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FMD3800 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: We Are Change
This graphic, courtesy of The Atlantic, highlights the disparity in flight hour costs for various aircraft in the US fleet.
LUZERNE, Mich. – Officials say a mechanical failure is believed to have caused the release of six training bombs and a training missile from a military plane over Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula.
No one was injured due to the release, which WWTV and WPBN report happened Oct. 25 over Oscoda County.
The training weapons were on a plane heading to Camp Grayling from Selfridge Air National Guard Base in suburban Detroit when they fell off.
Lt. Col. Matthew Trumble, director of the Camp Grayling Air Gunnery Range, says it’s a “rare” situation.
The Guard says the missile was non-explosive and the six training bombs can release smoke so that pilots can see where they land.
In a bizarre end to a military exercise, that ended with training bombs accidentally falling from the sky, as a group of fighter jets heading to Camp Grayling from Selfridge were forced to turn around when they realized a rack of training munitions on one had reportedly accidently fell off.
The Michigan National Guard says the bombs and missile were found near Luzerne.
Learn More:
http://www.9and10news.com/story/33576…
http://www.local10.com/news/training-weapons-inadvertently-fall-from-plane-in-michigan
Follow WE ARE CHANGE on SOCIAL MEDIA SnapChat: LukeWeAreChange
fbook: https://facebook.com/LukeWeAreChange
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lukewearechange I nstagram: http://instagram.com/lukewearechange Sign up become a patron and Show your support for alternative news for Just 1$ a month you can help Grow We are change We use Bitcoin Too ! 12HdLgeeuA87t2JU8m4tbRo247Yj5u2TVP Join and Up Vote Our STEEMIT The post Fighter jets drop training bombs on northern Michigan appeared first on We Are Change . | 0 | [
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FMD3801 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Steven Crowder is an amazing and ALWAYS unafraid conservative comedian. He was present at the union battle for Right To Work in Michigan where he was famously punched in the face by a union thug, when he confronted union thugs and demanded they stop cutting down a massive tent with pro-Right-to-Work conservatives inside (including an elderly woman who was trapped inside, while in a wheelchair when the tent was cut down).Crowder is one of unafraid to take on the Islamification of our schools and small towns, while government officials and liberals persecute Christians and Christian groups in America. Crowder is also passionate about exposing the dangers of political correctness. Crowder uses his very popular videos to prove undeniable facts that support our free speech and gun rights.Steven Crowder s latest project should be on every news network across America, however, you will likely only find this blockbuster video confirming that Antifa is indeed, a domestic terror group on conservative sites like ours or on Twitter and other social media platforms. That s because the media has been going out of their way to soften the image of ANTIFA. They ve been working in unison to make ANTIFA look like a bunch of rabble-rousers who are simply helping to eradicate speech that Americans the Left doesn t agree with. They re just a group of concerned citizens who want to defeat Nazism Trump supporters in America. The leftist media has been begging their viewers to see things from ANTIFA s point of view after all, they re just a group of non-violent violent kids looking to solve the problems of the world through passionate activism violence, intimidation and yes, domestic terrorism.Watch ABC Nightline journalist Dan Harris gut-wrenching reaction to the video that clearly exposes ANTIFA as a domestic terror group: | 0 | [
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FMD3802 | 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 Monica Lewinsky 'Leave Behind' a 'Stunning' Net Worth? Claim summaries: Online advertisements falsely implied that Monica Lewinsky was dead and claimed that her net worth stunned her family.
contextual information: In late December 2020, a misleading online advertisement appeared, announcing that Monica Lewinsky was dead and that her net worth stunned her family. It read: "Monica Lewinsky's Net Worth Stuns Her Family At Age 47. Monica Lewinsky Leaves Behind A Net Worth That Will Boggle Your Mind." However, this was not true. She is alive, and despite what the ad claimed, there was no indication in the resulting story that her net worth shocked her family. The ad was sponsored by the Therapy Joker website and was hosted on the Yahoo! Gemini advertising service. Readers who clicked the ad were led to a 430-page story with the headline: "The Biggest Hollywood Celebrities & Their Incredible Net Worth: Can You Guess Who Has The Biggest Bank Account?" Lewinsky's net worth appeared on page 417, meaning that readers had to click "Next Page" 417 times to reach her section: "Monica Lewinsky: Activist and TV Personality - $500,000." Monica Samille Lewinsky is a woman of many skills. This popular American television personality is also a successful fashion designer, activist, and a former intern at the White House. The paparazzi constantly followed her, and she was a regular face in the media during her time at the White House. However, she decided to leave all that behind and pursue a different career. Additionally, she authored the book, "Monica: Her Story," which added to her fame. The London School of Economics and Political Science alumna is now 47 years old and remains a popular television personality. She rents a lavish apartment and enjoys a luxurious lifestyle. Her fleet of cars includes a Mini Cooper and a Cadillac. We hope she has a professional financial advisor to assist her with her banking needs. Currently, the media personality, activist, and fashion designer has retained her fame, and we hope Lewinsky continues to manage the money she has accumulated over the years. The page mentioned nothing about Lewinsky's purported death, nor did it present any information about her family being stunned by her net worth. The misleading advertisement and exceptionally lengthy article reflect a strategy known in the advertising world as "arbitrage." The Therapy Joker website's goal was to make more money from ads displayed on each of the 430 pages than it cost to lure readers with the initial "Monica Lewinsky's Net Worth Stuns Her Family" ad. The business and technology blog Margins defined "arbitrage" as "leveraging an inefficient set of systems to make a riskless profit, usually by buying and selling the same asset." Margins also referred to it as "the mythical free lunch that economics tells us does not exist." Lewinsky was a White House intern in the mid-1990s who became famous after her affair with former U.S. President Bill Clinton became a public scandal. In December 1998, Clinton was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. However, the Senate did not vote to convict and remove him from office, and he served the remainder of his second term in the White House. We previously covered similar misleading net worth stories for Sean Connery, Jaleel White, Richard Gere, Chuck Norris, Clint Eastwood, and Alex Trebek. 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 numerous 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. | 0 | [
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FMD3803 | 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: Target Voucher/Gift Card Scam Claim summaries: Target is distributing free $500 vouchers or $1000 gift cards to users who click an online link or answer a text mail?
contextual information: Claim: Target is distributing free $500 vouchers or $1000 gift cards to users who click an online link. Examples: [Collected via e-mail, November 2012] There is a Facebook post that states if you share a Target ad that says get a free $500 Target voucher, write the comment, "Thank you Target" and the click like you will get a voucher for that amount. Get Free $500 target voucher Now (97 Left) text message received: "Your entry last month has WON! Go to https://targetcontest.com/ and enter code 4787 to claim your FREE $1000 Target Gift Card within 24 hours!" Origins: In mid-November 2012, a survey scam purporting to offer free $500 Target vouchers or $1000 gift cards to those who followed particular links then did as told once there spread via e-mail, Facebook, and text message. Those links led to web pages (which were not operated or sponsored by Target) that asked the unwary to click what appeared to be Facebook "share" buttons and post comments to the scammer's site (which was really a ruse to dupe users into spreading the scam by sharing it with all of their Facebook friends). Those who followed such instructions were then led into a set of pages prompting them to input a fair amount of personal information (including name, age, address, and phone numbers), complete a lengthy series of surveys, and finally sign up (and commit to paying) for at least two "Reward Offers" (e.g., Netflix subscriptions, credit report monitoring services, prepaid credit cards): Pursuant to the Terms & Conditions, you are required to complete 2 of the Reward Offers from the above. You will need to meet all of the terms and conditions to qualify for the shipment of the reward. For credit card offers, you must activate your card by making a purchase, transferring a balance, or making a cash advance. For loan offers you must close and fund the loan. For home security and satellite tv offers you must have the product installed. You may not cancel your participation in more than a total of 2 Reward Offers within 30 days of any Reward Offer Sign-Up Date as outlined in the Terms & Conditions (the Cancellation Limit). Not only that, but the fine print on the "free" gift card offer stated that by accepting its terms, the user agreed to receive telemarketing phone calls and text messages from a variety of different companies. Other recent survey scams of similar construction include: $500 or $1,000 Target gift cards [November 2012] Target $100 or $1,000 Walmart gift cards [March 2012] Walmart $50 or $100 Starbucks gift cards [October 2011] Starbucks $25 Tim Hortons gift cards [October 2011] Tim Hortons Apple iPods, iPhones, or MacBooks in memory of Steve Jobs [October 2011] Apple Last updated: 24 November 2012 CBS 4 [Denver]. "Walmart Gift Card Text Hits Phones Across Denver Metro Area." 7 March 2012. | 2 | [
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FMD3804 | 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: Pandora Endorses Black Lives Matter? Claim summaries: The streaming music service Pandora caused controversy by posting a message using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media.
contextual information: In July 2016, a week of high-profile shootings involving police occurred in the United States. On July 5, Alton Sterling was shot and killed by police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The following day, Philando Castile was shot and killed by police during a traffic stop in Minnesota. The day after that, a sniper shot and killed five police officers during a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas. On July 8, 2016, the streaming music service Pandora posted a message on social media expressing pain and support related to these events. Although Pandora's post stated that their "hearts ache for all of those who unfairly lost their lives" and included the hashtag #LoveAboveAll, their use of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag to represent the victims of police shootings, without an equivalent hashtag to represent the policemen killed in Dallas (such as #BlueLivesMatter), generated controversy and calls for boycotts of the music service. This reaction prompted social media calls for people to subscribe to Pandora as a gesture of support. Social media messages expressing anger over Pandora's message often asserted that the Black Lives Matter movement is anti-police or that the movement was responsible for the shooting of police in Dallas. Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza attempted to dispel these rumors during an appearance on "All In with Chris Hayes." Garza stated, "Black Lives Matter has never, ever called for the murder of police officers. What we have said over and over | 2 | [
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FMD3805 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along side Jay Dyer & Jamie Hanshaw of Jay s Analysis and FunkSoul & Randy J (21WIRE & ACR contributors), for the hundred and seventeenth episode of BOILER ROOM. Turn it up, tune in and hang with the ACR Brain-Trust for this weeks boil downs and analysis and the usual gnashing of the teeth of the political animals in the social reject club.This week on the show we re focused on the Tavistock style social engineering tactics that have been imposed upon western society, their origins, their modern manifestations and their effects on different generations over time that have been exposed to them. Join us for some laughs, some face-palm moments, some enlightening context to where we find ourselves in this place in time and history. The gang lays out the pitfalls of blue-pill, normie life, some James Bond trivia, Hollywood analysis and an ice breaker likely to make you cringe.Direct Download Episode #117Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved! Reference Links, for your consideration and research: | 0 | [
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FMD3806 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A tidal wave is coming.
Michael Moore, a liberal’s liberal who holds die-hard loyalty to Hillary Clinton, is acknowledging what everyone with a clear head recognizes: that she doesn’t even remotely connect with the average voter, doesn’t understand their problems – and above all, doesn’t care about them.
Although Moore can’t support Donald Trump, he seems to admire his ability to resonate with the actual problems that the people who formerly made up the middle class are going through – economic and otherwise. Moore, like Trump, understands the pulse of the people, though they differ in just about every other way.
This election represents a pivotal point, and an end of the line for the deal that people once held with their leaders. After decades of broken promises and deals to sell them short and sell them out, people have had enough.
THAT’S what this election is about.
Right or wrong, Trump represents a rebuke of the system – as Moore calls it, the ultimate “F––– You” ever directed at the system.
If you make this go viral, Trump will win. It’s 4 minutes that makes the choice in this election crystal clear. #EarlyVoting pic.twitter.com/UOgqSfet6a
— Jared Wyand (@JaredWyand) October 25, 2016
Here’s some of what he said in an epic rant (reportedly excerpted from his rush-election film Trumpland) that is strangely validating of Trump’s entire campaign:
Whether Trump means it or not, it’s kind of irrelevant because he’s saying the things that people who are hurting. And it’s why every beaten down, nameless, forgotten working stiff who used to be part of what was called the middle-class loves Trump.
“They’re not racists or rednecks, they’re actually pretty decent people. So, after talking to a number of them, I sort of wanted to sort of write this.”
[…]
Donald Trump came to the Detroit Economic Club and stood there in front of the Ford Motor executives and said: if you close these factories, as you are planning to do in Detroit, and rebuild them in Mexico, I am going to put a 35% tariff on those cars when you send them back and nobody’s going to buy them.
It was an amazing thing to see. No politician — Republican or Democrat — had ever said anything like that to these executives. It was music to the ears of people in Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Brexit states. You live here in Ohio. You know what I am talking about.
He is the human Molotov cocktail that they have been waiting for. The human hand grenade that they can legally throw into the system that stole their lives from them. And on November 8th — Election Day — although they have lost their jobs. Although they’ve been foreclosed on by the bank. Next came the divorce and now the wife and kids are gone. The car’s been repossessed. They haven’t had a real vacation in years. They’re stuck with the shitty Obamacare bronze plan. They can’t even get a f**king percocet.
They have essentially lost everything they had…except one thing. The one thing that doesn’t cost them a cent and is guaranteed to them by the American Constitution: the right to vote.
[…] So, on November 8th, the dispossessed will walk into the voting booth, be handed a ballot, close the curtain, take that lever — or felt pen or touchscreen — and put a big f**king X in the box by the name of the man who has threatened to upend and overturn the very system that has ruined their lives: Donald J. Trump.
[…]
They see that the elites who have ruined their lives hate Trump.
Corporate America hates Trump. Wall Street hates Trump. The career politicians hate Trump. The Media hates Trump…
The enemy of my enemy is who I am voting for on November 8th.
Trump’s election is going to be the biggest F**K YOU ever recorded in human history.
And it will feel good.
What red-blooded American, working stiff or laid off schmo wouldn’t want to stick it to the establishment and rebuke the very system that brought them to this point? After all, it is their fault.
People have been hurting and in decline for eight long years – and for all his smiles and posturing, Obama hasn’t done a damned thing. And Hillary can’t even pretend.
The people who will be deciding the popular vote in this election want to take down that system and put someone in who will – once and for all – stand up for them. Basically, Americans want revenge.
What the electoral college decides is another matter altogether, of course.
Read more:
EPIC RANT: Fed Up American Explains Why Trump Will Win: “Somebody With Balls”
No One Can Stop Her… And She Knows It: “This Election Won’t Be Fair”
Protesters Rage Against the DNC: “Hillary Didn’t Get the Nomination. The Nomination Was Stolen”
“Free Speech Cage” Keeps Anti-Hillary Protesters Away From DNC Convention
Crowds Boo DNC Officials, As Party Revolts Against Hillary: “They’re Angry, They’re Upset” | 0 | [
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FMD3807 | 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: Fake Map Image Says Musk's Jet Was Flown to Jeffrey Epstein's Island Claim summaries: An image of a flight path was shared on Twitter that claimed Elon Musk's jet had made numerous trips to one of Epstein's islands.
contextual information: On Dec. 14, 2022, Twitter user Sheetz is Antifa (@wawajawn) posted an image of a map that appeared to show that, since 2010, Elon Musk's jet had made 12 trips to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's island, Little Saint James, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. However, after other users reposted the image, @wawajawn soon admitted to creating it and stated that it was fake. According to NBC News, a lawsuit that was settled in November alleged that Little Saint James and Great Saint James, both of which the late Epstein owned, were once used as "the base of an extensive sex trafficking operation." The tweet with the fake map image was shared by @wawajawn on the same day that Twitter removed an account named @elonjet, which had tracked the real-time location of Musk's aircraft. We previously reported on that story, which included news of alleged stalking and the banning of several journalists, among other developments. Despite the map image being fake, it still spread on other Twitter accounts, including popular shares from Anonymous Operations (@AnonOpsSE) and a user named Keith Edwards (@keithedwards). Edwards is a former communications director for the Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried's 2022 campaign. He also once worked for the anti-Trump organization known as the Lincoln Project. Edwards tweeted, "This is old data from Elon's jet, so it's ok to share." This was somewhat of a response to a tweet Musk had shared just seven minutes earlier. Musk's tweet read, "Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info." The last part of the tweet was apparently what Edwards was referencing: "Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn't a safety problem, so is ok." We reached out to Edwards via a Twitter DM to ask if he had posted the map image as a joke, but did not receive a response before publishing this story. A screenshot of @AnonOpsSE's tweet with the fake map image also appeared in new posts on Reddit. One Reddit post showed @wawajawn's original tweet. Many of the comments in the posts, as well as replies to tweets, noted that there appeared to be no landing strip on Little Saint James, which would mean that the flight path in the image couldn't even be a possibility. On top of all the shares on Twitter and Reddit (and 9GAG), the fake image was even posted in a 4Chan thread. (The relevant post can be found by searching the page for the text, "elon-jet-epstein.jpg.") While the map image was fake, we found that Vanity Fair did report in 2019 that Musk said he and his then-wife, Talulah Riley, once met briefly with Epstein in New York. Musk added that he declined invitations from Epstein to visit his island. Musk and Riley later divorced. "Several years ago, I was at his house in Manhattan for about 30 minutes in the middle of the afternoon with Talulah, as she was curious about meeting this strange person for a novel she was writing," Musk said. "We did not see anything inappropriate at all, apart from weird art. He tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island. I declined." Riley also provided a statement on Twitter in 2020, saying that the single meeting with Epstein was nothing more than "part of an itinerary of appointments." For further reading, we previously reported on a photograph of Musk and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. Note: According to an autopsy, Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in New York. | 0 | [
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FMD3808 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: 0 Add Comment
TECH giant Apple has today kindly offered to relocate over 1,500 refugee children who were left behind at a Calais campsite, and to give them full-time work as general operatives in their many factories littered across the world.
The opportunity will help clear the remaining refugees from the ‘Calais Jungle’, while French authorities continue to demolish it from existence, like a red wine stain from a woollen rug.
It is understood the children will begin a series of in-house training courses before taking to the Apple floor to make phones, iPads and MacBook computers.
“I have always loved Apple’s sleek product design,” 9-year-old Hafez Mohammed, who was born in the same week as the first ever iPhone release, “I cannot wait to start work making such cool products with them as my father and mother are missing and I have no idea where they are”.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said he was more than happy to offer the children this fantastic opportunity as founder Steve Jobs was also Syrian, and believes he would have only been delighted to help out his fellow countrymen and women get through this difficult period of their lives.
“Who knows, we may have the next Jobs in one of the 1,500 new employees,” Cook told WWN.
The Apple offer could not have come at a better time as British Prime Minister May rejected a personal demand from Francois Hollande for Britain to accept 1,500 child migrants yesterday, leaving only child sex traffickers to pick up the tab. | 0 | [
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FMD3809 | 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: Red Lobster Closing? Claim summaries: Is the Red Lobster chain about to close its doors and go out of business for good?
contextual information: Claim: The Red Lobster chain is about to close its doors and go out of business for good. Example: [Collected via Facebook, December 2013] Is Red Lobster closing? Origins: Red Lobster is the ubiquitous casual dining restaurant chain operated by Darden Restaurants of Orlando, Florida, which boasts over seven hundred outlets worldwide, including operations in Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Japan, in addition to the United States. In September 2013, the Darden Restaurants corporation (which also owns the Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Capital Grille, and Seasons 52 restaurant chains) reported disappointing financial results, including a 37.6% decrease in earnings per share and a $41 million drop in net earnings. A significant portion of those disappointing financial results was attributed to the poor performance of the Red Lobster chain, which saw a 5.2% decline in sales compared to the same quarter of the previous year and a 3.8% decline in same-restaurant traffic. These results prompted Darden, under pressure from investors, to announce in mid-December 2013 that they planned to separate themselves from the Red Lobster chain by selling it or spinning it off as a separate company. Under pressure from an activist hedge fund, Darden announced that it would dispose of the chain that gave it life, Red Lobster, as one of several steps meant to bolster its stock price. The company plans to shed Red Lobster through a tax-free spinoff to shareholders but would be interested in a sale if it could raise more money. Darden's plan follows months of questions and pressure from investors and analysts regarding how it intended to attract consumers back after the recession. Darden is one of the biggest companies in the casual dining industry, with a market value of $6.7 billion, but its core chains have experienced stagnant growth. Although Red Lobster served as the foundation for the Darden empire, it has become less important to the company over time. Members of the management team indicated that they expected same-restaurant sales for the chain to fall by 4 to 5 percent this year. Separating the low-growth brand would allow its new management team to focus on running the company for its significant cash flows while enabling the rest of the company to concentrate on the needs of its other brands, including different marketing and pricing strategies. This announcement about Red Lobster's future was interpreted by some casual news consumers as an indication that the Red Lobster chain would imminently go out of business, but a Darden spokesman quickly moved to quell such rumors. The Red Lobster restaurant chain dismissed reports that it would be closing its doors. Rich Jeffers, a spokesman for Darden Restaurants Inc., which owns the chain, stated that the rumor may have originated after the website LA Weekly published a story suggesting that the company faced an "uncertain future." A torrent of tweets and other online media followed with reports that the chain was closing. "We are not closing any restaurants," Jeffers said. The confusion may also be linked to Darden's announcement that it plans to sell or spin off the Red Lobster chain into a separate company. Several months later, in May 2014, Darden Restaurants announced that they had agreed to sell the Red Lobster chain to Golden Gate Capital for $2.1 billion. Darden Restaurants announced that private equity firm Golden Gate Capital had agreed to buy the seafood chain Red Lobster for $2.1 billion in cash. In December 2013, the restaurant group revealed plans to release its oldest but worst-performing segment into the wild. The initial plan was to create two independent companies, but after considering a number of structures—ranging from selling to a strategic partner to relinquishing the real estate assets while retaining the brand—Darden concluded that the Golden Gate deal would create the most value, as stated by the company. Nonetheless, as The Motley Fool warned back in December 2013, Darden's shedding of Red Lobster could still possibly signal a death knell for the chain. The Motley Fool noted that it's not so much that Red Lobster is a damaged brand, but rather that its results reflect trends seen across the casual dining sector. Releasing it back into the wild on its own may only lead to the restaurant chain's failure. It's clear that Red Lobster can't compete on its own yet, and until it can find a way to attract diners back to the restaurant, it would be unwise to cast it off. It's possible that economic circumstances may lead to the closure of some Red Lobster outlets in the coming years or even the eventual demise of the chain itself. However, those possibilities are currently only speculative and uncertain; there's no definitive reason to expect that the entire chain will be closing its doors anytime soon. Last updated: 16 May 2014 Kim, Susanna. "Red Lobster Says It's Not Closing Its 705 Restaurants." ABC News. 27 December 2013. McGrath, Maggie. "Red Lobster and Olive Garden Drag Darden Lower." Forbes. 20 September 2013. Sharf, Samantha. "Red Lobster Caught by Golden Gate Capital for $2.1 Billion." Forbes. 16 May 2014. | 2 | [
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FMD3810 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: London Assembly Member David Kurten has hailed President Donald Trump’s White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway in a speech in the assembly chamber today, International Women’s Day. [Mr. Kurten — who was elected on a UK Independence Party (UKIP) ticket after first showcasing his abilities here on Breitbart London — used his speech to state: “Women have made immense strides in politics and in many many areas over the past decade. We now have the second female prime minister of this country, which is a fantastic thing. In America last year we had the first female presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. She lost the election and Donald Trump won. “But probably due to the skill and intelligence of the very first female campaign manager of a successful winning president of the United States election, so congratulations to herâ€. Mr. Kurten went on to call “little pink hats†a “false stereotype of the great things women are doing†and hailed all the female Brexit campaigners who stood “shoulder to should with men†and praised the votes and activism of women who made Brexit happen. WATCH: | 1 | [
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FMD3811 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Email
In classical mythology, the Acheron is one of the rivers of the Underworld. It marks the boundary between the living and the dead. The ferryman Charon ferries the dead across the Acheron to a place where they lose memory. Nothing of what made them human remains—happiness, suffering, love, hatred, guilt, regret, redemption, betrayal, forgiveness.
