the baby s arms jerked out, like a startle reaction, like a flinch, like a baby does when he thinks he is going to fall. The doctor opened up the scissors, stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening, and sucked the baby s brains out, said the nurse. Not the baby went completely limp. He cut the umbilical cord, the nurse said of the doctor who had just sucked out the baby s brains. He threw the baby in a pan, along with the placenta and the instruments he had just used. At her confirmation hearing, Lynch affirmed that she had signed on to the amicus brief opposing the ban on partial-birth abortion, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.-S.C.) told her that that did not disqualify her from serving as attorney general. In 2006, you signed an amicus brief supporting Planned Parenthood s opposition to [the] partial-birth abortion ban. Is that correct? asked Graham. Yes, said Lynch. I was one of a number of former Justice Department officials [who signed it]. Although, the amicus brief that we signed was focused on the issue of the facial issues of the law, and how it might impact the perception of law enforcement s discretion and independence, she said. The only reason I mentioned that, said Graham, is that if there s a Republican president in the future, an attorney general nominee takes an opposite view on an issue like abortion, I hope our friends on the other side will acknowledge it s OK to be an advocate for a cause, as their lawyer. That doesn t disqualify you from serving. The 20 Republicans who voted to move forward on a vote with Lynch s nomination by voting for cloture included: Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Susan Collins of Maine, Bob Corker of Tennessee, John Cornyn of Texas, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Rob Portman of Ohio, Pat Roberts of Kansas, Rounds of Kansas, John Thune of South Dakota, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.In the 56 to 43 confirmation vote, 10 Republicans voted for Lynch. They included: Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Rob Portman of Ohio.Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas opposed the confirmation of Lynch, spoke against her confirmation on the Senate floor, and voted against cloture. But then he did not cast a vote on her final confirmation. His office did not immediately respond to inquiries about why he did not vote.Via: CNS | 0 | [
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"2"
] | 0 |
FMD3635 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A senior White House aide said on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump would demand steps toward repealing Obamacare in any healthcare legislation, comments that cast doubt on the prospects for a short-term bill to shore up insurance markets. Marc Short, the White House’s top liaison to Congress, said on CNN that Obamacare’s mandates and taxes would have to be rolled back and consumers be allowed to more heavily invest in health-savings accounts for Trump to sign off on any congressional deal. “We’re willing to work on this but we need to make sure that we’re getting something that will actually reduce healthcare costs,†Short said. Republican Senator Lamar Alexander and Democratic Senator Patty Murray unveiled legislation to shore up the insurance markets created under the 2010 healthcare law by reviving the subsidies, which Trump has discontinued, for two years to help lower-income Americans obtain medical coverage. The bill appeared to be gaining some momentum on Thursday after several Republican senators said they would support the measure. But Short’s comments may put a damper on hopes for any sort of bipartisan agreement. Democrats have consistently opposed efforts to dismantle any and all parts of Obamacare. Short said the administration was sending a list of the principles it would like to see in any legislation to the bill’s co-authors and would likely make them public. “The gist is we believe that the individual mandate should (be) repealed, employer mandate repealed and allow Americans to contribute to health savings accounts,†he said. Earlier on Thursday, Alexander and Murray said the deal they struck now has the support of 12 of the 52 Republicans in the 100-seat Senate, as well as 12 Democrats. While Alexander predicted in remarks on the Senate floor that the plan “will become law in some fashion before the end of the year,†Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not committed to bringing it to a vote, and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan is against it. Lobbyists and congressional aides closely following the matter said the legislation could make it onto the Senate floor tucked inside a bigger “must-pass†bill that Congress needs to act on in December, such as a broad spending measure to prevent a federal government shutdown. Trump campaigned for the presidency last year promising to get rid of Obamacare, the signature legislative achievement of his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama. But his fellow Republicans who control Congress have failed to repeal and replace the law thanks to deep intra-party divisions. Obamacare, formally called the Affordable Care Act, extended health insurance to 20 million people but Republicans call it government interference in Americans’ healthcare. The law’s individual mandate requires all Americans to purchase health insurance, while its employer mandate requires businesses of a certain size to offer affordable coverage. Trump initially indicated support for the Alexander-Murray agreement but reversed himself, saying on Wednesday “I can never support bailing out†insurers. Senator Mike Rounds, one of the bill’s Republican co-sponsors, said that if Trump decides he does not support it, “then it will not go forward.†When a reporter noted that Trump does oppose it, Rounds replied, “That was yesterday.†Gabelli Funds portfolio manager Jeff Jonas, who focuses on healthcare, said there was too much political uncertainty for investors to latch onto any one thing, with Trump “flip-flopping every day†and Ryan not supportive of the bill. Among hospital stocks, Community Health Systems (CYH.N) closed up 3.7 percent, Tenet Healthcare Corp (THC.N) rose 2.9 percent and HCA Healthcare Inc (HCA.N) gained 3 percent. Most insurers rose more modestly. Without the subsidies, insurance premiums for some of the 10 million Americans who get coverage through Obamacare markets will surge. Noting that some conservative Republicans object to the subsidies, Alexander asked, “What’s conservative about creating chaos so millions can’t buy insurance, or at least failing to deal with the chaos that has been created?†The bill has broad support among Democrats, but had just seven Republicans on record supporting it only a day earlier. Republican Senators Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham, who co-authored a bill in September to repeal and replace Obamacare that failed to muster enough support, endorsed the bipartisan effort. “We believe we need a package which stabilizes the market in the short term and lays the groundwork for a long-term solution†that would overhaul Obamacare, they said in a joint statement. If passed in December, as opposed to before the Nov. 1 beginning of enrollment for 2018 Obamacare insurance policies, it would be unlikely to affect premiums for next year, meaning its benefits might not be felt until 2019. Insurers have already decided whether to participate in the Obamacare markets and set higher rates to build in the possibility that the subsidies would vanish. Insurers say they do not profit from the subsidies, but pass them on directly to consumers to reduce deductibles, co-payments and other out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income people. The bill would also give more flexibility for states to offer a wider variety of health insurance plans while maintaining the requirement that sick and healthy people be charged the same rates for coverage. Many Senate Republicans are nervous about the prospect of voting on any healthcare measure | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD3636 | 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 the Triton 'Tankless' Scuba Mask a genuine product or just a concept? Claim summaries: A fund-raising campaign for the Triton mask that will supposedly allowdivers to breathe underwater without the use of air tanks was withdrawn.
contextual information: In November 2013, South Korean designer Jeabyun Yeon unveiled his concept for a "Portal Oxygen Respirator" dubbed Triton, a device that would allow people to breather underwater "simply by biting it," at theSamsung Art and Design Institute (SADI)graduation exhibition: South Korean designer Jeabyun Yeon just unveiled a conceptual scuba mask that would allow divers to breathe underwater without air tanks. The mask, called the Triton, consists of two branching arms designed to serve as "gills" that extract oxygen from the water and deliver breathable air directly into their wearer's lungs. Instead of hauling around heavy scuba equipment, swimmers could simply bite down on a plastic mouth piece. Yeon's concept proved popular, and in March 2014 the web siteInhabitat published an article about the nifty design. Whilethat article correctly described the Triton as a "conceptual scuba mask" and noted that "the design is just a concept" that may "someday be turned into a commercial product," the article'sheadline ("Triton Scuba Mask Transforms Divers into Human Fish") misled some readers into believing that the Triton was a fully developed, workable, real product. headline An IndieGogo page dedicated to raising funds for the project explains how the Triton gills supposedly work: Triton employs cutting-edge technology to produce 'artificial gills'. TheMicroporous Hollow Fiber makesbreathing underwater possible. The holes of the threads are smaller than water molecules, they keepwater out and let oxygen in. The micro compressor then extracts and stores the oxygen allowing youto breathe naturally and revel in your underwater freedom. We are using a very powerful modified micro compressor, it compresses oxygen and stores the extracted oxygen in a storage tank.The micro compressor operates through a powerful modified lithium-ion battery. However, as more skeptical reports have noted, the Triton is far more concept than product, and not necessarily a concept that will ever be realizable: skeptical I'm not sold on the Triton. My biggest issue with it is that it would just have to filter so much water to provide all the oxygen a human needs for a single breath. The average human need 500mls of air with every breath; going in, the air has a 21% oxygen concentration and a 16% concentration coming out, for a total of ~25mls of oxygen intake with every breath. Scientific literature places the concentration of oxygen at 6mg/L of ocean water so the Triton would have to go through ... about 6L of water for each breath (assuming our lungs can scrub almost all the oxygen in the air which they don't)? I dont really think it can do that. That being said, finding a way to take oxygen out of seawater is a great idea. But Yeon needs to make this thing go through a lot of sea water very fast before it's actually usable for diving Yeonuploaded a videoon 20 February 2016 supposedly showing a working prototype of a set of Triton gills, but given the number of cuts in the video (such that the diver is never seen fully underwater for an extended period of time and could simply be holding his breath), it's not possible to determine if the product shown actually works as claimed: After the release of the promotional video, more articles expressed some of the same doubts about the viability of such a device, and more: articles There are several raised by experts and commentators about the device: 1) The device has to be able to extract enough oxygen from the water to allow you to actually breath. This is possible in theory however as pointed out in an article on Deep Sea News in 2014 (when the device first came to light as a concept) it requires not only an incredibly efficient ability to extract the oxygen which the designers say is down to a new Microporous Hollow Fiber but also water has to be forced through the device at upward of five liters every 15 seconds which could only be achieved with a pump bigger than the whole Triton design. 2) Next is the issue of storing the gas in a chamber this would require a compressor and battery "order of magnitude more efficient than anything on the market today". The makers claim on the website that they have a "very powerful modified micro compressor" but again without any real proof. 3) Let's say theyve managed to crack those two issues the next one is the ability to deliver the oxygen to you in the right amount at the right pressure to be able to breathe. This is possible as we see it in open-circuit Scuba systems and in Closed Circuit Rebreathers however, again, there is no technology on the market right now that can achieve such a feat in such a small design. 4) Finally there is the video, on face value it looks like there is a working unit, however on close inspection you can see that it is made up of several short clips where the person seems to be getting progressively more negatively buoyant (probably due to expelling air from their lungs to create the "bubbles" from the device) and no clip ever shows a person underwater for longer than one minute. As we know from Freediving that is not even a difficult breath-hold for most people. All-in-all the possibility of a device such as Triton is not beyond the realm of possibility at some point; sadly, though, the challenges faced by the designers just do not seem to be reasonably solved with technology available today. The designers would have had to have developed 3 or 4 incredibly efficient and compact new technologies to make this possible. Other commentators began question whether the Indiegogo campaign to fund development of the Triton gill device might not be a scam, given the extreme scientific unlikelihood that such a device could be built with existing technology and the lack of evidence for Triton's having produced anything beyond a mere concept: scam Right now, an Indiegogo campaign for a device that its makers claim is "the future of underwater breathing" is raking in cash more than $600,000 at the time of this post, $100,000 of which poured in over just 24 hours. It's easy to see the appeal of the handheld device, called the "Triton." Diving equipment is heavy and complicated. Meanwhile, the Triton looks seductively simple and the campaign says it "allows you to breathe underwater." But despite the slick crowdfunding campaign, there's no real evidence that this device actually works, multiple experts told Tech Insider. One of them is Neal Pollock, a research associate at the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology at Duke University Medical Center, and the research director for the Divers Alert Network a non-profit organization that helps divers in medical emergencies and promotes dive safety. "In concept it sounds very good and it's very exciting," Pollock tells Tech Insider, but "I would not encourage anyone pulling out a wallet." For the makers of Triton to prove they've invented a device that can actually do what they say it can, Pollock and other experts want to see more evidence; the crowdfunding campaign and Triton website simply don't provide enough to go on. Regardless, Pollock notes the technological challenges involved in creating a device like Triton are so vast that "it's not realistic, it's science fiction." On 1 April 2016, Triton published an update announcing the release of a new video showing the product in action. They also disclosed that the Triton requires the use of 'liquid oxygen' cylinders, and that they had decided to refund the donations of all the backers who had contributed to so far and launch a new campaign: update video Inside of each Triton, the artificial gills utilize liquid oxygen, which combined with the other components allow users to breathe underwater, which you can see in the video above. We will release more information about the liquid oxygen cylinders and safety strap. Note that the liquid oxygen cylinders wont last forever so we plan to make it possible for backers to purchase and exchange cylinders through our website. They will come in packs of 1, 3 and 5, and well list prices as soon as they are finalized. Were also working on a solution to make them refillable. We wanted to share it at the beginning of the campaign but were hesitant because we also wanted to protect our intellectual property. Our success and the positive comments we have received have made it clear that these details are important for our backers to understand. We launched this campaign to build a community of people who are excited to bring Triton to life, and we are committed to making sure our backers feel confident in our efforts. After careful consideration and in light of this new information, we have decided to refund all Triton backers and launch a brand new campaign. | 0 | [
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"2"
] | 0 |
FMD3637 | 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: Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Made with GMO Wheat? Claim summaries: Rumor: Kraft Macaroni & Cheese products carry a warning label due to their use of GMO wheat.
contextual information: Claim: Kraft Macaroni & Cheese products carry a warning label due to their use of GMO wheat. Example: [Collected via e-mail, May 2013] On Facebook, there is a claim that Kraft Mac and cheese imported from the UK had to have a warning label stating that the product may adversely effect activity and attention in children and that it is made from genetically modified wheat. However the claim is unclear as to whether the issue is due to the modified wheat. Origins: In May 2013, an image of an ingredients labels from a package of Kraft brand Mac & Cheese imported to the UK from the U.S. was circulated widely via social media: This image, originally posted to Facebook (without the added text) by Flo Wrightson Cross, who bought the pictured package at a Tesco store in Ponders End, was of particular interest because the "Allergen Information" section of the ingredients label cautioned that "This product may have adverse effect on activity and attention in children" and included a GMO (genetically-modified organism) declaration stating "Made from genetically modified wheat" (may contain GMO)." Flo Wrightson Cross That wording was touted as seemingly confirming the convictions of critics of GMO foods, demonstrating that Kraft uses "illegal GMO wheat" (genetically modified wheat is not currently authorized for planting or commercial sale in any country) and that the government (in the UK, at least, if not yet in the U.S.) has acknowledged the dangers of GMO foods and requires them to be labeled in a way indicating their potential harm to children. However, the legitimacy of the "GMO Declaration" section of the pictured label was highly suspect, if not outright nonsensical. Since GMO wheat is neither legal to grow or sell anywhere, how could Kraft have obtained a supply of that substance to use in manufacturing their Mac & Cheese? And why would Kraft furtively create an illegal product and then openly label it in a way that proclaimed it was illegal? Suspicions about the legitimacy of the label were confirmed by Kraft Foods, who told us that the label did not originate with them and was inaccurate, as neither their Mac & Cheese nor any other Kraft food product contained GMO wheat: Genetically engineered wheat is not available for commercial use. We do not use GE wheat in Mac & Cheese or any other Kraft product. So anyone who is saying or implying there is GE wheat in Kraft Mac & Cheese or any other Kraft product is wrong. We don't export Mac & Cheese to the UK and have no authorized distributor there. The company that has applied this sticker is not authorized by Kraft to sell our products. They are not a customer of Kraft. They are getting the product from someone else and reselling our product in the UK. We're continuing to investigate, but because we are not dealing with authorized distributors of our products, we may not get to the bottom of this issue anytime soon. Additionally, even if the label shown here were genuine, the commonly suggested interpretation of it would still be inaccurate. European Union regulations require foodstuffs containing GMOs to be clearly labeled as "genetically modified" or "produced from genetically modified [ingredients]," but those regulations do not require such products to be tagged with a warning that they "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children." That wording is specific to a different European Union regulation implemented in 2010, one which requires foods containing certain artificial colorings to bear such a warning due to a possible connection between the consumption of those substances and ADHD symptoms in children. regulations regulation colorings The appearance of the statement "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children" on food packaging, therefore,does not reference the putative presence any GMO substances in that product, but rather its inclusion of synthetic food dyes. Food products sold in the U.S. are not required to bear similar labels, as U.S. federal regulatory agencies maintain there is currently insufficient evidence that GMO foods or synthetic dyes pose any health risks to consumers. Although Kraft Macaroni & Cheese products have included the synthetic dyes E102 and E110 (known in the U.S. as Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6), used to impart a bright orange coloring to food, in October 2013 the company announced they would removing those dyes from some of their macaroni and cheese varieties: E102 E110 announced Kraft says it plans to remove artificial dyes from three macaroni and cheese varieties that come in kid-friendly shapes, a move that comes as people increasingly reach for foods they feel are natural. The change doesn't affect Kraft's plain elbow-shaped macaroni and cheese with "original flavor." Kraft's new recipes, which begin shipping early [in 2014], will be for its macaroni and cheese varieties that come in the SpongeBob Squarepants, Halloween and winter shapes. Two new shapes will also be added. Triona Schmelter, Kraft Food Group Inc.'s vice president of marketing for meals, said the company was looking to improve the nutritional profiles of the three macaroni and cheese varieties more broadly. The new recipes will also add whole grains and reduce the amount of sodium and saturated fat, she said. She declined to specify whether Kraft would eventually make similar changes to its other macaroni and cheese lines. But she noted the company already offers options that only use natural colors, such as several of its "Homestyle" varieties. "We'll continue to make improvement where we can," Schmelter said, noting that the company tries to cater to evolving customer preferences. Last updated: 18 March 2015 | 0 | [
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FMD3638 | 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 Kanye West Buy Spotify? Claim summaries: The rapper was rumored to have replaced all music on the platform with his own.
contextual information: On April 1, 2021, a rumor circulated online that billionaire rapper Kanye West bought Spotify, a popular music streaming platform with 155 million subscribers globally. The claim appeared to have originated with an article published by Thissongissick (TSIS), an online blog dedicated to music news. Thissongissick Its official: As of today, the fashion and music mogul has just acquired the ever-popular audio streaming platform, Spotify, wrote the website. Something big like this isnt unpredictable for West, but people are curious about his intentions for buying out Spotify. Screengrab/Thissongissick Thissongissick The article also claimed that the billionaire rapper was going to delete all songs but his own a claim that sparked concern among some of the platforms 345 million active monthly users. Snopes contacted TSIS and Spotify for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication. Even so, we should note that the article was published on April Fools' Day, and news of the buyout did not appear in any other reputable news publications. And a look through the Spotify news releases through April 2 did not reveal an announcement that marked the alleged buyout. April Fools' Day news releases As such, we rate this claim False. According to a statement released by Spotify on March 18, founder Daniel Ek was still the platforms CEO and had been overseeing the audio-streaming subscription service since it was launched in 2006. Spotify is headquartered and legally domiciled in Sweden, and because it is a foreign company, it is not required to disclose the same information as U.S. firms concerning share ownership, reported the financial website Investopedia on Jan. 7. The site noted that the top institutional shareholders of Spotify include Ek, as well as Sven Hans Martin Lorentzon, Baillie Gifford & Co., Morgan Stanley, Tencent Holdings Ltd., and T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. Still, no sign of West. Investopedia And though the Grammy-award-winning musician is indeed a billionaire (though not the richest Black man in American history), his personal fortune caps in around $1.8 billion. As of April 1, Spotify had a market cap valuation of over $52 billion, reported the investment company YCharts. richest Black man in American history YCharts Snopes staff also checked their own Spotify accounts, and found that the usual subscriptions, followers, and playlists were exactly as they should be. | 0 | [
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FMD3639 | 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: Hispanic Leaders Speak Out! Claim summaries: Quotes from various Hispanic leaders and newspaper articles regarding U.S. immigrants
contextual information: Claim: List reproduces quotes from various Hispanic leaders and newspaper articles regarding U.S. immigrants. Example: [Collected via e-mail, April 2006] "You old white people. It is your duty to die." HISPANIC LEADERS SPEAK OUT! Augustin Cebada, Brown Berets; "Go back to Boston! Go back to Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future. You are old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you. Leave like beaten rats. You old white people. It is your duty to die ... Through love of having children, we are going to take over. Richard Alatorre, Los Angeles City Council. "They're afraid we're going to take over the governmental institutions and other institutions. They're right. We will take them over ... We are here to stay." Excelsior, the national newspaper of Mexico, "The American southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot." Professor Jose Angel Gutierrez, University of Texas; "We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. The explosion is in our population ... I love it. They are shitting in their pants with fear. I love it." Art Torres, Chairman of the California Democratic Party, "Remember 187 proposition to deny taxpayer funds for services to non-citizens was the last gasp of white America in California." Gloria Molina, Los Angeles County Supervisor, "We are politicizing every single one of these new citizens that are becoming citizens of this country ... I gotta tell you that a lot of people are saying, 'I'm going to go out there and vote because I want to pay them back.'" Mario Obledo, California Coalition of Hispanic Organizations and California State Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Governor Jerry Brown, also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton, "California is going to be a Hispanic state. Anyone who doesn't like it should leave." Jose Pescador Osuna, Mexican Consul General, "We are practicing 'La Reconquista' in California." Professor Fernando Guerra, Loyola Marymount University; "We need to avoid a white backlash by using codes understood by Latinos ..." Are these just the words of a few extremists? Consider that we could fill many pages with such quotes. Also, consider that these are mainstream Mexican leaders. THE U.S. VS MEXICO: On February 15, 1998, the U.S. and Mexican soccer teams met at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Mexican even though most lived in this country. They booed during the National Anthem, and U.S. flags were held upside down. As the match progressed, supporters of the U.S. team were insulted, pelted with projectiles, punched, and spat upon. Beer and trash were thrown at the U.S. players before and after the match. The coach of the U.S. team, Steve Sampson, said, "This was the most painful experience I have ever had in this profession." Did you know that immigrants from Mexico and other non-European countries can come to this country and get preferences in jobs, education, and government contracts? It's called affirmative action or racial privilege. The Emperor of Japan or the President of Mexico could migrate here and immediately be eligible for special rights unavailable to Americans of European descent. Recently, a vote was taken in the U.S. Congress to end this practice. It was defeated. Every single Democratic senator except Ernest Hollings voted to maintain special privileges for Hispanic, Asian, and African immigrants. They were joined by thirteen Republicans. Bill Clinton and Al Gore have repeatedly stated that they believe that massive immigration from countries like Mexico is good. They have also backed special privileges for these immigrants. Corporate America has signed on to the idea that minorities and third-world immigrants should receive special, privileged status. Some examples are Exxon, Texaco, Merrill Lynch, Boeing, Paine Weber, Starbucks, and many more. DID YOU KNOW? Did you know that Mexico regularly intercedes on the side of the defense in criminal cases involving Mexican nationals? Did you know that Mexico has NEVER extradited a Mexican national accused of murder in the U.S. in spite of agreements to do so? According to the L.A. Times, Orange County, California is home to 275 gangs with 17,000 members; 98% of which are Mexican and Asian. How's your county doing? According to a New York Times article dated May 19, 1994, 20 years after the great influx of legal immigrants from Southeast Asia, 30% are still on welfare compared to 8% of households nationwide. A Wall Street Journal editorial dated December 5, 1994 quotes law enforcement officials as stating that Asian mobsters are the "greatest criminal challenge the country faces." Not bad for a group that is still under 5% of the population. Is education important to you? Here are the words of a teacher who spent over 20 years in the Los Angeles School system. "Imagine teachers in classes containing 30-40 students of widely varying attention spans and motivation, many of whom aren't fluent in English. Educators seek learning materials likely to reach the majority of students, and that means fewer words and math problems and more pictures and multicultural references." WHEN I WAS YOUNG: When I was young, I remember hearing about the immigrants that came through Ellis Island. They wanted to learn English. They wanted to breathe free. They wanted to become Americans. Now too many immigrants come here with demands. They demand to be taught in their own language. They demand special privileges—affirmative action. They demand ethnic studies that glorify their culture. HOW CAN YOU HELP?: Send copies of this letter to at least two other people; 100 would be even better. Help us get the word out. And did you know that at the hospital, these illegals cannot be turned down if they can't pay, and they certainly don't pay? I saw a man on TV who took his Caucasian neighbor to an emergency room. He was slowly bleeding to death, yet he had to wait for three hours for emergency treatment because the staff was busy giving prenatal treatment, cold and flu remedies, aspirin, etc., to illegals who could not speak English. They were all treated for free. When the bleeding Caucasian man's turn finally came, they would not touch him until he proved that he had insurance. Because of the overwhelming number of illegals in this country, this past year alone, 84 hospitals in the Los Angeles area went out of business. If you think there is something seriously sick going on in our country, you had better write a letter to your congressman letting him know how you feel. Soon it will be too late, so you might consider getting a head start and enrolling in a Spanish class. Origins: With immigration reform being one of the hot-button political issues in the U.S. in early 2006, the above-quoted collection of quotes from various Hispanic leaders and newspaper articles regarding U.S. immigrants started circulating widely on the Internet. Even though the issue was timely, this collection was actually compiled several years earlier and references statements made by Californians during 1990 (when immigration reform was also a hot-button political issue in California due to the controversial Proposition 187 ballot measure). Audio clips of many of the quotes reproduced above were collected on a CD offered for sale by the California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR), and we include a link to the relevant clip after the discussion of each item below: immigration reform collection CCIR "Go back to Boston! Go back to Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future. You are old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you. Leave like beaten rats. You old white people. It is your duty to die ... Through love of having children, we are going to take over." This is an excerpt from a statement by Augustin Cebada of the Brown Berets de Aztlán, a paramilitary offshoot of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA), delivered during a Fourth of July rally held outside the Federal Building in Westwood, California, in 1996: Brown Berets We're here today to show L.A., show the minority people here, the Anglo-Saxons, that we are here, the majority, we're here to stay. We do the work in this city, we take care of the spoiled brat children, we clean their offices, we pick the food, we do the manufacturing in the factories of L.A., we are the majority here, and we are not going to be pushed around. We're here in Westwood; this is the fourth time we've been here in the last two months, to show white Anglo-Saxon Protestant L.A., the few of you who remain, that we are the majority, and we claim this land as ours, it's always been ours, and we're still here, and uh, none of this talk about deporting. If anybody's going to be deported, it's going to be you. [SHOUTING] Go back to Simi Valley, you skunks! Go back to Woodland Hills! Go back to Boston! Go back to the Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future. You're old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you; leave like beaten rats. You old white people, it is your duty to die. Even their own ethicists say that they should die; that they have a duty to die. They're taking up too much space, too much air. We are the majority in L.A. There's over seven million Mexicans in L.A. County alone. We are the majority. And you're going to see every day more and more of it, as we ... we manifest as our young people grow up, graduate from high school, go on to college, and start taking over this society. Our people ... are ... the vast majority of our people are under the age of 15 years old. Right now we're already controlling those elections, whether it's through violence or nonviolence. Through love of having children, we are gonna take over. [Audio link] Audio link "They're afraid we're going to take over the governmental institutions and other institutions. They're right. We will take them over ... We are here to stay." This is an excerpt from a statement made by Richard Alatorre (then a member of the Los Angeles City Council) at a Latino summit conference in Los Angeles in September 1996, about the upcoming Proposition 209 ballot measure, which sought to prohibit governmental agencies in California from "discriminating against or giving preferential treatment to any individual or group in public employment ... on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin" (also known as the "end of affirmative action" proposition): Proposition 209 Because our numbers are growing, they're afraid about this great mass of minorities that now live in our community. They're afraid that we're going to take over the governmental institutions and other institutions. They are right, we will take them over, and we are not going to go away—we are here to stay, and we are saying 'ya basta' (enough!) and we are going to turn ... and uh, de ... not elect or re-elect people that believe that they are going to advance their political careers on the backs of immigrants and the backs of minorities. [Audio link] Audio link (NOTES: Richard Alatorre served in the California State Assembly from 1973 to 1985 and was a member of the Los Angeles City Council from 1985 to 1999. He was twice fined for violating conflict of interest provisions while a council member, and in 2001 he agreed to plead guilty to a federal criminal charge of felony tax evasion, admitting that "he failed to report to the Internal Revenue Service nearly $42,000 in cash he received from individuals attempting to influence [him] in his official duties." Proposition 209 was passed by 54% of California voters in November 1996.) fined tax evasion "The American southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot." We haven't been able to verify this quote (or find the context) for this statement purportedly taken from Excélsior, a Mexico City newspaper. Excélsior "We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. The explosion is in our population ... I love it. They are shitting in their pants with fear. I love it." This is an excerpt from a statement by José Angel Gutiérrez, then an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Arlington (and a former leader of the La Raza Unida political party) at a Latino conference held at the University of California, Riverside on 14 January 1995, regarding the effects of California's recently-passed Proposition 187 ballot measure (which sought to bar illegal immigrants from public education and other social services provided by the state): Associate Professor of Political Science La Raza Unida Proposition 187 The border remains a military zone. We remain a hunted people. Now you think you have a destiny to fulfill in this land that historically has been ours for forty thousand years, and we're a new Mestizo nation. And they want us to discuss civil rights. Civil rights! What law made by white men to oppress all of us of color, female and male! This is our homeland. We cannot, we will not, and we must not be made illegal in our own homeland. We are not im-mi-grants that came from another country to another country; we are migrants, free to travel the length and breadth of the Americas because we belong here. We are millions. We just have to survive. We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. It's a matter of time. [laughter] The explosion is in our population. [Audio link] Audio link (NOTE: We haven't been able to verify the last portion of Professor Gutiérrez's statement, about white America "shitting in their pants with fear," as it does not appear in the audio clip provided. The constitutionality of Proposition 187 was challenged within days of its passage, and most of its provisions were eventually voided.) "Remember 187 (proposition to deny taxpayer funds for services to non-citizens) was the last gasp of white America in California." This is a sentence taken from a statement given by Art Torres, a former California State Assembly member and State Senator, at the UC Riverside conference referenced above: Art Torres It is an honor to be with the new leadership of the Americas, here meeting at UC Riverside. So with 187 on the ballot, what is it going to take for our people to vote, to see us walking into the gas ovens? It is electoral power that is going to make the determination of where we go as a community. And power is not given to you; you have to take it. Remember: 187 is the last gasp of white America in California. Understand that. And people say to me on the Senate floor when I was in the Senate, 'Why do you fight so hard for affirmative action programs?' And I tell my white colleagues, 'because you're going to need them' [laughter]. [Audio link] Audio link (NOTE: A month after making this statement, Art Torres was appointed Chairman of the California Democratic Party, a position he held until 2009.) "We are politicizing every single one of these new citizens that are becoming citizens of this country ... I gotta tell you that a lot of people are saying, 'I'm going to go out there and vote because I want to pay them back.'" This is an excerpt from a statement made by Gloria Molina, a Los Angeles County Supervisor, at a Southwest Voter Registration Project (SVREP) rally in June 1996: Gloria Molina SVREP Tonight Latinos across this country are coming together and they are shouting one thing: we are united. And we are united because we want to demand the kind of political respect that we should have. We demand to be counted. And what we know as well is that the big giant that they keep talking about is awakening. And he's pretty angry about what's going on. Ya basta! (enough). This community is no longer going to stand for it. Because tonight we are organizing across this country in a single mission, in a plan. We are going to organize like we've never organized before. We are going to go into our neighborhoods. We are going to register voters. We are going to talk to all of those young people that need to become registered voters and go out to vote, and we are politicizing every single one of those new citizens that are becoming citizens of this country. And, what we are saying is by November we will have one million additional Latino voters in this country, and we're gonna march ... and our vote is going to be important. But I gotta tell you, there's a lot of people that are saying, 'I'm gonna go out there and vote because I want to pay them back!' And this November, we are going to remember those that stood with us and we are also going to remember those that have stood against us on the issues of immigration, on the issues of education, on the issues of health care, on the issues of the minimum wage. [Audio link] Audio link "California is going to be a Hispanic state. Anyone who doesn't like it should leave." Mario Obledo was a co-founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) and the La Raza Lawyers of California bar association, and he formerly served as California's Secretary of Health and Welfare. We don't know exactly when and where he first made his controversial statement about California's becoming a "Hispanic state," but he has confirmed he said it at least twice: during an appearance on Ray Briem's talk radio show in May or June of 1998, and again on Tom Leykis' talk radio show: MALDEF La Raza Lawyers appearance again Obledo: "We're going to take over all the political institutions of California. In five years the Hispanics are going to be the majority population of this state." Caller: "You also made the statement that California is going to become a Hispanic state, and if anyone doesn't like it, they should leave. Did you say that?" Obledo: "I did. They ought to go back to Europe." "We are practicing 'La Reconquista' in California." "La Reconquista" (Spanish for "the reconquest") is a term that has historically been applied to the process whereby Christians recaptured rule over the Iberian Peninsula from Muslims between 718 and 1492. The term's appearance in the quote above reflects a modern political usage that refers to the retaking of portions of the U.S. Southwest that were once part of Mexico. The above-quoted sentence is attributed to José Pescador Osuna, the Mexican consul general in Los Angeles. We haven't been able to verify when and in what context he supposedly said it, but it is widely cited as the end portion of a statement he made in 1998: "Even though I'm saying this part serious and part joking, I believe we are practicing 'La Reconquista' in California." "We need to avoid a white backlash by using codes understood by Latinos." This sentence is attributed to Fernando J. Guerra, Ph.D., an Associate Professor in the Department of Chicano Studies and Political Science at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. We haven't been able to verify when and in what context he supposedly said it, other than to note that the words are part of a longer statement also widely attributed to him: "We need to avoid a white backlash by using codes understood by Latinos ... non-Latinos aren't watching; they aren't raising questions." Fernando J. Guerra On February 15, 1998, the U.S. and Mexican soccer teams met at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Mexican even though most lived in this country. They booed during the National Anthem, and U.S. flags were held upside down. As the match progressed, supporters of the U.S. team were insulted, pelted with projectiles, punched, and spat upon. Beer and trash were thrown at the U.S. players before and after the match. The coach of the U.S. team, Steve Sampson, said, "This was the most painful experience I have ever had in this profession." On February 15, 1998, Mexico's national soccer team scored a 1-0 victory over the United States team in the CONCACAF Gold Cup championship game before a crowd of 91,255 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. News accounts of the match noted that some of the large number of fans who turned out to root for the Mexican team whistled during the playing of the U.S. national anthem, booed the U.S. team, and threw debris at U.S. players: The pro-Mexican throng that filled the entire Coliseum—including areas without seats because of construction—booed the Americans and showered them with debris on several occasions. "It seemed like we were playing in Mexico City," said U.S. forward Preki, a native of Yugoslavia who gained his U.S. citizenship on October 25, 1996. "When we played down there in Mexico City, the crowd wasn't as bad as it was here. I think that was a shame. "When they were playing the United States (national) anthem, all these people were whistling (the international version of booing). I assume all these people are living in the states. I think they should respect the national anthem." Did you know that Mexico has NEVER extradited a Mexican national accused of murder in the U.S. in spite of agreements to do so? This absolute is not true. In December 2005, the Mexican government extradited Raul Gomez Garcia to the U.S. to stand trial in Colorado for the murder of Denver Police Officer Donald Young and the attempted murder of Officer John Bishop. According to a New York Times article dated May 19, 1994, 20 years after the great influx of legal immigrants from Southeast Asia, 30% are still on welfare compared to 8% of households nationwide. The original piece skips a gear here, as the preceding statement refers to immigration from Southeast Asia, not Mexico: This information was indeed taken from the beginning of a front-page May 19, 1994 New York Times article: Nearly 20 years after the end of the war in Southeast Asia brought thousands of Cambodians, Laotians, and Vietnamese refugees to this country, many still languish in poverty, giving Southeast Asians the highest rate of welfare dependency of any racial or ethnic group. More than 30 percent of all Southeast Asian households in the nation now depend on welfare for survival, according to a report on the economic diversity of Asian-Americans released Wednesday in Washington. Among some groups, like Cambodians and Laotians in California, the percentage of those on welfare reaches 77 percent. Nationwide, only 8 percent of households received public assistance in 1991. Still, Southeast Asians account for a small fraction of the welfare budget. Of the one million here, about 300,000 receive public aid, making up about 2 percent of the total welfare population. In addition to highlighting the poverty of Southeast Asians here, the report seeks to add depth to the nation's often two-dimensional picture of Asian-Americans, who are the fastest-growing segment of the population. Their numbers have risen from 1.4 million in 1960 to more than 7 million in 1990, or 3 percent of the nation's total. A Wall Street Journal editorial dated December 5, 1994 quotes law enforcement officials as stating that Asian mobsters are the "greatest criminal challenge the country faces." Not bad for a group that is still under 5% of the population. The previous statement also references Asian immigrants and appeared in a December 5, 1994 Wall Street Journal editorial about the growth of Asian criminal gangs: Triads, Asia's famous criminal gangs, may always be with us, but right now they seem to be posing special worries for the world's crime busters. With China opening up, gangs from Hong Kong and Taiwan are re-establishing themselves on the mainland. In turn, these gangs are largely responsible for directing a massive illegal emigration of Chinese citizens to every corner of the globe. Technology and the seamlessness of the global economy seem to give these crime groups a power and impunity that they never had before. The potential is alarming, as was made clear by speakers at the recent meeting of top law officers from around the world in Naples. Now even Beijing's Justice Minister Xiao Yang is decrying the triads as a threat to the mainland's "social stability." In the U.S., law enforcement officials have started calling Asian mobsters the greatest criminal challenge the country faces. Taiwanese gangs, such as United Bamboo and the Four Seas Gang, are believed to mastermind the flow of refined heroin into America and other Western countries. "Operation Dry Dock," a U.S.-mounted sting, revealed that Taiwanese crooks were also behind the worldwide, $3.5 billion-a-year business of smuggling people out of the mainland. Even Moscow now has an estimated 50,000 illegal Chinese residents. (As noted in the New York Times piece cited above, in 1990 Asian-Americans comprised about 3% of the total U.S. population.) Last updated: May 24, 2010 Ramus, Richard. "Mexico Has Road-Field Advantage." The [Riverside] Press Enterprise. February 16, 1998 (p. D1). The Wall Street Journal. "Global Gangs." December 5, 1994 (p. A14). | 2 | [
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FMD3640 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Viola Davis said that the issue of racial tensions in America now that Donald Trump has been elected really boils down to one fundamental question, which has more to do with who we are as a nation than who Trump is as a person.Speaking backstage at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, Davis was asked how we can ensure that the progress made over the years, especially in regards to racial tensions, isn t lost under a Trump presidency. Her response was spot on.Davis said that she would begin her answer by removing Trump from the equation. She went on to explain that it s bigger than him. I believe that it is our responsibility to uphold what it is to be an American and what America is about and what the true meaning of what it means to pursue the American dream. I think that America in and of itself has been an affirmation, But I think that we have fallen short a lot, Davis said. Because, there is no way that we can have anyone in office that is not an extension of our own belief system. So then what does that say about us? And I think that, if you answer that question, I think that that says it all. So just what does Trump s election say about America? It s a question that leads to some very uncomfortable answers.Watch Davis insightful interview, here:.@ViolaDavis was just asked about Donald Trump s presidency backstage. Watch her response #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/Yrj9Rv8So0 Variety (@Variety) January 9, 2017Featured image via Kevin Winter/Getty Images | 0 | [
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FMD3641 | 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: Right now, America has $1.1 trillion of student debt. Thats more than credit card debt.
contextual information: Sen. Mark Warners re-election stump speech dwells on giving everyone an equal opportunity and high on that list is an affordable college education. Warner and many of his fellow Democrats have called for legislation that would ease student debt by allowing students to refinance their federal college loans at substantially lower interest rates and limit their loan repayments to 10 percent of their annual income. President Barack Obama endorsed those measures during a speech Monday.. Warner, during a recent speech of his own,said, Right now, America has $1.1 trillion of student debt. Thats more than credit card debt. This statistic caught our attention, so we put it to the Truth-O-Meter. David Turner, spokesman for Warners campaign, backed up the statement by sending us aspeechby an official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau anddatafrom the Federal Reserve System. Both of those sources say that student debt has topped $1 trillion and the speech noted that it had surpassed credit cards. But the best data comes from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which publishesdebt statisticsevery quarter. In the most recent report, covering first three months of 2014, student loan debt totaled $1.1 trillion, while credit card debt hit $659 billion. The largest type of debt for Americans is mortgages, which came in at $8.2 trillion in the first quarter. Student loan debt is No. 2, followed by automobile loans at $875 billion and credit card debt in making up $11.7 trillion in all debt. Student debt began to outpace credit card debt in the second quarter of 2010, when college loans hit $762 billion. Student debt topped the $1 trillion mark in the third quarter of last year. Average tuition across the nation increased 79.5 percent from 2003-2013, according todatafrom the U.S. Labor Department. For comparison, the Consumer Price Index grew by26.7percent during the same span and average wages grew by30.1percent. Credit card debt, by contrast, has gradually fallen from $843 billion in early 2009 to its $659 billion level this year. Much of the decrease occurred during the recession when people cut back on spending. But the recession exacerbated college debts, according to Caroline Ratcliffe, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. She cited two reasons: You have to remember that during the time of the Great Recession, more people were going back to school because of the job situation, so they were taking on more debt, she said. Astudyshe co-wrote tackled the demographics of people with student loan debt. It found that student loan debt, for those ages 29 to 37, had increased by $10,381 on average from 1989 to 2010, while car loans had increased $302, credit card debt had increased $1,215 and other debt had decreased $2,078. In 2012, 40 percent of Americans in their 20s had student debt, 30 percent in their 30s owed on student loans, 19 percent of Americans in their 40s, 12 percent in their 50s and 4 percent in their 60s. This included students and parents who borrowed to send their children to college. Our ruling Warner said, Right now, America has $1.1 trillion of student debt. Thats more than credit card debt. His figure on student debt is accurate and total U.S. credit card debt in the first quarter of this year was $659 billion. We rate Warners statement True. | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD3642 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: There are conflicting reports about why the outrageous Omarosa Manigault Newman is leaving her undefined job at the White House. It was first reported that she was escorted out of the White House by Secret Service after General Kelly had enough of her nonsense, and fired her. Omarosa appeared on Good Morning America the following day to refute those claims, saying she resigned from her job and was not fired or escorted out of the White House as reported. So who is Omarosa, and why is she such a polarizing figure? Does this 2006 video that just emerged offer any clues?A pop-culture polymath sent Page Six a link to Soul Sistahs, an ultra-camp, hyper-kitsch, uber-low-budget 10-minute sci-fi short film.While the plot is virtually incomprehensible, as far as we can tell it focuses on an intergalactic yenta in a housecoat who kidnaps Omarosa in an attempt to steal Donald Trump s hair as part of a difficult-to-understand get-rich-quick scheme.The mini-flick was made back in 2006 two years after Omarosa shot to fame on Trump s NBC show The Apprentice. In this vaguely Barbarella -inspired work, the aging villain drugs Omarosa by feeding her spiked cake, whereupon the red PVC-clad former director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison goes off on a motorcycle to steal the future president s hair in a showdown on top of a CGI-created Trump Tower.The film, which has been viewed a mere 6,000 times as our source put it: It s a cult classic. I m the cult was made by former In Touch Weekly photo director Michael Todd, tabloid veteran Matt Coppa and his brother Andrew Coppa. NYP | 0 | [
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FMD3643 | 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: China account(s) for 90 percent of North Korean trade.
contextual information: The Trump administration has cited China's trade relationship with North Korea as a key lever to deter the regime from producing a nuclear missile capable of striking the U.S. We must all do our share, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the U.N. Security Council April 28. But China, accounting for 90 percent of North Korean trade, China alone has economic leverage over Pyongyang that is unique, and its role is therefore particularly important. Tillersons remarks, which included a call for fresheconomic sanctions, came at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and North Korea. As aU.S. Navy strike groupsteamed toward the Korean Peninsula -- where28,500 American troopsstationed in South Korea are on alert following thelatest provocationsfrom Pyongyang -- President Donald Trump on April 27warnedof a possible major conflict if diplomatic efforts fail. Weve previouslylooked atTrumps claim about the degree of control Beijing wields over Pyongyang. With Tillerson citing Chinese-North Korean trade relations as a vital diplomatic pressure point, we decided to explore how much China accounts for North Koreas overall trade with the outside world. Finding accurate data for the secretive regime is a bit tricky since no North Korean equivalent of Trade.gov with troves of trade data exists, as Pyongyang treats this information as a state secret. But so-called mirror statistics, an accounting of data reconstructed from other countries reports, offer a workaround, albeit a flawed one, since the statistics dont capture some transactions. The available data tell a story of growing dependence on Chinese trade over roughly the past two decades as economic sanctions levied by the UN and individual countries, as well as other factors, have seen North Koreas trade with other partners fall drastically. In 2000, China, South Korea and Japan each accounted for about a fifth of the regime's overall trade, with the rest of the world making up the remaining roughly two-fifths. Since then, Chinas slice of the pie has more than quadrupled, according to Stephan Haggard, professor of Korea-Pacific Studies at the University of California-San Diego. As sanctions have reduced South Korean and Japanese trade basically to nothing, trade has naturally become focused more on China, Haggard said. The rest of the world has not picked up the slack. Marcus Noland of the Peterson Institute for International Economics agreed that Chinas current position as an outsize trade partner of North Korea is largely a function of Pyongyangs strained relations with its neighbor to the south -- but he noted this could change if political winds shift. The reason that the percentage is so high is that South Korea, which was North Koreas second largest trade partner, imposed sanctions and trade between the two countries is virtually nil, Noland said. If South Korea were to resume trade relations (as it might in the next administration) Chinas share of North Korean trade would fall, but China would still be the countrys principal trade partner. Bilateral disputes led to Tokyo imposing sanctions that went even further than UN restrictions, said Haggard, who noted that the commercial risk associated with North Korea and its poor record on honoring property rights have also dissuaded potential trade partners. As South Korean and Japanese trade with Pyongyang fell, Chinas economy boomed, fueling increased trade with North Korea -- a relationship unfettered by bilateral sanctions, as Beijing has traditionally viewed the regime as an ally. China has also been accused of being less compliant with UN sanctions than other countries. As a result of these factors, the consensus among experts we spoke to is that China now accounts for roughly 90 percent of North Korean trade. Source: Stephan Haggard, professor of Korea-Pacific Studies at the University of California-San Diego. UNSCR refers to United Nations Security Council Resolutions. Yes, China accounts for more than 90 percent of North Koreas recorded trade, Noland said. They are the primary supplier of oil and the marginal supplier of grain. If China wanted to, it could bring North Korea to its knees. It has the economic leverage, but has been unwilling to use it, perhaps because it fears destabilizing the regime, he added. Our ruling Tillerson said, China account(s) for 90 percent of North Korean trade. Chinas role as an outsize trade partner of North Korea is a relatively new development. Since 2000, trade with the rest of the world has dropped off, as Chinese trade has risen. While the ratio is subject to change based on political factors, China now accounts for around 90 percent of North Korean trade. We rate Tillersons statement True. | 1 | [
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FMD3644 | 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 Calif. Announce It Will Pay Undocumented Residents COVID-19 Stimulus While Laying Off First Responders? Claim summaries: A meme linked two separate events together to foment political controversy.
contextual information: Snopes is still fighting an infodemic of rumors and misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, and you can help. Find out what we've learned and how to inoculate yourself against COVID-19 misinformation. Read the latest fact checks about the vaccines. Submit any questionable rumors and advice you encounter. Become a Founding Member to help us hire more fact-checkers. And, please, follow the CDC or WHO for guidance on protecting your community from the disease. fighting Find out Read Submit Become a Founding Member CDC WHO In late May 2020, social media users shared a meme that contained a misleading claim about the state of California. The meme said the state had announced it would give undocumented residents a stimulus payment on the same day it said it would lay off first responders due to diminished state funds resulting from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, implying the two events are causally linked. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on April 15, 2020, acknowledged undocumented residents paid $2.5 billion in state and local taxes in 2019. He then announced the state would draw up a total of $125 million sourced from charitable donations and taxpayer funds to provide $500 stimulus payments to those residents. That was because they didn't qualify to receive federal stimulus checks under the CARES Act, a relief package meant to blunt the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. acknowledged CARES Act This announcement was unrelated to another statement Newsom made more than a month later. In the latter, he urged the federal government to provide financial assistance to states and local governments struggling with economic shortfalls to their operating budgets due to forced business closures during the pandemic. In an interview on CNN on May 21, Newsom stated that without federal help, cities and counties may be forced to lay off first responders. interview "The next time they want to salute our heroes, our first responders, our police officers and firefighters, consider the fact that they are the first ones to be laid off by cities and counties," Newsom said when asked by CNN host Jake Tapper what would happen if the federal government failed to bail out states and local governments. "The folks who are out there, the true heroes of this pandemic, are health care workers and nurses. Those county health systems have been ravaged, their budgets have been devastated and depleted, the budget accounts depleted since this pandemic." Budgets that deal with first responders like police, firefighters, and paramedics are generally administered by local governments, meaning it would be cities and counties in California, not the state itself, that would have discretion over whether or when to cut those services. Furthermore, Newsom didn't "announce" such layoffs would take place; he simply suggested cuts may occur in the absence of intervention from the federal government to financially shore up local governments. As of late May, California was facing a $54 billion budget shortfall resulting from economic fallout of stay-at-home orders that forced shuttering of most commerce beginning in mid-March, in an effort to slow the spread of the COVID-19 disease. The state one year earlier had a surplus of $21 billion. $54 billion In sum, Newsom didn't "announce" layoffs for first responders but instead projected that layoffs at the local level were a looming possibility. He also didn't make the statement on the same day that he announced California would commit $125 million ($75 million of which would come from taxpayers) to give undocumented state residents $500 stimulus payments. The two events are unrelated, although the meme attempted to link them causally. We therefore rate this claim Lightman, David."Fact Check: Gavin Newsom Warns of Layoffs for Police, Firefighters. Is He Exaggerating?"
Sacramento Bee.21 May 2020. CNN."Newsom Warns of Police, Fire Layoffs in California."
21 May 2020. Associated Press."California Announces $125 Million Fund for Undocumented Immigrants Impacted by Coronavirus."
15 April 2020. Associated Press."California Faces a Staggering $54 Billion Budget Deficit Due to Economic Devastation from Coronavirus."
7 May 2020. | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD3645 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Germany will need a new economic strategy geared toward Asia should the new U.S. administration start a trade war with China, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said on Friday, warning against protectionism hours after President Donald Trump was sworn in. “I think we have to prepare for a rough ride,†Gabriel said in an interview with the public broadcaster ZDF, in the first official German reaction to Trump’s inauguration. He added that Trump’s election was the result of “a bad radicalizationâ€. The leader of the left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD), coalition partners of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling conservatives, dismissed suggestions that Trump may not pursue some controversial promises, such as imposing high tariffs on cars imported from Mexico. “He means it extremely seriously,†said Gabriel. “What we heard today were high nationalistic tones.†He added that all that was missing from Trump’s speech was comparing parliament to a “Quasselbude†or “talking shop,†a term used by Hitler before he took power to discredit the parliamentary democracy of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s. Gabriel said the European Union and Germany must stand together “to defend our interests†and to prevent such nationalistic fervor from gripping the continent. Germany will hold a general election in September in which the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is expected to enter the national parliament for the first time. Trump has criticized Merkel’s decision in 2015 to throw open Germany’s borders to asylum seekers fleeing wars and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere and has said he believes other countries will leave the EU after Britain. Merkel, who had a close relationship with former U.S. president Barack Obama, responded to his comments in a newspaper interview earlier this month by saying that Europe’s destiny was in its own hands. German government sources told Reuters this week that Merkel was working to set a date this spring for a meeting with Trump. The United States is Germany’s biggest trading partner and Trump has warned that his administration will impose a border tax of 35 percent on cars that German carmaker BMW plans to build at a new plant in Mexico and export to the U.S. There are fears that a protectionist trade policy by Trump could harm the global economy. A trade war with China would be particularly harmful for Germany, a leading exporting nation that gets nearly half its gross domestic product from exports. “Should the United States start a trade war with China and all of Asia then we as Europeans and Germans are fair partners,†Gabriel said. “Europe and Germany need a strategy geared toward Asia and China and we have new opportunities.†He added: “We should neither be submissive nor have fear.†| 1 | [
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FMD3646 | 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 starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST every Wednesday. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Randy J of 21Wire, Andy Nowicki from Alt Right Blog Spot and Jay Dyer of jaysanalysis.com. Tonight the Boiler Gang discusses Brexit, Orlando Shooting, Istanbul Airport Bombing, gang vs counter-gang political shenanigans in Sacramento CA and whatever else floats into our air space during the show!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY! Reference Links: | 0 | [
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FMD3647 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: If you haven t yet discovered The Remembrance Project, please do so! The Remembrance Project was started by families of relatives whose loved one was killed by an illegal alien. It s heartbreaking to think that these deaths could have been prevented if we had a border. A day after the Obama administration argues for an extension of amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants before the Supreme Court, the mothers of victims murdered by illegal immigrants will appear before a House panel to call for tougher immigration enforcement.Tuesday, Michelle Root, the mother of Sarah Root a recent college graduate who was killed by an illegal immigrant (now on Immigration and Customs Enforcement s Most Wanted List) and Laura Wilkerson, the mother of Josh Wilkerson who was tortured and killed by an illegal immigrant will testify before the House Judiciary Committee s Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee. Not everyone is a DREAMer or a valedictorian there are criminals motivated by malice and a conscious disrespect for the law, Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC)86% said in a statement announcing the hearing. But these losses are preventable, and it should not take the tragic death of another innocent life for this administration to begin enforcing our laws. The Obama administration has come under fire in recent years for what Republicans and immigration hawks say is a significant dilution of immigration law and enforcement. According to the committee, for example, from October 2011 to December 2014, ICE released criminal aliens from detention over 105,000 times, despite committing assault, sexual assaults, homicide-related offenses, and kidnapping prior to their release.Root and Wilkerson s prepared testimony, posted in advance of the hearing by the committee, offer a glimpse into the heart-wrenching testimony lawmakers will hear Tuesday. Edwin Mejia spent four days in jail and is believed to have fled the area and possibly the country after posting $5,000 bail, Root s prepared testimony reads. Less than the amount it cost to bury my baby. Mejia is charged with killing 21-year-old Sarah Root while street-racing drunk. He absconded after posting bail, and ICE declined to hold him. Because of the lack of controls, the police, immigration, U.S. Marshals and law enforcement have little or no information on his whereabouts on him, his family and acquaintances. He and those who protect and hide him are cowards, her testimony continues.Wilkerson s prepared testimony delves into the torture and murder her teenage son underwent at the hands of Hermilo Vildo Moralez, an illegal immigrant.At trial, the killer testified on his behalf and gave exact testimony on how he systematically killed Josh. First a punch in the face, so his vision was off. Next a knee to Josh s abdomen so that he would go to the ground. Josh went to the ground as his spleen was sliced in half. This killer was aggravated that it was not over, he grew tired of watching bloody bubbles coming from Josh s nose as he was trying to breathe. Next he took a closet rod and beat Josh over the head again and again until the rod broke in 4 pieces. Joshua still breathing. Next he strangled him, let him go to see if it was over, nope, so he continued until there were no more bubbles. He waited and watched him die. He tied Josh s body up, stuffed him in the backseat of our truck, bought gas, dumped Josh in a field and set his body on fire. The killer went home took a shower and went to see a movie.Read more: Breitbart | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD3648 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Obama has admitted a cap and trade plan would cause electricity bills to skyrocket.
contextual information: In her new book, Going Rogue, Sarah Palin stated that President Barack Obama's support for a cap-and-trade plan was misguided. The president has already admitted that the policy he seeks will cause our electricity bills to "skyrocket." Sadly, those hit hardest will be those who are already struggling to make ends meet, she wrote. Here, we are examining Obama's comments on electricity bills. First, though, here's a quick summary of cap and trade for those who aren't familiar with it: To slow climate change, the government would set a cap on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. To comply, companies such as electric utilities must either upgrade to cleaner technologies or buy credits, also known as allowances, to continue polluting. Companies can buy and sell the credits as necessary to conduct their business. We are familiar with Obama's original quote from his campaign for president. It came from a videotaped interview he did with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board very early in the campaign in January 2008. "Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket," Obama told the Chronicle. "Coal-powered plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers." Obama also said the biggest challenge would be making sure voters understand why such a plan is necessary. "The problem is, can you get the American people to say this is really important?" Obama said. He was talking in general about cap and trade, but there is now a specific bill making its way through Congress, written by Reps. Henry Waxman and Edward Markey, Democrats from California and Massachusetts, respectively. Their goal is to lower carbon pollution by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050. Under their plan, most pollution permits initially would be given out for free. But eventually, companies would have to buy those permits from the government. The latest version of the bill includes a number of measures to offset higher utility bills for consumers. Revenue from the permits would be passed to consumers through rebates or expanded efficiency programs, and an additional 15 percent of the revenue would go directly to low-income consumers. Legislators have opted to give 85 percent of the polluting permits away for free instead of putting them up for sale, as Obama pledged to do on the campaign trail. In theory, this approach should reduce costs to consumers. So how much would rates go up for consumers? It's hard to say. There has been much debate about the costs, and it's been difficult to come up with a reliable number because the bills have been changing as they move through the House and the Senate. Republicans have cited numbers as high as $3,000 per year, a claim that, when combined with a falsehood on health care, earned our Pants on Fire rating. Recent estimates by the Congressional Budget Office and the Environmental Protection Agency are much lower—between $80 and $340 a year, depending on income. So the climate debate has changed substantially since Obama sat down with the Chronicle nearly two years ago. Despite those potential cost cuts, there's still little disagreement that consumers will pay for cap and trade, whether it's $3,100 a year or $340. Because that hasn't changed since Obama first said that utility rates would necessarily skyrocket, and because Palin accurately quoted Obama's words, we give Palin a True. | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD3649 | 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 FIFA Plan on Keeping Pele's Feet in Its Museum? Claim summaries: The legendary footballer's death brought both remembrances and rumors.