From Gilgamesh to Odysseus to Aeneas, the living heroes of the epic descend into the Underworld at a point of despair in the sense of their quest. Burdened by a fate that requires momentous courage and tragic self-sacrifice for the sake of their people’s survival, they resent the absurdity of their lot. Down there on a visit, they return from the shadow land strengthened. They recognize that the business of living is not oblivion but action.
John Marciano’s recently published book, The American War in Vietnam: Crime or Commemoration ? functions as such a Charon in reverse. It ferries readers back to the realm of remembering. This slim volume could not have come at a more opportune moment. American political culture is punch-drunk with the pursuit of war. The altered state is reaching the point of delirium tremens. Thwarted in the neocolonial scheme of annexing Syria by Russia’s legal intervention, the American elite are pushing for confrontation. Though it is hard to think the unthinkable, the nuclear holocaust may happen if not by intention then by spontaneous combustion from over-intoxication with the fumes of war.
This reckless confrontation results from decades of accumulated unaccountable power. Its boldness reflects a cumulative experience of impunity for aggressive behavior by soft and hard neocolonial postures since the end of WW II. The war in Vietnam, as Marciano suggests, should have functioned as the lesson that checked the nation’s historical thrust for conquest, but the turning point would have required a national effort to relinquish the myth of the Noble Cause, the delusion that America is vested with a divine mandate to assimilate the people of the world to the American image–for the people’s own good. Britain had its White Man’s Burden; France its mission civilatrise ; America its Manifest Destiny.
This timely volume traces the war to the apocalyptic finale of the most powerful military in the world defeated by the determination, courage, and self-sacrifice of a peasant people unwilling to be enslaved. But this is as much a book about the past as it is about the present. It reminds us, with Tolstoy, “The reality of war is in the killing, “ a realization officialdom would like to block. In fact, they have prepared a falsifying celebration of that moral and military debacle.
As Marciano writes in his introduction,
“In May 2012, President Barack Obama and the Pentagon announced a Commemoration of the Vietnam War to continue through 2025, the fiftieth anniversary of the conflict’s end. Among the Commemoration’s objectives, three stand out: ‘to thank and honor’ veterans and their families . . . ‘to highlight the advances in technology, science, and medicine related to military research conducted during’ the war; and to ‘recognize the contributions and sacrifices made by the allies’.”
President Obama claimed in the commemoration announcement speech that the war had been “an honorable cause.” Marciano challenges this notion. America’s historic ideology of the Noble Cause, he writes, rests on the belief that the United States is
“A unique force for good in the world, superior not only in its military and economic power, but in the quality of its government and institutions, the character and morality of its people, and its way of life.”
This is the mystical bigotry of a messianic faith typical of empires. Imperial militarism seeks in a Noble Cause the justification for subjugating large chunks of humanity. In the distant past, the Noble Cause may have received the sword directly from a god—as it did in postcolonial America when it sought to exterminate the native inhabitants. By the anointment of the sword, the divinity also endowed, supposedly, the conquering “race” with moral superiority. Thus, imperialism, in the perverse arrogance of its twisted psyche, contains the germ of genocide. As a result, the superstition of a superior “race” has been endured by most of the “races” on the planet as a most Ignoble Cause. In Vietnam alone, the Big Lie of the Noble Cause sent four million Vietnamese to their death.
Marciano leaves us in no doubt that the White House and the Pentagon are commemorating a crime. They are falsifying history in order to shape the future, which will be and is the reenactment of the war against Vietnam on a global scale. They want to establish the altar for a “sacred union,” the nation united behind the Noble Cause of war. On the altar will sit the fetish of the export of the “miracle of democracy, ” in reality the imposition of regimes of terror such as the Vietnam War planners established in Saigon. We see today in Ukraine that the “miracle of democracy,” brought to Kiev by the US in 2014 to the tune of five billion dollars, amounts to a handful of dry dust, collected from the WW II graveyard of European Nazism, inciting a lot of blind, anti-democratic and noxious nationalism.
As through a glass darkly, Marciano shows us that in the war crime against Vietnam we can see reflected the crimes perpetrated today from Afghanistan to Yemen, from Iraq to Syria, from Yugoslavia to Libya and across the African continent. As in Vietnam (the fakery of the Gulf of Tonkin incident), today’s war are based on fabricated pretexts; as in Vietnam (napalm and agent orange), today’s wars are chemical wars (depleted uranium for Yugoslavia and Iraq; phosphorus for Falluja); as in Vietnam (Hanoi and Haiphong) the bombings destroy urban life, vital infrastructure, schools and hospitals; as in Vietnam (Laos, Cambodia) the bombings spreads out (today to Yemen); as in Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh) the leaders who resist US penetration are demonized (Milosevic, Saddam, Qaddafi, Assad) as enemies of humanity. As in Vietnam, all the wars of today are fought mostly to prevent or reverse independence and self-determination of former colonial places.
Finally, as in Vietnam the USSR, today’s Russia is emerging as the displacement of all the guilt that weighs on the shoulders of the Noble Cause. The Washington Post recently wrote “the Kremlin annexed Ukraine.” I read it twice—not “annexed Crimea,” the standard disinformation, but the whole of Ukraine! Does one laugh or weep? Does one have to take a hallucinogenic to see Russian flags and images of Putin blanketing Kiev instead of Neo-Nazi emblems and images of Bandera?
The next president will certainly be Hillary Clinton, whom I call “the centripetal president.” From Republicans to Democrats to Neo-Cons, all converge on endorsing the war candidate. In her consensus war regime, the elite will decide everything. We will not be consulted. This is why The American War in Vietnam: Crime or Commemoration? is a vital read. It calls for our re-democratization–to question our leaders, to be skeptical of the media, to avert our eyes from the petrifying stare of the Medusa decked with the aegis of the Noble Cause; to challenge—even ridicule– the vaunted humanitarianism of an elite of bloodhounds baying for war; to refuse to commemorate war crimes and to work to stop them.
Above all, we need to remember that the crimes of other governments are the responsibility of the people of those governments—not of our bombs. Though our elite have abrogated to themselves the power and the right to remake the map of the world by force, we need to reassert the legal principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of a sovereign states if we are serious about peace. We, citizens, do not have the right (or the power, unless we line up behind the power of the militarist state) to change the practices of other states, but we do have the right to demand change for those of our own. Let’s start exercising that right. We did for Vietnam; we can do it again. Commemorate the people who protested the war in Vietnam, not the crime the governing elite committed there in our name, as Marciano’s book amply documents.
The US government is now engaged in waging eight wars. We better get busy. | 0 | [
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FMD3812 | 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: Don't Donate to Ukraine Through This Facebook Crypto Scam Claim summaries: Facebook ads on a page designed to resemble Crypto.com used the war in Ukraine to try to scam users out of donations.
contextual information: On March 22, 2022, we began investigating a crypto scam on a Facebook page that posed as Crypto.com, a cryptocurrency exchange company, and asked for donations for Ukraine. The Facebook page was named Crypto.com/Nft. However, the company named Crypto.com had nothing to do with it. crypto scam Facebook Crypto.com Ukraine Crypto.com/Nft We notified Meta by email and were told by a company spokesperson that the page would soon be coming down. Meta is Facebook's parent company. Meta The person or people managing the page bought paid advertising on Facebook in order to run the scam. The ad was approved, and was displayed for at least three days. scam The ad The page was created on March 18, and the ad began running the next day. We noted that the same ad was still active as of March 22. The "Ad Library" for the crypto scam Facebook page showed that it had been active for at least three days. By March 22, the page had racked up 228 likes and 5,368 followers. The post that was created for the Facebook ad had also been liked nearly 1,000 times. The ad from the Crypto.com/Nft Facebook page asked for donations for Ukraine and provided a specific wallet address. It appeared like this: Ukraine The scammers pretended to be with Crypto.com in order to execute their plan. It read as follows: Crypto.com would like to support Ukraine with 100k USDT together with its community!Join us! Every amount you donate in Ethereum we top up to 100k USDT. Donate ETH only to0x9adBb30BDb95eD70A6C795e6078a118E6e7e1854 We will exchange it to USDT while transferring funds to Ukraine.#ukraine #ETHEREUM Once again, this is a scam. The page was created four days before we filed this report. Also, it claimed to be affiliated with Crypto.com, even though it was not. Both of these were red flags. The requested amount of "100k USDT" in the ad is equivalent to about $100,000. According to Blockchain.com, as of March 22, 0x9adBb30BDb95eD70A6C795e6078a118E6e7e1854, the wallet address mentioned in the ad, had received around $32,279.94 in funds since April 2021. It's unclear how much of those funds were brought in based on other scams that had nothing to do with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began in late February. equivalent According to Blockchain.com Russia's invasion of Ukraine In previous reporting, we exposed four other crypto scams, all of which were hosted by Facebook or Instagram. We also have seen a handful of others pop up as paid ads. four other crypto scams Instagram We alerted Crypto.com about the scam Facebook page. A company spokesperson said that the address used by the scammers was not a Crypto.com wallet address and that no Crypto.com account holders had transferred funds to it. To make donations to legitimate organizations to help the people in Ukraine, we recommend visiting our previous article that documented four good causes that are accepting funds. Ukraine article Curious about how Snopes' writers verify information and craft their stories for public consumption? We've collected some posts that help explain how we do what we do. Happy reading and let us know what else you might be interested in knowing. help explain let us know Shortly after this story was published on March 22, 2022, a Facebook company spokesperson confirmed to us by email that the page would soon be coming down. | 0 | [
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FMD3813 | 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: Panty Raider Claim summaries: Does a new video game involving stealing underwear from models has folks up in arms?
contextual information: Claim: A new video game calling for players to steal underwear from models has folks up in arms. . Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2000] Fathers Say Stop Simon & Schuster's Panty Raider (Duluth, MN, April 26, 2000) The national advocacy group Dads and Daughters today called on Simon and Schuster Interactive to halt its scheduled May release of the CD-ROM game called Panty Raider. To win the game, boys must strip supermodels down to their underwear, then provide photographs of them to aliens who "wore out" their one lingerie catalog - or else the aliens' "hormone driven anger" will destroy the earth. Among the gamers' tools to induce the undressing: "Lures - Items such as tiny mints (lunch!) and credit cards. No self-respecting supermodel can resist these items." From making fun of anorexia to objectifying girls to assuming that boys just want titillation from computer games, Panty Raider is a disgrace. Among the objections raised in a letter to the company, Dads and Daughters said: "Anorexia KILLS people, and holds painfully long years of recovery for those girls and women who do survive. It's no more suited for joking than cancer. And then there is the stereotype that the ideal girls are obsessed with shopping and appearance. We have daughters and we know better. And, we are offended when our daughters are repeatedly subjected to the destructive stereotypes disseminated by games like Panty Raider." DADs executive director Joe Kelly added that the game is also offensive to fathers of sons. "We don't see the humor or fun in glorifying what Panty Raider calls 'hormone driven anger' in boys, especially after tragedies like the Columbine shootings. We are offended when our sons are repeatedly subjected to the destructive stereotypes of boys objectifying females, placing titillation above all else, and using violence or its threat to get their way." Dads and Daughters suggests that other parents use the company's website to insist that "Panty Raider" not be released this month. Or write Simon & Schuster Interactive, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 or call 212/632-3544. website Dads and Daughters is the national nonprofit membership group for fathers with daughters. DADs helps fathers strengthen their relationships with daughters and transform the pervasive messages that value girls more for how they look than who they are. DADs acts against marketers who undermine daughters to sell their products. S&S Interactive, a division of Viacom, produces dozens of CD-ROM games in the entertainment and education categories. For the full correspondence between Dads and Daughters and Simon and Schuster Interactive, visit Dads and Daughters. Dads and Daughters Origins: Panty Raider, a video game in which sex-obsessed aliens seek photos of lingerie-clad models, has become a target of outrage and ridicule even before its projected May 2000 release. The call to arms quoted above is but one of many circulating on the Internet. Women's groups, family advocates and serious gamers are outraged over the game and would stop its release if they could. Panty Raider: From Here To Immaturity has provoked some calls to boycott publisher Simon & Schuster. Those objecting to the game claim it portrays women as brainless appearance-concerned sex objects and men as angry and violent and postulate it's aimed at the pre-teen and early teen market. The firm's spokesman, Peter Binazeski, says it's meant for a different audience. "Panty Raider has an 'M' rating, limiting it to those 17 and older." As for criticisms of its premise: "It's humor," he says. "Some people will love it, some people will not love it." Which is a point. The 1987 gaming classic Leisure Suit Larry was also an exercise in inappropriate humor, requiring players to lead the title character through one embarrassing sexual escapade to another to complete the game. Subsequent offerings in this watershed series featured wilder scenarios than the first, with the humor sinking to achieve new lows with each new release. Large-breasted, scantily-clad "babes" abound in every incarnation of Larry, yet there was never an outcry over it. Gamers understood Larry's target audience to be adult adventure players with a taste for bathroom humor and thus didn't overly concern themselves with the possibility it might influence the mindset of youngsters whose hands Larry had fallen into. Further, the premise of any number of video games relies on themes one would fervently pray are never ported back to the real world. Violence and sexism run rampant through the realm of video gaming. Big weapons blasting big holes in the irredeemably evil are often the norm, a behavior that imparts a message that provided one is up against bad guys or has right on one's side, it's okay to resort to wild sprees of violence and even to murder whoever stands in the way. When female characters appear, they're often male fantasy stereotypes: powerful sword-wielding warrior woman, helpless princess, icily-beautiful enemy queen, or secretive vamp one has to wheedle a key piece of information out of. In each case, the gals are dressed to excite the fellas, often in impossible costumes made up of little more than leather straps. In this world, women are eye candy first and foremost; whatever other functions they serve to advance the plot of the game are left to run a distant second to their duties as walking centerfolds. To win Panty Raider, players must strip a supermodel to her underwear, then provide photographs to a trio of aliens who are looking to replace a worn out lingerie catalog. Failure will incur the space creatures' wrath, causing them to make good on their threat to blow up the Earth. Judged within the context of what has gone before, Panty Raider isn't any more sexist or objectionable than any number of its predecessors. Times may have changed though, with what was okay a few years ago now seen as posing an unmitigated danger to society. Concern that adolescents might be unduly influenced by Panty Raider are easily answered by not buying them the game and by making the effort to supervise their play of video games in general. It's unrealistic to call for a world in which every single item is made kid-friendly, lest that item drop into an impressionable youngster's hands. Supervision of children remains the province of their parents; it's not up to every video game company to produce only items that impart the right values, it's up to the parents to screen what reaches their children, rejecting as unsuitable whatever they believe would foster in their offspring the wrong set of values. Are the concerns of Dads and Daughters and other such groups valid? Probably. But is the answer sticking a cork into one piece of software, or is it striving to be a responsible parent by filtering out what are seen as harmful influences? The bottom line is that there just aren't that many corks, and one victory in this area might lull some into believing they no longer have to be vigilant because others are doing it for them. Better to concentrate on the one bottleneck what's allowed to reach one's kids a parent can and should be the watchdog over. Barbara "panty hosed" Mikkelson Additional Information: Panty Raider announcement (Simon and Schuster Interactive) Last updated: 2 December 2007 Sources: Clifford, Jane. "New Game Is Modeling Bad Behavior." The San Diego Union-Tribune. 6 May 2000 (p. E1). Thomas, Karen. "Naughty Game Has Knickers in a Twist." USA Today. 3 May 2000 (p. D1). The Ottawa Citizen. "Horny Alien Video Game Incurs Wrath, Ridicule." 6 May 2000 (p. B5). The [Singapore] Straits Times. "Parents Want Panty Raider Game Stopped." 6 May 2000 (p. 4). | 1 | [
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FMD3814 | 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 Pic Show Stephen Hawking at a Conference in Caribbean Held by Jeffrey Epstein? Claim summaries: Epstein had hosted numerous scientific luminaries at the island gathering.
contextual information: On May 18, 2023, a Twitter user shared a photograph of the late physicist Stephen Hawking sitting with a group of people in what appeared to be a tropical setting. The user claimed that Hawking was on the Caribbean island owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In a tweet, @dom_lucre asked, "Serious question, why the hell was Stephen Hawking on Jeffrey Epstein's Island?" asked (@@dom_lucre/X) This is a real photograph of Hawking that shows him either on one of Epstein's private islands or on nearby St. Thomas Island, at an Epstein-sponsored conference. It was taken in March 2006, a few months before Epstein was charged with multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor. March 2006 charged Epstein, a financier who was later charged with sex trafficking, died in his prison cell in 2021 while awaiting trial (he previously had been convicted of other sex offenses). But before his fall, he was known for his parties and his extensive connections with high-profile celebrities, politicians, and intellectuals. He owned two private islands, Great St. James and Little St. James, which were prominent features in the civil and criminal cases against him. Numerous young women said in court papers that they were taken via private jet to Little St. James, where they were ordered to perform sex acts with Epstein and other men. died owned said Hawking was just one of many scientists and intellectuals invited to these islands for less-sinister reasons a scientific conference Epstein paid for. So how was Hawking brought into Epstein's orbit? For years, Epstein financed the Edge Foundation, billed as a salon for elite thinkers, which hosted prominent gatherings of scientists and intellectuals, and gave Epstein access to such circles. According to a Buzzfeed News investigation, Epstein's donations helped Edge carry out most of its activities, including an annual "billionaires dinner" that ceased to take place after his last contribution in 2015. financed billed investigation An archived page from Edge.org describing Epstein's involvement can be seen here, where he was described as "a financier and science philanthropist." The website stated, "He is one of the largest supporters of individual scientists, including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and Nobel Laureates Gerard 't Hooft, David Gross and Frank Wilczek." Edge.org here In 2006, Epstein sponsored a conference at the neighboring St. Thomas Island. Per a March 2006 report in the St. Thomas Source, a local newspaper, prominent scientists gathered in a series of private meetings dubbed "Confronting Gravity: A workshop to explore fundamental questions in physics and cosmology." Among those scientists was Hawking. March 2006 Epstein was also described by the local report as the "driving force behind the conference." He reportedly said to the paper that he brought the group to St. Thomas with hopes that the relaxed setting would free the physicists' minds to explore one of the 20th century's last unanswered physics questions: What is gravity? described "There is no agenda except fun and physics, and that's fun with a capital 'F,'" Epstein reportedly said. reportedly The New York Times also reported in 2019 on Hawking's trip to this island (emphasis, ours): reported It was a five-day gathering in the Caribbean of some of the world's top scientists, including Dr. Hawking, to share ideas about gravity and cosmology, with scuba and catamaran excursions on the side. One evening, the participants had dinner on the beach at Mr. Epstein's private island. Some of the scientists noticed that Mr. Epstein "was always followed by a group of something like three or four young women," as Alan Guth, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, put it in an email to The Times, but they did not probe further. In another 2019 report, The New York Times described how, "Once, the scientists including Mr. Hawking crowded on board a submarine that Mr. Epstein had chartered." 2019 report But where did the photograph come from? In 2006, The Edge Foundation also published a blog post on the conference and interviewed an attendee and organizer, theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss. Per the post (emphasis, ours): The Edge Foundation post The topic of the meeting was "Confronting Gravity." Krauss intended to have "a meeting where people would look forward to the key issues facing fundamental physics and cosmology". They could meet, discuss, relax on the beach, and take a trip to the nearby private island retreat of the science philanthropist Jeffrey Epstein, who funded the event. We scrolled to the bottom of the page and found photographs of Hawking and more from the gathering. The photograph in question showed Hawking seated alongside Nobel Prize winner David Gross, and physicists Kip Thorne and Lisa Randall. Yet another shows Hawking on what appears to be the interior of a boat, captioned, "Lawrence Krauss and Stephen Hawking on the way to Atlantis Submarine." page (Screenshot via Edge.org) The New York Times described Epstein's allure for these scientists: The New York Times The lure for some of the scientists was Mr. Epstein's money. He dangled financing for their pet projects. Some of the scientists said that the prospect of financing blinded them to the seriousness of his sexual transgressions, and even led them to give credence to some of Mr. Epstein's half-baked scientific musings. The photograph of Hawking has been disseminated in the media, and is also publicly available on the website of the foundation once financed by Epstein, along with a description of the conference he attended, with the dates and details of the gathering matching up with reliable media reports. We thus rate this claim "A Timeline of the Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell Scandal." AP NEWS, 28 June 2022, https://apnews.com/article/epstein-maxwell-timeline-b9f15710fabb72e8581c71e94acf513e. Accessed 19 May 2023. Aldhous, Peter. "How Jeffrey Epstein Bankrolled An Exclusive Intellectual Boys Club And Reaped The Benefits." BuzzFeed News, 26 Sept. 2019, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-epstein-john-brockman-edge-foundation.Accessed 19 May 2023. Chappell, Bill. "Financier Buys Jeffrey Epstein's Private Islands, with Plans to Create a Resort." NPR, 4 May 2023. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2023/05/04/1173956903/jeffrey-epstein-island-sold-st-james.Accessed 19 May 2023. "Jeffrey Epstein." Edge.Org. 5 Apr. 2019, https://web.archive.org/web/20190405211237/https:/www.edge.org/memberbio/jeffrey_epstein.Accessed 19 May 2023. Kantor, Jodi, et al. "Jeffrey Epstein Was a Sex Offender. The Powerful Welcomed Him Anyway." The New York Times, 13 July 2019. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/13/nyregion/jeffrey-epstein-new-york-elite.html.Accessed 19 May 2023. "Physicists Debate Gravity at St. Thomas Symposium." St. Thomas Source, 17 Mar. 2006, https://stthomassource.com/content/2006/03/17/physicists-debate-gravity-st-thomas-symposium/.Accessed 19 May 2023. "Pictured: Stephen Hawking on Jeffrey Epsteins 'Sex-Slave Island.'" The Independent, 13 Jan. 2015, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/stephen-hawking-pictured-on-jeffrey-epstein-s-sex-slave-caribbean-island-9974955.html.Accessed 19 May 2023. "Stephen Hawking Pictured on Jeffrey Epstein's "Island of Sin."" Telegraph, 12 Jan. 2015. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/stephen-hawking/11340494/Stephen-Hawking-pictured-on-Jeffrey-Epsteins-Island-of-Sin.html. Accessed 19 May 2023. Stewart, James B., et al. "Jeffrey Epstein Hoped to Seed Human Race With His DNA." The New York Times, 31 July 2019. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.html.Accessed 19 May 2023. "THE ENERGY OF EMPTY SPACE THAT ISN'T ZERO." Edge.Org. 6 Mar. 2023, https://web.archive.org/web/20230306164658/https://www.edge.org/conversation/lawrence_m_krauss-the-energy-of-empty-space-that-isnt-zero.Accessed 19 May 2023. "Who Was Jeffrey Epstein? The Financier Charged with Sex Trafficking." BBC News, 8 July 2019. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48913377.Accessed 19 May 2023. | 1 | [
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FMD3815 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Videos Wikileaks Founder Targets Clinton’s Saudi Connection In Scathing Interview In an exclusive interview with John Pilger, Julian Assange of WikiLeaks argues that Hillary is the “central cog" of the establishment and is funded by the same countries backing the ISIS. | November 8, 2016 Be Sociable, Share! Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, right, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, center, and Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad Al-Sabah, left, stand together prior to a group photo before a US- Gulf Cooperation Council forum at the Gulf Cooperation Council Secretariat in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, March 31, 2012.