contextual information: In the wake of Brazilian soccer great Pele's Dec. 29, 2022,death, viral claims emerged that the governing body in charge of international soccer competition, FIFA, planned on keeping the forward's famous feet in itsmuseum: death its museum These claims have no basis in fact. Many viral memes cite "TNT Sports Brazil" as their source. As the media outlet Logial.ly reported, there is no story on that outlet's website making this assertion. reported In fact, the original iteration of the post that went viral, watermarks reveal, came from a Facebook page named "Sarcasm Football Nepal," which describes itself as the "leading football humour portal based on Nepal." original iteration describes Further, there is no mention in any official FIFA press release, statement, or news story suggesting the organization has any interest or intent in keeping Pele's storied, goal-scoring feet in any capacity whatsoever. no mention For these reasons, the claim about FIFA's interest in Pele's feet is False: FIFA Will Keep Legendary Brazilian Footballer Pel's Feet in Its Museum. https://www.logically.ai/factchecks/library/33430510. Accessed 3 Jan. 2023. "Pele's Funeral on Monday at Club Team Santos." ESPN, 29 Dec. 2022, https://www.espn.in/football/brazil-bra/story/4840390/peles-funeral-to-be-held-monday-at-home-of-club-team-santos. | 0 | [
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FMD3650 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Share on Facebook The most fundamental principle, the basic program of all life, is energy saving. Whatever you do, whatever you like, whatever feels good for you, it's just a psychological response that shows you how to be more energy efficient. Life craves energy and subconsciously you'll always choose the path of least resistance because of that. That's why high calorie food tastes better, that's why whenever your beliefs are questioned you naturally refuse any arguments, that's why people feel more depressed when there is no sunshine outside. All default responses are just energy saving reactions; ‘more calories’ means more energy, changing the structure of your beliefs requires energy, and it's more efficient to do less when you are lacking the energy of the sun. However, a momentary ‘energy waste’ can result in a more sustainable energy consumption in the future. This requires higher levels of intelligence. For this to be achieved we must apply conscious effort in the right time and place. But what is the source of our energy? How can we gain more energy? How can we raise our consciousness and increase our intelligence? Nikola Tesla perfectly concluded what’s the main, most fundamental source of human energy and how to increase our energy and evolve as species. More energy means higher levels of operating power for our consciousness. If you apply time to this ‘equation’ it means that the longer we sustain higher levels of energy for our consciousness, the more intelligence we download from The Universe, the more intelligence we integrate into our being. So What's The Source Of Our Energy? “First let us ask: Whence comes all the motive power? What is the spring that drives all? We see the ocean rise and fall, the rivers flow, the wind, rain, hail, and snow beat on our windows, the trains and steamers come and go; we here the rattling noise of carriages, the voices from the street; we feel, smell, and taste; and we think of all this. And all this movement, from the surging of the mighty ocean to that subtle movement concerned in our thought, has but one common cause. All this energy emanates from one single center, one single source, the sun. The sun is the spring that drives all. The sun maintains all human life and supplies all human energy.” How To Increase The Human Energy? The following answer will make you understand almost everything about Nikola Tesla's lifestyle; why he was vegan; why he was obsessed with free energy; why he despised ignorance and imbeciles; How to increase human energy? There are actually 3 steps. The First Step Is Increasing The Human Mass: In order to increase the energy we have to think in terms of speed. If, let's say, there is a train and you add one more wagon, 3 things can happen. Either the wagon is of the same velocity as the train; in this case the speed of the train will slightly increase . The wagon is with a smaller velocity; in this case the whole train will decrease its speed . Or the wagon is of higher velocity; in this case the whole train will significantly increase its speed . We can think of it like this: ‘If there is a family with children of the same degree of enlightenment as the parents, that is, mass of the “same velocity,” the energy will simply increase proportionately to the number added. If they are less intelligent or advanced, or mass of “smaller velocity,” there will be a very slight gain in the energy; but if they are further advanced, or mass of “higher velocity,” then the new generation will add very considerably to the sum total of human energy.’ In Nikola Tesla's opinion growing muscles is “equivalent to adding mass of “smaller velocity,” and I would not commend it” but moderate exercise “insuring the right balance between mind and body, and the highest efficiency of performance, is, of course, a prime requirement” Food is one of the most important elements of increasing your mass. What we consider as food is just processed sunlight. Plants, with their photosynthesis, combine carbon, hydrogen and oxygen and bind them through sunlight, forming the CHO molecule (fat) we consume through food and burn for energy. However, the actual energy comes from freeing the photons of light between the chemical bond. That's what produces heat. That's what gives calories, stored photons. We eat sunlight for energy! Fruits, Vegetables, Meat, everything that we eat consumed the CHO molecules that the plants created. The energy that we consume through food is actually the same sunlight that plants used to forge these elements together. If we eat meat, we are consuming already consumed, unused CHO, as the only place that CHO comes is from photosynthesis. It's second hand CHO in a way. Consuming CHO directly from plants, fruits and vegetables is certainly equivalent to adding mass of “higher velocity,” “It is certainly preferable to raise vegetables, and I think, therefore, that vegetarianism is a commendable departure from the established barbarous habit. That we can subsist on plant food and perform our work even to advantage is not a theory, but a well-demonstrated fact. Many races living almost exclusively on vegetables are of superior physique and strength. There is no doubt that some plant food, such as oatmeal, is more economical than meat, and superior to it in regard to both mechanical and mental performance.” Nikola Tesla says. The consumption of second hand food is one of the main limits we put on ourselves for evolving as a race into more intelligent, kind and less animal like species. “To free ourselves from animal instincts and appetites, which keep us down, we should begin at the very root from which we spring: we should effect a radical reform in the character of the food.” Nikola Tesla continues. “Gambling, business rush, and excitement, particularly on the exchanges, are causes of much mass reduction” “Whisky, wine, tea coffee, tobacco, and other such stimulants are responsible for the shortening of the lives of many, and ought to be used with moderation. But I do not think that rigorous measures of suppression of habits followed through many generations are commendable. It is wiser to preach moderation than abstinence.” To conclude: Consume food that's closer to the sun, avoid unnecessary enlargements of your body that'll use more energy, avoid energy wasting habits and unhealthy addictions that serve solely to your ego. Each man who practices these advices adds a ‘wagon’ with higher velocity to the ‘human train’ we all move. The Second Step Is Reducing The Force That's Retarding The Human Mass: “The force which retards the onward movement of man is partly frictional and partly negative. To illustrate this distinction I may name, for example, ignorance, stupidity, and imbecility as some of the purely frictional forces, or resistances devoid of any directive tendency. On the other hand, visionariness, insanity, self-destructive tendency, religious fanaticism, and the like, are all forces of a negative character, acting in definite directions. To reduce or entirely overcome these dissimilar retarding forces, radically different methods must be employed. One knows, for instance, what a fanatic may do, and one can take preventive measures, can enlighten, convince, and, possibly direct him, turn his vice into virtue; but one does not know, and never can know, what a brute or an imbecile may do, and one must deal with him as with a mass, inert, without mind, let loose by the mad elements. A negative force always implies some quality, not infrequently a high one, though badly directed, which it is possible to turn to good advantage; but a directionless, frictional force involves unavoidable loss. Evidently, then, the first and general answer to the above question is: turn all negative force in the right direction and reduce all frictional force. “ Simply said, frictional force is ignorant, directionless, without a quality unlike the negative force which carries high quality but in a wrong direction. Frictional force will, most of the time, result only in energy loss no matter where it is directioned, while negative force can lead to significant increase of human energy if focused towards a proper, strategic direction.“There can be no doubt that, of all the frictional resistances, the one that most retards human movement is ignorance. Not without reason said that man of wisdom, Buddha: “Ignorance is the greatest evil in the world.” The friction which results from ignorance, and which is greatly increased owing to the numerous languages and nationalities, can be reduced only by the spread of knowledge and the unification of the heterogeneous elements of humanity. No effort could be better spent.” Nikola Tesla concludes. Individually, this can be explained as maintaining constructive balance between our talents and flaws; establishing peace between our darkness and light and uniting them towards a mutual, greater goal. This, of course, needs to be accompanied with learning, curiosity and reducing individual ignorance about The Universe around us. Cleansing your chakras is as essential as taking a bath in the context of reducing the force that's retarding your energy. Allowing energy to flow freely through your own body ensures a reduction in friction. It decreases the waste of your energy with fighting the negative emotions that are clogging your energy pools. According to Nikola Tesla war should not be terminated suddenly as this can result in something worse than war. “War is a negative force, and cannot be turned in a positive direction without passing through, the intermediate phases. It is a problem of making a wheel, rotating one way, turn in the opposite direction without slowing it down, stopping it, and speeding it up again the other way.” We shouldn't stop war, but redirect it towards a mutual goal of humanity. For example, instead of fighting ourselves, we can redirect our energy towards exploration of different parts of our galaxy. Of course, gently and gradually, with great maintenance. “It is doubtful whether men who would not be ready to fight for a high principle would be good for anything at all” Nikola Tesla explains why war is not a frictional force but one of a negative character. In his views, the future of war should result in reduction of man power exchanged for machines that will take the hit. To see how this can happen we must see how everything began. It started with the law of the strongest where physically weaker men were thrown completely to the mercy of physically stronger men. However, the weaker men developed intelligence due to their energy efficiency and developed ways to use stones, sticks and make weapons. Today wars are held by men who smoke cigars, sitting in a room, completely controlling physical forces with their intelligence. The future will make the intelligence create machines and control them instead of men, until war is mainly intellectual and the physical factor is completely irrelevant. To conclude: Use your talents to guide your flaws. Find peace and eliminate forces of friction with reason, within you and around yourself. The Third Step Is To Increase The Force Accelerating The Human Mass: “Of the three possible solutions of the main problem of increasing human energy, this is by far the most important to consider, not only because of its intrinsic significance, but also because of its intimate bearing on all the many elements and conditions which determine the movement of humanity.” How do you increase the force that's moving the human mass? Simply, spend more energy and spend it towards the most efficient possible direction. Our world is driven by machinery under a system created by our motive power. The mass of people is not moving chaotically but systematically, following an order like a clockwork. If we decrease our motive power we'll, unintentionally, be imprisoned by the same system we alone have created. That's why increasing the motive power is key in increasing the human energy. Constantly increasing the motive power will result in a constant increase of human energy. “Motive power means work. To increase the force accelerating human movement means, therefore, to perform more work.” says Nikola Tesla. But how can one man increase his energy constantly? Will there not be a point when the man cannot do more work? Will there not be a point when doing more work becomes harmful to the man, even unhealthy? There is a secret. When a man applies his effort so that, when coming into effect it will be in the direction of the collective human movement, the effort becomes most efficient and with less energy more is achieved. This means that as more people do more work towards a mutual goal, as more is achieved with less effort resulting in increase of mutual energy. Think of it like spinning a wheel. At first, for only a fragment of its potential speed you need a lot of effort and energy to even start moving the wheel. As you start moving the wheel and applying effort in the direction of its movement, as less effort it demands and as faster it keeps spinning. In the end, with less effort than it was demanded from you to move the wheel an inch, you spin it countless times faster. The same is with human energy! The secret of energy is that it is eternal in The Universe where almost nothing is. Your energy, no matter where you spent it, will forever stay and spread out if not directioned. That's why it's crucially important to focus your effort. As you spend your energy towards one direction, with time this energy will accumulate and less effort and energy you'll need to achieve a lot more. This is true globally and individually. “Another answer we have now found to the above great question: To increase the force accelerating human movement means to turn to the uses of man more of the sun's energy.” Imagine what we can accomplish if we all focus our efforts toward creating more sustainable ways of generating energy; cleaning the earth; reducing hunger; finding solutions for interstellar travel; educating; To conclude: Focusing your motive power and effort on one goal, towards the right direction of movement, will accelerate the velocity with which you move closer to your goal. With time, you'll spend less effort and achieve more. Conclusion: To gain your energy from the right sources means you gain more energy from less; reducing the retarding factors means you have less friction that wastes your energy; focusing your motive power towards the direction of the collective human movement means you use others' energy to boost your energy. Gain more energy, waste less energy, spend the energy so next time you'll need less to achieve more. Increase human mass, reduce retarding force, and increase the force accelerating the human mass. Follow this process with reason. Gain more, waste less, spend efficiently, learn. That's the secret formula for increasing the collective human energy according to the great mind of Nikola Tesla. That's how we raise our intelligence and evolve as species. | 0 | [
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FMD3651 | 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: Although California has the sixth largest economy in the world, we also have one of the highest poverty rates in the nation.
contextual information: Before announcing his bid for California governor in November 2016,Antonio Villaraigosasaid he went up and down this state on a listening tour. The former mayor of Los Angeles said he witnessed markers of the states economic vitality and also its extreme poverty. What I saw was two Californias, Villaraigosa said at theforum, hosted on June 6, 2017 in San Francisco by the Public Policy Institute of California. Villaraigosa then made a statement that included two bold claims PolitiFact California has examined individually in the past. What people dont realize about California is that although we have the sixth largest economy in world, we have one of the highest poverty rates in the nation, Villaraigosa said at the event. Villaraigosa makes his claim at about the 6:45 minute mark in this video by the Public Policy Institute of California. Well revisit our analysis on those claims below. First, heres some background on Villaraigosa and the 2018 California governors race. Governors race Villaraigosa is amongseveral prominent Democratscompeting in 2018 to succeed Jerry Brown as governor. Others already announced include California TreasurerJohn Chiang; Delaine Eastin, the states former superintendent for public instruction; andGavin Newsom, the states current lieutenant governor. Republican candidates include State AssemblymanTravis Allenof Orange County; John Cox, a venture capitalist from San Diego County and Rosie Grier, a Hall of Fame professional football player. Apollreleased in June 2017 showed a tightening race. Newsom was in the lead among all candidates, with 22 percent support from likely voters. Villaraigosa had 17 percent support, up from his 11 percent three months earlier. As part of ourTracking The Truthseries, PolitiFact California is fact-checking claims in the 2018 governors race. Tracking the Truth: Hear a claim you want fact-checked? Email us at[email protected], tweet us@CAPolitiFactor contact us onFacebook. Weve already checked one of Villaraigosas statements at the June 6, 2017 forum. He made theFalse claimthat California is currently home to one-quarter of the nations 300 poorest cities. He mischaracterized the results of astudy, which relied on data from 2013, when many of the states cities had not yet recovered from the Great Recession. Today, many of those same cities have experienced strong economic improvement. Sixth largest economy in the world? Turning to Villaraigosas bold claim involving the economy and poverty, well start by checking the first part: that California has the sixth largest economy in the world. This is a talking point California leaders love to make on national and international stages. We fact-checked this hypothetical comparison of the states economy against that of nations in July 2016 when State Senate LeaderKevin de Lenmade the same assertion at the Democratic National Convention. We rated itMostly Truebased on Californias 2.4 trillion GDP in 2015, which ranked sixth behind the United States, China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom and slightly above France and Brazil. The rankings came from the Brown Administration, which analyzed figures from the International Monetary Funds World Economic Outlook Database. The claim missed a completely True rating because it ignored Californias sky high cost of living and Silicon Valleys outsized role in the states economic growth, which speaks to Villaraigosas description of unequal economies across the state. In a separate set of rankings, the California Legislative Analysts Office, adjusting for the states high cost of living, reported in 2016 that the states GDP ranking dropped to 11th in the world. That placed it just below France and just above Mexico. The Brown Administration, not including cost of living, recently updated theGDP rankings for 2016. Californias now $2.60 trillion GDP remained in the sixth spot, though it was just a tick behind the United Kingdoms $2.62 trillion economy. Villaraigosas statement is accurate, but needs the same clarification about the states high cost of living. One of the highest poverty rates? The second part of Villaraigosas claim is that California has one of the highest poverty rates. We interpreted this to mean compared with other states in the nation. We know the state has struggled mightily with poverty. As an example, we ratedTruea claim by Republican Assembly Leader Chad Mayes in January that California has the highest poverty rate in the nation when comparing states and considering cost-of-living. At 20.6 percent, Californias poverty rate in 2015 was well above the national average of 15.1 percent, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report that factors in cost-of-living. Floridas 19 percent poverty rate ranked second. Unlike Mayes statement on poverty, however, Villaraigosas claim makes no mention of cost-of-living. Ignoring this factor, California would have the 17th highest poverty rate, not the first, according to the census bureau. Villaraigosas statement needs this key clarification. Our ruling Antonio Villaraigosa recently claimed California has the sixth largest economy in the world and one of the highest poverty rates in the nation. The facts show Villaraigosa was correct on both points. He omitted, however, the key point that Californias high cost-of-living drags down its economic output and accelerates its poverty. The candidate for governors statements would benefit from this additional information. We rate Villaraigosas claim Mostly True. MOSTLY TRUE The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. | 1 | [
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FMD3652 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Remember the fabled pee pee tapes? Well, it seems that we have a little bit more info on them including that Donald Trump s staff was seen arguing with hotel security about whether or not a couple of prostitutes would be allowed in his hotel room during a stay in Russia.In his infamous dossier, former British spy Michael Steele alleged that Trump had paid prostitutes to come up to his room and urinate on one another on a bed that Barack and Michelle Obama once shared. Steele claimed at the time that the incident was filmed and would be used by the Kremlin as kompromat (compromising material).Award-winning British journalist Paul Wood reports for The Spectator that not only do multiple witnesses confirm the pee pee tape, but there are more extreme recordings of Donald Trump than just a couple of Russian girls urinating:I heard of Russian kompromat compromising material on Trump from two sources months before the Steele dossier came to light.There are, though, reports of witnesses in the hotel who corroborate Steele s reporting. These include an American who s said to have seen a row with the hotel security over whether the hookers would be allowed up to Trump s suite. The dossier s account of hookers in a Moscow hotel room was the subject of gossip among politicians and intelligence people for months before it was published. Now claims are circulating of more tapes showing more extreme behavior. Expect these allegations to emerge in due course, Wood says cryptically.Will the pee pee tapes finally surface? Who knows but Trump must be sweating his fake tanner off thinking about it.Featured image via Getty Images | 0 | [
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FMD3653 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Research could ‘potentially serve as a curative approach for patients with HIV’, scientist says
Scientists have managed to remove DNA of the HIV virus from living tissue for the first time in a breakthrough that could lead to an outright cure.
At the moment, treating the disease involves the use of drugs that suppress levels of the virus so the body’s immune system can cope.
Now researchers in the US have revealed they used gene-editing technology to remove DNA of the commonest HIV-1 strain from several organs of infected mice and rats.
In April, the same team reported that they had successfully eliminated the virus from human cells in the laboratory, but a paper in the journal Nature Gene Editing revealed they had managed to do the same thing in live animals for the first time.
The researchers’ team leader, Professor Kamel Khalili, of Temple University, said: “In a proof-of-concept study, we show[ed] that our gene-editing technology can be effectively delivered to many organs of two small animal models and excise large fragments of viral DNA from the host cell genome.”
The current antiretroviral drugs for HIV are not able to eliminate HIV-1 from the infected cells.
And if treatment is interrupted, the virus can start replicating quickly, putting patients of risk of getting full-blow AIDS.
This is because it is able to persist in immune system T-cells and other places where it is not actually active and is unaffected by the current treatments.
The researchers used a specially adapted virus to deliver the gene-editing system into the cells.
“The ability of the rAAV delivery system to enter many organs containing the HIV-1 genome and edit the viral DNA is an important indication that this strategy can also overcome viral reactivation from latently infected cells and potentially serve as a curative approach for patients with HIV,” Professor Khalili said. In a statement, Temple University said the implications of the new study were “far-reaching”.
“The gene-editing platform by itself may be able to eradicate HIV-1 DNA from patients, but it is also highly flexible and potentially could be used in combination with existing antiretroviral drugs to further suppress viral RNA. It also could be adapted to target mutated strains of HIV-1,” it added. Professor Khalili said a clinical trial could happen within the next few years, but he first planned to carry out a similar study involving a larger group of animals.
TMZ Breaking
SOURCE | 0 | [
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FMD3654 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: It has just been announced that Donald Trump and his transition team have former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as a top favorite to be selected as the new Secretary of State.BREAKING: AP source: Rudy Giuliani the favorite to be Trump's secretary of state. The Associated Press (@AP) November 15, 2016CLEVELAND, OH OCTOBER 22: Rudy Giuliani introduces Republican vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence during his campaign stop along side presidential nominee Donald Trump. (Photo by Justin Merriman/Getty Images)According to the NY Post: Rudy Giuliani is in the running to become the next secretary of state.The former New York City mayor is one of two candidates to be America s top diplomat, according to The Wall Street Journal.The other candidate is John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations and a former high ranking State Department official. Many thought Giuliani may be picked for Attorney General so this is a bit of a surprise to some, and a horrifying reality for the rest of the world considering the man doesn t have much of any foreign policy experience and is a warhawk.Honestly, the pick doesn t make that much sense, and many thought former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had the role locked up. Which, in all honesty, would have made a whole heck of a lot more sense.The future Trump administration is getting more bizarre by the day and it s reading like a bad play where everyone runs for cover in the end.Featured Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images | 0 | [
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FMD3655 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: In a heist reminiscent of a Hollywood movie, Kenyan robbers spent months tunneling into the bowels of a bank located opposite a police station and stole the equivalent of half a million dollars, police said on Tuesday. Police said they had arrested two men and one woman over the robbery but had not recovered the 50 million Kenyan shillings, reported missing by staff at the branch of Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) on Monday when they showed up to work. We have not recovered the stolen money, said Simba Willy, sub-county police commander in the town of Thika, northeast of Nairobi, where the heist took place. We suspect the robbers hired one of the shops near the bank (while digging their tunnel), Willy told Reuters. The robbers were able to remove the earth during their months-long excavations without arousing suspicion by concealing it in boxes, the Daily Nation newspaper quoted local traders as saying. The traders described the two young men who had rented the store as very hardworking and introverts . KCB, which is the region s biggest bank by assets, confirmed the break-in on Twitter. But the Kenyans have competition for the title of most ingenious robbery. Last month Brazilian police foiled a plot to rob a Sao Paulo bank after discovering a 500-metre underground tunnel kitted out with lighting and ventilation systems. | 1 | [
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FMD3656 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: In 2017 Ukraine blocked access to Russian social media Vkontakte as a result lobbying by Facebook. | 0 | [
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FMD3657 | 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: An April study found that about 70 percent of ads in this election cycle have been negative [due to SuperPACs], up from only 9 percent through the same period in 2008.
contextual information: Negative campaign ads: most people say they hate them, but studies show that many people are swayed by them.Thus, major races can get pretty nasty, and there's a fear that the presidential contest this year will break all records for nastiness, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Courts 2010Citizens United decision. The court upheld the right of persons, organizations and corporations to spend as much as they would like on political advertising -- while hiding their involvement -- through the use of organizations known as super political action committees (Super-PACs).To shed some light on who is behind such attack ads, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, has been promoting the DISCLOSE Act. The name is an acronym for Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections.When you don't have accountability, there's no limit to the things that people will say,Whitehouse said during a debateon the floor of the Senate. One of the restraints on the vitriol and the filth that so often is part of the American political debate is that candidates have to stand by their ads.And if you say something that is awful, if you engage in relentless negative attacks, voters may charge you a price for that, Whitehouse said. Well, that of course disappears when the name behind the ad is attached to no living person or corporation. It's just an entity, it's a sham, it's a phony, it's a shell.The DISCLOSE actwould requiresome tax-exempt groups that engage in political advertising to reveal individual donors who gave $10,000 or more.Critics saythe act discriminates because it wouldn't apply to unions. They also say disclosure might open donors up to intimidation and ridicule, inhibiting free speech.During an unsuccessful push to bring the proposal to a vote in the Senate -- a drive blocked twice by Republicans, on July 16 and 17 -- Whitehouse said the Citizens United decision was already sparking a giant increase in negative political advertising.An April study found that about 70 percent of ads in this election cycle have been negative, up from only 9 percent through the same period in 2008, he said.That's a big jump in negative advertising. We wondered if it were true.The contextWhen we contacted Whitehouse's office, spokesman Seth Larson sent us toa studyreleased May 2, 2012, by the Wesleyan Media Project at Wesleyan University. It defined a negative advertisement as an ad in which the candidate's opponent is mentioned.The study looked only at TV ads in the presidential races and only ads broadcast from January 1 through April 22 of 2008 and the same period in 2012.It turns out that Whitehouse quoted the study accurately. The researchers said that 70.0 percent of all ads in 2012 were negative during that period, compared with 9.1 percent in 2008.But Whitehouse also said that the Citizens United decision is responsible for that increase in negative ads, so lets look at that aspect.The political scientists we spoke with said the Supreme Court decision is having a huge effect on the tone and rhythm of the 2012 campaign.The Wesleyan study suggests that the effect was already clear in the first four months of this year.Consider the ads purchased by special-interest groups or SuperPACs.Of the 10,062 special-interest group ads aired during the first quarter of 2008, 75 percent were rated positive and 25 percent were rated negative.By 2012, the number of special-interest ads had exploded, jumping more than 12-fold to 123,062. In addition, the mix of ads had reversed, with only 14 percent positive and 86 percent negative.Meanwhile, the number of ads bought by candidates themselves plummeted, from 289,622 in the first quarter of 2008 to 74,267 this year, an indication that they were letting the special interest ads carry the ball for promoting their candidacies.AsMichael Franz, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, said in the report, That's a lot of money and airtime backed by undisclosed sources.Other factors affect rateBut Franz and the other experts we consulted cautioned that additional factors are also at work.The first four months of the 2008 race were very different from the same period in the 2012 contest.In early 2008, one reason the number was so low was because the [Barack] Obama and [Hillary] Clinton campaigns didn't really attack each other on TV that much, said Franz, now at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. They did off the air, and they were obviously quite ruthless. But in the ads themselves, there wasn't a lot of sniping back and forth against each other. They promoted themselves primarily.That changed for Obama in the general election, Franz said. He was a very negative candidate and once the general election started, it became an overwhelmingly negative campaign, as it usually is in the general election.During the first four months of 2012, SuperPACs drove up the percentage of negative ads, he said, but also candidates have been overwhelmingly negative against each other in the [2012] Republican primary.So let's look at the types of ads placed by the candidates themselves.In 2008, only 9 percent of the ads placed by all the candidates in the first four months of the year were negative.By 2012 that number had grown to nearly 53 percent.The first four months of a presidential election year are not necessarily the best guide to the rhythm of the rest of a presidential campaign. I really don't think they're indicative of what's to come, said Mary Ellen Balchunis, a political scientist at LaSalle University in Philadelphia. It's how close the polls are, it's whether your opponent is going negative, it's whether you are responding.Early in the contest, the ads are generally more about who the candidate is and what the candidate would do. That's particularly true for a challenger, saidStephen Farnsworthof the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., a key swing state. There are always some negative ads, but they are really sprinkled in the mix. In the fall, when people are really turning their attention to the election, that's when the number of negative ads escalates.In this election cycle, things are already so negative, it's hard to imagine that there's much room for them to get more negative between now and November, said Farnsworth, author of Spinner-in-Chief: How Presidents Sell Their Policies and Themselves.Our rulingSheldon Whitehouse said, An April study found that about 70 percent of ads in this election cycle have been negative, up from only 9 percent through the same period in 2008.He is correctly quoting the study, but the context of his comment makes it clear that he blames the SuperPACs, which were freed up by the Citizens United decision.Those special-interest groups are certainly playing a much larger role this year, in part because they have become the major source of TV ad purchases.But the data also reveal that the candidates are being far more negative earlier in the campaign than they were four years ago, and that also drove up the percentage of negative ads in the beginning of 2012.Because his statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information, we rate the claim asMostly True. (Get updates from PolitiFact Rhode Island on Twitter:@politifactri. To comment or offer your ruling, visit us on ourPolitiFact Rhode Island Facebookpage.) | 1 | [
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FMD3658 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Most Top Retailers Sell Food Produced With Bee-Killing Pesticides Only Aldi, Costco, and Whole Foods got passing grades Julie Fidler | Infowars.com - October 27, 2016 Comments
A new ‘scorecard’ report gives a failing grade to 17 out of 20 major food retailers in the United States, based on their policies and practices regarding pollinator protection, organic options, and pesticide reduction. [1] Source: Friends of the Earth
Tiffany Finck-Haynes, food futures campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said:
“U.S. food retailers must take responsibility for how the products they sell are contributing to the bee crisis.
The majority of the food sold at top U.S. food retailers is produced with pollinator-toxic pesticides. We urge all major retailers to work with their suppliers to eliminate pollinator-toxic pesticides and to expand domestic organic offerings that protect pollinators, people and the planet.” [1] Organic Offerings And Transparency Are Lacking
The report “Swarming the Aisles: Rating Top Retailers on Bee-Friendly and Organic Food” is the work of a coalition led by Friends of the Earth and more than 50 farmer, beekeeper, farmworker, environmental, and public interest organizations. [1]
The coalition sent a letter urging food retailers to eliminate pesticides that are toxic to bees and other pollinators , and increase U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) certified organic food and beverages to 15% of overall offerings by 2025. The group would like to see retailers prioritize domestic, regional, and local producers.
Friends of the Earth and its allies have been successful in the past at convincing more than 65 garden retailers, including Lowe’s and Home Depot, to commit to eliminate pollinator-toxic neonicotinoid (neonic) pesticides.
According to Haynes, the demand for organic foods has grown by double-digits , but grocers aren’t keeping up. She said:
“A lot of the major food retailers have started to increase their organic offerings, but few of them have really adopted clear goals or metrics to continue to significantly increase their organic food offerings in the future.” [2]
As evidenced by the group’s research, it’s difficult for the public to know where retailers stand concerning pesticide use and organic food. Eleven of the 20 retailers’ websites examined by Friends of the Earth don’t provide basic information concerning their policies on organic food, pollinators, and/or pesticides , Haynes said, adding:
“There’s a lot that retailers could do by adopting creative programs with their supply chain to help farmers grow their organic offerings, and then be able to sell that in their stores.” Americans Are Ready For Change
A YouGov poll released 25 October 2016 by Friends of the Earth and SumOfUs reveals that 80% of Americans believe neonics should not be used in agriculture , and 65% of those who do the grocery shopping for their household would be more likely to shop at a store that has made a formal commitment to eliminate neonicotinoids. [1]
Additionally, the poll shows that 59% of respondents believe it’s important for supermarkets to sell organic food. Another 43% said they’d likely spend more time at a different grocery store if it sold more organic food than the store they currently frequent.