Last week, Julian Assange, Editor-In-Chief of WikiLeaks, sat down with John Pilger, Australian journalist and filmmaker, for what is arguably Assange’s most provocative interview ever . During the interview, Assange expounded on the thousands of Clinton emails WikiLeaks has released this past year, highlighting the findings that he personally found to be most significant. According to Assange, the most significant emails in the entire collection involve Clinton’s connections to Saudi Arabia and Qatar who she knew were funding the Islamic State and other radical jihadist groups in the Middle East. Despite this, Clinton accepted millions of dollars via the Clinton Foundation from these very same countries, often demanding payments of millions of dollars for access to her and her husband. Emails showed that a Qatari representative was given five minutes with Bill Clinton for a million dollars, while Hillary was paid twelve million dollars to attend a party hosted by the Moroccan government. Pilger remarked that the fact that “the notorious terrorist group called ISIL or ISIS is created largely with money from the very people who are giving money to the Clinton Foundation” was an “extraordinary” revelation. The interview was also full of other scathing remarks against Clinton and her past crimes. However, Assange said that he personally feels “quite sorry for Hillary Clinton as a person” because she seems to have been “eaten alive by [her] ambitions, tormented literally to the point where [she became] sick.” He went on to say that Clinton is a “central cog” of the establishment, surviving as a point of connection between the Intelligence community, Wall Street, the State Department, and wealthy foreign donors like Saudi Arabia. Assange then highlighted another significant revelation from the Podesta emails, which exposed that Obama’s 2008 cabinet had been hand-picked by Citibank, one of the world’s largest banks. Assange also responded to allegations that WikiLeaks is working on behalf of the Russians to support Clinton’s opponent Donald Trump. In response, he argued that Trump “would not be permitted to win” as the “establishment,” which includes the big banks, intelligence agencies, arms companies, foreign money, the media, and even journalists themselves, are “all united behind Hillary Clinton.” Assange then confirmed what many had already suspected, that Russia was not the source of the leaks and that Clinton’s accusations to the contrary were nothing more than “neo-McCarthy hysteria.” He reminded viewers that WikiLeaks has published 800,000 documents related to the Russian government, most of which are critical, proving that neither WikiLeaks nor Assange has any kind of relationship to the country. The latter part of the interview revolved almost exclusively around Assange’s asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Assange spoke out against the false charges against him, emphasizing the fact that he has never been charged with a crime and that the UN found that he was being “arbitrarily detained” due to US pressure to extradite him. Assange has long feared extradition to the US where he would likely face espionage charges and perhaps the death penalty. Indeed, Julian Assange is one of the most well-known casualties of the US’ horrendous and inexcusable war against whistleblowers. Though US politicians such as President Obama speak of the importance of “freedom of speech,” Assange’s situation, as well as that of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden , proves that freedom of speech in the US is only allowed as long as it doesn’t expose the many crimes of the US government. Watch the interview below: This work by True Activist is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License. Be Sociable, Share! | 0 | [
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FMD3816 | 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 Donald Trump's position isto roll back all of the financial regulations passed after the financial crisis.
contextual information: Sen. Elizabeth Warren did not leave her signature issue behind when she became presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump's most pugnacious critic. Donald Trump has already offered his big wet kiss to Wall Street. He has said, "Hey guys, if I get in, I'm going to roll back all of those regulations, because it makes it too hard for banks to cheat people," Warren said in a June 28 interview on The View. Trump never said he wanted to make it easier for banks to cheat people, but he has stated that he wants to roll back regulations on Wall Street. In the context of the interview, Warren is likely referring to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the premier piece of legislation regulating the banking industry after the crash. Warren has been a consistent crusader for stricter regulation of the financial industry. Early in the campaign, Trump distinguished himself from his rivals for the Republican nomination with some tough language directed toward Wall Street. "The hedge fund guys didn't build this country. These are guys that shift paper around and they get lucky," Trump said in a CBS interview in August. At other points, he extended a similar critique to Wall Street guys in general. Trump stated that hedge fund managers get away with murder, but he has been unclear about what he would do to change that. One concrete Trump proposal on Wall Street was changes to the tax code that would alter tax provisions benefiting hedge fund managers, but because of separate tax cuts for partnerships, his tax plan actually had the effect of substantially improving their position. On Dodd-Frank, Trump has gone on the record again and again, saying that the law is bad news for the economy and the banking industry. He has called it a disaster and a very negative force. Well before he launched his current presidential run, Trump attacked increased regulation after the financial crisis, which he said prevented loans to all but the very wealthy. And while it's not the same thing as a big wet kiss to Wall Street, Trump has said he expects bankers to appreciate his position. "I think things have to be done with (Dodd-Frank), and I think Wall Street would like to hear that," Trump told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo. The only bit of wiggle room here is that Trump has been inconsistent about how much of Dodd-Frank would be left when he finished with it. He has said he would get rid of it, repeal it, or, almost word-for-word from Warren's statement, roll that back. He has also said, however, that there are some aspects you could leave, and that could be changed greatly instead of being eliminated. In Trump's most recent statement about Dodd-Frank, in a mid-May interview with Reuters, he said he would release a plan within two weeks that would be close to a dismantling of Dodd-Frank. A month after his Reuters interview, the plan, which would presumably settle this question, has not been released. The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Our ruling: Warren said Trump wants to roll back all of those regulations on Wall Street banks. While we don't know what Trump's plan would look like exactly, he certainly wants to scrap a lot of the law. It might not be right to say all of those regulations, but Trump himself has been unclear on that point. We rate this Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD3817 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: What can we expect in 2017? Inflated markets, insider trading and runaway monetary policy still trending Gerald Celente, head of Trends Research Institute, weighs-in on what you can expect going forward in the new year. Watch: | 0 | [
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FMD3818 | 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 This Photo Show a Shirtless Mike Pence? Claim summaries: For years, this photo has circulated online with captions claiming that it documents Pence's "gay past."
contextual information: In November 2016, a photograph purportedly showing a young Mike Pence with his chest exposed was circulated on social media along with the claim that it documented the vice president's "gay past": circulated The man pictured on the right above is not Vice President Mike Pence, nor does the person depicted particularly resemble him. The individual seen in the right-hand photo is Brad Patton, a porn actor, and the original image was shared on MySpace by acolleague, Martin Mazza: MySpace Several stories have also appeared concerning Mike Pence and his support of "conversion therapy" for gay people. These are somewhat inaccurate: while Pence did once support the use of federal funding to treat people "seeking to change their sexual behavior," he did not support electroshocktherapy, nor did hecredit conversiontherapy for having savedhis marriage. conversion therapy therapy therapy | 0 | [
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FMD3819 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: This election proved the power of the Internet, and of the people who used their voices to the fullest.
But now, they will pay for it.
Will it mean the end of free speech?
Clearly, the deep state was not defeated overnight, but a loose network of hackers, researchers, alternative media outlets and long-term constituents of the “vast rightwing conspiracy” did manage to overpower the establishment’s choice of Hillary for president – and managed to embarrass the mainstream media while they were at it.
Even if they won’t get everything they wanted under President-elect Trump, they proved that a number of leading websites, and quite a few underground blogs, aren’t just promoting fringe views, but have become influential and often damning, even to the most high profile players. The Internet, and in particular, the alternative media, counterbalanced the mainstream effectively in 2016, and defeated their narrative.
And now, those who control the corporate-dominated flow of information want to end that competition.
As SHTF just reported :
What this year’s Presidential election has proven is that alternative media is a force to be reckoned with, and the establishment is scared shitless.
But they won’t let it happen again.
[…] Today’s actions by Google and Facebook provide further evidence that the establishment media and Deep State politicians are preparing a digital lock down on any and all information that has not been approved by an as of yet unknown Truth Panel.
A Facebook spokesman said it will explicitly ban sites that traffic in fake news from using the Facebook Audience Network… Google said it plans to prevent Google ads from being placed “on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information [as well as] sites that distribute false news.”
Though this effort may be subtle, there is every reason to think it will be brutal for free speech. It could prove to be the last laugh for Hillary Clinton, who blames her media opponents, Wikileaks hackers and even the failure of her own friends and presstitutes in the media for destroying her campaign with piles of Clinton family dirt.
Major outlets are now circulating a list of websites that have been deemed to be “fake news” and worthy of censorship that was compiled by… you guessed it… a random community college assistant professor trolling websites they’d like to have removed because they disagree with it.
As The Daily Sheeple reported , these sites comprise of many of the biggest alternative news sites on the Internet:
Like clockwork, floating around on the Internet now is a list of these “fake” sites authored by Melissa Zimdars, assistant professor of Media and Communications at Merrimack College.
She has deemed all of these sites as “false, misleading, clickbait-y, and/or satirical ‘news’ sources”.
Just to name a few examples, The Daily Sheeple, The Free Thought Project, Infowars, Breitbart, Lew Rockwell, Before Its News , Intellihub and even CoastToCoastAM.com were flagged as “fake news” sites that should be blocked, removed and/or censored.
As many online account holders know, there are many subtle ways of suppressing or blocking accounts, including demonitization that takes away an author’s incentive. That is what Google is attempting right now by denying ad sense revenue to sites they disapprove of, while they are still the masters of quietly de-listing sites in the algorithm so that fewer people will find their links – and those being targeted may never know what happened.
Meanwhile, the State Department just refused to recognized reporters from RT at a press conference. Spokesman John Kirby got testy over a question about Syria hospital bombings and retorted: “I’m not going to put Russia Today on the same level with the rest of you who are representing independent media outlets.”
A major blowback is underway by the corporate, establishment media in retribution for their embarrassing failure in stage-managing a cakewalk election for Hillary Clinton. CNN’s parent company Time Warner (recently bought out by AT&T) was in the top ten of Hillary’s donor list , along with most of the largest Wall Street banks, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Inc. and Microsoft. It is no surprise to see many of these players acting in accordance to de-list dissenters.
Considering that Donald Trump has also teamed up with Facebook board member Peter Thiel to sue critical journalists , and have proposed new legislation to make defamation laws stronger, his administration may not prove much better, despite the strong backing for his campaign by the “alt right.”
Will these next few years be the most difficult yet for online free speech? There certainly seems to be a lot of pressure coming down from above.
Read more:
Digital Lock Down: Google and Facebook Take Aim At ‘Fake News’ Websites: “The Establishment Is Scared Sh*tless”
List of “Fake” News Sites for Google to Target Released; Every Alt Site You Know (Including The Daily Sheeple) Is On It
Make No Mistake: “Everyone Who Is Warning About Clinton Is A Target and They Are Marked” | 0 | [
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FMD3820 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: North Korean hackers stole a large amount of classified military documents, including South Korea-U.S. wartime operational plans to wipe out the North Korean leadership, a South Korean ruling party lawmaker said on Wednesday. Democratic Party representative Rhee Cheol-hee said 235 gigabytes of military documents were taken from the Defense Integrated Data Center in September last year, citing information from unidentified South Korean defense officials. An investigative team inside the defense ministry announced in May the hack had been carried out by North Korea, but did not disclose what kind of information had been taken. Pyongyang has denied responsibility in its state media for the cyber attacks, criticizing Seoul for fabricating claims about online attacks. Separately on Wednesday, cyber security firm FireEye said in a statement North Korea-affiliated agents were detected attempting to phish U.S. electric companies through emails sent in mid-September, although those attempts did not lead to a disruption in the power supply. It did not specify when the attempts had been detected or clarify which companies had been affected. Rhee, currently a member of the National Assembly s committee for national defense, said about 80 percent of the hacked data had not yet been identified, but that none of the information was expected to have compromised the South Korean military because it was not top classified intelligence. Some of the hacked data addressed how to identify movements of members of the North Korean leadership, how to seal off their hiding locations, and attack from the air before eliminating them. Rhee said the North could not have taken the entire operation plans from the database because they had not been uploaded in full. These plans had likely not been classified properly but defense ministry officials told Rhee the hacked documents were not of top importance, he said. Whatever the North Koreans took, we just need to fix the plans, Rhee later told Reuters by telephone. I disclosed this because the military hasn t been doing that fast enough. Rhee said on radio the hack had been made possible by a simple mistake after a connector jack linking the military s intranet to the internet had not been eliminated after maintenance work had been done on the system. The South Korean Defense Ministry s official stance is that they cannot confirm anything the lawmaker said about the hacked content due to the sensitivity of the matter. In Washington, the Pentagon said it was aware of the media reports but would not comment on the potential breach. Although I will not comment on intelligence matters or specific incidents related to cyber intrusion, I can assure you that we are confident in the security of our operations plans and our ability to deal with any threat from North Korea, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Robert Manning told reporters. FireEye said the phishing attack on the electric companies detected was early-stage reconnaissance and did not indicate North Korea was about to stage an imminent, disruptive cyber attack. The North has been suspected of carrying out similar cyber attacks on South Korean electric utilities, in addition to other government and financial institutions. Those attempts were likely aimed at creating a means of deterring potential war or sowing disorder during a time of armed conflict , FireEye said. North Korea linked hackers are among the most prolific nation-state threats, targeting not only the U.S. and South Korea but the global financial system and nations worldwide, its statement said. Their motivations vary from economic enrichment to traditional espionage to sabotage, but all share the hallmark of an ascendant cyber power willing to violate international norms with little regard for potential blowback, it said. | 1 | [
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FMD3821 | 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: If we choose Obamacare expansion, 600,000 will lose eligibility for their subsidies, of which 257,000 would be forced into Medicaid.
contextual information: Even before the Florida House adjourned early, Speaker Steve Crisafulli clearly laid the blame for the session's budget impasse on Medicaid expansion. In an essay printed by the Tampa Bay Times, Crisafulli wrote that the Senate had partnered with the Obama administration to demand the expansion. However, the House believed that this move would drag people into a costly system that didn't work. Under federal law, other low-income Floridians have access to health care subsidies to buy private insurance for less than the average cost of a wireless phone bill, said Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island. In fact, if we choose Obamacare expansion, 600,000 will lose eligibility for their subsidies, of which 257,000 would be forced into Medicaid. Estimates say the expansion would cover more than 800,000 people, many of whom are currently uninsured. We wondered where Crisafulli was getting his numbers.
This subject can make heads spin pretty easily, so before we begin, let's review a few basics about the Affordable Care Act. The law's intent was to expand coverage to the uninsured through two different methods. The first was to provide subsidies to people who needed help buying insurance through HealthCare.gov or a new state marketplace. The second method was to expand Medicaid, a state-federal insurance program for the very poor. Medicaid expansion ended up being optional for the states, thanks to a 2012 Supreme Court ruling. This is what the Florida House and Senate are arguing about. The Senate wants to expand Medicaid so that recipients end up buying heavily subsidized insurance. The House doesn't want to expand Medicaid at all. Crisafulli's numbers are based on how many Floridians would qualify for the expansion, which would be extended to all adults up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level (100 percent is currently $11,770 for an individual and $24,250 for a family of four). Technically, the calculation is actually 133 percent under the law, but a 5 percent deduction is added on top of that. If a state doesn't expand Medicaid, people who make between 100 and 400 percent of the poverty level can receive subsidies to buy insurance in a marketplace. These are the subsidies Crisafulli is referring to. However, if you qualify for Medicaid, you're not eligible for help paying premiums. His argument is that if the state extends the program, the people between 100 and 133 percent of the federal poverty level (he's not citing the full 138, you'll note) will lose their subsidies to buy policies, and the House simply won't let that happen.
Crisafulli is using estimates from the 2015-16 fiscal year by the Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research, which we examined ourselves. That projection indicates there are about 609,000 people in the 100 to 133 percent of the poverty level range, and a little more than 351,000 of them have some form of insurance. They obtain it through employers, Medicare, or some other form of government assistance program, or they buy insurance on their own (subsidized or not). Those people could enroll in Medicaid if they wanted to. More than 257,000 have no insurance at all, and these are the individuals Crisafulli claims will be forced into Medicaid. His office confirmed he meant they would be left without subsidies and would not earn enough to buy policies, making Medicaid their only option.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and health policy experts largely agreed that the numbers were plausible, but there are some points they said Crisafulli is sidestepping. Foremost is the idea that 257,000 people would be forced to join the program. There is no law that mandates you must use Medicaid if you qualify, and not everyone who is currently eligible enrolls. Ben Sommers, a health policy and economics professor at Harvard, stated that it's pretty tough for Crisafulli to imply that those quarter-million people would be upset by suddenly qualifying for Medicaid. "Giving uninsured people Medicaid is pretty popular among uninsured people," Sommers said. There aren't any public opinion surveys I've seen in which low-income adults don't generally support the Medicaid expansion. Crisafulli neglects to mention that there are many Floridians who currently don't qualify for either Medicaid or federal subsidies, an estimated 669,000 people whose income is below 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Those uninsured Floridians account for 18 percent of all Americans in the so-called coverage gap—second only to Texas. They would all benefit from Medicaid expansion by gaining coverage. Finally, Crisafulli argues that expanding Medicaid under Obamacare would unfairly take away subsidies that Floridians need to buy their own insurance. Those subsidies are a feature of the very same Affordable Care Act he criticizes.
Crisafulli stated, "If we choose Obamacare expansion, 600,000 will lose eligibility for their subsidies, of which 257,000 would be forced into Medicaid." Crisafulli is using incendiary language to describe state projections about Medicaid expansion. The state estimates that about 609,000 Floridians would lose access to subsidies to buy insurance under an expansion. About 257,000 of those people would be uninsured, likely because they're too poor to buy their own. The rest could enroll in Medicaid if they wanted to. Therefore, his numbers can be considered accurate. However, experts tell us that saying those people would be forced into the program isn't accurate. Many of the very poor would likely see becoming eligible for Medicaid as a benefit. We rate the statement Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD3822 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Was Arnold Schwarzenegger Forced to Sleep Outside a Hotel He Had Helped Open? Claim summaries: That's gratitude for you!
contextual information: Social media users love to share words of inspiration and wisdom if you can pair a profound (or at least vague) life lesson with a striking photo of a celebrity, all the better. That was the case in early 2018, when a photograph of California's former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared along with an elaborate, but false, back story. A photograph of Schwarzenegger in a sleeping bag in front of a statue of himself bore the following caption: caption Famed actor Arnold Schwarzenegger posted a photo of himself sleeping on the street under his famous bronze statue, and sadly wrote "How times have changed"... The reason he wrote the phrase was not only because he was old, but because when he was governor of California he inaugurated a hotel with his statue. Hotel staff told Arnold, "at any moment you can come and have a room reserved for you." when Arnold stepped down as governor and went to the hotel, the administration refused to give him a room arguing that he should pay for it, since they were in great demand. He brought a sleeping bag and stood underneath the statue and explained what he wanted to convey: "When I was in an important position, they always complimented me, and when I lost this position, they forgot about me and did not keep their promise. Do not trust your position or the amount of money you have, nor your power, nor your intelligence, it will not last. " Trying to teach everyone that when you're "Important" in the people's eyes , everyone is your "Friend " But once you don't benefit their interests , you won't matter. " You are not always who you think you will always be, nothing lasts forever." The story is riddled with falsehoods, and its primary claim that Schwarzenegger slept outside a hotel after being refused a free room is a fabrication. In reality, the photograph (which is legitimate) was taken in January 2016, while the Hollywood star was shooting a film in Columbus, Ohio. Schwarzenegger posted it to his Instagram account on 15 January 2016, apparently as a joke: shooting account The statue is located outside the city's convention center and has never been situated in front of a hotel, despite the false claims in the Facebook post. located Schwarzenegger first helped unveil the statue in 2012, outside the Franklin County Veterans Memorial, and then took part in its rededication in 2014, after it was moved to its current location. The former bodybuilder has longstanding ties to Columbus, which is host to an annual bodybuilding competition called the Arnold Sports Festival. 2012 competition Finn, Natalie. "Here Is Arnold Schwarzenegger Sleeping Next to a Statue of His Bodybuilder Self in Ohio."
E! Online. 15 January 2016. Associated Press. "Arnold Schwarzenegger Statue Rededicated in Downtown Columbus."
WBNS-TV. 6 October 2014. Audi, Tamara. "Hello, Columbus: Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Back, Bigger Than Ever in Ohio."
The Wall Street Journal. 2 March 2012. | 0 | [
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FMD3823 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: WASHINGTON — It seemed like a chummy reunion between friends. Chris Wallace, the Fox News anchor, was chatting amiably in his studio here on Sunday with Paul J. Manafort, Donald J. Trump’s new campaign chief, reminiscing about Ronald Reagan as the seconds ticked down to airtime. Then the cameras switched on. Mr. Wallace’s tone sharpened as he pressed Mr. Manafort about his lobbying work for a Filipino dictator and his description of Mr. Trump as playing a “part. †One halting answer was dismissed with a sly Wallace riposte: “Forgive me, it does seem a little bit like spin. †By the time Mr. Manafort removed his microphone, tweets were swirling about his uneven performance. Mr. Wallace, who compares interviews to shot a glance at his producer: success. As Fox News grapples with how to cover Mr. Trump — who has tested the network’s influence and battled its anchors, even as he stokes its ratings — Mr. Wallace has stood out as Fox’s moderate, occasionally contrarian voice, irritating Mr. Trump with tough questions and, on occasion, tweaking his opinionated colleagues, too. When Mr. Trump pledged in an interview to act more presidential, Mr. Wallace parried: “When are you going to start?†Then there was the time he ticked off Roger Ailes, Fox’s powerful chairman, after chastising the hosts of the network’s morning show, “Fox and Friends,†for their carping coverage of Senator Barack Obama in 2008. “They were very unhappy,†Mr. Wallace recalled. “I had called them out on the air. †He added: “There’s a phrase that we all talk about, which is, ‘You do not fire inside the tent.’ That’s the ultimate transgression in Roger Ailes’s mind. †Over eggs and tea here on Sunday, Mr. Wallace, whose “Fox News Sunday†is experiencing its highest ratings since starting 20 years ago this week, did not hesitate to take his industry and even his network to task, saying that Mr. Trump has been granted too much exposure on cable news. “If we put Donald Trump on for a rally now, and it’s going to spike our audience, it’s pretty hard if you’re a news executive to say no,†he said. “Did everybody do it too much? Yes. †Mr. Wallace singled out CNN as a notable offender. Would he include Fox in that group? “Absolutely,†he replied. And asked if Fox’s commentators, who often support the Republican nominee in presidential years, would rally around a Trump candidacy, Mr. Wallace laughed. “That’ll test it, won’t it?†he said. “I don’t know. It’ll be interesting to see. †Mr. Wallace, 68, is a registered Democrat — in order to vote in local Washington elections, he explains — and he spent decades as a correspondent on NBC and ABC before joining Fox in 2003. The move to Fox prompted him to review what he calls his “unexamined assumptions†about traditional network news. “If there’s a story on marriage, it’s like this is a celebration of a new civil right,†Mr. Wallace said. “I’m not saying I disagree with that. What I’m saying is there are two sides to the story, and I don’t think, generally speaking, the broadcast networks will portray both sides evenly. †Wry and punchy Mr. Wallace has long had a rebellious streak. Bill Clinton accused him in an interview of having a “little smirk on your face†Newt Gingrich goaded a crowd into mocking him at a 2011 debate President Obama’s refusal to appear on his show prompted Mr. Wallace to describe his administration as “crybabies. †(Mr. Obama ended his drought this month, in an interview that lured millions of viewers.) In the Fox studio in Washington on Sunday, Mr. Wallace could not resist making mischief. After grilling Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman, Mr. Wallace reassured her during a commercial break that the segment had gone fine. “It was clear you think Donald Trump sucks,†Mr. Wallace said, earning a laugh from Ms. Schultz. Last summer, Mr. Trump lashed out at Mr. Wallace for asking about his bankruptcies during the first Republican debate. “The son is only a tiny fraction of Mike, believe me,†Mr. Trump said afterward. That would be Mr. Wallace’s father, Mike Wallace, the famous correspondent whose legacy has been a complicated backdrop to his son’s career. For years, the men were not close Chris Wallace still considers his stepfather, Bill Leonard, a former president of CBS News, as “more of a father than my father was. †Mike Wallace once stole an interview, with the comedian Chris Rock, away from his son the two did not speak for several months. Chris Wallace said there was a time when Mr. Trump’s remark might have bothered him, adding: “It doesn’t anymore. †“At some point, I realized, I was never going to be Mike Wallace, but neither was anybody else,†he said. He and his father, who died in 2012, bonded later in life Mr. Wallace has also borrowed bits of his father’s interviewing style, prefacing tough questions with a polite “Forgive me,†and occasionally placing a deferential arm across his chest. “He’s a dignified, smart, fairly quiet guy, who came up under a legend,†Mr. Ailes said in an interview. “He’s now pretty much achieved what his old man did. †So what does Mr. Ailes make of Mr. Wallace’s contention that news networks, including Fox, have Mr. Trump? “Did he get too much coverage? Yes,†Mr. Ailes said, after a pause. “On the other hand, it’s not just cable news, but all news. †“The broadcast networks are just as guilty,†Mr. Ailes added, noting that Mr. Trump, in addition to being the Republican has been more accessible to the news media than his opponents. “When you go try to drag another candidate to talk about another serious issue that day, he’s not available,†Mr. Ailes said. Andrew Heyward, a former president of CBS News, praised Mr. Wallace for his tough interviews and for refusing to allow Mr. Trump to phone in to his Sunday show, an accommodation made by some other networks. He noted that Mr. Wallace’s journalistic reputation provided another benefit to Fox. “Part of the brilliance of Ailes is he has a few people like that he can point to, and say, ‘What do you mean we are the official spokesman of the Republican Party? That’s ridiculous,’†Mr. Heyward said. “He’s his own man,†Mr. Heyward said of Mr. Wallace. “And that works for Roger, too. †(Mr. Ailes said in response: “It’s amusing to me to hear that one person I picked has made this all work. ’’) Over lunch, Mr. Wallace said that some of Mr. Trump’s behavior had taken politics “to new depths, and I think it’s sad. †“I understand the need to entertain, but I think it would suit him, and serve democracy, if it was conducted on a higher plane,†he said. That hasn’t stopped Mr. Wallace from displaying a “Make America Great Again†cap, signed by Mr. Trump, among the mementos in his office. (Also on display: his father’s old Rolodex.) “It’s a great hat,†he said, urging a reporter to try it on. His brow arched, he said he likes to wear it while visiting one of his daughters, “a raving liberal,†in New York. Why? “I knew it would really tick her off. †| 1 | [
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FMD3824 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Even the women of Fox News refuse to buy Trump s bullshit claim that he is a feminist.That why when Fox Business contributor Bernard McGuirk referred to the Republican nominee as the ultimate feminist on Tuesday all four women of Outnumbered immediately lit him up for it.Fox host Sandra Smith asked if Senator Susan Collins refusal to endorse Donald Trump will hurt him even more among women, a demographic Trump is struggling to gain support from because he has repeatedly attacked them throughout his campaign and has generally treated them like shit his entire life.Indeed, Trump thinks that women are objects who are nothing more than sexual conquests and incubators.Nevertheless, McGuirk still had the gall to declare that Trump is a feminist because he attacks men and women equally, which drew the ire of the four female hosts around him. If a woman attacks Donald Trump, he ll attack her back just like he would with a man! McGuirk continued. He doesn t look at her as a delicate little flower. We can t you let you get away with that, Smith said before Meghan McCain gave McGuirk a piece of her mind, informing McGuirk that Trump desperately needs women right now more than he needs white men. Facts are a stubborn thing. He s doing very poorly with women, specifically college educated women, which is a demographic that normally just easy for Republicans to scoop up. He s got you, Bernard, he needs me. He needs Sandra. I like you, I respect you. In all fairness, it s directed at us! It s not directed at you. He s already got white men. McCain and her fellow hosst were particularly outraged by McGuirk s claim because Trump has relentlessly attacked New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte for criticizing his attacks on a Gold Star family who lost their American soldier son when he sacrificed his life to save his fellow brothers-in-arms. I don t know Kelly Ayotte, Trump said. I know she s given me no support zero support and yet I m leading her in the polls. I m doing very well in New Hampshire. We need loyal people in this country. We need fighters in this country. We don t need weak people. We have enough of them. Clearly, Trump attacked a woman for rightly standing up to him rather than admit he was wrong.One Fox host concluded that Trump may be an equal opportunity attacker but that doesn t make him a feminist.Here s the video via YouTube.And women overwhelmingly agree, which is why over 70 percent of women view Trump unfavorably and why Hillary Clinton is poised to win the women vote by an even larger margin than President Obama did in 2012.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 | [
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FMD3825 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: British Prime Minister Theresa May backed her foreign minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday after reports he could quit over her Brexit strategy, Sky News reported. Sky news reporter Beth Rigby said on Twitter that, when asked whether Johnson should be sacked, May said: Boris is doing good work as Foreign Secretary. May also said she was confident of getting her whole senior team of ministers to back her Brexit strategy, which she is due to lay out at a specially convened cabinet meeting on Thursday before making a speech in Florence on Friday. | 1 | [
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FMD3826 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: “I want our next president – whoever he or she might be – to be somebody who is interested in women in Afghanistan and who will continue US policies… that we continue to do what we're committed to do as a country,†she said, as she appeared on stage alongside her twin daughters Jenna and Barbara.
“That's who I want - or the kind of people that will do that and will pay attention to our history, and know what's what's happened before and know specifically how we can continue to do the good things that we do around the world.â€
• Donald Trump endorsed by Rudy Giuliani in boost ahead of New York primary
Many in the packed auditorium took her words as a coded criticism of Mr Trump, whose foreign policy plans have been condemned as isolationist and weak on detail.
His closest rival Ted Cruz has also made clear that the US has no role in Afghanistan other than fighting terrorism.
In contrast, Mrs Clinton was among those who offered a cover endorsement for Mrs Bush's Afghan book. “For over a decade, Laura Bush has been an ally and advocate for the women of Afghanistan and, in particular, has worked to ensure that the voices of Afghan women are heard,†she wrote.
The two women share a special bond as former first ladies and are of a similar age: both know the struggles of working their way up in a male-dominated world. | 1 | [
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FMD3827 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Ripple wrote out his demand note in front of his wife and told her he d rather be in jail than at home, A 71-year-old man who robbed a bank in Kansas City, Kan. to avoid living with his wife was sentenced to home confinement this week. This is too funny!A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Lawrence John Ripple to six months of home confinement; three years of supervised probation, including 50 hours of community service; and ordered him to pay $227.27 to the bank he robbed, according to the Kansas City Star.Ripple robbed the Bank of Labor in Kansas City in September. He walked into the bank and handed a note to the bank teller that said, I have a gun, give me money. After the bank teller handed over $2,924, Ripple sat down in the bank lobby waiting to be arrested by police.ADVERTISINGCourt records said Ripple wrote the note in front of his wife, telling her he would rather be in jail than live at home with her.Chekasha Ramsey, Ripple s public defender, told U.S. District Court Judge Carlos Murguia that the defendant suffered from depression after undergoing heart surgery in 2015. Ripple said that he felt better after finding the right medication and said prison would be more of a punishment for his wife than for him, the Star reported.Via: KCS | 0 | [
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FMD3828 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Individuals who steal classified information from the U.S. government are “enemies to our state†and must be punished forcefully, the White House’s homeland security adviser said on Wednesday. Tom Bossert, in remarks that were among the first he has made publicly since becoming the White House homeland security adviser, characterized cyber security in the U.S. government and around the world as being in general disarray. “We need to find the people who do it and hold them accountable and be absolutely unwavering in doing so,†Bossert said in remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C. “People who have taken things that they should not have taken, like Snowden and others, are absolute enemies to our state. Period,†Bossert said. “They need to be caught, punished, and treated as such.†He was referring to Edward Snowden, the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor whose leak of classified information in 2014 triggered an international furor over the reach of U.S. spy operations. Bossert, whose role includes special emphasis on cyber security, made his remarks a week after WikiLeaks published documents related to secret CIA hacking tools. Investigators believe the documents were likely provided by a contractor or CIA employee, two U.S. officials told Reuters last week. It would be the third high-profile public case in recent years in which an insider pilfered a large tranche of secrets from a U.S. intelligence agency. The recent CIA leak shows that intensified U.S. government efforts to prevent leaks by “insider threats†have largely failed, according to cyber security professionals and intelligence officials. In January former President Barack Obama shortened the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. military intelligence analyst who leaked hundreds of thousands of State Department cables to WikiLeaks in 2010 Manning, now due for release in May, had served seven of her 35-year sentence, and Obama defended his leniency by saying justice had been served. But he drew criticism from Republicans who said the move could embolden other potential leakers. Bossert said agencies and companies have a responsibility to institute controls and continuous employee screening and monitoring systems to guard against insider threats. As he characterized cyber security as being in general disarray, Bossert said the Obama administration did not do enough to forcefully combat and deter growing criminal and nation-state threats. “I feel like I have re-awoken from a long eight-year nap and I found a world that is on fire,†Bossert said. President Donald Trump’s annual budget proposal, expected to be released on Thursday, would reflect the White House’s plan to prioritize cyber security across the federal government, Bossert said. He also confirmed media reports that Rob Joyce, the National Security Agency’s top hacker, is joining the White House as cyber security coordinator. | 1 | [
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FMD3829 | 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: Indeed, the IRS instructed taxpayers to report stolen possessions and illicit earnings. Claim summaries: But there's a loophole to get out of declaring on stolen goods.
contextual information: Criminals, beware. Just because you got away with an illegal activity doesn't mean the IRS isn't going to come after your earnings. That's because just ahead of the 2021 tax season, the IRS released guidelines that required taxpayers to claim items they have stolen, as well as earnings from illegal activities. The claim made headlines in publications that joked potential criminals were running out of time to return stolen goods to avoid paying taxes on them. It went viral when the financial Twitter account @litquidity took to social media to remind taxpayers that tax season is around the corner. And it's true. Publication 17, which contains the IRS's general rules for filing federal income tax returns, lists illegal activities under "other income," categorized as self-employment activity, which must be reported to the federal tax agency. "Income from illegal activities, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8z, or on Schedule C (Form 1040) if from your self-employment activity," read the 2021 IRS guidelines. The guidelines also require that those who steal property must report the fair market value as income in the year that the item was stolen. Of course, one can avoid paying taxes on such items as long as the person returns them to the individual they were stolen from in the first place. The handy regulations also list how to report embezzled funds, note that bribes are considered nondeductible expenses, and state that kickbacks, side commissions, and push money must also be included in Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8z, or on Schedule C (Form 1040) if from self-employment activity. It's not just items or earnings obtained through illegal activities. That watch you found in the gym locker room? Yep, it's taxable. If you find and keep property that doesn't belong to you that has been lost or abandoned (treasure trove), it's taxable to you at its fair market value in the first year it's your undisputed possession, noted the IRS. Snopes spoke with an accountant who said that while the reporting requirements themselves aren't new, there was previously a separate form specifically for reporting illegal activity income. It's unclear to what extent people actually used the form in the past. It's not exactly clear whether law enforcement will be given information about individuals who report income from illegal activities. What is clear is that anyone under the age of 65 who made more than $12,550 in 2021 is required to file by April 18, 2022. | 1 | [
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FMD3830 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: by PAUL FASSA
First realize that even without being diagnosed with cancer, we all have at least a few cancerous cells floating around in our “inner terrain”. A decent immune system residing in a slightly alkaline or neutral pH inner terrain is able to fend them off and keep them from colonizing into tumorous masses. On the other hand, those who indulge primarily in the SAD (Standard American Diet), which includes lots of factory farmed meat and junk foods saturated with refined sugars or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which processed foods use even with their non-sweet products to keep you addicted, along with all those refined carbs in refined grain baked products, are adding fuel (literally) to the fire of cancer.
Mainstream oncology ignores this 1930s Nobel Prize discovery by Otto Warburg, aka the “Warburg Effect”: When normal cells begin to lack oxygen respiration to utilize glucose and nutrients metabolically for cellular energy, they depend on fermenting sugar to thrive without oxygen and become cancerous.
Yum … ice cream with my chemo!
Instead oncologists administer chemo IV therapies while giving their patients ice cream and cookies as the poison is injected into them. Big profits from the treatment and selling those toxic drugs at a profit also. “Cancer cells consume sugar about 19x faster than healthy cells.” – Dr. Murray Susser, MD Mainstream medicine refuses to look into diet as a function of potential metabolic dysfunction that helps promote and maintain cancer while asserting genetic disposition as a primary cause of cancer. Their hubris and incredible profits thrive from toxic interventions such as chemotherapy and radiation. The first concern with preventing or eliminating cancer should be what you put into your body. That gives you control over cancer.
It’s a no-brainer when it comes to avoiding sodas, juices with added sugars, pastries, candies, and processed foods that use processed grains and even add sugar or HFCS to foods that are not even sweet. That’s to keep you addicted even if you can’t taste it. Refined sugar is actually addictive, some claim it’s even as addictive as cocaine.
A Recent Study That Makes Sugar Carcinogenic
But now it’s even worse. Green Med Info has uncovered a study that seems to be hidden from the public eye and is certainly not welcome within our orthodox oncology system. It would cramp the food and soda business’s profits if refined sugar is seen as carcinogenic.
The study, “Increased sugar uptake promotes oncogenesis via EPAC/RAP1 and O-GlcNAc pathways” was published in the 2013-2014 Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI). Because it is a free access journal, you can access the full text, not just the abstract, here .
I wonder how come this study hasn’t made much of a stir in our sick-care system since it is so accessible. Instead it was dug up by a research scout for Green Med Info.
It is of course full of biochemical details, which is what medical people are supposed to be familiar with. So for now, let’s be content with a layman’s summary report of their study, which was an in vitro (cultures, petri dishes, and test tubes) study as opposed to an in vivo (animal or human) study. This way they could really play around with and analyze the results with total control.
Here’s the bottom line of this study: Increased glucose uptake leads to early phases of cancer cell creation while curbing glucose intake reversed cancerous cells into normal cells. In other words, sugar is carcinogenic as well as fodder for already existing cancer cells.
It’s important to not confuse the enormous amount of refined sugar, table sugar or HFCS, one takes in with sodas and processed foods with naturally occurring sugars and fructose in plant foods, regardless of how high the glycemic index may be. Fruit juices don’t need added sugars, but many fruit juices have sugar added. That’s the type of beverage or food that needs to be avoided.
But table sugar is refined, and most off the shelf breads and pastries are composed of refined grains that are refined carbohydrates, which become sugar instantly without any compensating nutrition. They are processed out of whole foods to be independent of other compounds that balance natural whole foods to make them beneficial.
An interesting informative excerpt from the Cancer Tutor: Dr. Tony [Antonio] Jimenez hypothesizes that sugar from Organic Produce may not contribute to cancer cell growth like its adulterated counterpart [refined sugar/HFCS]. He explains that human mammalian cells absorb levorotatory (left spinning) molecules, while cancer cells can only assimilate dextrorotatory (right spinning) molecules.
Essentially, fruits in their natural state contain left spinning sugars, whereas GMO-influenced fruits consist only of right spinning sugars. Dr. Jimenez concludes that the glycemic index is not nearly as important as the source and lineage of the fruits and vegetables we eat. As an example, Dr. Max Gerson used Carrot Juice as a successful alternative therapy, despite its high glycemic index. An Easy Tip That’s Not So Easy for Many
So here is the simplicity of it all. Avoid putting adding sugar to your foods and drinks, avoid all sweets and processed foods, even the ones not obviously sweet contain added refined sugars to keep you coming back for more because of its addictive quality.
This is harder for most than you may think. I met an American woman in Mexico who was advised to return to Texas and have a top cancer hospital determine the status of a mass detected in her gastrointestinal tract. I advised her to lay off sugar because if did turn out to be cancer it would exacerbate her condition.