Said Angus Wong, lead campaign strategist at SumOfUs, a consumer watchdog with ten million members:
“Over 750,000 SumOfUs members have spoken out advocating that U.S. Hardware stores take action to protect our pollinators. And after years of pressure, Home Depot and Lowe’s have finally enacted more bee-friendly policies.
And the findings of this poll show that a vast majority of consumers want to eliminate neonicotinoids from their grocery stores too. This is why food retailers must commit policies that protect our bees immediately.”
Only four of the nation’s top food retailers – Albertsons, Costco, Target, and Whole Foods – have adopted and made public a company-wide commitment to increase offerings of certified organic food . They are also the only retailers to disclose data on the current percentage of organic food they offer, or organic sales.
Aldi, Food Lion, part of the Delhaize Group, and Kroger disclosed data on the current percentage of organic offerings or organic sales.
None of the retailers that the group looked at have publicly committed to sourcing organic food from American farmers . Retailer Apathy Is Killing Pollinators
Of the top 20 food retailers surveyed by Friends of the Earth, a shocking 16 were predominantly unresponsive to Friends of the Earth’s requests for information via surveys, calls, and letters. The group was forced to turn to publicly available information, including company websites, company annual reports, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, corporate social responsibility and sustainability reports, press coverage, and industry analyses, for their data.
We have bees to thank for every 1 in 3 bites of food we take ; and without bees, stores would run low on everything from strawberries to almonds. Source: Bee Cause
Science increasingly points to neonicotinoid pesticides as a leading cause of pollinator decline. Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s blockbuster herbicide, Roundup, has been shown to play a significant role in monarch butterfly declines .
Several U.S. cities have banned neonics, including Boulder City, Colorado , and Portland, Oregon . This past spring, Maryland became the first state to ban the pesticides .
This article originally appeared at Natural Society . NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars Crew. Related Articles | 0 | [
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FMD3659 | 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: Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the average American family of four will receive a $1,182 tax cut.
contextual information: Republicans promised that their tax overhaul would save money for the middle class, and Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., was quick to make the case that it did. Im working alongside the White House and other members in the House to lessen the tax burden that currently weighs on so many Oklahomans, Mullin posted on hiscongressional blog. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the average American family of four will receive a $1,182 tax cut. Imagine what you could do with $1,182 more in your pocket! Mullin's talking point has been popular among House Republicans trying to sell the tax plan. In the past week, we've heard House SpeakerPaul Ryanand a Georgia congressman tout the same figure. In each case, they overstated the impact of the tax cut. Mullin did, too, but less so. Here's what you need to know. The figure comes from the House Ways and Means Committee, which wrote the tax bill. That committee calculated several scenarios for how the proposals changes could affect different types of taxpayers. The key elements in the committee's calculation involve tax brackets, the standard deduction and the child tax credit. Currently, there are seven brackets; these would be consolidated into four -- 12 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent, and 39.6 percent. In the meantime, the standard deduction would be raised from $12,000 to $24,000. And the child tax credit will be increased from $1,000 to $1,600, bolstered by a new $300 credit for parents and other dependents. The example Mullin highlighted refers to a family of four making $59,000 per year. Heres the scenario outlined in the Housesfact sheet, using the fictional example of Steve and Melinda with two middle school-aged children: As a result of lower tax rates, a significantly larger standard deduction, and an enhanced Child Tax Credit and Family Flexibility Credit, Steve and Melinda will pay over $1,182 less in taxes than last year, reducing their total tax bill from $1,582 to only $400. Thats more money they can use for whatever is important to them, whether its paying bills, purchasing a new refrigerator, or putting away savings for the future. The Ways and Means Committee said they chose a household income of $59,000 because its themedian household income nationally. (Mullin talked about families and families are not identical to households, but in Oklahoma, the median family income is about $58,000, so the distinction makes little difference in his state.) For that amount of income, a family today would get $12,700 from the standard deduction, $16,200 in personal exemptions, leaving $30,100 in taxable income. Of that, $18,650 would be taxed at 10 percent and $11,450 would be taxed at 15 percent, meaning the preliminary tax liability would be $3,582.50. That would be adjusted with $2,000 in child tax credits, producing a final tax liability of $1,582.50. Under the new tax bill, the family would take a larger $24,000 standard deduction (the proposal eliminates personal exemptions), leaving $35,000 in taxable income. At the 12 percent rate, that would mean $4,200 in preliminary liability. This would be offset by $3,200 in child tax credits and $600 in family credits, leaving a final tax liability of $400. Thats a $1,182.50 tax cut. So the number adds up, but there are some caveats that show it might not work out this way for all families like Steve and Melindas. The GOP bill eliminates or shrinks a number of widely used itemized deductions, and those factors arent taken into account in the figure House estimate. The deductions eliminated or pared back in the bill include the mortgage interest deduction (for future mortgages, it would be capped at half its previous maximum); the state and local tax deduction (only $10,000 in property tax deductions would be allowed); the medical expense deduction; the casualty loss deduction; and the student loan interest deduction. For example, nearly 9 million people with high medical bills deduct them on the taxes. Exchanging these changes for a higher standard deduction may benefit many taxpayers, particularly those who choose not to itemize today. But some taxpayers who depend on these itemized deductions today may end up worse off if the bill is passed as is, even with the higher standard deduction. For this type of taxpayer, the loss of even one of those deductions could conceivably wipe out that $1,182 gain for certain types of families. David Kamin, a tax and budget specialist at the New York University law school, told us that the bill has some wrinkles that can turn a tax cut into a tax hike. Kamin cited a combination of factors, including the sunsetting of the $300 per parent tax credit; the lack of inflation adjustments for the child tax credit, which effectively replace personal exemptions that were indexed to inflation; and the new use of an inflation adjustment measure known as chained CPI, which grows more slowly than the yardstick in current use. According toKamins calculations, the initial tax cut for the family making $59,000 becomes about a $450 tax increase by 2024 compared to the status quo. Heres the graph he put together: Mullin didnt promise that the initial tax cut would last, as other Republicans have. After Mullin made his statement, the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation analyzed the tax plan using a different approach. The committee found that while tax collections from people making under $40,000 would fall at first, they would go up in 2023. The groups that would do the best under the plan would be people making between $100,000 and $200,000, and those making over $1 million a year. Mullin said that the average American family of four would get a tax cut of $1,182. The number is a reasonable estimate, based on certain assumptions. What might not be obvious is that families who take advantage of deductions today might see their taxes rise. And even those who benefit immediately might see those gains turn into losses after 2023. So if you think this tax cut would be ongoing, or every year, you'd be wrong. Unlike his colleagues, however, Mullin didnt outright promise that the initial tax cut would last for more than one year. Mullin's statement therefore is accurate but needs additional information. We rate it Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD3660 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: U.S. President Donald Trump s hardened stance towards Iran evoked a mixture of indifference and national pride among Iranians on Saturday but many were concerned about economic hardship should a multinational nuclear deal unravel. In a major shift in U.S. foreign policy, Trump said on Friday he might ultimately terminate the 2015 agreement that lifted sanctions in return for Tehran rolling back technologies with nuclear bomb-making potential. [nL2N1MO0DH] Who the hell is Trump to threaten Iran and Iranians? Of course we don t want economic hardship, but it does not mean we will be their puppet and do whatever they say, said housewife Minou Khosravani, 37, a mother of two in the central city of Yazd. Within minutes of Trump s speech, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani went live on state television, ruling out any renegotiation of the deal Iran signed with major powers. He also signaled Iran would withdraw from the agreement if it failed to preserve Tehran s interests. Tired of economic adversity during years of tough sanctions over Iran s nuclear programme, many Iranians still fervently back the decision by Iran s clerical rulers to resist U.S. pressure. I am not a regime supporter. But I side with Iran s rulers against Trump and his illogical pressure on Iran, said hairdresser Ziba Ghanbari, 42, when contacted by Reuters in the northern city of Rasht. Iranians around the globe took to social media in anger. Former official Mostafa Tjzadeh, who spent seven years as a prisoner of conscience in Iran, tweeted: One nation, One message: No to #Trump. We are in this together. Long on rhetoric, short on substance, tweeted Niloofar Ghadiri, a journalist in Tehran. Iranian authorities say 15 percent of the country s workforce is unemployed. Many formal jobs pay a pittance, meaning the true figure of people without adequate work to support themselves is probably far higher. Lack of foreign investment, if more sanctions are imposed, will deepen the unemployment crisis. Currency exchange shops are refusing to sell U.S. dollars because of the uncertainty as the rial has lost value in the past days. Iranians fear new sanctions will also see the price of food, including rice, bread and dairy products, rise. My worry is that the economy will go back to the sanctions era when we had difficulties to find essential food and even medicine. I want my son to have a good life, said elementary school teacher Gholamali Part, 43, in Tehran. To improve Iran s economy, Rouhani has rolled out the red carpet for global investors since sanctions were suspended. But so far only a few major European investors have returned to Iran s market, including planemaker Airbus, French energy group Total and Germany s Siemens. Others are deterred mainly by a separate raft of sanctions Washington continues to impose in retaliation for what it calls Tehran s support for terrorism and human rights abuses. Iran denies involvement in terrorism. The nuclear deal was also signed by China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union. Despite assurances by other signatories over their continued commitment, European companies could think twice about involvement in Iran if the deal cannot survive. Hossein, like millions of Iranians who bore the brunt of the sanctions, has no high hopes. We are going to be sanctioned again, said Hossein, who declined to give his full name. Inflation has dropped to single digits since Rouhani was first elected in 2013, but he has failed to tackle high unemployment and the gap between rich and poor is widening. The hardline daily Kayhan, which campaigned against the deal during 18-months of the nuclear talks, wrote: Trump keeps the nuclear pact: advantages for America, restrictions for us! In a report headlined Mr Blunder s isolation , the moderate Arman daily wrote: A rare unanimity supports Iran in the World is the closest definition of the mood after Trump s speech last night. Some Iranians are indifferent. I don t care. Will there be holidays if the deal fails? That is important because I can go on a holiday with my friends, said Arjang Bakhtiari, 19, whose family owns factories in several cities. Trump s decision in effect leaves the fate of the deal up to the U.S. Congress, which might try to modify it or bring back U.S. sanctions previously imposed on Iran. The failure of the deal could be politically tricky for Rouhani, its chief architect, who has been criticized by the country s utmost power, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for the country s slow pace of economic recovery. Khamenei cautiously backed the deal, but has repeatedly expressed pessimism about the United States remaining committed to it. The economic problems caused by the U.S. pressure could weaken Rouhani s stance in Iran s faction-ridden and complex establishment. | 1 | [
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FMD3661 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Pope Francis on Sunday called on world leaders to work in favor of nuclear disarmament to protect human rights, particularly those of weaker and underprivileged people. The pontiff said that there was a need to work with determination to build a world without nuclear weapons , speaking from the window of the papal apartment overlooking St. Peter s Square and citing his 2015 encyclical letter Laudato Si (Praised Be). His remarks came on the day that the group which won this year s Nobel Peace Prize urged nuclear nations to adopt a U.N. treaty banning atomic weapons. With rising tensions between the United States and North Korea, the pope has repeatedly warned against the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental effects of nuclear devices and has called for a third country to mediate the dispute. At his weekly Angelus prayer, Pope Francis added that men and women in the world had the liberty, the intelligence and the capacity to guide technology, limit their power, at the service of peace and true progress . Speaking aboard the plane back from his trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh, the pope suggested that some world leaders had an irrational attitude toward nuclear weapons. Last month he appeared to harden the Catholic Church s teaching against nuclear weapons, saying countries should not stockpile them, even for the purpose of deterrence. Pope Francis, a strong defender of environmental protection, also hoped that an upcoming Paris summit would adopt efficient decisions to contrast climate change. | 1 | [
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FMD3662 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Zach Cartwright | November 10, 2016
According to the data, Donald Trump would have been soundly defeated by Bernie Sanders last night had the Vermont senator been the one to face him.
When examining the 13 states Hillary Clinton lost twice — the states Trump won side-by-side with the states Bernie Sanders won during the Democratic primary — the similarities are striking. The GOP nominee likely saw this, and tweeted in May that he was relieved to not have to face Sanders in the general election: I would rather run against Crooked Hillary Clinton than Bernie Sanders and that will happen because the books are cooked against Bernie!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2016
In five states Sanders won where exit polling data is available — Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wisconsin — the demographics that helped Trump hit 270 electoral college votes were also Sen. Sanders’ key demographics that helped him defeat the former Secretary of State in multiple primaries in different regions of the country.
The numbers suggest that there may have been enough Sanders votes in those pivotal states to have swung the election in Sanders’ favor if superdelegates and restrictive closed primaries weren’t part of the Democratic primary process. Popular blog All That Is Interesting created an electoral map assuming that Sanders won white, rural rust belt voters in the traditionally blue states that Hillary Clinton lost on Tuesday night in a hypothetical Trump/Sanders general election matchup, giving Sanders with a 303-235 advantage .
Determining whether or not Sanders would have won the states Clinton lost is easy when looking at exit poll data taken during the Democratic primary. Here’s a state-by-state breakdown: Indiana
Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton by 5 points in Indiana’s May 3 primary. Tuesday night, Trump beat Clinton in the Hoosier State by 20 points . While Indiana went to Mitt Romney in 2012, it’s worth remembering that Barack Obama won the state in 2008, meaning it isn’t a solidly red state.
What contributed most to Sanders’ primary win in Indiana was his dominance with white voters (57 percent support) and men (59 percent support), who collectively made up 72 percent and 42 percent of voters, respectively, according to NBC News . Sanders also excelled among poor and lower-middle class voters, winning the majority of voters who made less than $30,000 in 2015, and between $30,000 and $50,000. Sen. Sanders won the support of a whopping 72 percent of independents, 54 percent of voters who said free trade had a negative effect on jobs, and 60 percent of voters who said they were “very worried” about the future of the U.S. economy.
Comparatively, Donald Trump won 53 percent of white voters in the Hoosier State’s Republican primary, and 59 percent of men — roughly the same percentages Sanders won for those same demographics. Trump also won 54 percent of voters who made between $30,000 and $50,000 in 2015, and 53 percent of voters who were “very worried” about the future of the economy. Michigan
The March 8 Michigan primary was perhaps Bernie Sanders’ most important victory, as pollsters widely and wrongly predicted a considerable victory for Hillary Clinton due to her strength with black voters in cities like Detroit and Flint. Sanders’ 50-48 win was largely due to his strength with rural, white voters disenfranchised by free trade deals backed by the Clintons, like NAFTA.
Much like Indiana, Sanders prevailed with the help of 55 percent of male voters and 56 percent of white voters . 54 percent of voters who made less than $50,000 in 2015 supported Sanders, as well as 71 percent of voters identifying as independent. NAFTA hate brought Sen. Sanders over the finish line, as 56 percent of voters who said free trade was bad for job growth in Michigan picked Sanders. The Vermont senator did very well with voters who said they wanted an outsider in office, winning 84 percent of that demographic . Sanders’ strength wasn’t in inner cities, but in suburbs and rural areas, capturing 50 percent and 57 percent of voters, respectively.
Donald Trump beat all four of his competitors in the Michigan primary along the same demographic lines. Trump won 53 percent of men and 38 percent of white voters ( 13 points better than his closest competitor, Ted Cruz). Among the $30,000 to $50,000 income demographic, Trump demolished Cruz by 21 points. Trump also won 45 percent of voters who said free trade took away American jobs, which was 23 points higher than Cruz. West Virginia
Voters in West Virginia largely live in rural areas, work blue-collar jobs, and are some of the poorest in the country. It’s no surprise Sanders won by 15 points in the May 10 primary, and that Trump beat Ted Cruz by 68 points. Because Democrats are well-represented in the West Virginia legislature, and because West Virginians just elected a Democrat for governor while simultaneously rejecting Hillary Clinton, it’s very possible Sanders would have won the state had he been the Democratic nominee.
As was the pattern during the Democratic primary, Sanders won with white voters and men , capturing 52 percent and 53 percent of those demographics, respectively. Sen. Sanders crushed Hillary Clinton by 32 points in the $30,000 to $50,000 income demographic, and also beat the former Secretary of State by 19 points among voters who made less than $30,000 last year. Trump obliterated the competition in those same gender, race, and income demographics. Wisconsin
Clinton’s loss to Trump in the Badger State was perhaps the most significant of the night, as Wisconsin hasn’t voted for a Republican for president in more than 30 years . Wisconsin was also a state where Sanders notched a crushing victory over Clinton, winning by a 57-43 margin .
Bernie Sanders won nearly two-thirds of male voters, and 59 percent of whites, who made up 83 percent of the electorate in the state’s April 5 primary. Sen. Sanders defeated Clinton in all of the income demographics, but did particularly well among middle class voters, capturing 54 percent of the $30,000 to $50,000 demographic, along with 61 percent of the state’s $50,000 to $99,000 demographic, who made up the largest percentage of primary voters. Among voters against free trade policies, Sanders won by a 60-39 margin .
Wisconsin exit pollsters also asked voters about their opinions on foreign policy. While Trump made a reputation for himself as anti-interventionist, Sanders also appealed to Wisconsin voters opposed to foreign intervention. An astounding 74 percent of Sanders backers in the primary said the United States should take a “less active role” in foreign policy, who collectively made up 35 percent of the electorate.
While we can’t unfortunately travel back in time and give Bernie Sanders the nomination, one thing to take away from this data is that the tide is shifting in America toward a new form of politics that eschews global capitalism and yearns for economic populism. Whoever challenges Donald Trump in 2020 should pay close attention to these numbers.
Zach Cartwright is an activist and author from Richmond, Virginia. He enjoys writing about politics, government, and the media. Send him an email at [email protected] | 0 | [
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FMD3663 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: [Photo: Chiquibul Forest Reserve near Guatemalan border: top showing significant illegal clear cuts. while the bottom shows the beginnings of cutting. Credit: Tony Rath .] =By= Jeff Abott Editor's Note The forests, waterways, and tribal homelands are under growing threat across Latin and South America. Increasingly, the indigenous peoples are taking strong stands against the illegal activities, as well as the government sponsored intrusions into the Reserves. It seems that they are virtually the only ones willing to stand in the way of the decimation of their homelands, and of the wild rainforest on which out planet depends. The rainforest is essentially the lungs of the planet and it is being continuously destroyed. A cross Guatemala, indigenous communities are organizing to challenge logging in the country’s vast forests. These communities are concerned with the impact that both legal and illegal logging will have on their watersheds and on the environment.
On June 15, concerned residents from the highland Ixil Maya municipality of Nebaj, Quiche staged a protest outside the municipal building to express their concern with the steady increase in trucks leaving town loaded with lumber.
The action was organized by residents and members of the Indigenous Authority of Nebaj in order to pressure the state authorities to strip the nine companies of their licenses to exploit timber on private lands. Residents raised concern over the fact that the deforestation affects everyone in the area.
Following the protest, concerned residents in the neighboring Ixil municipality of Chajul blocked and detained several trucks transporting lumber from the region for a number of hours. They demanded that the National Institute of Forests, or INAB, and the Division for the Protection of the Environment cease their operations and described the amount of lumber being taken from the local forests as “excessive.”
The Indigenous Authorities of Nebaj also issued a statement to INAB asking them to take action. But the government body declined to act and issued a statement that they are planting new trees for every one that is cut down. But this response did not satisfy concerned residents. “We went to the government bodies and issued statements asking to cease extending licenses for the exploitation of forests,” said Caty Terraza, the communications representative for the Indigenous Authorities of Nebaj. “They told us that they are sowing new trees, but how long will it take for those trees to grow to the same size as the trees that were there before?”
The companies involved in logging operations responded to the protests by significantly reducing the number of trucks transporting lumber from mountains. According to residents, however, it is unclear if this will continue into the future.
The mobilization of communities organizing to challenge logging operations in the highlands of Guatemala represent a growing concern over the destruction of the environment by companies. This challenge to logging companies reflects the understanding of communities of the vital part forests play in the protection of the water sources.
“The trees serve us and the animals,” Terraza said. “The loss of trees is drying up the aquifers. As a youth and as human, I must think of my future, and what I’m leaving my children.” Other communities held similar protests following the actions taken in the Ixil region. On June 26, a similar action was held in Santa Cruz del Quiche, the department’s largest city. Once again protesters were demanding that authorities stop issuing licenses for the exploitation of forests. Increase in Logging across Guatemala
Guatemala is home to vast forests and jungles, but these regions have increasingly come under threat to deforestation. Critics blame uneducated campesinos clearing land for agriculture as one of the prime culprits. This does represent a threat, but there are other bigger threats, including lumber companies, and organized crime. The protest over logging industry activity in indigenous regions occurs at a time in Guatemala of increased concern over deforestation, and comes after the historic march for water in April 2016. Community representatives, nongovernmental organizations, and activists see a connection between forests and water. The Guatemalan government, too, maintains a campaign of reforestation, but this has not stopped companies from cutting down forests for the valuable woods, or the razing of forests by narco-traffickers in the northern department of Petén to build landing strips.
The Guatemalan Ministry of the Economy actively promotes the investment of companies interested in exploiting the country’s nearly 2 million acres of forests. Logging companies and lumber traders have taken an interest in the vast forests of the highlands of Guatemala, where they can find rare hard and soft woods, such as teak, mahogany, oak and the more common pine. These resources can fetch hefty prices at market.
The exportation of lumber and products produced from wood from Guatemala has increased significantly. From 2013 to 2014, lumber exports increased 8 percent, from $6.7 million dollars to $8.6 million. This continues the long trend of the increase in the exportation of lumber and wood products, such as furniture.
But this increase in export of lumber brings the companies into conflict with indigenous communities. According to research by Guatemalan environmentalist and researcher, Juan Skinner, the indigenous regions of the country on average contain more forest cover than the non-indigenous regions of the country.
A 2005 report that Skinner authored highlights that municipalities that are less than 25 percent indigenous have forest cover of around 12 percent. Whereas regions where the population is more than 75 percent indigenous have forest cover of around 35 percent. Guatemala’s Mayan communities are not alone in their concern with the destruction of forests. The southern Xinca community of Quesada, Jutiapa has long taken steps to protect the forests that make up their communal territory. The Xinca people are one of the many ethnicities that make up Guatemala. The rural community in the southern department of Jutiapa has held their forest as communal lands since the 1850s, with subsequent generations continuing to protect the mountain and the forests. Today the forests represent 80 percent of the more than 13,500 acres of land, with the remainder utilized for crops, such as coffee and maize. “Our ancestors left us the land and a group to protect our mountain,” said Jak Mardogueo Ogorio, a representative of the communities’ Directive Council. “All this was passed down through the generations, and we continue this today. In order to cut a tree down, you first must receive permission from the council.” The community leaders have also barred any large-scale logging operations. “We don’t permit companies to operate in our forests,” Ogorio said. “In past epochs companies tried to negotiate for access to the forests, but they always wanted more. How many years for a new tree to grow? Up on the mountain there are trees that you cannot encircle with three people. This is what we are protecting.”
Ogorio and the other 13 members of the community council work directly with the residents to build awareness of the importance of the forests through regular meetings, trainings and a campaign to build alternative cooking stoves that utilize less firewood. In August and September 2016, the council implemented the insulation of 400 cooking stoves in conjuncture with Utz Che, a Guatemalan non-governmental organization.
“This project allows us to slow deforestation because the stoves use less firewood, and there is no need for more and more wood,” Ogorio said. “These stoves allow us to protect our forests.”
Community leaders of Quesada maintain vigilance over the threat of forest fires on communal lands for which they receive funding from INAB. This has generated work opportunity in a region where there are not many options.
The community of La Bendición in the southern department of Esquitla is one of the few regions on Guatemala’s southern coast not dominated by sugar and African oil palm plantations. Residents of the small community were displaced by the country’s 36-year-long internal armed conflict. At the end of the war they negotiated the purchase of a 5,500-acre coffee farm through the Land Fund in 2000 for about $1 million, far more than the value of the land.
When the families already burdened by debt arrived in 2001, they were shocked to learn that the land was not in the state that the Land Fund had promised. There were no rivers, as they were promised there would be, and the high winds meant that their crops were damaged, and there was no paved road. But there was a forest that contained an aquifer. Disappointed residents quickly left the community, leaving just 53 families of the original 170.
Residents continued to be burdened by debt, despite the rich forests. In 2002, the Land Fund proposed a solution: sell the forest. “The same Land Fund that assisted us in purchasing our land was pressuring us to sell the forests in order to resolve the debt,” said Veronica Hernandez, a 47-year-old community leader. “But we refused because if we would have sold our forests, we would have been left without water, or with contaminated water.” Since refusing to sell the land to logging interest, the community has organized to maintain the forests, and protect them from illegal logging and from forest fires. The residents also hold regular community-wide meetings to work to train everyone on the importance of the forests, and to guarantee that no one goes up into the mountain to cut down the precious trees.
Residents have also worked to develop projects like those being implemented in Quesada in order to decrease their impact on the forests. These stoves and solar projects are received across the community to great success. The residents’ resolve to protect their forest was further strengthened following the April 2016 water march, when thousands of campesinos marched to demand the protection of Guatemala’s water sources.
“The April march was important for us and other communities along Guatemala’s coast,” Hernandez said. “It has strengthened our drive to protect the forests and the mangroves along the coast.”
Despite the fact that the community was able to hold off the lumber interests following the purchase of the land, Hernandez and the other residents maintain vigilance to guarantee that no company comes to exploit their land and forests. “These companies always come into our communities to rob from us,” Hernandez said. “They then leave us with all the costs.”
Back in Nebaj, the Indigenous Authority is working to replicate the awareness in La Benedición and Quesada over the importance of forests.
“We are trying to inform community members of the impacts of deforestation,” Terraza said. This sharing of information is strengthened through the local Ixil University, which works to build awareness, and bring higher education to the region.
“But we have to do more,” Terraza added. “We must struggle to guarantee that people know what the impacts are.”
The Indigenous Authorities of Nebaj stated that they are considering other actions, including the continuation of pressure on the state bodies, including INAB, the continuation of protests, and the direct action of blocking trucks transporting lumber.
“[INAB] is an institution of the state,” Terraza said. “If we have all these trees, then it is because we have protected the forests for some time; our ancestors also protected these forests. It should not be so easy for them to arrive and issue licenses to companies to exploit the forests.”