She slumped and groaned slightly, indicating the impossibility of such an abstinence for her. I have read enough reports from spouses, friends, and relatives that show many are unwilling to make dietary changes to cure cancer, and whatever therapy they had used did fail probably because of that.
Many would rather just do what their doctors’ say and eat and drink what they want. And some want the same freedom even while avoiding chemo or radiation. This is especially true among those who use cannabis as a “silver bullet” to treat their cancer.
Despite all the carcinogenic chemicals that blanket our biosphere, we do have one area that’s in our control – avoiding refined sugars and carbohydrates.
Paul Fassa is a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com. His pet peeves are the Medical Mafia’s control over health and the food industry and government regulatory agencies’ corruption. Paul’s valiant contributions to the health movement and global paradigm shift are world renowned. Visit his blog by following this link and follow him on Twitter here . | 0 | [
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FMD3831 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Scandalous Poll: 84% of Ukrainians want Putin as their president November 13, 2016 - Fort Russ - Zavtra - translated by J. Arnoldski - The Ukrainian publication Nedelya.UA conducted a poll among its readers asking the following question: “Which politician would you entrust with the governance of your country?” The survey was participated in by 41,600 readers and showed the following figures: 84% (34,900) of Ukrainian respondents want to see Vladimir Putin as president of Ukraine. In second place with 5% (2,000) was Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Third place with 2% (820) was claimed by Xi Jinping and fourth, also with 2% (708) was leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky. The current president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, took 5th place with only 1% (538 votes). Further down the list were German Chancellor Angela Merkel (1%, 430 votes), the chairman of the French National Front Marine Le Pen (1%, 426 votes), Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev (1%, 318), and US President Barack Obama (1%, 244 votes). Notably enough, former Georgian president and until recently head of the Odessa region, Mikhail Saakashvili, was not included on the list. According to doctor of economic sciences and director of the Institute for Problems of Globalization, Mikhail Delyakin, the results are not representative. The expert remarked: “Without a doubt, the figures are unrepresentative: not only Ukrainians could take part in the voting, and the audience of the site speaks Russian - there is no Ukrainian version. At the same time, it is hardly likely, for example, that the Russian readers of this Ukrainian site are supporters of Putin. They are most likely fans of Bandera.” “On the other hand, the main part of Ukraine (including Banderites) speaks Russian, not Ukrainian. This was exposed by Guinness, which conducted an innocent poll on the quality of vegetables and allowed respondents to choose between surveys in Ukrainian or Russian. 77% chose Russian. Since then, this share has declined, but it is still clearly more than half even taking into account the departure of Crimea, the DPR and LPR, and the fact that most educated and cultured, i.e., Russian-speaking Ukrainians have fled to every corner, and mainly Russia, from this ‘victorious democracy’ and the European Nazi course,” Delyagin pointed out. “Nevertheless, it might be that overall these figures reflect the real mood of those Ukrainians who have been brutalized by the complete nobody thieves and killers imposed upon them by the West as their leaders. For the same motives, the most respected political leader in Russia is Stalin. Respect for Putin even sometimes appears among Russophobes who think: ‘With such a leader, we would have long ago defeated those Moskals,” Delyagin continued. The economist concluded with the following commentary: “Of course, this does not mean that the destructive liberal socio-economic policies pursued in Russia by appointees like Medvedev and Navulinnaya are correct. However, against the general backdrop of the nobody leaders of the modern West and its satellites, Putin is really a symbol of reason and hope for a better future for all of humanity, not the rapidly dwindling ‘Golden Billion.’” Follow us on Facebook! | 0 | [
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FMD3832 | 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: Consider before you contribute! Claim summaries: An article that compares the salaries of top executives of several large charitable organizations is mostly outdated and inaccurate.
contextual information: When deciding which charities to donate to, many people consider an important factor to be the "efficiency" of these organizations that is, what percentage of the monies taken in by a given charity goes to funding its mission rather than being eaten up by costs such as fundraising activities, salaries, and other administrative overhead. The e-mail reproduced above, which began circulating in 2005 and has been re-circulated every year since then around Christmastime, attempts to steer potential donors away from inefficient charities. Unfortunately, much of the information it presents was inaccurate back in 2005, and it has grown only more so in the years since then, resulting in a misleading and outdated view of various charities. We attempt to present accurate and up-to-date information about the named charities below. The following efficiency information is derived from the Charity Navigator web site, the GuideStar web site and Forbes magazine's November 2009 special report on the 200 Largest U.S. Charities. Salary information is taken from Schedule J (Compensation Information) of the various charities' IRS Form 990 filings, an annual reporting return that certain federally tax-exempt organizations must file with the IRS which provides information on the filing organization's mission, programs, and finances. (In the context of this article, the term "efficiency" refers to the percentage of total budget/expenses that each listed organization spends on providing charitable programs and services, while the term "compensation" or "pay" includes salary, one-time payments, and deferred compensation.) Charity Navigator GuideStar special report UNICEF United States Fund for UNICEF states 2010 2011 said United Way Worldwide reported World Vision World Vision Canada states: In our annual report to the Canada Revenue Agency, we publicly disclose information about executive compensation. In the interest of greater transparency to our donors, we have gone beyond our legal requirements by disclosing that our president, Michael Messenger, currently earns the top annual base salary of $215,000 plus a combination of taxable and non-taxable benefits. The presidents performance is subject to annual review by our Board of Directors, and his compensation is decided by them. World Vision Canada's (self-reported) efficiency is 81%, much higher than the 52% figure claimed above. BBB Goodwill Industries International Jim Gibbons compensation March of Dimes St. Jude parent Lions Clubs A 2011 addendum to the original message presented the following information: The American Legion National Commander receives a $0.00 zero salary.The Veterans of Foreign Wars National Commander receives a $0.00 zero salary.The Disabled American Veterans National Commander receives a $0.00 zero salary.The Military Order of Purple Hearts National Commander receives a $0.00 zero salary.The Vietnam Veterans Association National Commander receives a $0.00 zero salary.The Wounded Warriors National Commander receives a $0.00 zero salary. These organizations with no salaries have donations going to help Veterans and their families and youth. According to the most recent available Form 990 filings, all of these statements are false and/or misleading (in large part because the National Commanders are not necessarily the top business executives of these organizations): Unfortunately, the six veterans-related charitable organizations mentioned above don't receive very high marks for efficiency (as determined by Charity Navigator, the BBB, or Form 990 information): <!--Additional information: America's Most Efficient Charities --> UNICEF USA. "CEO Salary Email." American Red Cross. "Red Cross Statement on Inaccurate Viral Email on Charity CEO Pay." 11 December 2012. United Way. "CEO Compensation FAQ." World Vision Canada. "Our Approach to Executive Compensation." Updated CEO names and salaries for several of the organizations listed. | 2 | [
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FMD3833 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: One of my personal favorite conservative writers, Nick Short has done an amazing job in this piece, where he traces the roots of the Black Lives Matter and cop hating movements to our Divider In Chief. If you re not familiar with his work, Nick Short at politicallyshort.com is worth visiting. His work is supported by reader donations. If you re so inclined to support him, I m sure he would appreciate it. When the organization known as Black Lives Matter (BLM) was first formed right after George Zimmerman s acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin on July 13, 2013, most overlooked the true intentions of the group beyond their calls for justice . Fast forward to today and it can no longer be overlooked that their calls for justice now result in retaliatory violence against those whom they believe are the oppressors, namely those being white people in general and police officers specifically. By tracing the origins of the organization back to its philosophical formation in the 1960 s, we can begin to see how BLM is rooted in the radical ideological beliefs espoused by none other than President Barack Obama.Before we get to that point though, it is crucial for us to understand that BLM was founded by three militant feminists by the name of Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opel Tometi. While each played their part in contributing to the creation of the group, Garza is the driving force as she detailed the philosophy behind BLM in her October 2014 article titled A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement. Garza writes the following in regards to BLM s philosophy: Black Lives Matter is a unique contribution that goes beyond extrajudicial killings of Black people by police and vigilantes. It goes beyond the narrow nationalism that can be prevalent within some Black communities, which merely call on Black people to love Black, live Black and buy Black, keeping straight cis Black men in the front of the movement while our sisters, queer and trans and disabled folk take up roles in the background or not at all. Black Lives Matter affirms the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, Black-undocumented folks, folks with records, women and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. It centers those that have been marginalized within Black liberation movements. It is a tactic to (re)build the Black liberation movement. Alicia Garza explains why she started the Black Lives Matter terror movement. Notice how she ties her hate for law enforcement into her discussion about taking action against anyone who doesn t agree with their radical tactics:The Activist Web: Alicia Garza from Ford Foundation on Vimeo.The key takeaway from Garza s statement is found in the last two sentences primarily as she notes that BLM was created with the intention to (re)build the Black liberation movement. The reason this statement is of utter importance is because it ties directly to the idea of Black Liberation theology, which was the doctrine taught to Obama for over twenty years at his church in Chicago made famous by Obama s pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Black Liberation theology was first formed on July 31, 1966. In an article published by NPR it is noted that: Black liberation theology originated on July 31, 1966, when 51 black pastors bought a full page ad in the New York Times and demanded a more aggressive approach to eradicating racism echo[ing] the demands of the black power movement. What is often overlooked in the formation of the group is the linkage between the Nation of Islam and Black Liberation theology as Wright s mentor and founder of Black Liberation theology James Cone credited Malcolm X with shaking him out of his theological complacency. Stanley Kurtz of National Review highlighted this synergy in noting that according to Cone, The black intellectual s goal is to aid in the destruction of America as he knows it. Such destruction requires both black anger and white guilt. The black-power theologian s goal is to tell the story of American oppression so powerfully and precisely that white men will tremble, curse, and go mad, because they will be drenched with the filth of their evil , wrote Cone.In an excerpt from Stanley Kurtz s piece drawing on the influence of Malcom X on Black Liberation theology, Kurtz states:So what exactly is black power ? Echoing Malcolm X, Cone defines it as complete emancipation of black people from white oppression by whatever means black people deem necessary. Open, violent rebellion is very much included in whatever means ; like the radical anti-colonial theorist Frantz Fanon, on whom he sometimes draws, Cone sees violent rebellion as a transformative expression of the humanity of the oppressed Theologically, Cone affirms, Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man the devil. The false Christianity of the white-devil oppressor must be replaced. Couple these words to Obama s pastor Jeremiah Wright s statement that there will be no peace in America until whites begin to hate their whiteness and you can begin to understand that the rhetoric behind Black Lives Matter that blames white privilege for virtually everything is rooted in Black Liberation theology. However Wright was radicalized , notes Bud White of NoQuarterUSA, it is clear that he consciously appropriated the language and tenor of the Nation of Islam. White documents the following:Wright s statement that 9/11 was deserved retribution ( We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans America s chickens are coming home to roost ) is a perfect echo of Malcolm X s statement that The assassination of Kennedy is a result of that way of life and thinking. The chickens came home to roost. Although it appears that Wright began his focus on Black Liberation Theology sometime after 1966, his racial attitudes and rhetoric have imitated that of NOI since at least 1970. Wright s blaming the United States for creating AIDS to kill minorities is but just one example of his thinking being in lockstep with NOI. The Nation of Islam and Black Liberation Theology are two doors to the same room. Black Liberation Theology is a palatable form of Christian black nationalism. The fiery anti-American, race-baiting words of Wright, Cone, and others behind the theology of Black Liberation are from the same philosophical cauldron as the Nation of Islam , concludes White.From the beliefs that served as Obama s bedrock foundation for his ideology, is it any wonder that today that the radicals behind Black Lives Matter and the Nation of Islam are allowed a free pass to incite as much hatred and retaliation against those they deem are the oppressors? As violence has ramped up in the first half of 2015 in targeted assassinations against police officers, little to no coverage by the media is given to a meeting that was hosted by the White House on December 1st.On December 1, 2014, Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder met with seven Black and Latino organizers from Ferguson, Mo.; Columbus, Ohio; Miami, Florida; and New York City, who had been leading the ongoing actions to disrupt the status quo. In an article posted by the website FergusonAction, it is explained that during this meeting activists such as Ashley Yates were given the platform by the White House in order to reaffirm their belief that most violence in our (their) community is coming from the police departments, and something needs to be done about it. On December 20th something was done about it as two uniformed NYPD officers were assassinated in their marked car by Ismaaiyl Brinsley in what Brinsley himself boasted as an act of retaliation for the death of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York at the hands of the police.The reason Yates is emphasized here is because she, like BlackLivesMatter founder Alicia Garza, praise cop killer and former Black Liberation member Assata Shakur as a martyr for their cause. Yates even created T-shirts and hoodies that read ASSATA TAUGHT ME in a reference to Shakur that has become part of BLM s iconography. The fact that the president would even entertain the thought of meeting with those like Yates and other activists who hold cop killers as icons for their movement further goes to show how Obama s belief in Black Liberation theology, primarily that retaliation and violence should be used to further their cause, has never left him. Why else would Obama have met with these activists unless he was sympathetic to their plight, which given the fact that Obama spent over twenty years of his life listening to Jeremiah Wright s sermons, he very much is. Since this meeting though, what cannot be dismissed is the fact that violence in the form of targeted assassinations of both white people and police officers, have ramped up.And it will only get worse the longer we continue to allow Obama s Department of Justice to remain idly complicit. | 0 | [
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FMD3834 | 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: Can an 18-Year-Old 'Legally Adopt' a 17-Year-Old? Claim summaries: An interesting legal claim stirred up plenty of debate on TikTok in December 2020.
contextual information: In December 2020, TikTok user @philupmecup posted a short clip, viewed more than 1 million times, that included the text "An 18-year-old can legally adopt a 17-year-old," along with the caption "Let that sink in." Among the tens of thousands of comments posted in response to the video were some that appeared to come from teenagers excited or amused by the prospect of high school friends adopting one another once one of them turns 18. In reality, the restrictions and protocols implemented by adoption agencies make it unlikely that one teenager could adopt another, except in rare and tragic circumstances. However, on a purely legal, hypothetical basis, most U.S. states do not prohibit such an arrangement. As a result, we are issuing a rating of "Mixture." Adoption regulations vary from country to country, but the TikTok user who posted the claim lives in the United States, so our assessment will focus on the legal status quo there, which also varies between states. According to a January 2020 report published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Colorado, Delaware, Oklahoma, and American Samoa explicitly prohibit adoption by anyone under 21 years old, while Georgia and Idaho set the minimum age at 25. In seven states (California, Georgia, Nevada, New Jersey, South Dakota, and Utah), as well as the Northern Mariana Islands, the adopting parent must be at least 10 years older than the adoptive child, while in Puerto Rico, that minimum age gap is 14 years, and in Idaho, it is 15 years. In California, an exception exists to the age-gap requirement, namely where a court rules the adoption is in everyone's best interests and is done by a "stepparent, or by a sister, brother, aunt, uncle, or first cousin and, if that person is married, by that person and that person's spouse." Similarly, Colorado law allows for an exception to the minimum age of 21, subject to court approval, and in South Dakota, the 10-year age gap can be waived where "the court finds the adoption of the child by the adult person in the best interest of the child." This means that only 10 out of the 50 states, whose combined population represents 79 million (or around 24% of the country's total population), legally prohibit an 18-year-old from adopting a 17-year-old, and in three of those states, loopholes exist that could, in principle, allow such an arrangement. That's not to say that any 18-year-old could adopt any 17-year-old. Almost all states have some other legal prerequisites for adoption, including in-state residency requirements, consent requirements, and the termination of the biological parents' parental rights. But all other things being equal, only 10 states have age-specific limitations that would, in almost all cases, prohibit the arrangement in question. In practice, adoption agencies typically impose restrictions or give preference to certain would-be adoptive parents based on considerations such as financial stability. This alone would likely rule out the vast majority of 18-year-olds, who are very rarely independently wealthy or have reliable, sustainable employment that they can balance with a college education and so on. Another highly relevant consideration here is the time it can take to complete the rigorous procedures required for adopting a child. The California Department of Social Services, for example, advises that adoption agencies often take between six months and one year to complete their assessment of would-be adoptive parents, and they typically take an additional "one to several months" to actually place the adoptive children with their new parents. Given these time frames, very few scenarios would warrant an 18-year-old adopting a 17-year-old when the 17-year-old will become a legal adult anyway, in at most 12 months. | 2 | [
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FMD3835 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: U.S. short-term rental service Airbnb Inc has removed listings in Beijing as the capital prepares to host a five-yearly Party Congress later this month, the most important event on China s political calendar during which security is at its highest. A Reuters search on Wednesday of Airbnb listings in the city s center yielded zero results for all of October. Listings were present as recently as Tuesday evening for periods including the congress dates of Oct. 18 to 31. Due to external circumstances, homes in certain areas in Beijing are unavailable through October 31, Airbnb said in an email to hosts reviewed by Reuters. The move, mirrored by local rental firms, comes a week before the congress where President Xi Jinping is widely expected to consolidate power in a leadership reshuffle. Such high-profile events are often accompanied by increased surveillance and online censorship. During the last Congress, in 2012, access to Alphabet Inc s Google search engine was cut off. Google services have since been blocked in China. For this year s event, authorities have stepped up ID checks at metro stations and elsewhere in an effort to detain unregistered workers and others illegally residing in Beijing. Four Airbnb hosts in the capital told Reuters they had received notices from the U.S. firm late on Tuesday, which said properties in certain areas of the city would be removed from its website until the end of the month due to external circumstances . Similar to action taken by other hospitality companies, Airbnb listings in certain areas in Beijing will be temporarily unavailable throughout October, the company said in a statement to Reuters. Short-term rentals were also unavailable during the same period via local services Xiaozhu.com and Tujia.com. Neither firm responded to requests for comment. Airbnb and other home-stay sites occupy a legal grey area in China, where tourists are required to register accommodation with local police using a passport or identification card. The requirement is harder to enforce with short-term rentals. The Ministry of Public Security and Beijing s city police did not respond to faxed requests for comment. (The congress blackout) is a pain, but it s not for such a long time, said a 28-year-old press relations worker surnamed Liu, who rents out two flats on both Xiaozhu and Airbnb. As long as (bookings) open again eventually, I don t mind. | 1 | [
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FMD3836 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Radio Aryan October 27, 2016
Sven Longshanks joins Matthew Heimbach to discuss the ongoing fall out from President Hollandeâs treacherous solution to the Calais jungle problem. Instead of rounding all the invaders up with extreme prejudice and sending them back to Libya, he has decided to make every town in France a gift of 50 jungle monkeys each. He must love what they have done to Calais so much, that he wants the same for every town in the country. Diversity really does mean destroying every White community in the world by filling then all up with a quota of hostile invasive species.
Sven brings us the shocking news that five âSyrian migrant childrenâ have already gang raped a child at the British childrenâs home they were placed in this week. These âunaccompanied minorsâ were supposed to only be coming to Britain if they had family in the country, but thanks to an amendment added to the law by a Jew called Dubs, any brown person claiming to be under 18 whose life would be better in Britain than where they are now, has to be let in. This stupid law means that every juvenile in the third world could lay claim to a right to be allowed into Britain. This Jew is directly responsible for that child being raped and Matt reminds us of the fact that it is traitors in our own governments everywhere who are doing this to us.
George Soros and other global players have been funding the criminals at Calais while they lie in wait to ambush a lorry and break into Britain and we see similar patterns emerging there that we see among the other groups that he funds. Black Lies Matter burned down Ferguson and the squatters at Calais burned down the Jungle last night too, but not before first taking some time out for another gang rape. Sven points out that this goes on regularly in Africa where it costs little to replace a burned down straw hut or dung shelter, but in the developed world it costs a fortune to repair the damage these Blacks cause.
After bringing up the subject of how much it costs to care for those who hate us, Matt brings us some good news on the British economy, which we had been told by the lying media was bound to plunge into recession if there was a vote to leave the EU. It has actually increased by a percentage and Sven finishes the podcast by giving us a quick rundown of the state of play with Brexit, the Conservative Party and UKIP, who it is hoped will soon be led by Paul Nuttall.
Presented by Matthew Heimbach and Sven Longshanks
The Daily Traditionalist: The Calais Cancer Metastasizes â DT 102716 | 0 | [
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FMD3837 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A few weeks ago, we reported on the first female Muslim legislator, Ilhan Omar, the 34-year-old Democrat community organizer who came to America as a refugee from Somalia. Ilhan was one of only two state legislators who voted to prevent Life Insurance companies from denying benefits to benefactors of terrorists who died committing an act of terror against Americans.Omar is also a vocal opponent of President Trump (see video here) and his plan to better vet refugees coming from nations that are terror hotbeds. It s not unrealistic that the largest Somali Muslim population in America will also become a hotbed for terror.On November 19, 2016 U.S. District Judge Michael Davis sent a clear message to America: There is a terrorist cell in Minneapolis and it is still alive today. In sentencing nine young Somali-Minnesotans on terror conspiracy charges this week, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis closed a chapter in the federal government s long, extraordinary investigation of ISIL recruitment in Minnesota.But the full story is far from over.Each day, Davis sought to extract acknowledgment from the young men that they were terrorists, and left no doubt as to his thoughts on whether they were simply misguided youths. Everyone talks about Brussels or Paris having cells, Davis said one day, then, raising his voice: We have a cell here in Minneapolis. Saying the Minnesota public had danced around the issue, Davis described the cell s size as being between nine to 20, including those sentenced last week and others killed abroad. Star TribuneRefugee expert Ann Corcoran who owns the amazing Refugee Resettlement Watch website explores why Somali refugees are fleeing states like Arizona where they are being delivered by our government and heading for Minnesota? Corcoran asks: Why would they leave a climate more like home to move to the frigid north in droves? All sorts of reasons are given in this article from the Phoenix New Times -supposedly for jobs, to be with family members, Somali community, better welfare, but not mentioned is to build political power through numbers. Minnesota will be the first state to push for aspects of Shariah Law to be put in place, in my opinion.Bilad Yusuf and her seven kids were on their way to Minnesota, less than two months after they arrived in Phoenix. We didn t know how to get jobs here, and even if we did, we didn t know how we d get to them, she explained through an interpreter who translated from Somali to English.After waiting for six years in a refugee camp, Yusuf and her family arrived in the United States this winter amidst the chaos surrounding the Trump administration s attempt to block Somali immigrants like them from entering the country.Following a brief stop in Houston, they were transferred to Phoenix. There, stranded in the urban sprawl without a car, they found themselves lost: Where were they supposed to get groceries? How did they go about setting up long-overdue doctor s appointments? How would they pay rent after their initial stipend from the U.S. government ran out?The Somali Association of Arizona stepped in, providing groceries and setting up doctor s appointments for the refugees. But they couldn t do anything about the fact that the fact that with limited English and no training, Yusuf and her older children weren t qualified for many jobs.So, worried that her rent would be cut off soon, Yusuf ultimately decided they should move to Minnesota, where she, like virtually all Somalis, has family.Mukhtar Sheikh, the program coordinator for the Somali Association of Arizona, says that Yusuf s story is a common one.Between 1981 and 2017, Arizona took in 7,351 Somali refugees, according to Department of Economic Security statistics. But how many of those refugees actually stay in the state is another question.Sheikh estimates that as many as half the Somali refugees resettled in Arizona end up leaving typically for Minnesota, or other parts of the country where there s a large Somali community because they re unable to find jobs here. I think Arizona is able to do more for refugees, to be honest, he says. If Arizona invested in these families, it would actually benefit the state, because they re really hardworking. Contrary to popular belief, refugees who are resettled in Arizona receive relatively little financial assistance from the state. In fact, their main source of cash assistance is the federal government.But the biggest challenge is finding a job, he says. When he first arrived in Phoenix, he was able to find a job at Sky Harbor International Airport and work his way through ASU. Other Somalis have followed a similar path and found jobs at the airport. But many others have found that even jobs cleaning hotel rooms or washing dishes in a restaurant come with a requirement that applicants speak English or, unofficially, Spanish. The people that struggle the most are people who have no educational background, Sheikh says. They re the people most in need, and they face the biggest hardships when coming here and trying to find opportunities here. Recently, he s gotten calls from recruiters working on behalf of Amazon warehouses in Minnesota and Kentucky, looking to hire managers who speak Somali in addition to English.Should American companies be actively recruiting non-English speaking, uneducated refugees for jobs in America? Why are the airports one of the first places newly transplanted refugees coming from terror hotbed nations are finding employment? Shouldn t we fix our broken welfare system instead of recruiting workers from overseas to do the jobs Americans won t do? That tells him that they re hiring a lot of Somali refugees who don t speak English yet, he says. He d like to see the same thing happen in Arizona, where, to his knowledge, only a handful of refugees have been able to get jobs at Amazon distribution centers.But, he acknowledges, There s only only so much that one company can do. There has to be support from the state. The Department of Economic Security, which administers the Arizona Refugee Resettlement program, doesn t track where refugees end up once they stop receiving services from the state, director of communications Tasya Peterson says.So it s impossible to get an exact count of how many refugees have left for other states in search of better opportunities.But, Peterson adds: We do know that Somali refugees resettled in many states have relocated to live in cities in which the largest numbers of Somalis reside, including cities in Minnesota and Ohio, due to mutual assistance and other affinity relationships. Phoenix New TimesFor residents of Minneapolis however, many are facing a new reality with the exploding Somali refugee population. In July 2015, we reported on a mob of 30 young Somali men who raged through an upscale neighborhood, yelling disparaging comments and threats against homeowners.A female resident of the neighborhood, obviously shaken in a TV interview, related how she was screamed at by a Somali man who threatened to kidnap and rape her. They were screaming at the house that they were going to kidnap you and they were going to rape you, one Minneapolis resident told KSTP TV. It was a very traumatizing experience. Somalis living in Minneapolis are almost all Sunni Muslims, and residents of the Lake Calhoun area say this isn t the first time a group of Somali men has made an intimidating march through their neighborhood, which is filled with million-dollar homes.Here is the shocking and disturbing video taken by the homeowner who reported the incident. For the entire story, click HERE: | 0 | [
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FMD3838 | 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: Michael Jello Fox Claim summaries: Rumor: Actor Michael J. Fox chose the middle name 'Jello' for himself when he was a child.
contextual information: Claim: Actor Michael J. Fox chose the middle name 'Jello' for himself when he was a child. Example: [Collected via e-mail, May 2015] I have read several times since the 90s that Michael J. Fox's middle name was left up to him to choose, and that when he was six years old, he chose "Jello." Origins: What is actor Michael J. Fox's middle name? Is it Justin? Jackson? How about Jazzhands? The answer to the question of exactly what that initial stands for has proved elusive to many of his fans, allowing for the rise of a strange rumor: Michael Fox's parents allowed him to choose his own middle name, so when he was six years old he opted honor his favorite dessert and become Michael Jello Fox. The exact origins of this rumor are unclear (it's probably an escapee from one of the plethora of fake "Did you know?" factoid lists that have long circulated online), but the unusual claim has been posted to multiple Internet forums over the years. Although the details of the story change depending upon the source, the basic premise of the rumor was provided during a 2008 "off-topic" discussion on the Rotten Tomatoes film site about middle names: change discussion But here's the absolute best nickname in the world: Jello! When Michael J. Fox was a kid, he was given the chance to pick his own middle name, so he picked the name of his favorite dessert at the time! Michael JELLO Fox. I kid you not! Curiously, expressions of this rumor have also made their way into some online sales listings for the Back to the Future DVD: listings Notes:Theatrical release: May 25, 1990. Estimated budget: $22 million. BACK TO THE FUTURE grossed more than $80 million at the domestic box office and more than $240 million worldwide. Michael J. Fox's middle name is Jello. His parents let him pick his own middle name at the age of two. (This note is also wrong in stating that Back to the Future had its theatrical release in 1990. The second sequel, Back to the Future III, Okay, so what is Michael J. Fox's real middle name? The correct answer is ... wait for it ... "Andrew." Huh? How is that possible? According to a brief biography from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the actor was born Michael Andrew Fox in 1961 to parents William and Phyllis Fox in Edmonton, Alberta. The actor explained in his autobiography Lucky Man: A Memoir that it wasn't until he had to register for the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) that he decided to use a different middle initial for his professional name, due to industry requirements for unique stage identifiers: biography The Screen Actors Guild prohibits any two members from working under the same stage name, and they already had a "Michael Fox" on the books. My middle name is Andrew, but "Andrew Fox" or "Andy Fox" didn't cut it for me. "Michael A. Fox" was even worse, the word fox having recently come into use as a synonym for attractive. (Presumptuous?) It also sounded uncomfortably Canadian Michael Eh? Fox but maybe I was just being oversensitive. And then I remembered one of my favorite character actors, Michael J. Pollard, the guileless accomplice in Bonnie and Clyde. I stuck in the J, which sometimes I tell people stands for either Jenuine or Jenuis, and resubmitted my forms. So it was Michael J. Fox on the call sheet I picked up at wrap each night that summer. In terms of birth names, Michael J. Fox's middle name is therefore Andrew. In terms of stage names, his middle name is like that of President Harry S. Truman simply an initial that stands for nothing in particular. Truman Last updated: 5 May 2015 | 0 | [
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FMD3839 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Did the IRS Send Thousands of Tax Refunds to the Same Addresses? Claim summaries: A few addresses in Atlanta, Georgia, had a particularly busy tax season one year.
contextual information: This story started making the rounds in June 2013: The Internal Revenue Service sent 23,994 tax refunds worth a combined $46,378,040 to "unauthorized" alien workers who all used the same address in Atlanta, Ga., in 2011, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). That was not the only Atlanta address theoretically occupied by thousands of "unauthorized" alien workers receiving millions in federal tax refunds in 2011. In fact, according to a TIGTA audit report published last year, four of the top ten addresses to which the IRS sent thousands of tax refunds to "unauthorized" aliens were in Atlanta. The IRS sent 11,284 refunds worth a combined $2,164,976 to unauthorized alien workers at a second Atlanta address; 3,608 worth $2,691,448 to a third; and 2,386 worth $1,232,943 to a fourth. Once the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) began using Social Security Numbers (SSN) as the primary form of taxpayer identification, it ran into a problem: how to identify people who had federal tax reporting or filing requirements but were not eligible to obtain Social Security Numbers (such as non-resident foreign nationals who earned income which was taxable in the U.S.). The IRS' initial solution was to create temporary numbers known as Internal Revenue Service Numbers (IRSN) to process the tax returns of such persons, but that system created a problem because IRSNs were assigned to tax returns rather than to the individuals filing those tax returns, a situation which made it difficult to track all the returns filed by any particular person. To remedy that problem, in 1996 the IRS introduced the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), nine-digit numbers similar in structure to SSNs issued to individuals (regardless of their immigration status) who are required to have U.S. taxpayer identification numbers but are not eligible to obtain SSNs: ITIN An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) is a tax processing number issued by the Internal Revenue Service. It is a nine-digit number that always begins with the number 9. IRS issues ITINs to individuals who are required to have a U.S. taxpayer identification number but who do not have, and are not eligible to obtain a Social Security Number (SSN) from the Social Security Administration (SSA). ITINs are issued regardless of immigration status because both resident and nonresident aliens may have a U.S. filing or reporting requirement under the Internal Revenue Code. Individuals must have a filing requirement and file a valid federal income tax return to receive an ITIN, unless they meet an exception. In July 2012, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) issued a final report titled "Substantial Changes Are Needed to the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number Program to Detect Fraudulent Applications" which stated the TIGTA had initiated an audit of the ITIN assignment process due to two congressional complaints alleging IRS management personnel were encouraging the approval of fraudulent ITIN applications, and that it found the complaints to be largely accurate: report This audit was initiated because TIGTA received IRS employee complaints referred from members of Congress alleging that IRS management responsible for overseeing the ITIN operation was encouraging employees to assign ITINs to applicants when the ITIN application was fraudulent. The objective of our review was to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of the IRS's process to identify questionable ITIN applications. TIGTA substantiated many of the allegations set forth in the IRS employees' complaints. The complaints alleged that IRS management is not concerned with addressing questionable applications and is interested only in the volume of applications that can be processed, regardless of whether they are fraudulent. The audit found that the ITIN application review and verification process is so deficient that there is no assurance that ITINs are not being assigned to individuals submitting questionable applications. Because of lax documentation requirements to obtain an ITIN, tax fraud can go undetected. Management also eliminated successful processes used to identify questionable ITIN application fraud patterns and schemes. In its report, the TIGTA noted its analysis of ITIN application data had identified indications of possible fraud, such as ten addresses that were each issued thousands of tax refunds from returns using ITINs in 2011: As stated in the example quoted in the head of this article, four of those ten addresses were located in Atlanta, Georgia, with one address accounting for a total of nearly 24,000 different tax returns and over $46,000,000 in refunds. However, whether such information is indicative of widespread tax fraud involving the use of ITINs by non-citizens cannot be determined from the information provided. TIGTA's report did not claim to have uncovered specific cases of tax fraud; it offered charts such the one displayed as examples of how various analyses of IRS data could "identify indications of possible fraud." It's possible some of the addresses referenced above correspond to the offices of lawyers or accountants or some other service providers who assist immigrants and other non-citizens in preparing and filing tax returns. It's also possible that if some of those addresses are indeed connected to fraudulent tax return filings, the perpetrators of that activity are domestic criminals rather than "aliens." The July 2012 TIGTA report noted some of the deficiencies observed "had been brought to management's attention long ago" via a September 2002 report, but "management has failed to take sufficient action to address those deficiencies." In the 2012 report, TIGTA made nine different recommendations for modifying the ITIN review process to ensure the integrity of the program; in response, Peggy Bogadi, commissioner of the IRS's Wage and Investment Division, issued a memorandum stating the IRS was taking steps to implement seven of those recommendations by the end of 2012 and would consider the other two after conducting a broader review of the program and evaluating the feasibility and impact of those changes. Pickel, Mary Lou. "Tea Party at the Capitol."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 28 February 2009. | 1 | [
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FMD3840 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: This is a sad commentary on a generation who has truly lost their moral compass. No self respect, dignity or pride It s all about the 15 seconds of fame While we have yet to fathom how for almost three minutes, no one not even an adult or an employee stopped a now infamous fight inside a Brooklyn McDonald s. So far, one arrest has been made. Sixteen-year-old Aniah Ferguson was one of six girls who attacked 15-year-old Ariana Taylor and it seemed every teenager inside the McDonald s was there to witness the violent carnage, for which they also captured cell phone video.The 15-year-old did her best to hold her own in the brawl, which was allegedly arranged via Facebook. New York Daily News is reporting that Taylor has taken to Facebook to brag about her new-found fame. A user named Richey Bandz commented on Taylor s social media, saying, I applaud u shorty u a ICON NOW, and Taylor responded, Thanks guys. And that s when another user, Marshonna Espinosa said, So sad this little girl think she s getting famous for getting publicly humiliated. No, you re not famous. People felt bad for you. We re not so sure NY Daily News and Marshonna s assumptions around Taylor thinking she s famous are anything but assumptions. When Taylor posted a photo of herself, not to beat up, with the caption, I m Gucci, we took it as her addressing the concerned public and letting us all know she s good.Reports claim that Ferguson had been hunting Taylor down since January for some undisclosed disagreement involving a friend. She suffered injuries and was taken to Kings County Hospital that same night. But once the video was shared massively online, and even covered the front page of the New York Post and Daily News (though their known for exploiting situations like this), moves were made to find the girls who are also students of Erasmus Hall High School. Even for a World Star Hip-Hop era, the clip shocked most who viewed it. The 15-year-old was literally a punching and kicking bag.***Warning**** This video contains extreme violence:After Ferguson s arrest yesterday, her criminal record leaked and she has a history of violence at only 16. Before, she was arrested for stabbing her brother and assaulting her grandmother, who had to take an order of protection against her grandchild. She s had a total of nine arrests, six of them have been since September. Ferguson is unfortunately epitomizing the image and lifestyle of troubled youth. From her latest felony, she s being charged as an adult. Obviously there s a bigger story here around teenagers like Ferguson who come from troubled pasts and bring that into their present lives, allowing nothing but violence to speak for them.Via: Hello Beautiful | 0 | [
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FMD3841 | 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: Which Party Is More Effective at Reducing Abortions? Claim summaries: It is hard to draw a straight line between federal government policy (let alone presidential policy) and abortion procurement.
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 In September 2020, social media users began circulating a text meme charting the decrease in abortion rates in the U.S. during previous presidential administrations, attributing the greater drop in those rates during Democratic administrations to a difference in approach (i.e., making it illegal vs. making it unnecessary): As we noted in an earlier article on a similar topic, following the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that protected a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction, the abortion rate rose immediately afterward until it peaked in the 1980s, and it has fairly consistently declined since that peak through presidential administrations of both parties: article Following nationwide legalization of abortion in 1973, the total number, rate (number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 1544 years), and ratio (number of abortions per 1,000 live births) of reported abortions increased rapidly, reaching the highest levels in the 1980s before decreasing at a slow yet steady pace. Although it is true that the abortion rate has experienced greater declines during Democratic administrations than Republican ones, we can't draw any definitive conclusion that, as the meme tries to suggest, this difference is primarily due to varying approaches by the two main political parties. The simple idea presented by the meme has a number of flaws, chief among them that political factors that might influence the abortion rate (e.g., policies, legislation, judicial appointments and rulings) do not neatly conform to presidential terms of office -- what takes place during one administration generally continues to have an effect throughout subsequent administrations. As well, events occurring at state and local levels (not necessarily directly tied to federal actions) can have a substantial impact on the availability and prevalence of abortions. More important, though, is that we cannot definitively determine to what extent political factors influence the abortion rate. As the Guttmacher Institute (a pro-abortion-rights research organization) observed, recent declines in the abortion rate appear to have been driven not primarily by abortion restrictions but by a broader decline in pregnancies: observed Abortion restrictions target either individuals ability to access the procedure (such as by imposing coercive waiting periods and counseling requirements) or providers ability to offer it (such as through unnecessary and intentionally burdensome regulations). Any one of these restrictions could result in some people being forced to continue pregnancies they were seeking to end; this could, in theory, lower the abortion rate. With the available evidence, it is impossible to pinpoint exactly which factors drove recent declines, and to what degree. However, previous Guttmacher analyses have documented that abortion restrictions, while incredibly harmful at an individual level, were not the main driver of national declines in the abortion rate ... Rather, the decline in abortions appears to be part of a broader decline in pregnancies, as evidenced by fewer births over the same period. What's driving that decline in pregnancies, then? We don't know that for sure, either, but likely a combination of social, cultural, economic, medical, and political factors: combination Experts say the decline isnt due to a single cause, but rather a combination of several factors, including changing economics, delays in childbirth by women pursuing jobs and education, the greater availability of contraception, and a decline in teen pregnancies. The trend seen in the United States is also seen in much of the developed world, including Western Europe, said Dr. John Rowe, a professor at Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health. One important factor driving this is the changing roles of women in society, Rowe said. In general women are getting married later in life, he explained. They are leaving the home and launching their families later. [Dr. Helen Kim, an associate professor at Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine] said the concept of the ideal family size may be changing. There are shifts where having smaller families is a trend, she added. I cant speak on this as a sociologist, but this is what Ive seen among my peers and colleagues. One of the biggest factors is the decline in teen pregnancies, Rowe said. Thats good news ... And that makes a huge difference to their lives. The Guttmacher Institute posited a similar mix of factors to explain the decline in the abortion rate: Because both abortions and births [have] declined, it is clear that there were fewer pregnancies overall in the United States ... The big question is why. One possible contributing factor is contraceptive access and use. Since 2011, contraception has become more accessible, as most private health insurance plans are now required by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to cover contraceptives without out-of-pocket costs. In addition, thanks to expansions in Medicaid and private insurance coverage under the ACA, the proportion of women aged 1544 nationwide who were uninsured dropped more than 40% between 2013 and 2017. There is evidence that use of long-acting reversible contraceptive methods -- specifically IUDs and implants -- increased through at least 2014, especially among women in their early 20s, a population that accounts for a significant proportion of all abortions Another possible contributing factor might be a decline in sexual activity. Findings from one national survey suggest a long-term increase in the number of people in the United States -- mostly younger men -- reporting not having sex in the past year. Yet another possibility is that infertility is increasing in the United States, thereby reducing the chances of getting pregnant and subsequently seeking to obtain an abortion. More generally, there are a host of other potential factors that could be driving declines in pregnancy rates, from individuals evolving desires about whether and when to become parents to peoples changing economic and social circumstances. Finally, it is possible that ... there could have been an increase in self-managed abortions happening outside of medical facilities, which the census would be unable to capture. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also offered a combination of potential explanations for lower abortion rates: combination Multiple factors influence the incidence of abortion including the availability of abortion providers; state regulations, such as mandatory waiting periods, parental involvement laws, and legal restrictions on abortion providers; increasing acceptance of nonmarital childbearing; shifts in the racial/ethnic composition of the U.S. population; and changes in the economy and the resulting impact on fertility preferences and access to health care services, including contraception. As we stated four years ago, "causation between the presidency and abortion rates [is] difficult to demonstrate in any case, because it is hard to draw a straight line between federal government policy (let alone presidential policy) and abortion procurement." That observation remains true today. Carroll, Linda and Shamard Charles, M.D. "Americans Aren't Making Enough Babies to Replace Ourselves."
NBC News. 13 January 2019. Nash, Elizabeth and Joerg Dreweke. "The U.S. Abortion Rate Continues to Drop: Once Again, State Abortion Restrictions Are Not the Main Driver."
Guttmacher Institute. 18 September 2019. Kasprak, Alex. "Abortion Rates Fall During Democratic Administrations and Rise During Republican Ones."
Snopes.com. 11 November 2016. | 2 | [
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FMD3842 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Britain s intention to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland after Brexit is inconsistent with its plan to withdraw from the European Union s single market and customs union, a committee of lawmakers said on Friday. The Irish border, which will be the only land link between the EU and Britain after Brexit, is proving to be one of the most problematic issues in a slow diplomatic process which is testing the patience of politicians, businesses and investors. The EU is looking to Britain to provide a solution on how to manage the flow of goods between Ireland and the British province without erecting politically inflammatory border controls. Britain has said it wants to withdraw from the EU s customs union, within which goods can move freely, but will not contemplate border posts or other infrastructure that could disrupt 20 years of delicate peace in Northern Ireland. We cannot at present see how leaving the customs union and the single market can be reconciled with there being no border or infrastructure, said opposition lawmaker Hilary Benn, chair of the Brexit committee which is scrutinising the negotiations. The British government has said it is seeking a flexible and imaginative approach to the border that goes beyond existing EU precedents, and has mooted technological solutions or a new form of customs union. But ministers have been criticised by their counterparts in Ireland for a lack of detail. Progress on the border issue is crucial to Britain s hopes of moving negotiations on to the subject of trade and future relations | 1 | [
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FMD3843 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Legally Sevastopol has always been part of Russia.