Source: Z Magazine ( N0v 2016 )
Nauseated by the Had enough of their lies, escapism, omissions and relentless manipulation? | 0 | [
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FMD3664 | 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 the statement, Ronald Reagan rescinded the largest tax cut ever implemented and increased taxes after revenues fell short of projections.
contextual information: Stephen Colbert has intervieweda slew ofpresidential candidates in the first weeks of his new job hosting CBSThe Late Show, including Jeb Bush, Donald Trump, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. His time with Cruz on Sept. 21 stood out for a fact-filled back and forth about a major Republican role model, President Ronald Reagan. Colbert asked Cruz if he could agree with Reagans support of amnesty for undocumented immigrants and record of raising taxes amid budget shortfalls. Cruz said of course not before pivoting to Reagans most conservative accomplishments, one being that he signed the largest tax cut in history and spurred economic growth. You know, when Reagan came in, from 1978 to 1982, economic growth averaged less than 1 percent a year. Theres only one other four-year period where thats true. Thats true from 2008 to 2012, Cruz said. Colbert jumped in, saying But when conditions changed in the country, he reversed his worlds largest tax cut and raised taxes when revenues did not match the expectations. So its a matter of compromising. PolitiFact explored Cruzs point about economic growth inanother fact-check. We wondered if Colberts retort was on the money or overstated. (Its our first fact-check ofColbertin his new role and the first one in five years, period.) Did Reagan really shift course on tax cuts when the growth stopped? A CBS press contact did not return an email for comment. Reagans tax cut As Cruz said, the Gipper really did cut taxes with the help of Congress in his first year as president. The largest tax cut in history that Cruz mentioned is in reference to the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, a $38 billion phased-in cut ($99 billion in 2015 dollars). Put in the way that economists prefer to discuss tax cuts, it represented 1.91 percent of the countrys gross domestic product. This law included across-the-board cuts of about 30 percent to statutory income tax rates. As Colbert said, Reagan raised taxes, too. Two laws, one in 1982 and another in 1984, were especially dramatic. These laws generally raised taxes by removing tax loopholes, not by raising the tax rate, said Dean Baker, a liberal economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Still, Baker said, the loopholes were big ones. Reagans tax increases 1982:The most significant tax increase Reagan signed was also the first. The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (yes, another law with a very sexy name) increased taxes by almost 1 percent of GDP. The 1982 tax increase was probably the largest peacetime tax increase in American history, said economist Bruce Bartlett, who advised Reagan on domestic policy and then worked as Treasury deputy assistant secretary for economic policy in the George H.W. Bush administration. (An analysis by Jerry Tempalski, an analyst in the Office of Tax Analysis with the U.S. Department of the Treasury,agrees.) This law was driven by pressure to attack the federal budget deficit, as well as the impression that Reagans tax-cutting was partially responsible for lower-than-expected tax revenues. Bartlett, who reviewed Reagans tax record forTax Notesin 2011, cited aTreasury estimatethat the 1982 law raised taxes by almost 1 percent of GDP, or about $150 billion in modern dollars. Specifically, it rolled back some but not all of the 1981 tax cut for writing off equipment, and it repealed 1981 safe harbor leasing provisions, said Stephen J. Entin, senior fellow at the Tax Foundation and former deputy assistant secretary for economic policy in the Reagan administration. 1983:A law Reagan signed in 1983 aimed to keep Social Security afloat by increasing payroll taxes and taxing Social Security benefits for some high-earners. This cost $24.6 billion, or almost $50 billion in 2015 dollars, through 1988, according to an administrationestimate. 1984:The Deficit Reduction Act that Reagan signed rolled back part of the 1981 cut on buildings, Entin said, with the idea that Congress would enact spending cuts. But many of those cuts were either never enacted or were later restored, Entin said. This led to $25 billion in tax receipts. Reagan also signed tax increases in 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988 (as well as a couple other laws with revenue reductions). So where does that leave Reagans tax record on the whole? Its mixed. On one hand, revenues were lower as ashare of GDPin his last year in office (17.6 percent of GDP in 1988) compared to the year before he took office (18.5 percent of GDP in 1980), according to the White House Office of Management and Budget. However, the thrust of the 1981 tax cut that Cruz touted on Colberts show didnt prove to have lasting effects on the whole. A 2006 Treasury Departmentanalysisoffers another view of the plunge after the 1981 law and the subsequent changes that wound it back. Reagans staff tallied up the effect of major legislation on tax receipts over his tenure for his final budget proposal (page 4-4). The 1981 tax cuts comprised most of the total $275 billion in tax relief, but the other side of the ledger listed $133 billion in cumulative tax increases. Thus, Reagan took back about half the 1981 tax cut with subsequent tax increases, Bartlett wrote. Our ruling Responding to Cruzs assertion that Reagan signed the largest tax cut in history, Colbert said he reversed it and raised taxes when revenues did not match the expectations. Legislation that Reagan signed over his time in office and raised taxes did not completely reverse the 1981 Economic Recovery Tax Act. But the broader point Colbert makes is on point. Reagan agreed to raise taxes to deal with budget deficits, even if he wasnt enthusiastic about it. We rate the claim Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD3665 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Today s act of terror against a GOP Congressional baseball team by a Bernie Sanders supporter was about as ugly and hateful as anyone could imagine. But no one should be surprised by this violent act, given how many leaders in the Democrat Party have been calling for violence against anyone who disagrees with their radical progressive agenda, starting with our former president and community organizer, Barack Obama. Below, is a list of 6 prominent Democrats who have called for violence against Americans who disagree with them. Of course, their actions have largely been ignored and deemed acceptable behavior by their allies in the mainstream media #1. President Obama s grassroots Organizing for Action, in a message to supporters, said that voters turned their back on them and it is time respond by fighting harder than we ever have before. That Barack Obama would suggest Democrats fight harder than ever before should come as no surprise to anyone who s been paying attention. The former president and community organizer is no stranger to calling for violence against anyone who doesn t agree with him.In 2008, he made a comment about rubbing out his opponents the Chicago way when he suggested If they [Republicans] bring a knife to the fight, we [Democrats] bring a gun. Obama also joked about rubbing out his opponents #TheChicagoWay:"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun, #Obama, Philly, 2008 John Kass (@John_Kass) August 10, 2016Here s a video highlighting some of our former community organizer in chief s violent comments:Scrapping any intention to work with the new administration, the message from OFA s BarackObama.com said, we re not backing down. The email to supporters was a clear rallying cry to fight the incoming Trump administration, despite Obama s pledge to help the new team.OFA s Jeremy Bird said, If you re anything like me, you re still sorting through the events of the past week and a half. It s hard there s no way to sugarcoat that. Vulnerable communities are feeling like this country has turned its back on them. And years of hard work are on the chopping block, seemingly overnight. Maybe you re feeling disillusioned, cynical, or frustrated. But now is not the time to walk away now is the time to get in the ring and fight harder than we ever have before. Washington Examiner#2. Hillary Clinton s former running mate Tim Kaine called for Democrats to fight in the streets against Trump. Kaine, whose son was recently charged for his involvement in a riot during a pro-Trump event, had appeared on MSNBC in January, calling for members of his party to fight in Congress, fight in the courts, fight in the streets, fight online, fight at the ballot box. Kaine s 24-year-old son Linwood Kaine was charged in May with fleeing police on foot, concealing his identity in a public place, and obstructing legal process, after a masked group he was with threw smoke bombs into a pro-Trump rally in Minneapolis, Minnesota in March.#2. Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch posted a video urging people to march, bleed, and die in the streets.In February, Obama s attorney general posted a video in which she urged people to march and bleed in the streets to resist the president and his administration. It has been people, individuals who have banded together, ordinary people who simply saw what needed to be done and came together and supported those ideals who have made the difference. They ve marched, they ve bled and yes, some of them died. This is hard. Every good thing is. We have done this before. We can do this again, Lynch stated.#3. Hillary Clinton made a video where she told Democrats to RESIST and to stay engaged through activism. She praised the people who were marching and protesting against anyone who doesn t agree with their progressive agenda. Let resistance plus persistence equal progress for our party and for our country. Clinton wrapped up her video by telling Democrats to, Keep fighting! Watch:#4. Madonna tells women s march that she fantasizes about blowing up the White House.During the unhinged aging pop star s vulgar speech at the rally, she demanded that this was the beginning of a revolution, and called Trump s win a horrific moment of darkness. Yes, I m angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House, Madonna said. But I know that this won t change anything. We cannot fall into despair. -Big League Politics#5. Comedian Kathy Griffin made a career-ending decision to hold an ISIS inspired bloodied, decapitated head of President Trump up for a video, as part of a comedy act . No one but Kathy and some hate-filled Democrats thought it was funny:#6. Three weeks before President Trump s inauguration, another unhinged comedian Rosie O Donnell tweeted: DONALD TRUMP IS MENTALLY UNSTABLE. She added, LESS THAN 3 WEEKS TO STOP HIM AMERICA. Stop him? Was Rosie calling for someone to harm or to take out Donald Trump before his inauguration? It sure sounds like it to us! | 0 | [
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FMD3666 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia comes less than a month before the Supreme Court hears its biggest abortion case in a decade.
On March 2, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Whole Women's Health v. Hellerstadt, a challenge to a Texas law that has closed about half of the state's abortion clinics since 2013.
If the law is allowed to stand, abortion rights supporters say it would close all but about 10 of Texas's abortion clinics. Advocates on both sides of the abortion issue say this case could be the most important decision on abortion in 25 years.
Scalia has been a staunch opponent of abortion rights, and critical of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1972, which established a constitutional right to abortion. "You want a right to abortion? There's nothing in the Constitution about that," Scalia said in a 2011 interview.
Scalia was a near-certain vote in favor of upholding the Texas law. Without him, things get a bit more complicated. But the key thing to know is this: Without Scalia, its very hard to see a world where the Supreme Court affirms the Texas law's constitutionality.
Here's why: There are almost certainly four votes against the law from the Court's liberal wing. And it's possible there are five votes, as justice Anthony Kennedy has been a swing vote on abortion cases. A 5-3 decision would be the best case for abortion rights supporters, as it would repeal the Texas law and prevent other states from passing similar restrictions.
The best case outcome for the abortion rights opponents, meanwhile, is a 4-4 tie. In that case, Supreme Court rules say that the decision of the circuit court is left in place without setting any constitutional precedent.
In that case, this would let the Texas law stand, since the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the restriction. That would be far from an ideal outcome for the law's challengers and would leave abortion access greatly restricted in Texas.
But it also wouldn't give other states the clear signal that these types of restrictions are constitutional — something that abortion opponents would very much like to see.
The case, Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, was brought by Texas abortion providers challenging Texas's House Bill 2, which the legislature enacted into law in July 2013.
That bill has two main restrictions, both of which the clinics challenge in this case. One was a requirement that all abortion clinics have admitting privileges at local hospitals. That piece of HB2 went into effect in September 2013, and forced 14 clinics that could not obtain admitting privileges to close.
HB2 also requires abortion clinics to become ambulatory surgical centers, essentially mini emergency rooms that can handle complex medical situations. Ambulatory surgical centers, for example, must have wide enough hallways to fit a gurney and larger operating rooms than abortion clinics typically use.
Abortion clinics in Texas have said that upgrading to these new standards would cost upward of $1 million. They have argued that the new requirements are unnecessary, as abortions tend to have a very low complication risk. Approximately 0.05 percent of first-trimester abortions have complications that require hospital care.
Texas clinics have said because these upgrades are so costly, many facilities would close. Their lawyers previous stated that about 900,000 of Texas's 4.5 million reproductive-age women would live more than 150 miles from a clinic if HB2 stands.
The Supreme Court has, in previous rulings, articulated standards for judging the constitutionality of abortion restrictions like these. And one key standard the justices have settled on is whether a restriction places an "undue burden" on women seeking to terminate a pregnancy.
The Supreme Court has previously defined an undue burden as a law with the "purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus." The Supreme Court has previously ruled that laws requiring women to notify their spouses of their abortion, for example, are an undue burden, as it could make it impossible for some women to access the procedure.
The Texas law requires abortion clinics to become mini emergency rooms
The Texas clinics argue that HB2 ought to fit the "undue burden" definition: Because it would force most Texas abortion clinics to close, it would become the type of "substantial obstacle" that the Supreme Court has previously found to be unconstitutional.
If the Texas law stands, the clinics argue, "every woman in Texas would have to live under a legal regime that fails to respect her equal citizenship status and would force her to grapple with unnecessary and substantial obstacles as a condition of exercising her protected liberty."
Texas has defended its new restrictions as not placing a substantial burden on those seeking abortions. As evidence, it points to the fact that the admitting privileges portion of the law has been in effect for more than a year, forcing 14 clinics to close. The clinics, they pointed out, presented no evidence of women who wanted to obtain an abortion not being able to do so.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals used that argument to uphold the law in October.
"Demand for abortion services in Texas may decrease in the future, as it has done nationally over the past several years," the Fifth Circuit ruled. "The record lacks evidence that the previous closures ... have caused women to be turned away from clinics. Without any evidence ... plaintiffs do not appear to ... show that the ambulatory surgical center provision will result in insufficient clinic capacity."
The Fifth Circuit continued that "the evidence does not indicate, without specificity, that by requiring all abortion clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers, the overall costs of accessing an abortion provider will likely increase."
Texas has also challenged the clinics' argument that the new restrictions are unnecessary because abortion is generally a safe procedure, saying it's not the place of the courts to second-guess the possible outcome of the law.
Abortion rights supporters have pointed to new research that suggests the state was wrong on this. According to the Texas Policy Evaluation Project, major Texas cities have seen significant increases in wait times at abortion clinics. In Dallas, where the average wait time for an abortion was five days prior to HB2, women may now wait as long as 20 days. | 1 | [
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FMD3667 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday: Trump backs a decision by his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, to seek immunity in congressional investigations of possible ties between his campaign and Russia, but there is no immediate sign the request will be granted. The Trump administration slams China on a range of trade issues from its chronic industrial overcapacity to forced technology transfers and longstanding bans on U.S. beef and electronic payment services. Beijing seeks to play down tensions with the United States and put on a positive face ahead of President Xi Jinping’s first meeting with Trump next week. Senate Democrats step closer to having enough votes to block a confirmation vote on Trump’s Supreme Court nominee with three more Democratic senators coming out against Neil Gorsuch for the lifetime job as a justice. Trump seeks to push his plan for fair trade and more manufacturing jobs back to the top of his agenda by ordering a study into the causes of U.S. trade deficits and a clampdown on import duty evasion. Trump has neither a clear White House tax plan nor adequate staff yet to see through a planned tax overhaul, according to interviews with people in the administration, in Congress and among U.S. tax experts. Democrats are trying to counter Trump’s boldest move yet to defang the U.S. consumer financial watchdog, with 40 current and former lawmakers defending the agency in court. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific integrity watchdog is reviewing whether EPA chief Scott Pruitt violated the agency’s policies when he said in a television interview he does not believe carbon dioxide is driving global climate change, according to an email seen by Reuters. Trump will seek to rebuild the U.S. relationship with Egypt at a meeting on Monday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi focused on security issues and military aid, a senior White House official says. Trump will host Jordan’s King Abdullah at the White House next week to discuss the fight against Islamic State militants, the Syria crisis and advancing peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the White House says. A U.S. judge approves a $25 million settlement to resolve a class action lawsuit that claimed fraud against Trump and his Trump University real estate seminars. | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD3668 | 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 Nostradamus Predict the COVID-19 Pandemic? Claim summaries: If only people recognized "predictions" before the calamitous events they supposedly anticipate.
contextual information: In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that broke out globally in the first part of 2020, some social media users shared what they claimed was a prediction of that pandemic made in 1551 by the 16th-century astrologer (and alleged soothsayer) known as Nostradamus: "There will be a twin year (2020) from which will arise a queen (corona) who will come from the east (China) and who will spread a plague (virus) in the darkness of night, on a country with seven hills (Italy) and will transform the twilight of men into dust (death), to destroy and ruin the world. It will be the end of the world economy as you know it." Michel de Nostradame was an astrologer who lived in France in the 1500s and is most famous today for the poetic quatrains he wrote for his book, "Les Prophéties," which many enthusiasts now claim foretold various significant historical events. Nostradamus wrote many passages that are so general (and obscure) that, with a little imagination (and some liberal interpretations from the original French), people have claimed he has "predicted" nearly every significant event since the mid-16th century. However, this particular viral prediction was not expressed in quatrain form, nor could we find anything like it published in "Les Prophéties." We also found no mention of this supposed prophecy prior to the events of early 2020, which generally indicates it is a modern hoax. | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD3669 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: But by amplifying his charge that President Barack Obama doesn't love America, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani appears ready to risk sullying the powerful mythology that grew around his leadership when he steadied and steeled the nation in the terrible, confusing time after 9/11.
Since those fleeting days when he was a unifying figure, Giuliani has more often dealt in waspish rhetoric and savage mockery -- especially of a president he says has "failed."
"America's Mayor" has gone rogue, lashing out at Democrats and liberal orthodoxy on the war on terror and saying, for example, during the Ferguson controversy last year that the biggest danger to a black child was not from a white police officer but from another African American.
The latest firestorm over Obama's patriotism may complete Giuliani's political journey from the center left of the Republican Party to the conservative jungles where Sarah Palin and Donald Trump roam.
"Rudy has devolved into this red meat Republican base ideologue who periodically seems to need self identification," said Douglas Muzzio, a political scientist at Baruch College and a New York City media commentator. "Maybe it is Rudy in his dotage, where he has lost whatever boundaries he once had. He sounds like a bitter old man."
Giuliani seems to be relishing his moment back in the spotlight.
But he's also causing awkward moments for Republican candidates limbering up for a crack at the presidency in 2016 -- a fact the White House was quick to exploit on Friday.
"It's sad to see when somebody who has attained a certain level of public stature, and even admiration, tarnishes that legacy so thoroughly," said Obama's spokesman, Josh Earnest. "And the truth is, I don't take any joy, or vindication, or satisfaction from that. I think, really, the only thing that I feel is I feel sorry for Rudy Giuliani today."
Democratic National Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz also joined in, seeking to use Giuliani to frustrate the GOP's effort to short circuit controversies which could tarnish the party's image.
"Now is the time for its leaders to stop this kind of nonsense. Enough," she said.
Giuliani's blast, delivered in a closed door Republican dinner, and repeated in a media tour, centers on a claim that Obama was not brought up to "love" his country like most Americans.
It's a familiar charge from the conservative fringe, that Obama is somehow different and doesn't view America as an exceptional paragon but is obsessed with apologizing for its failings.
"I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe the president loves America," Giuliani was quoted as saying by Politico.
Asked by Fox News host Megyn Kelly Thursday whether he wanted to apologize, Giuliani replied: "Not at all. I want to repeat it."
"I don't feel this love of America," Giuliani said. "I believe his initial approach is to criticize the United States."
Giuliani dug in further in an interview with the New York Times, rejecting the idea that his remarks were born of racism.
"I thought that was a joke, since (Obama) was brought up by a white mother, a white grandfather, went to white schools, " said Giuliani. "This isn't racism. This is socialism or possibly anti-colonialism," said Giuliani.
Far from being chastened, Giuliani, who wore a conspiratorial grin on Fox News, seems gleeful in the firestorm. His behavior might be explained by a boxing maxim he was taught as a boy, which may also shed light on his calmness on 9/11.
"My father taught me ... when you get hit in the face for the first time, you're going to panic," Giuliani said in an interview with Forbes magazine in 2011. "Instead of panicking, just accept it. Stay calm. And any time anybody hits you, they always leave themselves open to be hit."
Giuliani's actions may be both a glimpse at his political philosophy and reflect a decision to wade into the political echo chamber to solidify his standing among a certain group of conservatives.
"He understands political posturing, he understands the effectiveness of rhetoric," said Errol Louis, a CNN political commentator from New York. "He clearly wants to play a role on the national stage. I guess he has chosen the role of bulldog -- go after the president, attack him, make wild accusations."
With a failed presidential campaign behind him, and having been out of office for a decade-and-a-half, it may be that Giuliani sees his future on the conservative talk circuit.
"To the extent that Giuliani will be involved in the game moving forward, it will be as a commentator or an analyst," said Costas Panagopoulos, a campaigns expert at Fordham University, New York. "In order to do that successfully these days, it helps to be controversial, sometimes inflammatory. I am not surprised that he has become increasingly forceful in his comments in the media. He is convinced that will help him."
Giuliani has rarely been known to back down. He was a Yankee fan growing up in Brooklyn, a ruthless prosecutor who took on unions and the Mob and a hard driving Republican who ran a liberal city.
When he awoke on September 11, 2001, Giuliani was a polarizing figure with a large ego and a sharp tongue. He might have purged New York street crime but was starting to grate on the city's nerves at the end of his second term.
Within hours, with a staggering display of calm, purpose and leadership, he had recast himself as a modern-era Winston Churchill, steadying and inspiring his people in their darkest hour. His heroics were such that he became one of those politicians who become known by a single name.
Marching up Broadway, he grabbed a mike and told people to evacuate southern Manhattan. He conjured up national resolve and resistance, as a country waited hours to see its president, out of sight on Air Force One.
"People tonight should say a prayer, for the people that we have lost, and be grateful that we are all here," he said in a late night press conference 12 hours after the Twin Towers came crashing down in a toxic cloud of fire and ash. "Tomorrow New York is going to be here and we are going to rebuild and we are going to be stronger from before."
Making Giuliani its Man of the Year, Time Magazine said: "When the day of infamy came, Giuliani seized it as if he had been waiting for it all his life."
But he struggled to meet huge expectations. His 2008 presidential campaign was a bust, plagued by poor organization and his liberal views on social issues that conflicted with the conservative base.
But there was also a sense that he was playing the September 11 card too much: Joe Biden's crack that there were "only three things he mentions in a sentence, a noun a verb and 9/11" was funny because it bore more than a ring of truth.
That was years ago now. But while his years of elective office are behind him, Giuliani still seems to pine for the political spotlight. So he has every incentive to keep this row going as long as he can. | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD3670 | 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: Where's the Outrage - Alisa Wilson Claim summaries: Letter to the 'Wall Steet Journal' responds to a 'Where's the Outrage?' editorial?
contextual information: Claim: Letter to the Wall Steet Journal responds to a "Where's the Outrage?" editorial. CORRECTLY ATTRIBUTED Example: [Collected via e-mail, April 2009] This letter was sent to the Wall Street Journal on August 8, 2008 by Alisa Wilson, Ph.D. Of Beverly Hills, CA, in response to the Wall Street Journal article titled "Where's The Outrage?" that appeared July 31, 2008. Really. I can tell you where the outrage is. The outrage is here, in this middle-aged, well-educated, upper-middle class woman. The outrage is here, but I have no representation, no voice. The outrage is here, but no one is listening for who am I? I am not a billionaire like George Soros that can fund an entire political movement. I am not a celebrity like Barbra Streisand that can garner the attention of the press to promote political candidates. I am not a film maker like Michael Moore or Al Gore that can deliver misleading movies to the public. The outrage is here, but unlike those with money or power, I don't know how to reach those who feel similarly in order to effect change. Why am I outraged? I am outraged that my country, the United States of America, is in a state of moral and ethical decline. There is no right or wrong anymore, just what's fair. Is it fair that millions of Americans who overreached and borrowed more than they could afford are now being bailed out by the government and lending institutions to stave off foreclosure? Why shouldn't these people be made to pay the consequences for their poor judgment? When my husband and I purchased our home, we were careful to purchase only what we could afford. Believe me, there are much larger, much nicer homes that I would have loved to have purchased. But, taking responsibility for my behavior and my life, I went with the house that we could afford, not the house that we could not afford. The notion of personal responsibility has all but died in our country. I am outraged, that the country that welcomed my mother as an immigrant from Hitler's Nazi Germany and required that she and her family learn English now allows itself to be overrun with illegal immigrants and worse, caters to those illegal immigrants. I am outraged that my hard-earned taxes help support those here illegally. That the Los Angeles Public School District is in such disarray that I felt it incumbent to send my child to private school, that every time I go to the ATM, I see "do you want to continue in English or Spanish?", that every time I call the bank, the phone company, or similar business, I hear "press 1 for English or press 2 for Spanish". WHY? This is America, our common language is English and attempts to promote a bi- or multi-lingual society are sure to fail and to marginalize those who cannot communicate in English. I am outraged at our country's weakness in the face of new threats on American traditions from Muslims. Just this week, Tyson's Food negotiated with its union to permit Muslims to have Eid-al-Fitr as a holiday instead of Labor Day. What am I missing? Yes, there is a large Somali Muslim population working at the Tyson's plant in Tennessee. Tennessee, last I checked, is still part of the United States. If Muslims want to live and work here they should be required to live and work by our American Laws and not impose their will on our long history. In the same week, Random House announced that they had indefinitely delayed the publication of The Jewel of Medina, by Sherry Jones, a book about the life of Mohammed's wife, Aisha due to fear of retribution and violence by Muslims. When did we become a nation ruled by fear of what other immigrant groups want? It makes me so sad to see large corporations cave rather than stand proudly on the principles that built this country. I am outraged because appeasement has never worked as a political policy, yet appeasing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is exactly what we are trying to do. An excellent article, also published recently in the Wall Street Journal, went through over 20 years of history and why talking with Iran has been and will continue to be ineffective. Yet talk, with a madman no less, we continue to do. Have we so lost our moral compass and its ability to detect evil that we will not go in and destroy Iran 's nuclear program? Would we rather wait for another Holocaust for the Jews one which they would be unlikely to survive? When does it end? As if the battle for good and evil isn't enough, now come the Environmentalists who are so afraid of global warming that they want to put a Bag tax on grocery bags in California; to eliminate Mylar balloons; to establish something as insidious as the recycle police in San Francisco. I do my share for the environment: I recycle, I use water wisely, I installed an energy efficient air conditioning unit. But when and where does the lunacy stop? Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map, the California economy is being overrun by illegal immigrants, and the United States of America no longer knows right from wrong, good from evil.. So what does California do? Tax grocery bags. So, America , although I can tell you where the outrage is, this one middle-aged, well-educated, upper middle class woman is powerless to do anything about it. I don't even feel like my vote counts because I am so outnumbered by those who disagree with me. Alisa Wilson, Ph.D.Beverly Hills, California Origins: On 31 July 2008, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial by Arthur C. Brooks, a professor at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Public Affairs, entitled "Where's the Outrage? Really." The gist of Mr. Brooks' commentary was to note that"virtually every group in the [U.S.] population [was] less angry" in 2008 than in 1996 with the exception of those who identify themselves as "very liberal," and to question why "folks outside their ranks (including moderate liberals) are failing so miserably to muster up much rage in the current environment." editorial In response to Mr. Brooks' opinion piece, Beverly Hills, California, resident Dr. Alisa Wilson penned the above-quoted letter, which was submitted to (but not published by) the Wall Street Journal. As Dr. Wilson told us: a) I did indeed write that letter in August 2008. Please note, however, that although I submitted the letter to the Wall Street Journal, the Wall Street Journal did not publish my letter. b) The thoughts and sentiments in that article are my own, but apparently have resonated with many people. c) I have seen some people in the "blog-o-sphere" question whether I am a real person. Yes, indeed, I exist. Last updated: 19 May 2009 | 1 | [
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FMD3671 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Don’t eat burnt toast or fish ‘n’ chips or over crispy roast potatoes — or you may end up getting cancer, a UK government agency has warned. [According to the warning by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) issued today in a campaign launched on its website, these foods should be avoided because they all contain higher levels of acrylamide, a chemical which has caused cancer in mice. The campaign — called Go For Gold — says that acrylamide is produced when starchy foods such as bread and potatoes are cooked for long periods at higher temperatures such as baking, frying, grilling, toasting, and roasting. The FSA claims: The scientific consensus is that acrylamide has the potential to cause cancer in humans. Which, according to its critics, is precisely the kind of junk science which gives junk science a bad name. As Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs says, this is a classic case of “mission creep†from a government agency. “They should be dealing with real safety issues like the handful of restaurants who are putting out genuinely dangerous food,†he said. “This sort of thing undermines public faith in scientific advice and terrifies people. “People just don’t know what to eat anymore because they’re not being given clear advice. †Indeed. Neither Cancer Research UK nor the European Food Standards Agency have been able to find a major health risk issue, despite their best efforts. The quango was set up in 2000 under Tony Blair in response to a spate of food poisonings in restaurants. Few would argue that ensuring basic standards of hygiene and safety in the food supply is a legitimate public health goal, but the FSA soon got bored of that and became part of the nanny state. Amongst its dubious achievements are telling football fans to substitute sparkling water and grapes for beer and crisps when watching the World Cup, defining cheese as ‘junk food’ and lobbying for bans on advertising. It is a classic example of bureaucratic expansion. As its mission crept, its budget grew, and although it has been trimmed somewhat in the era of austerity its annual income exceeds £130 million and it apparently still has time to tell people not to fluff their roast potatoes. | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD3672 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is This Man's Name Really Peter Griffin? Claim summaries: The photograph has gained popularity in social media clickbait ads that lead to listicles and slideshows that don't end up including the image.
contextual information: A directory photo (perhaps a school yearbook) of a man supposedly named "Peter Griffin" bears a strong resemblance to another Peter Griffin, the "big, boisterous lovable oaf" featured in the Fox animated TV series, Family Guy. However, the same photograph previously appeared on the internet with a caption identifying its subject as Justin Blair Spaeth. Justin Blair Spaeth is a real person who bears a physical similarity to the Peter Griffin character but does not share his name, as evidenced by these snapshots of a Back Stage Blue production of "West Side Story" at Notre Dame High School. The altered image has been shared on websites and social media since at least 2005, including in Twitter ads that lead to listicles and slideshows, such as this one: Spaeth's image with the words "Peter Griffin" is included in the tweet as clickbait, as it does not even appear in the long list on the advertised website. | 0 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
FMD3673 | 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: Black Voting Rights Claim summaries: Will the right for blacks to vote expire in 2007?
contextual information: Claim: Legislation guaranteeing blacks the right to vote in the USA will expire in 2007. Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1997] As everyone should be aware, in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voters Rights Act. This was created to allow Blacks the right to vote. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan signed an amendment to extend this right for an additional twenty-five years. You guessed it . In 2007 (ten years from now), Congress will decide whether or not Blacks should retain the right to vote. In order for this to be passed, thirty-eight states will have to approve an extension. For me, as well as many others, this was the first time that we had heard this thus, bringing concern to all of us! What many Blacks before us fought and even died for as well as the milestones that we, as Blacks have achieved, this can be taken away from us . AGAIN! If this issue has taken you by surprise as well, I encourage YOU to contact your Congressperson, alderperson, senator anyone in government, that you put your vote behind and ask them what are they doing to firstly, to get the extension and furthermore, make our right to vote a LAW. This has to become a law in order for our right to vote to no longer be up for discussion, review and/or evaluation. (Remember: Blacks are the only group of people who require permission under the United States Constitution to vote!) As Black people, we cannot "drop the ball" on this one! We have come too far to be forced to take such a large step back. So, please let's push on and forward to continue to build the momentum towards gaining equality. Please pass this on to others, as I am sure that many more individuals are not aware of this. Origins: It's a scenario that should send chills up and down the spine of everyone who believes in America, democracy, and equality. The right of every citizen to vote is the foundation of our democracy it's how we ensure that our government is responsive and responsible to us, the people. The thought that anyone especially a group of people who were treated as chattel, enslaved, and denied basic civil rights until just over a century ago could lose that fundamental right is horrifying. The idea that people who were kept legally segregated from the rest of society until only a few decades ago could find themselves unable to redress their grievances at the ballot box is appalling. And the notion that the good deeds of the hundreds of thousands of brave men and women who gave their lives to ensure that everyone, regardless of race, have the right to vote could be capriciously invalidated at the whim of modern day politicians is mortifying. Fortunately, it isn't so. Two constitutional amendments that followed the conclusion of the long and bloody U.S. Civil War in 1865 were the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery, and the 15th amendment, which guaranteed the right of all citizens to vote (provided they were male and at least 21). Sadly, passing a law and enforcing a law have often proved to be two very different things. So it was in this case. 13th amendment 15th amendment Despite the 15th Amendment, many states in the South enacted Jim Crow voting requirements that effectively prevented blacks from voting. Poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and other strategems were adopted to ensure that only whites entered polling places on election day. If those schemes failed, intimidation, force, and violence were handy alternatives. Not until the Supreme Court decided Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954 was segregation declared unconstitutional, and even then nearly a hundred years after the end of the Civil War many blacks were still being denied the right to vote guaranteed to them by the Constitution since 1870. The remedy to this injustice was President Lyndon Johnson's proposal and Congress' passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It didn't guarantee blacks the right to vote; they'd already held that right since the ratification of the 15th Amendment ninety-five years earlier. The Voting Rights Act provided for enforcement of that right. The Voting Rights Act authorized the federal government to send federal registrars to counties where local registrars refused to accept the registration of black voters, to send observers to monitor elections and ensure that blacks were allowed to vote (and that their votes were actually counted), and to mandate that certain areas obtain the approval of the Attorney General before making changes to their voting requirements or procedures. The Voting Rights Act was never intended to be in force permanently. It was initially effective for a period of five years; that period was later extended for another five years, then another seven years, and finally for another twenty-five years, ending in 2007. Even if the Voting Rights Act is not extended again in 2007, this will not mean that the right to vote will "be taken away" from blacks it will simply mean that the federal government will no longer require states to seek federal approval before changing their voting laws. We should see this as a positive that we as a society have finally (if slowly and painfully) progressed to the point we no longer need to take special measures to ensure that every citizen has a fair opportunity to participate in a democratic voting process. There are times when we should get all riled up about what our government is doing, but this isn't one of them. Additional information: Voting Rights Act Clarification (U.S. Department of Justice) Last updated: 8 February 2007 Sources: Boychuk, Ben. "Colorblind or Color Conscious?" Investor's Business Daily. 13 July 1998. Cosby, Camille. "Prejudice Permeates American Culture." USA Today. 8 July 1998. Donald, David Herbert. Lincoln. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995. ISBN 0-684-80846-3. Shepard, Paul. "Black Voting Rumor Surfacing on Web." Associated Press. 2 December 1998. | 0 | [
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FMD3674 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Financial Markets , Gold , Market Manipulation , Precious Metals , U.S. Economy dollar collapse , silver , silver eagles , stock bubble admin
Gold is powering higher because the dollar is dropping. The dollar index is down 1.7% in the last 3 1/2 trading sessions. It’s down 2.3% vs the euro in the last 5 1/2 days, down 2.1% vs the yen in the last 3 days and down nearly 2% vs. the Swissie since Sunday night.