It was a city of central subordination, even when Crimea was transferred – illegally – from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. It is illegal because the decision was made by the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, Ukraine and then approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR, while it should have been approved by the republics’ supreme councils and the USSR Supreme Council. But even during this process, which was essentially illegal, everybody just forgot about Sevastopol, and it was not transferred from the USSR to Ukraine. So technically and legally it has always been part of Russia. | 0 | [
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FMD3844 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: On Sunday, RNC Chair Reince Priebus sat down with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, where the two discussed Donald Trump s refusal to release his tax returns. While they are not bound by law, presidential candidates have traditionally released their tax returns to the public. It serves as a way to gain trust with the public because tax returns have a unique way of showing what financial allegiances one has. Trump has refused to take part in the tradition.Todd questioned Priebus on the matter, asking: One final question when it comes to the issue of the Clinton Foundation and tax returns. I want to ask it this way. Donald Trump s been hitting hard on the Clinton Foundation and saying all sorts of behind the scenes, pay for play allegations. Does he have does it undercut his message if he won t release his tax returns? Would he have some higher ground, be on higher ground here when criticizing Clinton s finances if we saw his tax returns? No I don t think so, Priebus responds. By the way, Roger Stone is the latest Republican to call for Donald Trump to release his tax returns, a close friend of Trump s, Todd mentions. No I don t think so, Priebus reiterates before saying, Because if you look at what Hillary Clinton has done I think when voters look at what Hillary Clinton actually did, they see somebody that they believe broke the law. They see somebody who gave away state secrets. They see somebody that went out of her way We know that Hillary Clinton shouldn t be trusted with national secrets and with the most precious the most precious information that our country has in their hands. We know she can t be trusted. Are you equating that the known conclusion that she can t be trusted with state secrets to what could be in Donald Trump s taxes? That s when Todd gets to the heart of the matter at hand. We ve had a history of every major nominee releasing their tax returns, Reince. Every major presidential nominee, Todd says. And by the way, he is a private businessman whose companies may or may not benefit from him being president. That s something voters should want to know. For a Republican running with a reactionary campaign slogan like Make America Great Again, Trump sure does not have any respect for American traditions.You can watch a clip from the interview below.Featured image from video screenshot | 0 | [
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FMD3845 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A new, Republican-controlled U.S. Congress convenes on Tuesday eager to repeal major portions of President Barack Obama’s healthcare law and roll back environmental and financial industry regulations, but could quickly become embroiled in fights over President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet choices. Despite his promise to unite a deeply divided country, Trump will be sworn in on Jan. 20 leading a Republican Party that early on will push legislation through Congress without significant | 1 | [
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FMD3846 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: UNITED NATIONS — hours after President Trump swatted away at a broad international consensus on how to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians, his United Nations envoy sought to assure the world on Thursday that his administration supports Palestinian statehood but wants a “thinking out of the box†approach. “We absolutely support a solution,†the American ambassador, Nikki R. Haley, said in answer to a question after a United Nations Security Council meeting devoted to the conflict. “But we are thinking out of the box as well, which is — what does it take to bring these two sides to the table, what do we need to have them agree on?†she said. She said nothing about what that approach would be, nor did she go any further in revealing a coherent picture of United States policy on the conflict, one of the most intractable in the world. The day before, Mr. Trump hinted at a new regional effort aimed at bringing the two sides together, but he said he would not insist on the creation of a Palestinian state. “I’m looking at and †he said. “I like the one that both parties like. †Both Ms. Haley’s and Mr. Trump’s remarks were in sharp contrast with warnings from other diplomats, including the United Nations envoy entrusted to help the two sides find a path out of their long, bitter conflict. “The solution remains the only way to achieve the legitimate national aspirations of both peoples,†the envoy, Nickolay E. Mladenov, told the Security Council earlier in the day. “Israel can take the necessary step to stop settlement expansion and construction in order to preserve this prospect, while the Palestinian leadership can demonstrate their commitment to tackling the challenges of violence and incitement on their side,†Mr. Mladenov said. Speaking in Egypt the day before, Mr. Mladenov’s boss, the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, said, “There is no Plan B to the situation between Palestinians and Israelis but a solution. †The Swedish ambassador, Olof Skoog, told reporters on his way into the Security Council meeting on Thursday, “It’s very dangerous to move away from the solution idea, especially before you have something viable as an alternative. †France’s ambassador, François Delattre, said the risks were too high. “Should the prospect of a solution disappear as a mirage in the desert, then that would be an open door to more extremism and more terrorism,†he said. Ms. Haley, who has been on the job for less than a month, used her remarks to the news media mostly to harshly criticize the United Nations as a whole for what she called its “ bias. †Palestinians have accused the Trump administration of the opposite. The United States objected last Friday to the appointment of a former Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, as the secretary general’s envoy to Libya. The Palestinian ambassador, Riyad Mansour, said on Thursday that Mr. Fayyad had been rejected “simply because he was a Palestinian. †Ms. Haley also suggested that it was unnecessary and counterproductive for the United Nations Security Council to hold monthly meetings on the conflict — or in her words, “obsess over Israel. †In fact, the Council has three meetings on Syria every month, one on Yemen as well as regular briefings on every United Nations mission, from Afghanistan to South Sudan, plus briefings on the impact of Security Council sanctions on countries such as North Korea and Iran. | 1 | [
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FMD3847 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: There are two things no serious candidate for the White House in 2016 can equivocate on: defense spending and the Trans-Pacific Partnership . Foreign policy and strategy are going to be front-and-center in the coming campaign. Few doubt that the world has become more dangerous, that the world order created by the United States, under both Democratic and Republican presidents, is fraying at the edges, and that America’s critical role as a leader in the international system is increasingly in doubt. One key element of restoring U.S. leadership is increasing defense spending, busting the sequester caps and bringing the defense budget at least to the level called for by President Obama’s first secretary of defense, Robert Gates .
But another key element is solidifying and advancing a free-trade regime that binds the United States closer to its European and Asian allies. In Asia, especially, this is more than just a trade issue, although the United States stands to benefit from a well-negotiated agreement. It is, above all, a strategic issue. The United States and China are locked in a competition across the spectrum of power and influence. Militarily, the Chinese seek to deny American access to the region and hope thereby to divide the United States from its allies. Economically, China would like to turn Asia into a region of Chinese hegemony, where every key trade relationship is with Beijing. In such a world, the United States is a net loser — providing costly security to allies but not much else, while China reaps the economic rewards and grabs the hearts and minds, and pocketbooks, of regional players.
Experts on Asia, Democrat and Republican, consider the TPP trade agreement an essential element of U.S. strategy in Asia. On no other issue is there more bipartisan consensus within the foreign policy community.
Which brings us to Hillary Clinton. As secretary of state, Clinton said and did all the right things. She supported the TPP wholeheartedly, for reasons economic and strategic. This was not a matter of loyalty to Obama. Clinton was known to make clear her differences with the president on a number of issues, from the premature withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan to the inadequate U.S. response to the humanitarian and strategic crisis in Syria. There was never an inkling that she dissented from support of the TPP.
Yet now, when the trade agreement hangs in the balance, when the all-important question of “trade promotion authority“ was voted on in the Senate, Clinton has been silent, or worse, has quietly indicated her concerns about the agreement. Whether or not this is posturing to avoid offending her party’s left wing, only Clinton can know for sure. But it is an interesting departure from her statements as the nation’s top diplomat.
There are always candidates who believe they can run a careful race for president, trimming on issues that seem to require it during the primaries and general election, with the idea that, once elected, they can do what they know is the right thing. Unfortunately, American politics rarely work that way. It is generally the case that if you don’t have the courage to run on a particular platform, you will not have any more courage to govern on it once you are in office. Presidents usually only do what they say they are going to do. Ronald Reagan promised to rebuild American defenses and cut taxes. That is what he did. Obama promised to pull troops out of the Middle East, and that is what he did. If Clinton won’t run on a free-trade platform, she won’t govern on one.
So much for Clinton’s much-vaunted “smart power.†In a world very much in need of American leadership, but still leery of American power, there is no more effective form of U.S. global involvement than the strengthening of the global free-trade regime. In Asia, especially, where many believe the United States’ economic future lies, building strong trade ties is smart economics and smart strategy. Our allies want it. China worries about it. It is a critical card to play in the complex game of global influence. Those who oppose it are not thinking of foreign policy or America’s role in the world. They are thinking of nothing more than the most narrow and parochial of U.S. interests. Like the people who voted for the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930, they would defend a small segment of the U.S. economy at the cost of the global economy and America’s global influence. Is that where Clinton wants to be? Is that the kind of leadership she proposes to offer us? For a candidate who as yet faces no primary challenge, to cower in the face of possible criticism from the irresponsible wing of her party gives little assurance that she has what it takes to lead the nation in the very difficult years ahead. | 1 | [
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FMD3848 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The shadowy terrorist believed to have made the explosives used in Tuesday's attacks in Brussels and the November massacre in Paris was one of two suicide bombers who died at Zaventem Airport, sources told Fox News.
Morrocan-born Najim Laachraoui, 24, was identified by law enforcement sources as one of two Islamic terrorists seen pushing suitcase bombs and wearing single "dead man's hand" black gloves - in a surveillance photo. The gloves are believed to have hidden detonators. A third man seen in the photo is believed to have escaped the scene and is being hunted.
Laachraoui is suspected of also making the bomb used in a blast 79 minutes later at a Brussels Metro station, as well as the explosives used to kill 130 in the the Nov. 13, 2015, attacks in Paris.
ISIS has claimed credit for Tuesday's carnage in Brussels.
The announcement came following a day of uncertainty regarding the explosives mastermind. At a midday news conference, Belgian authorities appeared not to know of his fate and he was believed to be the subject of a nationwide dragnet.
Raids on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning uncovered his suspected factory, turning up bomb-making materials in a Schaerbeek apartment, including detonators, nails and 15 kilos of acetone peroxide, a highly unstable chemical which is favored by Islamists because it's easy to make. The chemical also was found in the explosives used in the Paris attack.
Laachraoui was raised in Brussels' Schaerbeek neighborhood, a predominantly Muslim area, according to The Washington Post. He's believed to have attended a local Catholic high school where he studied electro-mechanical engineering.
Laachraoui traveled to Syria in February 2013, prosecutors said, and it was not clear when he returned to Europe.
Prosecutors have said Laachraoui played a key role in recruiting and training attackers for ISIS, according to The Wall Street Journal. He was checked by guards at the Austria-Hungary border on Sept. 9 while driving in a Mercedes with Abdeslam and one other person, Belgium's federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Using a false identity, Laachraoui also rented a house under the name of Soufiane Kayal in the Belgian town of Auvelais. That residence was allegedly used as a safe house, where prosecutors said traces of his DNA were found. That same DNA was later found on the Paris explosives. The house was searched Nov. 26.
On Monday, Van Leeuw said officials wanted to interview Laachraoui, who was "someone who must explain himself."
On Tuesday, coordinated terror attacks ripped through Brussels. Investigators reportedly believe attacks already being plotted were expedited in light of Abdeslam's arrest -- and word that he is cooperating with authorities.
Earlier Wednesday, two men suspected of taking part in Tuesday’s bombings were identified as Khalid and Ibrahim El-Bakraoui.
Khalid is believed to have blown himself up on the Metro, an attack which killed at least 20 and injured more than 100, while Ibrahim is believed to have been the other airport bomber. The fourth bomber, the man in the far left of the airport photo pushing a cart next to Ibrahim, has not yet been identified.
The brothers were well-known to police. In a raid Tuesday at Ibrahim's address, Van Leeuw said "there was a paper where he described that he is insecure, that he is lost and he does not know what to do and he might end up in jail."
Both Ibrahim and his brother were Belgian citizens and born in Brussels, authorities said.
A March 15 raid on an apartment rented by Khalid, 27, led to Friday's arrest of Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam after one of Abdeslam's fingerprints was discovered in the apartment. Politico Europe, citing a senior Belgian official, reported that Abdeslam was supposed to take part in Tuesday's attacks. The report did not specify what role Abdeslam would have played.
DH reported that in October 2010, Ibrahim, 30, was convicted of shooting at police with a Kalashnikov during an attempted robbery. He was sentenced to nine years in prison. In February 2011, the paper reported, Khalid was sentenced to five years' probation in connection with a string of carjackings.
Turkey said Wednesday that Ibrahim had been detained on the Syrian border last summer, and that Ankara warned Brussels officials that he was a militant before sending him home. | 1 | [
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FMD3849 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: November 5, 2016 - Fort Russ Exclusive - Interview and translation by Jafe Arnold (J. Arnoldski) -
Eduard Popov, born in 1973 in Konstantinovka, Donetsk region, is a Rostov State University graduate with a PhD in history and philosophy. In 2008, he founded the Center for Ukrainian Studies of the Southern Federal University of Russia in Rostov-on-Don. From 2009-2013, he was the founding head of the Black Sea-Caspian Center of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, an analytical institute of the Presidential Administration of Russia. In June 2014, Popov headed the establishment of the Representative Office of the Donetsk People's Republic in Rostov-on-Don. He has actively participated in humanitarian aid efforts in Donbass and has been a guest contributor to various Donbass media, such as the Lugansk-based Cossack Media Group. Popov has actively contributed to Fort Russ since June, 2016.
***
Fort Russ Special Editor Jafe Arnold: Dr. Popov, for nearly half a year already, you have regularly submitted your commentary on global events to Fort Russ. You’ve covered a number of topics ranging from European politics and the war in Donbass to the possibility of a Third World War breaking out over Syria and the future of Ukraine and Ukrainian nationalism. Before we begin discussing a number of related questions, what would you like to say to your readers at Fort Russ?
Dr. Eduard Popov: I consider the rare and somewhat unexpected honor to address you, dear readers of the wonderful analytical site Fort Russ, to be some kind of reward for my future contributions. I see this not as a right, but as a sacred duty of the author before his readers.
We live in different countries, speak different languages, and share different (ranging from more or less similar to diametrically opposite) worldviews and political opinions. Nevertheless, to some extent, we are all like-minded. The common denominator for all of us is the strong belief that the world is multifaceted and cannot be reduced to only one correct doctrine.
The history of mankind has seen and will probably still see more than a few attempts at organizing an ideological and political monopoly. The ideology of the American New World Order that claims universality and all-inclusiveness is nothing original and not even clever. As a historian of political ideologies, revolutionary communism in its Trotskyite and Khrushchevite variants also immediately comes to mind, which also claimed for itself the role of ending world history.
But the era of American domination over the world awaits its finale and is maybe more imminent than many of us expect. I see my own personal mission as an author at Fort Russ to help prepare this finale, which depends on the efforts of every one of us.
Restoring the violated principle of national sovereignty instead of the idea of one nation’s global domination, restoring the ‘blooming complexity’ of the world’s cultures instead of an imposed and dull liberal “post-culture”, and affirming solid moral principles instead of immoral promiscuity - this is a sample program which is shared by the majority of humanity. Most of humanity is opposed to the dominant quasi-religion of American neoliberalism or, rather, the ideology of Pax Americana is opposed to the majority of humanity.
The events in the former Ukraine and Donbass have become some of the reference points determining each of our’s moral position. People from different countries and with opposing political views, from ultra-right to ultra-left, have expressed support for the people of Donbass. And I am very grateful to Fort Russ for constantly striving to present the truth of these events. I’ve had the opportunity to personally observe the astonishing events in Donbass, and I can say that Donbass’ fate is still far from sealed. Together, we are contributing to a more just alternative not only for Donbass, but for all of humanity.
Eduard Popov (left), DPR representative in Rostov-on-Don, with Moscow DPR representatives
Arnold: In this context, how do you assess the state of the ongoing global information war? Are resources like Fort Russ helping to turn the tide against the Atlanticist narrative or “Pax Americana”? Is bringing together such “like-minded people” the main goal of this information war?
Popov: It’s difficult for me to assess the state of the whole front of the information war - I don’t possess complete information and don’t consider myself a specialist in this sphere. I’m simply a political analyst and historian specializing in some topics that are relevant in today’s world.
Nevertheless, I have no doubt as to the benefit that “new media” brings to the resistance movement. Let me explain these terms. New media means independent publications that do not legally fall under the category of media, but fulfill the same function. This applies to different websites and groups on social media. The “resistance movement” (I don’t think the origin of the term needs to be explained) is a synonym for anti-globalism or, as has become fashionable to say now, the anti-mainstream.
If De Gaulle’s movement fought against the Nazi occupation of France with weapons in hand, then today’s fighters of the resistance fight mainly with information against an occupant operating not so much with direct physical violence as with distanced coercion, i.e., informational, psychological, economic, and political force, etc.
Can it be said that the fight against this new occupation is more difficult? As a historian by education and a philosopher (my doctoral dissertation was on the political philosophy of conservatism), I believe that the world has now arrived at the complete breaking point of one historical epoch and the beginning of another. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so wrong to compare the current era with the era of the collapse of the Roman Empire, first and foremost because ahead of us is most likely a dark ages comparable to the early Middle Ages, and a new Great Migration of peoples. Of course, not everything is the same, but I won’t focus on this now. I’ll just say that there are not too many reasons for historical optimism.
Resources such as Fort Russ have taken on the extremely important mission of speaking the truth in an epoch of great lies. “Big” official publications in Europe are filled with lies. And this is not only my opinion. All the thinking, honest europeans with whom I’ve discussed the situation of the press in ‘united Europe’ also think so. Hence why, as my friends in European countries have noted, independent media has a growing circle of readership. In my opinion, this trend is a long-term one.
As for what I believe is necessary to concentrate efforts on, the first step has already been done. The minimum social anti-mainstream has been formed in Europe. This has been done primarily thanks to the efforts of the independent press. But in my opinion, the task fulfilled at this first stage has goals primarily centered around negation, i.e., proving what is wrong and dangerous in globalism.
The anti-mainstream wields an unusually rich diversity of worldviews and ideological shades ranging from Marxism to certain currents of fascism to even clerical monarchism. Why not use this methodological richness for forming a united, anti-globalist intellectual front? Then we can proceed to solve constructive tasks, such as discussing the foundations of a future, more just world order.
In no case should the resistance movement identify as marginals - this is precisely how the “Ministry of Truth” tries to present it. If a number of new media take on the mission of creating platforms for intellectual discussions with others, then this will undoubtedly become one of the main tasks of the information war. Even the leader of the Bolsheviks, Vladimir Lenin, spoke of a newspaper as a center not only of publications, but as a center for party work. I don’t know if the creators of new media have read Lenin, but they are acting according to his methodological precepts.
Arnold: A t the present moment, o ne of the centers of attention of the information war and what you called the “resistance” is the threat of a Third World War being unleashed by the US. Russian experts have different opinions on how realistic such a turn is. Considering that you say there is little reason to be historically optimistic, what do you think?
Popov: The topic of WW3 is really actively being discussed in Russian expert circles, yet all the while has the status of some kind of fantasy. But as I said earlier, we are now witnessing the breaking point of not only a historical period (what Immanuel Wallerstein calls the American Century century lasting since 1945), but a change in historical epochs.
This can be compared with the collapse of the Roman Empire or the collapse of the Middle Ages and the onset of the Modern Age. The Russian philosophers of the emigration in the 1920’s foresaw this shift of epochs and called it the New Middle Ages. Perhaps this was also an anticipation of fascism, which lasted a comparatively brief historical period.
In my opinion, this also anticipates the New Middle Ages, but with only one necessary correction: this will be a new early Middle Ages, not the High Middle Ages of great Romano-Germanic culture which the Russian philosopher Konstantin Leontyev considered to be the highest achievement of humanity, but the “dark ages” that preceded it - barbarism, the plague, the collapse of the great ancient cultures, and the mass migration of peoples. A very vivid impression of these centuries is offered by the German epics (the genesis of the historical basis of the Nibelungenlied dates back to the dark ages and the invasion of Attila the Hun) and Scandinavian mythology, especially the tale of the death of the gods.
This change of epochs is primarily being prepared on mental grounds. I believe that the conditions are ripe for this: the Western world has finally turned into a post-Christian and partially anti-Christian entity. It’s difficult for me to say whether Europe has enough life left in it to oppose the new onslaught of the Caliphate - I have in mind Muslim migration to the European continent and the expansion of Salafist networks. The answer is more likely no than yes.
America is also going through very difficult times, although its difficulties are of an entirely different nature. Wallerstein long ago said that the age of American domination is coming to an end and will end with a grandiose crash. This conclusion is in a certain measure shared by the ideologist of Pax Americana, Brzezinski, who called to negotiate, not to prevent, but to slow down the collapse of the American Empire.
The Americans have a very high level of strategic thought. Both times that America entered a world war on the European continent, it achieved grand strategic successes with very little blood shed (compared to the European Allies and Axis). There are many works that, substantiated by references to historical sources, show that the US stood behind the scenes of WW2 and pushed European rivals to war. The US entered the war as the most powerful economy on the planet and came out with the status of a superpower, the successor to the British Empire. The US’ GDP increased 10 times in only a few years.
We can also see outstanding, though not as tremendous achievements of American geopolitics in WW1. Europe was gushing blood, but the United States profited from and became stronger because of the war between European competitors, even the British. Now that the age of the USA is coming to an end, they are faced with the threat of having to drastically reduce their appetites, busy themselves with overhauling renovations at home, and turn from the lord of the world into a first among equals.
I am almost sure that the US will not go down the path of isolationism for psychological (the inertia of imperial power is very strong) and economic reasons. This means they will continue down the path of foreign expansion.
Russia and China are becoming all the more stronger and independent rivals of the US. Russia is increasing its military power, while China is increasing its economic power, even though it should be noted that China and the US are vitally needed by each other as economic partners at the present stage. Meanwhile, Europe does not wield geopolitical subjectivity and remains the US’ junior partner, but this is threatening its overall economic and productive capacity which is surpassing the US.
I’ll suggest an opinion and perhaps re-invent the wheel: the “Arab Spring” was sponsored by the Americans in order to organize a new great migration of peoples to Europe. In the long and even medium term, the Islamic World is not an ally of the US, but in the short term such an alliance is possible. American strategists are using the mixing of peoples and languages to greatly weaken their European competitors.