This is NOT about the political chaos connected to the U.S. election. That’s a sideshow distraction to the real problems going on behind the scene.
The U.S. economy is starting to collapse. This is becoming glaringly evident from most of the data, notwithstanding the highly manipulated economic reports like auto sales.
The movement back into non-fiat assets is starting again – anything connected to debt, like housing, is a de facto fiat asset. The best indicator of this is not gold, but silver. Silver was correlating with SPX for most of October, when the investment “thesis” was “a strengthening economy is good for industrial metals.”
The graph below illustrates this. It shows silver’s movement vs. the SPX for the last 3 months:
Silver correlated almost perfectly with the movement of the SPX for most of October (shaded area on the graph). But silver has moved up while the SPX has been selling off (including today, Nov 2nd) the past 4 trading sessions. This signals a switch from silver performing as an “industrial” metal to silver functioning as a “monetary” metal.
Certainly based on the gold-silver ratio, silver is extraordinarily cheap to gold and thus represents a prototypical “value” trade as the markets begin to accept and reflect economic reality and reject the politically-charge propaganda about a “healthy” economy coming from the Fed, the White House and the Democratic candidates.
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FMD3675 | 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: Cicero's thoughts on fiscal management by the government Claim summaries: This quotation from Roman statesman Cicero about balancing the budget comes from a 1965 novel, not from history.
contextual information: As we've noted many times in these pages, one common way in which people attempt to demonstrate the aptness of a particular social or political viewpoint is to put its expression into the mouth of a revered historical figure. [Collected via e-mail, April 2008] This quote is going around the internet. I would like to know if it really came from Cicero as claimed. "The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." Cicero, 55 BC Surely if one of great minds of our civilization, someone who lived hundreds (or even thousands) of years ago, said the very same thing we're thinking today, then surely that's proof we've hit upon some eternal truth that should be sagaciously heeded. In short, attributing apocryphal quotations to everyone from Confucius to Abraham Lincoln is an attempt to capitalize on the maxim that "great minds think alike." One prime representative of this phenomenon is the passage reproduced above, which warns about the perils of governments' overspending their budgets and lavishing too much money on foreign aid and welfare programs. For the last half century it has been attributed to Roman philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero and widely quoted by politicians and pundits seeking to bolster their arguments in favor of fiscal conservatism. For example, Louisiana representative Otto Passman, who for thirty years "pursued a relentless battle against spending for foreign aid" in the U.S. Congress, read these words into the Congressional Record on April 25, 1968: read these words into the Congressional Record Mr. Speaker, the record shows that in all ages where republican forms of government have been lost, it has been through the pretense of a share-the-wealth program, a blind faith in public officials, and apathy on the part of those who could act but did not. To mention only one of many, many examples from past history, may I quote from a statement made by Cicero over 2,000 years ago: The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt, the mobs should be forced to work and not depend on government for subsistence. History reveals that public officials heeded not the warning therefore, the government collapsed. On March 29, 1971 the Chicago Tribune published a letter from a reader who invoked the same words to make a similar point: Someone said years ago: "The more things change, the more they are the same." Today's problems are not new. The Roman Empire faced bankruptcy 2,000 years ago, as more and more power was concentrated in central government and government spending grew. Cicero spoke out against the trend. This great Roman senator said: "The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. The mobs should be forced to work and not depend on government for subsistence." Romans ignored Cicero; Rome fell. History is great if we learn from it. It is not too late for the United States to heed those words out of the past. Those words were never uttered by Cicero, however; and the reason no one ever quoted them as such until about fifty years ago is because they weren't written until 1965. They sprang from the pen of Taylor Caldwell, a fiction writer best known for historical novels such as Captains and the Kings, her 1972 best-selling chronicle of the rise to wealth and power of an Irish immigrant named Joseph Francis Xavier Armagh (which was also made into a popular television mini-series in 1976). popular television mini-series Caldwell penned several novels based on real-life religious and historical figures, including Genghis Khan (The Earth Is the Lord's), Cardinal Richelieu (The Arm and the Darkness), Saint Luke (Dear and Glorious Physician), Saint Paul (Great Lion of God), Aspasia (Glory and the Lightning), and Judas Iscariot (I, Judas). Her 1965 effort A Pillar of Iron was a historical novel about the life of Cicero, the great Roman statesman who "is a pillar of iron as he publicly maintains his search for honor and justice under law in the face of plots against his life and his country." Although A Pillar of Iron often drew directly from the recorded speeches and letters of Cicero for its dialogue, it was nonetheless a work of fiction, and the now famous statement from Cicero about "balancing the budget" was an invention of Caldwell's and not a reproduction of Cicero's own words. In fact, the novel doesn't even present these words as something spoken by Cicero, but rather as a summation of Cicero's political philosophy presented as a preface to an imagined conversation between Cicero and Gaius Antonius Hybrida: Reared in republican virtues, Cicero found himself frequently confounded by Antonius. Antonius heartily agreed with him that the budget should be balanced, that the Treasury should be refilled, that public debt should be reduced, that the arrogance of the generals should be tempered and controlled, that assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt, that the mobs should be forced to work and not depend on the government for subsistence, and that prudence and frugality should be put into practice as soon as possible. But when Cicero produced facts and figures how all these things must and should be accomplished, by austerity and discipline and commonsense, Antonius became troubled. "But this or that would bring hardship on this or that class," Antonius said. "The people are accustomed to lavish displays in the circuses and the theaters, and the lotteries, and free grain and beans and beef when they are destitute, and shelter when they are homeless and a part of the city is rebuilt. Is not the welfare of our people paramount?" "There will be no welfare of the people if we become bankrupt," said Cicero, grimly. "We can become solvent again, and strong, only by self-denial and by spending as little as possible until the public debt is paid and the Treasury refilled." "But one cannot if one has a heart at all deprive the people of what they have received for many decades from government, and which they expect. It will create the most terrible hardships." "Better that all of us tighten our girdles than Rome fall," said Cicero. As Jess Stearn observed in In Search of Taylor Caldwell, this imagined historical conversation was reflective of Caldwell's own political outlook much more than Cicero's: "She was a conservative politically, believing the spoils belonged to those who toiled for them. There were not free lunches. She abhorred the welfare philosophy that gave handouts to free-loaders, decrying rewards for indolence and incompetence." Or, as John Blundell aptly quipped in Ladies for Liberty, "Taylor Caldwell gives us fiscal policy, civil service reform, cuts in aid to less developed countries, and welfare reform all in one sentence." The reproductions of Caldwell's words as a historical quote from Cicero have altered the original a fair bit over the years: the admonition that "prudence and frugality should be put into practice as soon as possible" was quickly dropped from the end of the sentence; "people" have replaced "mobs" as the ones who should be "forced to work and not depend on the government for subsistence"; the proclamation that the "arrogance of the generals should be tempered and controlled" now refers to generic "officialdom" rather than military figures; and the warning that this advice need be followed "lest Rome become bankrupt" has mutated into the more ominous-sounding "lest Rome fall." Blundell, John. Ladies for Liberty: Women Who Made a Difference in American History.
New York: Algora Publishing, 2013. 0-875-86865-7 (p. 145). Caldwell, Taylor. A Pillar of Iron.
Lake Oswego, OR: eNet Press Inc., 2013. ASIN B00CEINOCW. Collins, John H. "False Quotations."
Chicago Tribune. 20 April 1971. Connolly, Jerry. "Warning from the Past."
Chicago Tribune. 29 March 1971 (p. 14). Lueck, Thomas J. "Otto Passman, 88, Louisiana Congressman Who Fought Spending."
The New York Times. 14 August 1988. Stearn, Jess. In Search of Taylor Caldwell.
New York: Stein & Day, 1981. 0-812-82791-0. Tench, Helen. "Cicero's Rome Quarried for a Scholarly Novel."
Ottawa Citizen. 14 August 1965 (p. 24). Congressional Record [House]. "History's Warning."
25 April 1968 (p. 10635). | 0 | [
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FMD3676 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: China will push for greater international cooperation in the fight against corruption and terrorism when it hosts Interpol s general assembly next week, according to diplomatic sources familiar with the matter, against a backdrop of concerns China is using the body for its own goals. Last year, the global police cooperation agency elected a senior Chinese public security official, Vice Public Security Minister Meng Hongwei, as its president, prompting rights groups to ask whether Beijing could try and use the position to go after dissidents abroad. Beijing has tried for many years to enlist the help of foreign countries to arrest and deport back to China citizens it accuses of crimes including corruption and terrorism. The three Beijing-based sources, who are familiar with the planning for the Interpol meeting, said China is likely to make these two areas its focus for the general assembly. Beijing has faced reluctance, in Western countries in particular, when it asks for the repatriation of those wanted for alleged crimes in China. Governments and judiciary in these countries have been concerned that the Chinese don t produce evidence acceptable for Western courts, and that defendants might be mistreated and won t get a fair trial in China amid concerns that allegations can be politically motivated. Western diplomats familiar with Chinese requests say China sometimes misunderstands that in Western countries it needs to process its demands through the courts. They re often quite surprised to hear that we can t simply hand them over, said one diplomat, declining to be named given the sensitivity of the matter. But China s security officials have been working to understand the legal requirements of developed countries and international bodies so their requests for expedition become more palatable. Beijing has also been attempting to build intelligence sharing relationships with Western countries in the fight against Islamist militants, diplomats say. China is itself battling what it says are Uighur extremists operating in its far Western region of Xinjiang. Speaking last week, Li Shulei, who leads China s efforts to find and return those suspected of corruption who live abroad, called for a strengthened international anti-graft cooperation framework. We must build a new order to fight international corruption... cut off escape routes for corrupt elements, he told a meeting in Beijing. China has given few details about Interpol s general assembly, which opens in Beijing on Tuesday with a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping. On the question of Meng s influence in Interpol, the diplomats say that the position is largely ceremonial. The Lyon, France-based Interpol says its Secretary General J rgen Stock, a German national, is the organization s full-time chief official overseeing the day-to-day work of international police cooperation. In 2014, China issued Interpol red notices for its 100 most-wanted corruption suspects who have fled overseas as part of XI s sweeping campaign against corruption. Almost half have come back to China to date, some voluntarily, according to the government. Interpol says red notices are requests to provisionally arrest suspects pending extradition, and are not international arrest warrants. It is up to a member state to act upon an Interpol red notice. They can be ignored if a government decides there is insufficient evidence to act upon them, diplomats say. There are no figures for how many red notices are ignored. Red notices themselves are often not made publicly available and it is up to the country issuing them to decide if they are publicized or not. Requests are carefully examined to ensure they comply with Interpol s constitution, which bans any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character , Interpol said in a statement to Reuters. Interpol cannot insist or compel any member country to arrest an individual who is the subject of a Red Notice. Nor can Interpol require any member country to take any action in response to another member country s request, it said. China has attracted criticism from rights groups for targeting in particular exiled Uighurs from Xinjiang, and accusing them of terrorism, including Dolkun Isa, the general secretary of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress. China s Ministry of Public Security, which is helping to organise the Beijing meeting, did not respond to requests for comment on concerns about China s role in Interpol. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Interpol operated under the principles of professionalism and neutrality to jointly fight and prevent crime and China respected that. In April, Interpol issued a global red notice at Beijing s request for Guo Wengui, a billionaire currently exiled in Manhattan, who has made claims of high-level corruption within the Communist Party. Guo has said the red notice showed China was exerting its influence, given it had the head of Interpol, to prevent ordinary Chinese people from blowing the whistle on official corruption while overseas . Maya Wang, Hong Kong-based China researcher for Human Rights Watch, said that China s vice police chief heading Interpol can be seen as part of an overall push by Beijing to flex its international muscle. We have reason to worry that the internal information being shared by Interpol with the police chief may impact on particularly vulnerable minorities like the Uighurs, who have sometimes been involved in terrorism but often are targeted for political disloyalty, said Wang, who acknowledged that so far there is little concrete evidence that this has happened. | 1 | [
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FMD3677 | 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: Yahoo! Mail Petition Claim summaries: Will Yahoo! begin charging for its previously-free pop e-mail service in April?
contextual information: Claim: Yahoo! will begin charging for its previously-free POP e-mail service in April 2002. Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2002] I have just read and signed the online petition: "Petition to request that Yahoo Inc reconsider their decision to charge fees for pop mail, groups, and homepages" hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition service, at: https://www.PetitionOnline.com/11213/ https://www.PetitionOnline.com/11213/ I personally agree with what this petition says, and I think you might agree, too. If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider signing yourself as it looks that Yahoo is going to try charging money for email addresses, yahoo groups and other things they currently offer for free. If you are against it, please take the time like I did to sign the petition. Origins: In mid-March 2002, those who had been availing themselves of Yahoo!'s free POP mail service received a shock in their inboxes, an announcement from the company that as of 24 April 2002 those previously-free services would continue to be available only to those willing to pay for them. Beginning April 24, Yahoo! will charge $29.99 a year for this feature. Those who sign up before that date can secure continuation of this service for $19.99 per annum. Before anyone becomes overly confused on this point, remember that we're talking strictly about POP (Post Office Protocol) e-mail accounts (a protocol that allows desktop e-mail clients such as Eudora and Microsoft Outlook to download mail messages from host systems to users' PCs ). Non-POP e-mail accounts those accessed by reading e-mail from Yahoo! via a web browser will still be free. Advertising income on the Internet fell dramatically in 2001. Previously, Yahoo! could afford to offer its POP mail services free of charge because the revenue needed to support it was coming from the sale of ads displayed on its site. Since that revenue has dropped due to the tech wreck of 2000-2001, Yahoo! has chosen to begin charging users for some of the more expensive-to-support features. The monies needed to pay for them have to come from somewhere, and if the ad revenue no longer supports them, then individual users must. Although signing an e-petition decrying this state of affairs might make someone momentarily feel a bit better, such action is highly unlikely to alter Yahoo!'s plans. All the e-signatures in the world won't pay the bills for Yahoo!, and that is the overriding factor. Customers always retain the option of "voting with their feet" by taking their business elsewhere, but you have to wonder at how "unfair" the decried treatment is when it amounts to someone's no longer providing something for free. As much as we like to have free stuff, we don't have an inherent right to it. Those who choose to rely upon free services should always keep firmly in mind the possibility that these services may someday go away. The incitement to sign the e-petition asserts that Yahoo! will be charging user fees for POP mail, groups, and homepages. That's only partially true. Although POP mail will be available only to those willing to pay a couple of bucks a month for it after April 24, there do not appear to be immediate plans in the works to institute across-the-board user charges for Yahoo!-based groups or homepages that will turn them into "pay for it or lose it" propositions. However, in the case of free GeoCities web sites that is a distinction without a difference, because Yahoo! has already gutted the free version of this service. Yahoo! has announced that by early April it will no longer support FTP (file transfer protocol) to its unpaid GeoCities subscribers. Without FTP capability, users cannot move HTML files to or from their web sites on their own; they have to maintain their web sites through Yahoo!'s advertising-laden forms. Those determined to host their personal web pages on GeoCities will have to become paid subscribers and cough up $4.95 a month to get that vital FTP capability back. (They'll also get extra storage and ad-free page display for their money, though.) Those who do not wish to pay the $4.95 a month fee can still keep their pages there, but they won't be able to use FTP to maintain them. As for Yahoo!'s discussion groups, if there are plans afoot to begin charging for them, no mention of this is showing up in any of Yahoo!'s statements or in news articles detailing changes to Yahoo!'s services. We suspect this claim might have been tossed in to incite a larger number of folks to support the petition. Last updated: 5 January 2008 Sources: Mangalindan, Mylene. "Yahoo Will Charge Users a Yearly Fee for E-Mail Feature." The Wall Street Journal. 22 March 2002 (p. B5). Bloomberg News. "Yahoo to Charge E-Mail Forwarding Fee." Ventura County Star. 26 March 2002 (p. D2). | 1 | [
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FMD3678 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: DALLAS — As a demonstration against police shootings made its way downtown here on Thursday, it differed from others around the country in one startling way: Twenty to 30 of the marchers showed up with and other types of rifles and wore them openly, with the straps slung across their shoulders and backs. In Texas, it was not only legal. It was commonplace. The state has long been a bastion of sentiment and the kind of place where both Democrats and Republicans openly talk about the guns they own and carry, on their person, in their vehicles, at their offices, at their homes and even in the halls of the Texas Capitol. And in recent years, as gun rights continued to expand, activists have exploited a freedom to openly carry a rifle in public by showing up at demonstrations with their long guns. Advocates have carried their rifles at the Alamo in San Antonio and outside mosques in the Dallas suburbs. But city and county leaders said the presence of armed protesters openly carrying rifles on Thursday through downtown Dallas had created confusion for the police as the attack unfolded, and in its immediate aftermath made it more difficult for officers to distinguish between suspects and marchers. Two men who were armed and a woman who was with them were detained, fueling an early, errant theory by the police that there was more than one gunman. Mayor Mike Rawlings of Dallas suggested in an interview on Sunday that, in the wake of the attack, he supported tightening the state’s gun laws to restrict the carrying of rifles and shotguns in public. “There should be some way to say I shouldn’t be bringing my shotgun to a Mavericks game or to a protest because something crazy should happen,†said Mr. Rawlings, a Democrat. “I just want to come back to common sense. †The state’s culture, the mayor said, had imperiled people on the streets of Dallas. “This is the first time — but a very concrete time — that I think a law can hurt citizens, police and not protect them,†he said, adding that he was not and that he owned a shotgun himself. “I think it’s amazing when you think that there is a gunfight going on, and you are supposed to be able to sort who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. †According to the authorities, Micah Johnson, 25, opened fire on police officers who were accompanying marchers protesting policing practices. Mr. Johnson, who had been in the Army Reserve, used a rifle to fire from a parking garage and while on foot on the streets below, killing five police officers. The Dallas police chief, David O. Brown, described to CNN’s “State of the Union†on Sunday the amount of confusion the armed protesters initially caused. He said the event had attracted “20 or 30 people†who “showed up with rifles slung across their shoulder. †“They were wearing gas masks,†Mr. Brown said. “They were wearing bulletproof vests and camo fatigues, for effect, for whatever reason. †When the shooting started, “they began to run,†he said. And because they ran in the middle of the shooting, he said, the police on the scene viewed them as suspects. “Someone is shooting at you from a perched position, and people are running with and camo gear and gas masks and bulletproof vests, they are suspects, until we eliminate that. †“Doesn’t make sense to us, but that’s their right in Texas,†he said. He did not say whether he supported restricting the carrying of rifles on the streets. On Saturday, President Obama also told reporters that one of the challenges for the Dallas officers who were being shot at was that Texas was an state. “Imagine if you’re a police officer and you’re trying to sort out who is shooting at you and there are a bunch of people who have got guns on them,†Mr. Obama said. One of the state’s most prominent activists, C. J. Grisham, the founder and president of Open Carry Texas, disputed the extent of the confusion caused by marchers carrying rifles. In videos from the scene, he said, “you can see that police are walking right past people who are rifles and it’s not a problem. So obviously it’s not that difficult to tell who the good guys and the bad guys are. †It was unclear what effect the comments from Mr. Rawlings, Chief Brown and Mr. Obama would have on Texas gun laws. Republicans control the governor’s office, the State Legislature and all but one of the nearly 30 statewide elected offices. Alejandro Garcia, a spokesman for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, said that Mr. Patrick was “not surprised the president and forces are once again attempting to use a shooting tragedy to score points for their own political agenda. †The Rev. Terry Holcomb, an leader and a pastor of the Crossroads Baptist Church in Oakhurst, Tex. said he and others would oppose any efforts to ban the open carrying of long guns as a result of the Dallas attack. “You would expect something like this in New York or California, but it will not see the light of day in Texas,†Mr. Holcomb said. “Let’s just call it for what it is: The liberal left is and . †Even Democrats said they were not optimistic that substantial changes to Texas gun laws were in store. “From my perspective, I don’t see anything changing in Texas,†said Representative Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat, who represents El Paso. The legality of carrying a rifle on the streets is just one element of a gun culture that continues to define and divide the state. It is not just that many Texans are armed. It is that many are allowed to display the fact that they are armed, and more now do so than at any point in modern Texas history. Beyond the carrying of rifles in public — a tactic used by a small group of advocates — more than one million Texans have permits to carry concealed handguns. Last year, the Legislature voted to give those with licenses the option of carrying their weapons unconcealed, in holsters on their hips or on their shoulders. That law, which is now in effect, did not affect the carrying of rifles in public. Lawmakers also allowed students and faculty members at Texas’ public and private universities to carry concealed handguns into classrooms and other campus buildings. The law, which has drawn fierce opposition at many universities, takes effect on Aug. 1. Amid the confusion on the scene, the Dallas police on Thursday released a picture on social media of one of the armed marchers. The police called the man “a person of interest†and asked for the public’s help in identifying him. That man, Mark Hughes, turned himself in and was later released. The other armed man was not allowed to legally carry a gun, and the police arrested him on a misdemeanor charge. He appeared to still be in custody on Sunday. A woman who was with the two men and who was detained was later released. A lawyer for Mr. Hughes said that his client was simply exercising his rights in Texas when carrying his rifle at a demonstration. The lawyer, Michael C. Campbell Jr. said, “He’s within the parameters of the law. †| 1 | [
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FMD3679 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Bulgaria s parliament passed anti-corruption legislation on Wednesday under European Union pressure over its failure to prosecute venal officials, but President Rumen Radev has said the bill is not fit for purpose and he will veto it. The Balkan, formerly communist country is the poorest as well as one of the most corrupt countries in the EU, which it joined in 2007, and has made scant progress towards stamping out graft and organized crime. The European Commission, the EU s executive, has repeatedly rebuked Bulgaria for failing to prosecute and sentence allegedly corrupt officials and for not overhauling a creaking judiciary. This law corresponds to the wishes of Bulgarian citizens and the European Commission, said Tsvetan Tsvetanov, chairman of the ruling GERB party s parliamentary group. Analysts voiced concern, though, that the bill would not allow efficient investigations of corruption networks. The management of a special anti-graft unit envisaged by the legislation would be appointed by parliament, something analysts said could limit its objectivity. Radev said the new five-person unit, meant to investigate persons occupying high state posts as well as assets and conflict of interest, may not be truly independent and could be used by those in power to persecute opponents. The instruments envisaged in this law are ineffective, Radev said last week. It does not deal a blow on those who feed corruption, and it can be used as a weapon against inconvenient people. He said he would veto the measure. The president, prime minister and lawmakers could be targets of investigation, as well as municipal councillors, directors of hospitals and border customs bosses. The new law also focuses on improving control and accountability of law-enforcement agencies, just before Bulgaria assumes the six-month, rotating EU presidency in January. Corruption has deterred foreign investment since communism collapsed in Bulgaria in 1989, and the EU has kept Sofia as well as neighboring Romania | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD3680 | 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 Texas ranks 49th nationally in what we are doing to support our per-pupil investment in education in the state.
contextual information: A state senator opposed to a proposal intended to enable some children to attend private schools with government aid asserted that Texas already has a hard time keeping pace with other states. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, told Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, during an April 9, 2013, committee meeting that Texas ranks 49th in the country in terms of per-pupil investment in education. She added that she prefers to prioritize funding for public schools. A reader asked us to verify that ranking. By email, Davis's spokesman, Rick Svatora, informed us that she was referring to a report described in a February 22, 2013, Dallas Morning News article stating that preliminary figures released by the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union, indicate Texas schools are spending $8,400 per student this year. The national average is $11,455, the report said, placing Texas's per-student expenditures below every state except Arizona and Nevada. Thus, compared to other states, Texas reportedly ranks 48th in per-student spending. However, the News story notes that the association's analysis also considered spending in District of Columbia schools, which leaves Texas 49th in per-student spending among 51 jurisdictions. The News story stated that the association's comparisons, based on data provided by state education agencies, are among the most reliable in the nation and are frequently cited by officials in Texas and other states. The NEA has been issuing its annual reports on public school spending since the early 1960s. We turned to the association's report, downloadable here, and found the figures cited by the newspaper in Summary Table K, Estimated Expenditures for Public Schools, 2012-13, which indicates that Texas is spending less per student in average daily attendance (the aggregate attendance of a school during a reporting period divided by the number of days school is in session during that period) than all states except Arizona and Nevada. Elsewhere, the report states that these expenses include salaries for school personnel, student transportation, school books and materials, and energy costs. A wrinkle: Part of the report mentions that in making useful comparisons among states, a different method of counting students, fall enrollment, is preferred to average daily attendance because of its standardized definition. Based on fall enrollment, the report states that Texas is spending an estimated $7,886 per pupil, less than every state except Utah and Arizona, according to Table K. Therefore, it appears that two states trail Texas in per-pupil spending, regardless of how students are counted. For each state, Table K also lists current estimated expenditures for other programs, including expenses such as summer school and adult education, which are not part of regular public elementary and secondary day-school programs, the report states. The table also shows spending by each state's schools on interest on debt and capital outlays, which conservative observers such as the Texas Public Policy Foundation have argued should always be considered when making state-by-state comparisons. When we checked a similar Davis claim about Texas spending on education in 2011, a foundation spokesman pointed out a March 2010 report by the Libertarian-leaning Cato Institute that reviewed 2008-09 budgets for districts in the nation's five largest cities, including Houston, concluding that average per-pupil spending was 44 percent higher than what was otherwise reported by public schools. Separately at the time, Frank Johnson, a statistician with the National Center for Education Statistics, informed us that the center does not take into account capital outlays in estimating per-pupil spending because such costs can create false assumptions about what is spent on instructional programs, school supplies, and teachers. In the latest education association report, Table K's last column presents each state's total school spending, incorporating all subcategories. We wondered how Texas compares in terms of all expenditures per pupil. The report does not provide such a calculation, so we conducted our own analysis, dividing the total spending for each state by the state's average daily attendance, as shown in the report's Summary Table D. By this method, it appears that more than $50 billion in total Texas school spending amounts to nearly $11,090 per pupil, placing Texas 38th nationally, ahead of states including California, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Arizona. By phone, a spokesman for the education association's Texas affiliate, the Texas State Teachers Association, suggested that it does not make sense to include all expenditures because school districts have varied commitments to capital outlays and debt, while spending reflected in the presented per-pupil figures is driven by legislative decisions about spending and finance formulas. Clay Robison followed up by email, stating that in many cases, those expenditures fund the construction of football stadiums and other facilities, such as fine arts centers. While I am not going to engage in the argument about football stadiums, I believe it does not provide a fair comparison of how much states are spending on students. In other words, capital costs combine new classroom construction, which benefits all students, with expenditures that do not apply to all students. Robison pointed out that according to the report's Table H-14, Texas spent $9,462 per pupil in 2010-11, which was before legislators cut education aid in the 2011 legislative session. This year, the association's report suggests that such spending is down by more than $1,000 per pupil from 2010-11. Davis stated that Texas ranks 49th in what we are doing to support our per-pupil investment in education in the state. A report drawing on state figures estimates Texas is spending $7,886 or $8,400 per student this year, depending on how students are counted. Both ways, Texas ranks third to last among the states. However, when including capital outlays, other education expenditures, and interest on debt, total estimated spending in Texas of nearly $11,090 per pupil places the state 38th among the states. But the senator focused on state investment, which, unlike locally determined debt and capital outlays, is driven by legislative actions. Our sense is that this is the appropriate comparison, though Davis failed to clarify that Texas is 49th by this measure in comparison to other states plus Washington, D.C., which is not a state. Absent this clarification, her claim rates as Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD3681 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: They pulled every trick in the book. From manufactured polls designed to discourage Trump supporters from going to vote on election day, to an all-out assassination attempt on his character, you ve gotta hand it to these propagandists, there wasn t a dirty trick they didn t try. Trump took abuse by the media like no other Presidential candidate before him. Even after our dishonest media was caught working behind the scenes with Crooked Hillary, her campaign and the DNC, they still came at Trump with a shameless vengeance like we ve never seen. What the media didn t understand however, was that every time we saw Trump alone in the ring against a mob of unruly leftist journalists fighting back with everything he had, it only strengthened our resolve.In Trump, Americans saw something that s been missing from our politicians for decades, we saw someone who was actually willing o fight for our nation on our behalf. We saw someone who wasn t going to concede to political correctness, or to give our lying media respect they didn t deserve. Every time he called them out for their dishonesty, Americans cheered. Every time they hit Trump with another lie, or worked in unison to impugn his character, he always managed to come back even stronger than before.Trump wasn t interested in playing by the media s rules, and they did everything in their power to punish him for not playing along. Along the way, he brilliantly exposed them as nothing more than an extension of Hillary Clinton s campaign. And so it is, with great pleasure we share with you some of the best liberal media meltdowns post-Trumpocalypse MSNBC s Rachel Maddow typically has a very arrogant way about her. Funny, the attitude seems to have disappeared:Yes, this is real life . https://t.co/NEU67a7U1o Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) October 8, 2016NBC s Chuck Todd and Lester Holt were two of Hilary s biggest cheerleaders. They just can t seem to figure out how they failed to convince America we needed Hillary as our next President:.@chucktodd on Trump: "He blew all of our predictions, and models, and you name it out of the water." #ElectionNight https://t.co/kt1fOMHXWu MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 9, 2016It s bad enough that MSNBC s Chris Matthews has to deal with a Republican President, but how will he EVER be able to deal with a xenophobic Republican majority House and Senate?What will a Trump presidency mean for the future of our immigration laws? https://t.co/KqtMftSfwU Hardball (@hardball) November 10, 2016Debate hack Martha Raddatz was in full meltdown mode:CNN s Dana Bash explains to Brooke Baldwin how people who voted for Trump really don t like him. | 0 | [
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FMD3682 | 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: Man Catches Furry Trout in Wisconsin? Claim summaries: Neither furry trout nor photographs of them are real phenomena.
contextual information: On 5 May 2015, a photograph purportedly showing a fisherman holding a furry trout was posted on the website of a local Wisconsin news station. The caption read: "Wanted to share a rather remarkable catch I had this afternoon. I was fishing the Menomonee River, where some trout were packed into a bottleneck. I caught a few, and nothing was out of the ordinary until I reeled this one in. I have never seen anything like it. I contacted a local wildlife official, and they referred to it as a rare fur-bearing trout. They went on to explain that this was an extreme case of Saprolegnia, or cotton mold. Apparently, old Great Lakes legends spoke of these as a uniquely evolved trout species that existed only in the deepest, coldest parts of the lakes and needed the fur to stay warm. I doubt it will make Cabella's non-traditional mount wall, but I'm still excited to reel in a genuine Wisconsin legend! You have my permission to share and use this photo in any form you'd like. You can credit George Weber. I'm a 41-year-old carpenter and live in Wauwatosa. The image was picked up by several websites such as Unexplained Mysteries and Cult of Weird, and soon prompted an Internet debate about the existence of furry trout. Although there is no species of fish called "furry trout," a genus of freshwater mold (also called cotton mold) known as Saprolegnia does grow on diseased fish and lends them a somewhat furred appearance. But unlike the picture of the fish seen in the above-displayed photograph, this mold typically grows in patches and doesn't resemble fluffy white fur. So if this fish isn't suffering from Saprolegnia, then is this a real furry trout? Stories about fur-bearing trout have been circulating for years, but that mythical creature still exists only in the imaginary realm. One common form of the myth is that the species came about as the result of a hair tonic spill in the Arkansas River, while another theory holds that this furry fish evolved to grow a thick coat in order to survive in the cold waters of Alaska. Some of those tall tales of the West are partly true, no matter how ridiculous they sound. As noted in the first installment of Roaming Wyoming, jackalopes may be fake, but science does support the existence of rabbits that may look like they have horns. Is there a factual basis behind the story of the fur-bearing trout? So far, not one has been found—just plenty of good-natured humor. The fur-bearing trout, also called the furry fish, beaver trout, or (probably jokingly) the sabled salmon, is said to live wherever water becomes cold enough to warrant a warm winter coat. This includes all of Canada and most of the far northern states of the United States, including Wyoming. The most publicized encounter with the fur-bearing trout appeared in a 1929 issue of Montana Wildlife magazine, the official publication of the Montana State Fish and Game Department. Mr. J.H. Hicken of Whitefish, Montana, told his story in colorful detail. Mr. Hicken snagged a furry fish at a lake in Glacier National Park, where the water was so cold it was below the freezing point. But, "Nature has taken care of her own by providing the fish with a thick coat of fur," Mr. Hicken remarked. He did add that since the fish are so cold, "the change of temperature from this water to the atmosphere is so great that the fish explodes upon being taken from the water, and fur and skin come off in one perfect piece, making it available for commercial purposes, and leaving the body of the fish for refrigerator purposes or eating, as desired." Real furry trout do not exist, but these fictional creatures can sometimes be spotted mounted on the walls of hunting lodges and museums. According to The Beasts That Hide from Man: Seeking the World's Last Undiscovered Animals, one of the most famous examples of the furry trout was hanging in the Royal Museum of Scotland until it was revealed to be a hoax. A local taxidermist admitted that he had covered the fish with white rabbit fur. While we can't definitively say if this Wisconsin fisherman covered his fish in rabbit fur, it's clear that this catch has more in common with a widely spread hoax than it does with freshwater mold. | 0 | [
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FMD3683 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: We ve written about the amazing filmmaker, playwright and journalist, Phelim MacAleer and his fearless wife Ann McElhinney several times over the past couple of years. They ve brilliantly exposed the Left and their outrageous lies countless times. They are currently making a movie called Gosnell that will tell the truth the media hid about the crimes committed by serial killer, Dr. Kermit Gosnell. This husband and wife team are doing the work honest journalists, if they were being true to their profession, SHOULD be doing. Phelim s play Ferguson, that is now a movie, (see full-length version below) has completely dismantled the hands up don t shoot lie that was coordinated by the White House and professional race agitators. This lie of course, was perpetrated by a willing media. MacAleer does a brilliant job of dispelling these lies by simply using the actual testimony from the case.From Phelim MacAleer:These are professional actors reading the actual words of eyewitnesses detailing minute by minute what happened in the run up to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. FERGUSON the play consists of unaltered witness testimony, exactly as the Ferguson grand jury heard it. It includes forensic and medical examiner evidence that proves the truth and debunks the liars.You probably haven t missed the many and loud claims that the entertainment industry is racist and not diverse. It seems that everyone who matters agrees that diversity is a problem. Or at least that s what they say.But the reality is very different as I found when I wrote a play that offered ten roles for black men and women and even three significant roles for black women over 40 which everyone agrees can be a career death zone for women (of all races).And as a diversity bonus the play was going to be about an issue that of huge significance to the black community it was called FERGUSON and was about the shooting of Michael Brown, a young black man by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.And this was to be no whitesplaining of the issue. I wrote, or rather curated, the play only using actual Grand Jury testimony of witnesses (most of them black). I didn t change their testimony at all. Not a paragraph, word or comma was added. It was to be a minute by minute account by multiple eyewitnesses of the last hours of Michael Brown s life. I decided to have a staged reading of the script over four nights at the Odyssey Theater in Santa Monica. It would be a great way for people to finally hear the truth about Ferguson in the words of the people who witnessed the whole incident.The cast were enthusiastic at the auditions there was a huge interest in the play at last the truth about Ferguson and the shooting of Michael Brown would come out. Their enthusiasm lasted until the end of the first rehearsal. According to an LA Times reporter who was present many of the actors were aghast that the truth from eyewitnesses and forensic experts didn t match their idea of what really happened or what they read in the media. It was clear from the eyewitness testimony that Michael Brown didn t have his hands up surrendering as activists claimed. It was also clear, again from black eyewitnesses, that police officer Darren Wilson had no choice but to shoot Brown who was on a mini-crime rampage that morning.These facts did not please the actors who wanted to tell a different story. However this was Verbatim Theater the story could only be told in the words of the witnesses. But the actors did not want to hear the genuine voices even if they were black and under oath. Nine of the original 13 actors walked out. Most of them were black. Then a few of the white cast walked out in sympathy one just 24 hours before the performance opened.Their walkout made a mockery of claims that there is a need for more diverse roles in the entertainment industry. This was a predominantly black cast in a play about a topic that was about an issue police shootings of black men that was of enormous interest to the black community.In reality what activists obviously meant was that they wanted black roles that pushed a left/liberal agenda. They may have wanted the actors faces to be a diverse color but they so did not want diversity of thought or ideas to be presented on the stage. No those ideas had to be shut down. And it s not as if those ideas don t get a lot of interest. The staged reading of Ferguson over a four night run in a 99-seat theater was one of the most talked about plays of the year in Los Angeles. As a writer for liberal LA Weekly put it FERGUSON achieved something almost unheard of in L.A. s stage community it moved theater from the arts section to the front page. Despite the walkout I was determined the Show Would Go On. Eventually we hired replacement cast for all the actors and the play was staged for its planned four night run. It was an enormous success.LA Weekly said Ferguson was divisive, but riveting and an incendiary night of theatre . It was covered by a huge range of media outlets including NPR, The Hollywood Reporter and Rush Limbaugh.Now that is true diversity!To ensure the truth about Ferguson reaches as big an audience as possible I have now filmed the staged reading.Please enjoy it. The truth is compelling. Phelim MacAleer | 0 | [
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FMD3684 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Will U.S. Citizens Need a New Visa to Visit Europe Starting in 2021? Claim summaries: What exactly is the European Union planning? And what, if anything, did they announce in March 2019?
contextual information: In March 2019, news reports emerged warning readers in the United States that they would need a new kind of visa to visit Europe beginning in 2021, prompting inquiries from our readers about the veracity of those claims. On 9 March, CNN published an article with the headline, "United States citizens will need a visa to visit Europe starting in 2021," which went on: article "U.S. citizens traveling to Europe without a visa will be a thing of the past come 2021. The European Union announced on Friday that American travelers will need a new type of visa a European Travel Information and Authorization System or ETIAS to visit the European Schengen Area. The Schengen Area is a zone of 26 European countries that do not have internal borders and allow people to move between them freely, including countries like Spain, France, Greece, Germany, Italy and Poland. Currently, U.S. citizens can travel to Europe for up to 90 days without a visa." That article was subsequently syndicated by other news websites, as part of CNN's wire service. other news websites In fact, the European Travel Information and Authorization System is not a visa. It is a new kind of travel authorization similar to the ESTA program available to visitors to the United States that citizens of certain non-European countries will need in order to make short visits to some European countries. ESTA CNN quickly corrected the errors in its original article, but some versions published by other websites remained uncorrected, as of 15 March 2019. corrected The European Travel Information and Authorization System was first announced in September 2016, not on 8 March 2019 as CNN's article originally claimed, by Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, a body that is akin to the executive branch of the European Union (E.U.) In his 2016 "State of the Union" speech, Juncker said: speech "We will defend our borders, as well, with strict controls, adopted by the end of the year, on everyone crossing them. Every time someone enters or exits the E.U., there will be a record of when, where and why. By November, we will propose a European Travel Information System an automated system to determine who will be allowed to travel to Europe. This way we will know who is traveling to Europe before they even get here. And we all need that information. How many times have we heard stories over the last months that the information existed in one database in one country, but it never found its way to the authority in another that could have made the difference?" Over the following two years, the proposal went through the E.U.'s somewhat complicated ratification processes, ultimately gaining the approval of the European Parliament in July 2018 and the European Council in September 2018. On 19 September 2018, the regulations establishing ETIAS were published in the Official Journal of the E.U. ratification published In response to our inquiries, a spokesperson for Frontex, the E.U.'s Border and Coast Guard Agency that oversees ETIAS, told us that since September 2018, "no significant new developments" emerged in relation to the program, which the spokesperson said is still on track to be launched in 2021. For that reason, it's not clear what prompted the March 2019 news reports about ETIAS. CNN's original article claimed that the E.U. had "announced" what the article mistakenly called a "new type of visa" on 8 March, linking to a post on the website Etiasvisa.com, which bore the headline "ETIAS Visa Waiver for Americans." original article post However, as we have explained, the ETIAS program was first announced in 2016 and officially ratified in 2018. Furthermore, the spokesperson for Frontex confirmed that Etiasvisa.com is not operated by the European Commission or any other E.U. agency or body. Along with the website Etias.com, it is an unofficial, privately run site. As of March 2019, the citizens of 60 non-European countries do not need a visa for short visits to a group of 26 European countries known as the "Schengen Area" (named after the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, where the 1985 agreement that formed the Schengen Area was signed). agreement Historically and in principle, travelers moving between Schengen states saw no internal border checks, although in recent years some Schengen countries have availed themselves of a controversial, temporary reinstatement of internal Schengen border controls. reinstatement The 60 "visa-exempt" countries include the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and several Asian, Pacific and South American nations. The full list is available here. here The Schengen Area is composed of 22 E.U. member states (including Germany, France, Spain, and Italy) as well as four non-E.U. countries: Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Two E.U. member states, Ireland and the U.K., have opted out of the Schengen agreement. Four other E.U. member states Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus and Croatia have not yet joined the Schengen Area, although Bulgaria and Romania are currently in the process of being admitted. This official map outlines the Schengen Area: admitted official map Travelers from one of the 60 visa-exempt countries can enter and move throughout the Schengen Area for a maximum of 90 days in any 180-day period, provided they have a valid passport and border agents don't determine that they present a threat to public safety and security. Those traveling from one of the roughly 100 "visa-obliged" countries (largely in Africa and the Middle East) must obtain a visa in advance. This "short stay" visa system allows the holder to enter and move throughout the Schengen Area (again, for a maximum of 90 days in any 180-day period). However, it also allows E.U. member states to obtain advance information about would-be visitors and make a case-by-case decision on whether to admit them into their country (and thereby, into the Schengen Area), a capability that is inherently advantageous from a security point of view. By contrast, E.U. member states and E.U. authorities generally gain little advance knowledge about the arrival of visitors from visa-exempt nations, presenting a security liability that the ETIAS program was designed to address. A European Parliament briefing document explains the impetus behind ETIAS: document "For the purposes of combating serious crime and terrorism, law enforcement authorities can obtain information on visa holders from the visa information system (VIS). For visa-exempt travelers, this is only possible if they arrive by air, as, according to the PNR Directive, data on such travelers are transferred to the Member States law enforcement authorities to process for the purpose of preventing, detecting, investigating and prosecuting terrorist offences and serious crime. However, for visa-exempt passengers arriving on foot or by car, bus or train, no such comparable information exists prior to their arrival." According to a fact sheet published by the European Commission, the basic process of applying for travel authorization under ETIAS should work as follows: fact sheet Further details about the planned workings of the ETIAS program can be found on this European Commission fact sheet. fact sheet Johnson, Lauren M.; Holcombe, Madeline. "United States Citizens Will Need a Visa to Visit Europe Starting in 2021."
CNN. 9 March 2019. Juncker, Jean-Claude. "State of the Union 2016: Towards a Better Europe -- a Europe That Protects, Empowers and Defends."
European Commission. 14 September 2016. Radjenovic, Anja. "European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS)."
European Parliamentary Research Service. 18 October 2018. Official Journal of the European Union. "Regulation (EU) 2018/1240, Regulation (EU) 2018/1241."
19 September 2018. Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs. "Temporary Reintroduction of Border Control."
European Commission. 15 March 2019. Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs. "SchengenArea."
European Commission. 15 March 2019. European Commission. "Fact Sheet -- Security Union: A European Travel Information and Authorization System."
5 July 2018. | 2 | [
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FMD3685 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A North Korean court sentenced two South Korean journalists and their publishers to death for seriously insulting the dignity of the country by reviewing and interviewing the British authors of a book about life in the North, its state media said on Thursday. North Korea has previously issued harshly worded accusations against South Korean entities and individuals for allegedly violating its dignity, by slandering its leadership and its political system. The book in English titled North Korea Confidential was authored by James Pearson, a Seoul-based correspondent for Reuters, and Daniel Tudor, former correspondent in South Korea for the Economist magazine. The book, based on interviews with North Korean defectors, diplomats and traders, depicts a growing market economy where ordinary North Koreans enjoy access to South Korea music and TV dramas, fashion and smuggled Chinese and American films. Pearson wrote the book, published in 2015, before joining Reuters. The Korean-language edition, published earlier this month with the title translated as Capitalist Republic of Korea , was reviewed by South Korea s Dong-A Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo newspapers. A spokesman for the North s Central Court said in a statement carried by the country s official KCNA news agency that the book viciously slandered the reality of the DPRK , the initials for North Korea s official name of the Democratic People s Republic of Korea. The book painted life in the country as increasingly capitalistic where money can buy power and influence, the spokesman said. The South Korean journalists who reviewed the book committed a hideous crime of seriously insulting the dignity of the DPRK with the use of dishonest contents carried by North Korea Confidential , the court spokesman said. The Central Court has ordered the execution of the journalists, Son Hyo-rim of the Dong-A Ilbo and Yang Ji-ho of the Chosun Ilbo, and the publishers of the newspapers. It also demanded the South Korean government investigate their crimes and punish them, the state media said. The court statement did not make any mention of punishment for the book s authors. A Dong-A Ilbo representative said the newspaper declined to comment and its reporter Son did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chosun Ilbo reporter Yang declined to comment while a newspaper representative could not be immediately reached for comment. Tudor, the co-author of the book, declined to comment. A Reuters spokeswoman declined to comment. Dong-A Ilbo, Chosun Ilbo and other conservative media in South Korea have so far committed smear campaign against the DPRK nonstop, KCNA quoted the court as saying. The criminals hold no right to appeal and the execution will be carried out any moment and at any place without going through any additional procedures. | 1 | [
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FMD3686 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A quest by Republicans to open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve was slowed after a nonpartisan Senate official ruled late on Wednesday that the exploration was subject to environmental assessments by the Interior Department. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska and the head of the Senate energy panel, has been pushing a measure in the U.S. tax bill that would open a portion of the refuge on the coastal plain to two lease sales in 10 years for drilling. But the nonpartisan senate official took issue with the energy committee measure as it did not fully consider requirements under a national environmental law. The official ruled that oil exploration in the refuge is not exempt to an environmental law requiring the Interior Department to commission an assessment, a Democratic aide said. Such environmental assessments can take months or years to complete. “This is good news for us because it could slow down or prevent drilling,†the Democratic aide said. Republicans offered new language to the bill after the move and said that the drilling would still advance if the tax bill passes. “There was a little hiccup, but they fixed it in the amendment they just filed tonight, so full steam ahead,†a Republican Senate aide said. Murkowski said she was not concerned about procedural questions and that the issues would be fully resolved. The Arctic reserve, protected by the federal government since 1960, is home to wildlife populations including caribou, polar bears and millions of birds that migrate to six of the seven continents. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the area Republicans want to drill in has up to 12 billion barrels of recoverable crude. | 1 | [
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"2"
] | 1 |
FMD3687 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Hollywood celebrities reacted with shock and anger Tuesday following the White House’s announcement that President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. [Comey, who was appointed director of the agency by former president Obama in 2013, was fired after an evaluation conducted by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Borenstein. In his letter to Trump, Sessions wrote that “a fresh start is needed at the leadership of the FBI. †“It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission,†Trump himself wrote in a letter to Comey released Tuesday. But leftist celebrities — including longtime Trump critics Rosie O’Donnell, Michael Moore, Chelsea Handler and Joss Whedon — were up in arms over Tuesday’s announcement. “Trump might just as well have said: ‘Lock me up,’†wrote actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner. “Last gasp of a dying man. GOP stop being unpatriotic pussies. †“RESIGN YOU PATHETIC MORONIC SPOILED RICH PRICK,†added O’Donnell. Below, find a sampling of Hollywood’s reaction to Comey’s firing. Warning: some tweets contain strong language. TRUMP FIRES COMEY! ABSOLUTE OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE! ABSOLUTE EVIL! ? 8^Â¥ — Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) May 9, 2017, TRUMP SAYS 1 OF THE REASONS HE FIRED FBI DIRECTOR COMEY IS BECAUSE OF WHAT HE DID 2HILLARY CLINTON. GOD, HE IS A A GUTLESS, LYING, TRAITOR â€¼ï¸ â€” Cher (@cher) May 9, 2017, No spin keep it simple just fired the guy investigating him. Facts so inconvenient i know. We must Impeach this clown NOW, — John Cusack (@johncusack) May 9, 2017, @realDonaldTrump RESIGN YOU PATHETIC MORONIC SPOILED RICH PRICK, — ROSIE (@Rosie) May 9, 2017, WALK OUT COME ON — WALK UR AMERICAN ASS OUT OF HIS CRIMINALLY CONTROLLED WHITE HOUSE — TURN UR BACK ON TRUMP #SICKtrump https: . — ROSIE (@Rosie) May 9, 2017, #COMEY This is absolutely OUTRAGEOUS! !! The Head of an IMPARTIAL agcy was FIRED bc he was uncovering corruption in the WH! #🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 — Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) May 9, 2017, Impeach him, — John Legend (@johnlegend) May 9, 2017, COMEY FIRED! Dirty, corrupt things afoot. The truth will all come out. The unraveling continues … Hold the election over. Dirty. Corrupt. — Michael Moore (@MMFlint) May 9, 2017, We don’t need a special prosecutor. We need an Auror. @jk_rowling, — Joss Whedon (@joss) May 9, 2017, Trump might just as well have said: â€Lock me up†Last gasp of a dying man. GOP stop being unpatriotic pussies. #SpecialProsecutor, — Rob Reiner (@robreiner) May 9, 2017, Donald Trump definitely has syphillis!! Who would act like this? Nixon must have had syphillis too! @MitchMcConnell you better wake up, — Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) May 9, 2017, PLEASE WAKE UP THIS IS CRAY YALL https: . — Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) May 9, 2017, And to any of you who are okay with this, please let me know how cool you’d be if Hillary were President did this as he investigated her. — Josh Gad (@joshgad) May 9, 2017, Orange Shady is gonna make sure we never get to the bottom of this madness! â€Nixon The Sequelâ€. Remember the firing of Archibald Cox?! Hmmmm https: . — Arsenio Hall (@ArsenioHall) May 9, 2017, It may be reasonable to presume that any Republican who doesn’t support a special prosecutor is compromised by or complicit in #russiagate, — Wil Wheaton (@wilw) May 9, 2017, I do. And he’s not totally wrong. Comey has been a hot mess. But as Lao Tzu said, In Action Watch The Timing. It’s suspect af. #resist https: . — Don Cheadle (@DonCheadle) May 9, 2017, It’s your move, @GOP. Who will step up and be the hero? — Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) May 9, 2017, Welp Comey is gone good thing the entire rest of the FBI isn’t suspicious of Trump nope looks like the whole thing has blown over now. 🙄 — josh groban (@joshgroban) May 9, 2017, When the President fires the man investigating him, and Congress and the Justice Dept won’t act, we have a full blown constitutional crisis. — George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) May 9, 2017, Trump thinks he’s still on Celebrity Apprentice! Wow! #Trump #Comey #comeyfired, — Kevin Nealon (@kevin_nealon) May 9, 2017, Trump fires Comey â€because he wasn’t fair to Hillary. â€Are there even any Republicans buying this BS? Nyet. #IndependentInvestigation, — Adam McKay (@GhostPanther) May 9, 2017, Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 1 | [
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FMD3688 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The European Union’s sharpening divisions over a spiraling refugee crisis broke into the open Thursday with two leaders strongly disagreeing in public over whether the asylum-seekers were threatening “Europe’s Christian roots.â€
That was the language used by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as he warned Europe against allowing in mostly Muslim families. A day after a drowned Syrian toddler washed up on the Turkish coast, another European leader retorted that Christian values demanded helping the less fortunate.
The furious exchange — a rare breach of the E.U.’s buttoned-down decorum — came as Hungarian authorities apparently laid a trap for thousands of asylum-seekers who had packed Budapest’s central train station after days of worsening conditions outside the station. Police had blocked them from entering the station for days but allowed them in early Thursday.
But a refugee-packed train apparently bound for the Austrian border came to a halt just west of Budapest, in a small town where dozens of police officers were waiting on the platform. They tried to force people off the train to take them to a migrant-processing center, threatening their chances to make it onward to Western Europe.
By day’s end, there was a standoff, with the packed train surrounded by police and the migrants refusing to budge. Some of the passengers received medical treatment on the platform.
[European railways become ground zero for the migrant crisis]
Orban, Hungary’s nationalist leader who has spearheaded attempts to turn back the migrants, said Thursday that he had little choice but to seal his nation’s border with razor wire, soldiers and a high fence.
“We Hungarians are full of fear, people in Europe are full of fear, because we see that the European leaders, among them the prime ministers, are not able to control the situation,†he said in Brussels in a raw joint appearance with European Parliament President Martin Schulz. Orban and Schulz, a veteran politician from Germany, made no attempt to paper over their differences or their distaste for each other.
The Hungarian leader blamed Germany for the crisis, saying that its open-door policy toward Syrian asylum-seekers was propelling a wave of migrants to undertake dangerous journeys toward Europe’s heart. Germany expects 800,000 asylum-seekers this year, and it has said that it does not plan to turn away Syrians.
“The moral, human thing is to make clear: ‘Please don’t come. Why do you have to go from Turkey to Europe? Turkey is a safe country. Stay there. It’s risky to come,’ †Orban said.
Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have overwhelmed Europe’s capacity to respond in recent months, opening stark divisions. Some leaders believe that the world’s largest economic bloc — a vast territory of 503 million residents — is more than capable of accommodating refugees. Others, including Hungary’s Orban, believe the continent’s population is in a far more delicate state.
The divisions could threaten some of the most basic tenets of the E.U., an alliance built on the ashes of World War II in a bid never again to allow such destruction. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week that a Europe with no internal borders — a key achievement of European unification — could be in question if no solution to the refugee crisis is found.
He warned that the splits emerging during the refugee crisis could do lasting damage to the 28-nation alliance, which was founded on a spirit of consensus and burden-sharing.
“This is a crucial moment for the European Union,†Schulz said. “A deeper split of the union is a risk we cannot exclude.â€
Orban’s fears are shared by many Eastern European nations, which have pushed hard against any attempt to require them to take in asylum-seekers. Slovakia has said it will accept only Christians. In Estonia, where fewer than 100 migrants have been resettled, police on Thursday were investigating a suspicious early-morning fire at a dormitory that was housing victims of Syria’s war.
[Britain takes in so few refugees from Syria they would fit on a subway train]
But the concerns also extend to Britain. There, fewer Syrians than would fit in a London subway train have been accepted this year. British media reported Thursday that Prime Minister David Cameron would soon announce plans to take in “thousands†more Syrian refugees, a striking turnaround for a leader who a day earlier had said that the answer to the crisis was not simply taking in “more and more†refugees.
Elsewhere in Europe, the refusals brought mounting anger from leaders who are more sympathetic to the growing crowds of asylum-seekers.
“For a Christian, it shouldn’t matter what race, religion and nationality the person in need represents,†European Council President Donald Tusk said Thursday, launching into Orban before the two met in Brussels. Tusk, a former prime minister of Poland, proposed resettling at least 100,000 refugees across Europe.
In France, President François Hollande said the death of the toddler is “a tragedy, but it’s also a call to the European conscience. Europe is made of values and principles.†Images of the child’s body lying facedown and partly in the water on a Turkish beach evoked consternation around the world.
Hollande said he had just reached an agreement with Germany on a proposal for mandatory quotas to more equitably spread refugees across the E.U. Some European countries “are not shouldering their moral obligations,†he said.
Merkel, meanwhile, said she understood that not every nation was prepared to take on as large a burden as her country was doing. But she said it was impossible for Germany, Sweden and Austria alone to continue taking in the vast majority of the incoming asylum-seekers.
“The Geneva Convention does not apply only to Germany but also to every state,†she said, referring to the international treaty that requires countries to take in refugees of war.
Orban has vowed to seal Hungary’s borders by Sept. 15, empowered by emergency measures expected to be approved by the country’s parliament in the coming days. The measures would give authorities broad powers to crack down on illegal migration.
Outside Budapest’s elegant stone-and-glass-fronted station Thursday evening, people living in tents and atop worn woolen blankets sprawled across a vast public plaza and into an adjacent subway concourse. Tourists carrying frame backpacks slipped into the station entrance past women cradling babies, men pacing anxiously and children arguing over the few available toys.
Refugees expressed a keen awareness that Hungary does not want them — and said the feeling is mutual.
“Hungary is a poor country. They can’t give us the life we’re looking for. They can’t even give us food or water,†said Yahya Lababidi, a tank-top-wearing 21-year-old law student from the northern Syrian province of Idlib. “We want to go to the rich countries.â€
Lababidi said he had been traveling for a month, passing along “the usual route†— through Turkey, Greece, Macedonia and Serbia — with a plan ultimately to settle in the Netherlands. But he said that when he tried to enter the train station in Budapest five days earlier, police officers barred his path. Since then, he’s been sleeping on the cold stone of the plaza.
“I escaped from war,†he said. “I thought things would be better than this.â€
[As tragedies shock Europe, a bigger refuÂgee crisis looms in the Middle East]
Hungarian leaders “have done all they can to stir up popular sentiment against immigrants and refugees,†said Marta Pardavi, a co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a group that offers legal advice to asylum-seekers. “This has become a totally divided issue. Friendships break up over this.â€
Critics of the European response said the continent’s 20th-century history of dictatorships and wars should instill in it more sympathy for others in need.
“We are facing a historical moment, perhaps one of the biggest the E.U. has had to face over the last couple of decades,†said Yves Pascouau, director of migration and mobility policies at the Brussels-based European Policy Center. “European citizens have fled dictatorships and wars. This is a part of our history. We’ve been able to be protected elsewhere in our countries.â€
Witte reported from Budapest. Karla Adam in London contributed to this report.
European railways become ground zero for the migrant crisis
Why the language we use to talk about refugees matters so much
E.U. leaders show little unity ahead of emergency conclave on refugees | 1 | [
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FMD3689 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: If the Chicago Public Schools were a business in the private sector, they would have been bankrupt decades ago There s no doubt that Chicago Public Schools have serious money problems, and they are not all the fault of district administrators.Labor costs for union employees have been through the roof for years. And Illinois state law forces the district to directly fund a huge percentage of a pension program for retirees.Earlier this week the district, which has been operating with an budget deficit of more than $1 billion, had to borrow money to make the latest installment on the pension program, which came to a whopping $634 million, according to NBCChicago.As a result, the district announced that it will have to make about $200 million in budget cuts in the next fiscal year. That means that approximately 1,400 district jobs will be impacted one way or the other, according to the district CEO.It just so happens that there are 1,599 CPS employees a bit more than the targeted 1,400 who could easily be impacted by the budget ax without hurting them or impacting student instruction.Those are the employees mostly administrators who made more than $100,000 in straight salary in 2013-14, before their benefits were figured in, according to a salary chart obtained by EAGnews. Eighty-three of those employees made at least $150,000 in straight salary.The 1,599 employees collectively made a whopping $192 million in 2013-14. That s almost enough to cover the $200 million in budget cuts the district will be making.The 83 who made at least $150,000 took home a collective $13.2 million.Is this a classic case of too many chiefs? Now-former Chief Executive Officer Barbara Byrd Bennett made $250,000. Chief Administrative Officer Timothy Cawley made $215,000. Chief Financial Officer Ginger Ostro made $180,000. Chief Accountability Officer John Barker made $175,000. Chief of College and Career Success Aarti Dhupelia made $175,000. Chief Teaching and Learning Officer Annette Gawley made $175,000. Chief Officer of Networks Denise Little made $175,000. Chief of Staff to the Chief Executive Officer Sherry Ulery made $175,000.Let s not forget the chief lawyer General Counsel James Bebley who made $175,000. Just those nine salaries alone came to nearly $1.7 million.There were 13 employees with the title Chief of Schools who each made $151,131.One might argue that all that money went to important employees who do important work. But is that really the case, or do they pass on the work to a slightly lesser-paid network of under-chiefs?For instance, the district has a Chief of Staff ($165,000 per year) to go along with the Chief of Staff to the Chief Executive Officer. It has a Chief of Education Effectiveness ($165,000 per year) to go along with the Chief Teaching and Learning Officer. It has a Treasurer ($167,0000 per year) and Budget Manager ($107,000 per year) to go along with the Chief Financial Officer.And remember, the district has both a Chief Executive Officer and a Chief Administrative Officer, who combined to make $465,000 in straight salary in 2013-14.There was a bit of panic this week, when CPS announced that 1,400 school jobs would be impacted. Some, including union officials, assumed that the majority of the affected employees would be teachers. We are blindsided by reports that the district intends to lay off 1,400 public school educators, given that we just met with them yesterday and there was no mention of this action, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said in a press statement.District officials quickly responded that teachers would not be primary targets, according to the news report. The 1,400 affected positions include employees in the central office, operations and other programs, said CPS spokeswoman Emily Bittner, who works for Chief Communications Officer Ronald Iori, who made $165,000 in 2013-14 while supervising a Chief of Media Relations ($150,000 per year), a Director of Media Affairs ($100,000 per year), and a Chief Speechwriter ($100,000 per year).Via: EAG News | 0 | [
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FMD3690 | 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 Morgan Freeman a Beekeeper? Claim summaries: An anecdote from a 2014 late-night interview still has readers abuzz.
contextual information: In late March and early April 2021, Snopes readers inquired about memes circulating on Facebook claiming that legendary actor Morgan Freeman had converted his 124-acre ranch in Mississippi into a bee sanctuary. The text of the meme read, "Concerned about the loss of bees, Morgan Freeman converted his 124-acre Mississippi ranch into a bee refuge. He hired gardeners, filled acres with clover, planted hundreds of flowering trees, purchased 26 hives, and has turned himself into a beekeeper." Posts and articles on various websites stating the "Shawshank Redemption" star is a beekeeper with a bee sanctuary at his Mississippi residence have been circulating for years. They are sourced from an interview given by Freeman to late-night comedy host Jimmy Fallon in 2014. During the interview, Freeman acknowledged that he lived in Mississippi and stated he was new to beekeeping, having just purchased his bees from Arkadelphia, Arkansas, two weeks prior: interview The website Mother Nature News in 2014 quoted Freeman talking about his beekeeping project, reporting that he made the following remarks during a media tour promoting the film "Lucy": quoted There's a concerted effort to bring bees back onto the planet ... We do not realize that they are the foundation, I think, of the growth of the planet, the vegetation... I have so many flowering things and I have a gardener too. Because she takes care of the bees too, all she does is figure out, 'OK, what would they like to have?', so we've got acres and acres of clover, we're planting stuff like lavender, I've got like, maybe 140 magnolia trees, big blossoms. In these comments attributed to him, Freeman mentioned environmental concerns associated with the survival of bees and making efforts to ensure his bees thrive. But he didn't actually state in those remarks that he converted his ranch into a "bee sanctuary" for the purpose of helping the environment. Over the years, news articles have cropped up sourcing Freeman's 2014 comments and reporting that he had converted his ranch in Mississippi to a bee sanctuary. In 2019, a large number of articles were aggregated from a Forbes story with the headline, "Morgan Freeman Converted His 124-Acre Ranch Into A Giant Honeybee Sanctuary To Save The Bees." But the Forbes story also cites Freeman's 2014 interview on Fallon. news articles cropped up Forbes story We were unable to find recent comments by Freeman confirming whether he currently keeps bees at his Mississippi residence, as of this writing. We reached out to Freeman's agency CAA and asked whether Freeman is still beekeeping and whether his effort would be described as a bee sanctuary meant to help the environment, but didn't get a response in time for publication. We will update this story if we hear back. | 2 | [
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FMD3691 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Tweet Widget by MOVE People
The Philadelphia-based MOVE family was horribly victimized by police in 1978 and 1985. The first atrocity led to the mass imprisonment of MOVE members; the second assault killed five adults and six children and burned down a city block. No cops have ever been punished, but the MOVE 9 remain in prison, and were this year once again denied parole. “They couldn't kill us that day, so they are trying to finish the job in these prisons.” “When You Speak Up for the MOVE 9, You Speak Up for Yourself” by MOVE People
This article previously appeared on Move 9 blogspot .
“The District Attorney never proved MOVE had killed a police officer.”
The MOVE 9 Have been eligible for Parole since August 2008, After being in prison for 30 years. We have repeatedly been denied. In June of this year (2016) , we were denied parole again , for a total of ten years past the time we should have been released. One of the reasons the parole board gave to justify not releasing us is that we are a threat to the safety of the community. This is not true. People are not afraid of MOVE People. Move People ain't strangling people to death, shooting people in the back. It ain't MOVE that killed a man in front of his fiancé and four year old child. MOVE is not drive by shooting, or terrorizing folks in the community. It's the community who is faxing, emailing, and calling the parole board asking for our release on parole.
It is the Parole Board and D.A. John Straub who continue to deny our release for no valid reason. On August 8th 1978, hundreds of cops attacked our home at 3:00am in the morning trying to kill us. They couldn't kill us that day, so they are trying to finish the job in these prisons but understand: John Straub and the Parole Board are not justified. MOVE did not go out to the Police's house to do them harm. The Cops came to our house, because a judge sent them to our house to serve bench warrants for not appearing in court not for rape, murder, kidnapping or abuse but for not appearing in court for a civil matter. Understand this: hundreds of cops were sent to our home, while we were asleep, dressed in swat gear, armed with all type of weaponry, semi -automatic weapons, fire fighters, smoke bombs, tear gas, a deluge gun, a crane and a bulldozer to serve bench warrants, for a housing code violation.
“Move People ain't strangling people to death, shooting people in the back.”
It was the Police who came to Move’s premises. They came armed to the teeth and in their frenzy to kill MOVE, they killed one of their own, and condemned us for it. We are not making this up. The evidence is clear.
The whole world witnessed the attack on the MOVE house May 13th 1985, where the house was bombed into a blazing inferno, the six adults were shot and killed and the five children were shot back into the house by police as they tried to escape the burning flames where they died . These are proven Facts. During the city’s investigation hearing, it was ruled that the cops used excessive force and the killings were wrongful deaths. Those children were our children in that house that day, yet not one cop or official connected to the bombing of our family were held accountable, responsible for these deaths like the parole board is telling The MOVE 9 we have to take responsibility for a crime when the District Attorney never proved MOVE had killed a police officer.
We have no weapons charges and the judge admitted on public radio to the caller, Mumia Abu Jamal [a radio journalist at the time], that he didn't have the faintest idea who shot the police officer. It's a fact that world renowned forensic experts Dr. Ali Hameli and Claus Speth ruled the deaths of the children HOMICIDES in a scathing report against the city, submitted to the assistant District Attorney Joan Weimer, but the grand jury did nothing.
“It's time for everybody to start speaking freely in protest of all this free wheeling injustice.”
The Move 9 have spent almost 40 years in prison for killing a cop, with no real proof. The whole world saw the Philadelphia police murder our children and family, and they have not spent a day in prison for it. But, what is the difference in these lives? Does a MOVE child not bleed, when they are shot? Does a MOVE parent not feel pain when their baby is killed, just because they are not cops or officials? Does the murder of a MOVE child, the pain of MOVE parent, the heartache of a black person's suffering still fall on deaf ears like the slaves who cried out when their babies, women and men were sold, killed, and whipped by slave owners? Ask yourself. Things may seem to have changed since those awful days, but the mentality is still very much existing.
Just look around and listen. Black lives (Don't) Matter. That's why these cops are getting away with killing Black Men, Women, and Children. That's why The MOVE 9 are still in prison almost 40 years for killing a cop, and the cops responsible for killing 11 MOVE people, five of them children, are walking around like they are clean and without guilt. It's the mentality that makes them feel nothing after killing people. Because to them MOVE lives (Don't) matter. It's time for everybody to start speaking freely in protest of all this free wheeling injustice. People must understand this necessity of speaking out now.
We are asking for people to sign The Petition we have aimed at United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch demanding that The United States Justice Dept open up an investigation into the ongoing and wrongful imprisonment of The MOVE 9. People can sign the petition at Https://causes.com/92454-free-the-move-9 . Speak out with the understanding that when speaking of MOVE, you are speaking up for yourself. It can't get better for MOVE without getting better for you.
Looking Forward To The May 2017 MOVE Conference In Philadelphia.
Ona Move | 0 | [
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FMD3692 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Steve Bannon is portrayed as the Grim Reaper on Saturday Night Live. There is a President Steve Bannon meme out there from coverage of the controversial advisor. In reality, his influence seems to be headed nowhere but down. First, he totally blew President Donald Trump s health care initiative. Then, his influence waned further when he openly seemed to fight with son-in-law Jared Kushner and urged the president to not take action in Syria. Now, Trump has even backpedaled on this demands that Congress fund the wall between the United States and Mexico, against the wishes of Steve Bannon.The border wall with Mexico was a big part of the Trump campaign. All of his rallies included a session of chanting with the audience of Build the Wall! For his part, Trump never acknowledged that Mexico is never going to pay for this expensive wall. It is also part of Bannon s dreams for the United States. His worldview, which was front and center during the president s Inaugural Address, needs this wall.Bannon is so enamored by the wall that he was pushing for a government shutdown to get Congress to include funding for it. Clearly, he learned nothing from the healthcare debacle where he told Trump to try to strong arm Congress into passing their bill because Trump wanted them to. Bannon s lack of experience dealing with our legislative branch is clear. As a co-equal branch of government, its members are never going to do something just because the White House tells them to. If you are thinking Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) pushed through Neil Goresuch s nomination because of this kind of work, you miss the win it gave McConnell.This week, Bannon told his supporters, This is a stand worth taking. We re drawing a line in the sand. It looks more and more like Bannon is going to be alone drawing that line as if you didn t think his days in the West Wing were numbered before, it is more than clear that they are now.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images. | 0 | [
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FMD3693 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: As our current administration continues to prove that it has no actual concern for the working class, it s hard to image why Trump is supported by anyone other than the rich. The White House s current budget proposals put support for the poor, sick, and elderly on the chopping block in favor of tax breaks for the wealthy. Besides being economically unjust, wouldn t these slashes in services be against the Christian obligation to charity? Why do evangelicals stand strong in their support for Trump?The fact that Trump is a seemingly odd choice for political leadership among evangelicals has been debated since he first announced his bid to run. The prevailing explanation for their support is that evangelicals merely tolerate Trump because they care about fighting abortion/LGBTQ and therefore the preservation of their religious freedom.But why the support for tax cuts over the assistance for those in need? According to an article by Religion Dispatches, it s about more than just toleration. The huge budget cuts are part of the religious right keeping up their understanding of a biblical worldview and are an important part of its agenda.According to sphere sovereignty a theory of how the Bible rules every aspect of life God has given authority to men in government, but this authority has very limited roles. This view holds that man s role in civil government only allows for property protection and criminal punishment. According to this view, it is the families job to help the poor, with some secondary help from the church. If tax money is used to help the poor it is seen as tyrannically exceeding the biblical authority of the government and is considered stealing.This arcane position is held and popularized in some mainstream evangelical circles and articulated by radio host David Barton. It s also taught in Christian school curricula and promoted in books and conferences.This view is the basis for many new administration policies, and the reason many of Trump s appointees are trying to shut down the agencies they are in charge of. Even the Department of Education is being led by a person who strongly believes that it s the families responsibility to educate children and that civil government should stay out of it.Trump himself probably doesn t hold these theoretical views, but Mike Pence sure does, and he s already making sure the biblical worldview is the basis for Trump s policies.Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 0 | [
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FMD3694 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: 9-11 is a distant memory for liberals George Washington University has hired a former Islamic extremist to work at its center on homeland security a man who once denounced the United States and made threats against the creators of the TV series South Park for depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit.While reformed extremists have worked at universities in Europe to help fight terrorism, this is believed to be a first in the United States.Jesse Morton, who was known as Younus Abdullah Muhammad when he was a recruiter for the al-Qaeda, brings a unique perspective to counter-terrorism work, said Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University s Center for Cyber & Homeland Security .Watch Younus Abdullah Muhammad here:During his days as an extremist, Morton earned a master s degree in international affairs from Columbia University.Hughes said before making the hiring decision, he discussed Morton with the FBI, leaders in the security community and the lawyers that prosecuted Morton.He said he s sure Morton is completely reformed from the days he served time in federal prison after inciting people to join a terrorist organization. I trust him, he said. We did our due diligence. Nadia Oweidat, a fellow at the think tank New America who s interviewed dozens of former extremists, said she doesn t doubt Morton s sincerity. People go through phases. They evolve and are finally able to see the light, she said.She doesn t think Morton made up his de-radicalization to get a shorter prison sentence. When an extremist defects, they risk being completely targeted by their community it s like saying you re gay publicly, she said. There are life-altering consequences and you don t approach it lightly. She said other organizations should also recruit former extremists in the hopes of preventing future massacres such as the San Bernardino shooting or the November terror attack in Paris, both committed by radicalized Islamists. CNN | 0 | [
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FMD3695 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: I will confess: I belong to a faction of the left that hates war in any context. I turned 15 during the brief skirmish known as Operation Desert Shield, and even then, I wasn t skipping school to go to the mall. I was spray painting anti-war slogans on every concrete surface in my little town I could get away with.Okay, I was going to the mall too.That last part is important because what I mean to convey is that while I have always opposed war in every way, I was also a pretty realistic kid. Even then, I understood that my complaints lodged in Krylon on the side of a bridge were mostly meaningless. In that context, I approach The Left who are even further to the left than me: Yes, we are embroiled in the longest war in the history of the United States in Afghanistan. Yes, we are fighting an invisible War On Terror. Yes, I hate those things. I also understand that the complaints I now lodge in Facebook posts, tweets, and these articles are like colored mists on the bridges and walls of war.In the end, the fury of war can only be mitigated by absolutely minimizing the innocent victims of it. But how can that be accomplished in a war against ISIS, an enemy that recruits civilians, uses them as human shields and otherwise disregards humanity in the name of jihad?There are those on the left that condemn President Barack Obama for increasing the number of drone strikes initiated by the United States in the Middle East and South Asia. And those on the right simply condemn him for existing. So I will stand with whoever has identified with me so far here and give credit to our 44th President for mitigating the level of civilian deaths in those ongoing wars using tactical precision.I like to think that Barack Obama opposes war in the way that I do: Absolutely, but if it is happening, it must be done in a way that keeps the most civilians safe.By contrast, Donald Trump does not understand war. He certainly does not oppose it. I believe that he sees it only in the abstract: An ongoing effort to win at all costs, like everything in his life. Almost like war is a jacket and hat you put on for the cameras.The numbers bear this theory out. According to Airwars, a UK-based transparency project that has tracked the number of civilians killed since the US-led coalition formed in October 2014 to combat ISIS, there is a disparity between Obama s direction and Trump s that cannot be reconciled any other way:Our minimum estimate of civilians likely killed by Coalition since 2014 is now 5,117 with 55% of deaths occuring under Trump's leadership pic.twitter.com/H8S5Ihwuzb Airwars (@airwars) August 22, 2017During @BarackObama's 29 months at helm of ISIS war we tracked 855 alleged civilian casualty events which likely killed 2298-3398 civilians pic.twitter.com/RUVvcy5zX9 Airwars (@airwars) August 22, 2017In @realDonaldTrump's first 7 months as President, we tracked 1,196 alleged incidents in which we assess at least 2,819-4,529 civilians died pic.twitter.com/pnCzVR5ggb Airwars (@airwars) August 22, 2017Civilian deaths in war cannot be avoided. That is a simple fact. But even if you go back to the New York Times link I provided above ( the number of drone strikes ), you can see that precision can mitigate them. Bush ordered 50 drone strikes which killed 296 terrorists and 195 civilians a 40% civilian casualty rate. Under Obama, the strikes went up, but the casualty rate went down: Ten times as many strikes, more than ten times as many dead terrorists, but less than twice as many civilian casualties. Just over 11%, at the time of that report.Like his presidency, Trump s war is messy. More than half of all civilian deaths in the war against ISIS have occurred in the 7 months since Donald Trump was inaugurated.That s not opposition. That is an embrace of war.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 0 | [
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FMD3696 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Right to Clean Water & The Fight Against Eminent Domain Images come from the great video coverage of TYT, Democracy Now!, and Unicorn Riot By Jamie Poulos / filmsforaction.org
The 3.8 billion dollar Dakota Access Pipeline project that has been the subject of controversy, encapsulates some of the main social problems facing society at this time: A justice system that b enefits corporate interests, often at the expense of true progress. Police increasingly being m ilitarized and civil liberties being eroded to protect the powerful! In addition to these issues, you have the determined continuation of a failed energy policy. Pipeline and oil projects are being given the green light without proper assessment of ecological, cultural, and social costs. The protesters want to protect our water, their land, and the sacred heritage sites of the Native Americans.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence ( ODNI ), predicts that by 2040 water demand will surpass supply by 40% . This will obviously affect the poorest most. The project has been halted next to the Missouri River and if allowed to continue the drinking water of the area will be threatened. Of course the most disenfranchised groups will suffer the most, mainly the Native Americans. The protesters make up a diverse group , comprising many indigenous peoples, environmentalist, and local farmers.They believe in the justice of their cause, so much so, that they endure extreme encounters from local police force. Dogs, rubber bullets, tear gas, and unfair arrest have been used to intimidate and deter protests. A militarized local police force has not only arrested hundreds of people on false accusations, but have used their position of authority to humiliate those they detain . Daughter of an indigenous leader was targeted, thrown into prison, and forced to sleep naked . Others arrested, were put into dog kennels and numbered . One farmer was arrested on her own land! Technically, according to the Treaty of 1851 , the contested land is actually belonging to the Native Americans. By proclaiming eminent domain the pipeline company has taken over property belonging to other people, including local farmers. Many can not afford to fight the legal battles needed to keep the construction of the pipeline off their own property! When directly asked about the aggressive police force used against peaceful protesters, President Obama placed responsibility on both sides. The aggressive and highly militarized responses of police has been well documented over the past months. This isn’t a two sided story as far as social justice is concerned. However, in the Pay to Play global system of today, there is another side. CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, Kelcy Warren, has donated heavily to politicians, local government, and various oversight boards. Could this be one reason their project is receiving the amount and extent of local protection? The oil and gas industry has spent a total of 88 MILLION dollars lobbying this year alone! Why? Subsidies and favorable legislation. While fact and science are not on the industries’ side, money is. The Huffington Post recently wrote an article placing Standing Rock into the larger framework of what is happening nationwide. Since the Keystone XL controversy, government agencies have been approving project after project without completing the necessary environmental risk analysis. Advocates of the pipeline emphasize the unlikelihood of any leak or spill occurring. Yet, oil spills and pipeline explosions happen often and go under or unreported. Think Progress published an article stating that over 300 oil spills went unreported within a two year period. Tens of t housands of gallons of oil are allowed to spill without it receiving any attention. James Sutton, from The Hill Talk , notes that from May to June 2016 over 20 oil spills in the US alone went unreported . There are many who criticize the current regulation system which places to much trust in companies. Oil companies are responsible for estimating how much oil has spilled and are then fined per gallon. Needless to say, the damage is often much more than they are readily willing to admit. Another argument often used in favor of this project and others like it, is job creation. The only logical step is to create an energy policy that would force investment into renewable energy . In the documentary Before the Flood we are shown a Tesla Gigafactory. Elon Musk claims 100 such mega battery factories could well remove our reliance on fossil fuels. The industry of oil and coal isn’t about creating jobs; it is all about socializing risks and privatizing profits. Not only do certain industries add to the problems of global warming, but they actively deter alternatives . The documentary Who Killed the Electric Car , is a great example of this. By demanding a strict policy forcing a shift to sustainable energy we would be creating far more jobs and slashing the cost of energy. The Green New Deal proposed by Jill Stein is a good starting point for political dialogue. Scientist across disciplines and from all over the World have warned that we are moving closer and closer to a point of no return. We have the technology to reverse this. Do we have the will? We need a major shift in consciousness to begin to solve the pressing issues of our time. This begins with the individual. It need not be a daunting task: One Step | 0 | [
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FMD3697 | 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: Vladimir Putin did not label Obama as foolish for implementing socialist policies. Claim summaries: A years-old fake quote from Vladimir Putin started recirculating on the internet for some reason in February 2016.
contextual information: On 15 February 2016, the Facebook page "The Original Wake Up People" posted a years-old memefeaturing a quote ostensibly uttered by Vladimir Putin: This is not a real quote from the Russian president.The above-displayed quote has been circulating since 2009 in one form or another (usually in the form of a meme such as the above image) when it was originally published on the satirical web siteScooter's Report: published Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin haswarned the Obama administration against adopting further socialism, saying Russian historyclearly proves it is a recipe for failure. "Any fourth grade history student knows socialism has failed in every country, at every time in history," saidPutin. "President Obama and his fellow Democrats are either idiots or deliberately trying to destroy their own economy." Scooter's Report, whichfrequently featured anti-Obama rhetoric, has adisclaimer on the web site that states, "Like I have to tell you: This isfictitious satire and any resemblance to persons, places, or events is coincidental." Putin has, however, addressed the responsibilities of businesses to the community in the past: addressed We need business to understand its social responsibility, that the main task and objective for a business is not to generate extra income and to become rich and transfer the money abroad, but to look and evaluate what a businessman has done for the country, for the people, on whose account he or she has become so rich. | 0 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
FMD3698 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Former authoritarian leader Alberto Fujimori sought forgiveness from Peruvians from the bottom of my heart on Tuesday for shortcomings during his rule, and thanked President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski for granting him a Christmas pardon. In a video on Facebook, Fujimori, 79, vowed that as a free man, he would support Kuczynski s call for reconciliation, hinting that he would not return to politics. I m aware the results of my government were well received by some, but I acknowledge I also disappointed other compatriots, the ailing Fujimori said, reading from notes while connected to tubes in a hospital bed. And to them, I ask for forgiveness from the bottom of my heart. The remarks were Fujimori s first explicit apology to the Andean nation that he governed with an iron fist from 1990-2000. They came after two days of unrest as protesters slammed the pardon as an insult to victims and part of a political deal to help Kuczynski survive a scandal. The pardon cleared Fujimori s convictions for graft and human rights crimes during his leadership of the rightwing government. Late on Monday, Kuczynski, a 79-year-old former Wall Street banker, appealed to Peruvians opposed to the pardon to turn the page and defended his decision as justified clemency for a sick man whose government helped the country progress. I cannot keep from expressing my profound gratitude for the complex step that the president took, which commits me in this new stage of my life to decidedly support his call for reconciliation, Fujimori said. | 1 | [
"0",
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] | 1 |
FMD3699 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is This a Video of Robert Card Being Arrested in Lewiston, Maine, Mass Shooting? Claim summaries: False claims about the person of interest in the Oct. 25, 2023, massacre spread rapidly on social media.
contextual information: On Oct. 25, 2023, a gunman opened fire at two separate locations in Lewiston, Maine, killing at least 18 people and wounding scores more. As reported by NBC News, "Seven people were found dead at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, eight were found dead at Schemengees Bar and Grille and three were pronounced dead at area hospitals." reported Just hours later, based on surveillance camera footage showing the perpetrator's face, law enforcement named Robert Card of Bowdoin, Maine, as a "person of interest:" named As reported by NBC News, a bulletin put out by the Maine Information and Analysis Center, a database for law enforcement officials, indicated that Card was in the Army Reserve and was a trained firearms instructor. reported Around this time, video appearing to show a man being arrested on a dark street went viral with the claim that it purportedly showed Card being arrested: video Such a claim was impossible. At the time of those posts and as of this reporting Card remained at large, and a massive manhunt was underway to capture him, as reported by CNN on Oct. 26, 2023: reported by An extensive manhunt is underway for a suspect in a mass shooting at a bowling alley and at a restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night that left 18 people dead and 13 others injured, Gov. Janet Mills said Thursday. An arrest warrant has been issued for Robert Card, 40, accusing him of murder, Maine State Police Col. William Ross said during a Thursday news conference. He should be considered armed and dangerous, officials said. [...] Major Northeast grocery chain Hannaford Supermarkets kept all its Maine stores closed early Thursday, the company said. And public schools in Lewiston and Portland the states largest district, with about 6,500 students are closed, officials have said. People in nearby Bowdoin, Maine, were advised early Thursday the shelter in place advisory and school closings would include their town, Maine State Police announced: Please stay inside your homes while more than 100 investigators, both local and federal work to locate Robert Card who is a person of interest in the Lewiston shootings. Because Card was still at large at the time a video of his purported arrest went viral, we have rated claim as Live Updates: At Least 18 Killed in Shootings in Lewiston, Maine; Manhunt Underway for Suspect. NBC News, 26 Oct. 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/lewiston-maine-shooting-manhunt-gunman-police-live-rcna122270. Police Identify 40-Year-Old Man as Person of Interest in Mass Shooting in Lewiston, Maine. NBC News, 26 Oct. 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/lewiston-maine-shooting-robert-card-what-know-rcna122262. Smart, Sara, et al. Arrest Warrant Issued for Suspect after 18 Killed in Shooting Rampage in Maine as Manhunt Continues, Officials Say. CNN, 26 Oct. 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/26/us/lewiston-maine-shootings-thursday/index.html.
| 0 | [
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