Other tools are being used against China and Russia, and this toolbox is quite large. The Americans have attempted to wage a cheap war against Russia by creating a powerful protest movement against President Putin. Perhaps we can already say that this venture failed. The Russian people and other peoples of the Russian Federation, unlike their Ukrainian neighbors, wield historical and state wisdom and are ready to endure hardships in the face of an external enemy. This makes war almost inevitable. Time is working against the US and for Russia.
By 2020 or 2025, the program of rearming the Armed Forces of Russia should be completed, and the economy is not in the best condition, but can still cope with crises. Therefore, I’ll repeat, war is an inevitable way out of the impasse.
Will this be a real Third World War? In my opinion, this is unlikely. In one of my articles , I’ve already employed the notion of a “flank war.” The Americans are largely fighting by proxies - Polish, Ukrainian, and Muslim-Salafist ones, etc. The almost inevitable (in my opinion) victory of Hillary Clinton will add psychological motives to this war. What is entailed in this scenario? Two things: (1) the Russians and Americans will fight without the use of strategic nuclear weapons and on fronts far away from US shores - otherwise, the cure for the American Empire, war, would be worse than the disease; (2) I am sure that the American hegemon will be defeated in this war. And this offers the opportunity to begin to liberate Europe, and for Russia this means the opportunity to finally throw off the burdensome shackles of American tutelage.
To be continued…
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FMD3850 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Share on Twitter
With just 12 days until Election Day, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and wife, Melania, sat down to discuss the campaign's “best and worst moments” on “Good Morning America.”
Journalist George Stephanopoulos began by asking Melania if she's still confident in her husband winning the race to the White House:
“I see the connection with the American people and my husband, and he created a movement. The crowd and the people that are behind him are unbelievable to see.”
But when Stephanopoulos questioned whether she'd physically get out there on the campaign trail and stump for Trump, she wasn't as confident:
“We will see. My priority is my son Barron and I support [my husband] 100% and I’m there for him every time he needs me.”
Trump was quick to interject, saying Melania would actually give two or three speeches soon, something that seemed to be news to Melania: Image Credit: Screenshot/ ABC News
Trump explained that her speeches would be “big” and “important”:
“She’s amazing when she speaks. She is an amazing public speaker. She’s agreed to do two or three speeches, and I think it’s going to be big speeches, important speeches.”
It's understandable if Melania isn't eager to give speeches on the campaign trail, given what happened at the Republican National Convention in July.
Trump's wife was publicly ripped apart after journalist Jarrett Hill pointed out the similarities between her speech and Michelle Obama's in 2008.
Though a side-by-side video comparison showed how certain passages were identical, Melania said she wrote the speech herself...with a little help from Hillary Clinton's former speechwriter.
Despite the controversy, however, many commended her speech as “beautiful” and given “with tremendous poise”— reflecting skills Trump's campaign may benefit from in these next two weeks. | 0 | [
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FMD3851 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: TEHRAN — The hunger strike, a pressure tactic of used by political protesters around the world, is forcing Iran’s powerful judiciary to reconsider the conditions of at least one of its inmates after several started fasts that are leading to widespread support on social media. The exact number of hunger strikers in Iranian prisons is unclear, but according to human rights organizations and reports in local media outlets, seven inmates, sentenced for crimes against the state, have refused to eat for intervals ranging from several weeks to more than two months. Their backgrounds vary, but they include an antigovernment protester, a children’s rights activist, an ayatollah, a spiritual leader and a Lebanese computer technology specialist convicted of espionage. It is not possible to verify their conditions because of restrictions preventing foreign reporters from visiting Iranian prisons without permission. While some members of Iran’s Parliament have said on their social media accounts that they are investigating the reports, other officials have dismissed the hunger strikes as plots organized by foreign opposition groups. Conservative critics further argue that the extensive support for the hunger strikers seen on social media networks is an exaggeration created by automated messages. One of the inmates, Arash Sadeghi, stopped his strike last Tuesday, after the judiciary met his demand to temporarily release his imprisoned wife. She was transferred back to prison on Saturday, said the couple’s lawyer, Amir Raeesian. Refusing to eat to protest conditions in prison is illegal in Iran, but is not uncommon. However, the number of inmates now simultaneously fasting, in combination with a large social media campaign, is unusual in the country. It also providing a publicity platform for those in prison, Iranian analysts say. “The success is clearly motivating others to join,†said Nader Karimi Joni, a journalist close to the reformist factions in Iran. Two of the hunger strikers, Mr. Sadeghi and Ali Shariati, have been convicted of crimes against the state — charges that by Western standards would make them political prisoners. They went for nearly 70 days without food, advocates say, surviving on water and salts. Mr. Sadeghi received a sentence last year for offenses like “provoking protest gatherings,†“conniving with counterrevolutionaries against the system,†“making propaganda against the system,†“insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei†and “insulting the sharia,†his lawyer, Mr. Raeesian, said. The “system†is an Iranian ideological term for the country’s political establishment: a coterie of clerics, commanders and revolutionary comrades. Mr. Sadeghi’s sentence is lengthy even by Iranian standards, and reflects what rights activists regard as a new trend in which relatively unknown offenders receive long sentences, often as a warning to others. He began his fast on Oct. 24 after his wife, Golrokh started serving a prison term for an unpublished story found on her private computer about a woman watching a film about a stoning and burning a Quran in anger afterward. She was convicted on blasphemy charges. Mr. Shariati, 30, is serving a sentence for his involvement in a 2014 protest supporting the female victims of acid attacks. He is demanding to be released. Their ordeals have galvanized supporters to highlight the hunger strikes on messaging platforms, using hashtags like #savearash and #sosali. Both became worldwide trending topics on Twitter. The use of the hunger strike in Iran has in some ways put the government in an embarrassing position, as it exalted the Northern Ireland hunger strikers who once vexed the British. The embassy of Britain in Tehran is on Bobby Sands Street, renamed for the Provisional I. R. A. member who was imprisoned in Northern Ireland and died in 1981 after refusing to eat for 66 days. An Iranian journalist, Reza Dehaki, a supporter of his country’s hunger strikes, noted that incongruity. “In the regulations for Iranian prisons, hunger strike is against the law, but we have a street named after #Bobby_Sands the most renowned person who went on hunger strike! #contradiction #savearash,†Mr. Dehaki wrote on his Twitter account. Last Monday, a group of around 50 activists, ignoring the dangers that come with organizing unauthorized protests in Iran, gathered in front of Tehran’s Evin prison, where Mr. Sadeghi and Mrs. are being held, and called for their release. A day later, Iran’s judiciary capitulated to a crucial demand of Mr. Sadeghi. Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, Tehran’s prosecutor, announced that Mrs. would be given a leave from prison. Mr. Sadeghi ended his fast, after 72 days. “He was brought to a hospital Saturday, after four days,†said his lawyer, Mr. Raeesian. The judiciary, dominated by Iran’s is engaged in a barely veiled battle with the government of President Hassan Rouhani, which is seeking to limit its powers. Some say the hunger strikes have been organized with Mr. Rouhani’s tacit support to embarrass the judiciary. Last month Mr. Rouhani released what he called a citizenship rights charter that outlined the personal freedoms of Iranians. “The government, by giving out such charters, is adding fuel to the fire of the hunger strikes,†said Hamidreza Taraghi, a political analyst. “These are all opportunities for outsiders to apply new pressure on Iran. †The other hunger strikers are in prisons scattered across the country. Information on their conditions is leaking out through human rights organizations and local opposition websites. One of the inmates, Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Nekounam, was reported to have been hospitalized on Saturday after 15 days of fasting, according to his website. He is accused of having relations with “spirits,†but supporters say he has been critical of the religious establishment. A children’s rights activist, Saeed Shirzad, 27, has vowed not to eat for at least a month and supporters say he had his lips sewn closed. An open letter with his name on it, published on a Kurdish website, said he was protesting the lack of basic rights for prisoners. Mehdi Kukhian and Karim Chaichian, imprisoned for “spreading propaganda†over the internet, have been on hunger strike for the last three weeks, according to Oyan News, a website promoting the Azari language that the Iranian authorities have sought to block. Another hunger striker, a spiritual healer named Mohammad Ali Taheri, is accused of leading a cult, his supporters say. The Lebanese man sentenced to 10 years for spying, Nizar Zakka, started a hunger strike on Dec. 8, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a group based in New York. For inmates, refusing to eat is sometimes the only way to be heard, one prominent Iranian human rights lawyer said. “To do a hunger strike is a last resort for inmates and political prisoners, who are arrested at midnight, interrogated in unknown jails, under horrible pressures, while their families witnessing the ordeals from afar, what can they do but go on hunger strike?†said the lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was imprisoned herself for several years. “It is incredibly hard, but in some cases it leads to success. †In 2012, while serving a sentence, Mrs. Sotoudeh went on a hunger strike for 49 days after authorities refused to allow her daughter to leave the country. She fell into fragile health, drinking only water mixed with salts and sugar. Her weight dropped to 95 pounds. It was the second time that Ms. Sotoudeh had stopped eating. She declared her first hunger strike in 2010, after her family was forbidden to visit or make phone calls. In that showdown, the authorities capitulated after four weeks, allowing her husband and two children to visit weekly. Mrs. Sotoudeh, who was given the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament in 2012, said she was haunted by the deprivations of those protests, even though she prevailed. “I am over 50 years old and I have sustained several diseases, suffered pains for different reasons physically,†she said. “But I should say the hunger strike was the most painful experience which I have suffered in my life and I will never forget it. †| 1 | [
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FMD3852 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Because everyone deserves a safe space right? The White Student Union (WSU) at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), a new student club dedicated to creating a safe, supportive and inclusive student community of European descent, has recently released a list of demands that it expects the university to fulfill by the second week of the Winter quarter.The list protests anti-white racism and marginalization of students of European descent. Some of its demands include the creation of white-student only rooms, the hiring of two permanent full-time admissions staff members of non self-hating Europe@n descent, and the building of a white student center to be established and named Napoleon Bonaparte Resource Center among other demands. Here s the full list of demands for UCSB-WSU:FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE:We, students of Europe@n descent at UCSB, refuse to accept the negative social climate created towards our peers of Europe@n descent and other marginalized groups. We have begun this movement, UCSB White Student Union, in an effort to change the status quo for a more just and inclusive environment within our campus. We demand that UCSB become a leader in the fight to promote a better social climate towards individuals who have been systematically oppressed. Student leaders acknowledge and support the demands previously stated and currently being presented. Furthermore, we demand that UCSB acknowledge its ethical and moral responsibilities as an institution and community of our world. UCSB should not be complicit in oppressive organizations and systems, no less.We as a compassionate student body have gathered to address the legacy of oppression against persons of Europe@n descent (PED) on campus. If these goals are not initiated within the next quarter, and completed by the second week of Winter Quarter, we will organize and respond by respectfully complaining.WE DEMAND the designation of four white-student only rooms at UCSB in the Anacapa Dorms that will be used by Cultural Affinity groups to provide a safe space for those who wish to learn about and celebrate Europe@n heritages and traditions, to be called the Hernan Cortes housing commons. UCSB White Student Union (WSU) members will be involved in a working group with the staff of the Residency department to begin discussions on the viability of the formation of Affinity Housing for those interested in European culture.WE DEMAND the creation of a White Student Development Resource Center, to be named the Napoleon Bonaparte Resource Center, with a designated office space as well as safe space for hosting events, at a central campus location. This center is to be under the purview of the White Student Development Office, which is to be formed immediately. A shocking 67% of students of Europe@n descent report being othered and marginalized because of their white identity and Europe@n heritage. Some reasons for this are lack of adequate academic, financial and organizational support, and feelings of isolation from other students proud of their Europe@n heritage throughout the university. The resource center will serve as a space on campus for white students to gather, host programming, and to offer support to white student organizations, all contributing to community building, increased stability, and a greater feeling of belonging at the university.WE DEMAND the hiring of two permanent full-time admissions staff members of non self-hating Europe@n descent and a series of enhanced recruitment strategies, with a budget of $300,371, to recruit students of Europe@n descent to UCSB. We maintain that this funding comes from the Chancellor s office and not from the division of Student Affairs. These funds will be managed through the office of Admissions & Enrollment This funding will be used to bolster efforts in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and bridges Multicultural Resource Center. The recruitment of additional students of Europe@n descent is imperative to create a student body that is representative of the California population. A critical mass of students of Europe@n descent will surely help to alleviate the incredibly hostile campus climate white students have had to endure for decades as consistently evidenced by campus climate surveys. While there are already staff of Europe@n descent, many of them are self-hating PED who do not effectively promote the interests of students of Europe@n descent.WE DEMAND that UCSB provide an additional stipend to campus police officers to patrol campus grounds and the Isla Vista community in an effort to more effectively discover and subsequently root out and punish any and all forms of speech that are deemed offensive to students of Europe@n descent, including but not limited to: Cracker, Stupid white people ; OMG, you are so white ; Where are you from? ; No, I mean like what part of Europe? ; Wow, I bet you get sunburned really easily! ; you wouldn t understand because you re white ; don t eat this; it s too spicy for you ; honky (and any variants thereof) ; Surrendering like a Frenchman! ; and so forth. Currently, campus police officers are simply not equipped to provide UCSB white students a safe space. Saying any of the things listed above should merit immediate expulsion and arrest in order to effectively maintain a s@fe space.WE DEMAND that UCSB and campus police immediately prohibit on pain of expulsion and imprisonment any future parties and other festivities at UCSB or in Isla Vista that have the following (non-exhaustive list of) themes that may further marginalize and trigger white identities and white-identified students: Charlie Sheen Theme; a France Theme; a Britain Theme; a St. Patrick s Day Theme; an Irish Theme; a Scotland Theme; a Spain Theme; an Andorra Theme; a Switzerland Theme; a Swiss Theme; a Belgium Theme; a German Theme; an Austria Theme; an Italy Theme; a King and Queen Theme; a Catholics vs. Protestants Theme; a George Washington Theme; a Colonial Theme; a Pirate Theme; a Denmark Theme; a Finland Theme; an Iceland Theme; a Portugal Theme; an Oktoberfest Theme; a Ukraine Theme; a Belarus Theme; a Hungary Theme; a Slovakia Theme; a Czech Republic Theme; a Norway Theme; a Croatia Theme; a Bulgaria Theme; a Russia Theme; a Serbia Theme; a Greece Theme; a Netherlands Theme; a Luxembourg Theme; an Albania Theme (especially as relates to the movie Taken ); and so forth.WE DEMAND the creation and implementation of a mandatory White Cultural Competency Training and a Diversity Requirement, which all students and all faculty must go through to enter UCSB to foster a more diverse and inclusive environment. The requirement and training will teach participants how to appreciate and uphold Europe@n cultures on campus and will also outline what phrases and words (earlier mentioned) to avoid saying to prevent triggering white-identified students and to avoid the further marginalization of white identities at UCSB.Lastly, WE DEMAND that all UCSB administrators and faculty issue a statement of apology to faculty, staff and administrators of Europe@n descent as well as their allies, neither of whom were provided a safe space for them to thrive while at UCSB.Several items on the list look similar to those created by black separatist groups such as the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Afrikan Student Association (ASA). Here is a list of demands made by black students earlier this year, in which the Afrikan Black Coalition (ABC) at the University of California (UC), Berkeley demanded that a campus building called Barrows Hall be changed to Assata Shakur Hall after FBI-listed terrorist and Black Panther activist Assata Shakur.Many Americans are wondering if the White Student Union s activism, which includes a White Student Walk Out scheduled for this upcoming January, will play out similarly to student uprisings led by black separatist groups, with some even predicting that a white student uprising in response to the recent events at Mizzou would take place:A student member of the UCSB-WSU told The Daily Wire that the group is necessary in order to protect white-identified UCSB students from anti-white oppression and marginalization. After realizing the rampant amount of marginalization, oppression, and othering of white-identified students, we knew we had to act to protect persons of Europe@n descent (PED) at UCSB. We hope that these demands are heard and carried out by UCSB. The safety of students of Europe@n descent depends on this. We feel that our voices need to be heard. Instead, they have been silenced and we have been subjected to hateful vitriol merely for wanting a s@fe space. Via: Daily Wire | 0 | [
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FMD3853 | 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: Customer Liability for Chipped Card (EMV) Fraud Claim summaries: The introduction of the EMV "chip card" has led to misinformation that swiping chipped credit or debit cards leaves consumers liable for fraud.
contextual information: The introduction of new EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) technology has enhanced the security of debit and credit card transactions by replacing standard cards with ones embedded with small computer chips thats extremely hard to counterfeit. The addition of the chips makes the cards much harder to counterfeit and provides for additional authentication and security during point-of-sale transactions. The manner in which EMV cards are physically handled during a sales transaction is somewhat different than with older cards, however. Rather than being swiped through a point-of-sale (POS) terminal, EMV cards are inserted (or "dipped") into the terminal and left in place for the entire transaction so that the reader and card can talk back and forth. EMV cards can be either swiped or dipped (since not all merchants are yet set up with EMV-compliant card readers), and that duality has led to some confusion among consumers about whether liability for fraudulent transactions shifts depending upon how an EMV card is processed. Specifically, some consumers have heard rumors that swiping an EMV card rather than dipping it leaves them (rather than the merchant or card issuer) liable for any ensuing fraudulent use of the card. The issue of fraud liability has evolved with the introduction of EMV cards, but that liability has not been passed back onto cardholders. According to CreditCards.com, that evolution solely concerns determining whether the merchant or the card issuer is the party bears liability for fraud in any given case cardholders themselves remain protected from liability, regardless of whether their EMV cards are swiped or dipped: CreditCards.com Cardholders may be adjusting to "dipping" their chip cards instead of swiping them, but they won't have to adjust to fraud liability changes. If an authorized transaction occurs against a consumer's credit account, they will continue to be reimbursed by their card issuer for the charges per the major networks' (Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover) zero-liability policies. If the issuer finds that the fraud occurred at a non-EMV compliant merchant, it can request a refund for the chargeback transaction, but the consumer is not involved. Consumers will not be responsible for fraud charges that result from a merchant not being prepared to properly accept EMV cards or because their card issuer has not yet sent them a chip-embedded card. What the new rules govern is whether merchants or card issuers (i.e., banks and credit unions) are liable in cases of credit card fraud, with responsibility now falling upon whichever party was least EMV-compliant: Today, if an in-store transaction is conducted using a counterfeit, stolen or otherwise compromised card, consumer losses from that transaction fall back on the payment processor or issuing bank, depending on the card's terms and conditions. Following an Oct. 1, 2015 deadline created by major U.S. credit card issuers MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express, the liability for card-present fraud shifted to whichever party is the least EMV-compliant in a fraudulent transaction. Consider the example of a financial institution that issues a chip card used at a merchant that has not changed its system to accept chip technology. This allows a counterfeit card to be successfully used. "The cost of the fraud will fall back on the merchant," [chip card service company president Martin] Ferenczi says. The change is intended to help bring the entire payment industry on board with EMV by encouraging compliance to avoid liability costs. A separate article on that web site illustrated the liability shifts with a chart: illustrated Many consumers have noticed that although some merchants have seemingly upgraded to EMV-compliant POS terminals, the card slots on those terminals are puzzlingly non-operational (and thus require that customers swipe their chipped cards). As the New York Times noted in March 2016, that situation is the result of merchants' having to wait for certification of their terminals: noted Avi Kaner, a co-owner of the Morton Williams supermarket chain in New York, has spent about $700,000 to update the payment terminals at his stores. Trouble is, he cannot turn them on. The new terminals can accept credit and debit cards with embedded digital chips, a security feature intended to reduce the number of fraudulent purchases. But before the payment systems can work, they must be certified, a process that Mr. Kaner and many retailers around the country are waiting to happen. In the case of Morton Williams, the holdup has lasted several months. The cost of waiting, retailers say, is piling up. Until recently, banks covered much of the cost of fraudulent purchases. Since Oct. 1, though, merchants that cannot accept chip cards have had to shoulder the cost of fraud, and banks have not been shy about passing along the bill. For years, retailers have argued that the technology, commonly referred to as E.M.V., which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, the technologys early advocates, mainly protected banks. Mr. Peterson estimated that only 40 to 50 percent of retailers are capable of accepting chip cards. Kaner told the newspaper he believed consumers were taking advantage of the interim period to file suspicious chargebacks due to the shift in liability: Mr. Kaner worries that some customers may be using the Oct. 1 liability shift to get out of paying for legitimate purchases. The number of chargebacks, he said, has risen sharply. It started out as a trickle, and now its turning into a flood, he said. In the first couple months, it might have been a few hundred dollars a month. Now, its thousands a month. Terry Crowley, CEO of processor TranSend, told KrebsonSecurity that consumer dishonesty was a larger issue than consumer liability during the transition period: told Crowley predicts that plenty of smaller merchants could soon get hit with a wave of chargebacks from unscrupulous people abusing the liability shift at merchants that still dont offer the chip dip. Theres an invisible hand at work that is about to kick everyone in the pants and accelerate U.S. dipping into EMV slots, Crowley said. If you use a chip card at a point of sale that says swipe and you later say that wasnt me theres very little a merchant can do to dispute that charge. Its going to happen because what people arent thinking about is the friendly fraud. When people are made aware that if I swipe and I have a chip card, that lunch can be free if Im a bad consumer. It's possible cardholders have confused information intended for merchants as being directed at them.Processor Square published a short instructional guide for the EMV card liability shift that might have caused such confusion among consumers who didn't realize the pronoun "you" referred to merchants and not cardholders: instructional guide But, in short, consumers don't have to adjust to fraud liability changes with EMV cards. That's an issue for merchants and card issuers to sort out between them. Abrams, Rachel. "Chip-Card Payment System Delays Frustrate Retailers."
The New York Times. 22 March 2016. Kossman, Sienna. "7 Merchant Tips to Understanding EMV Fraud Liability Shift."
CreditCards.com. 21 June 2016. Kossman, Sienna. "8 FAQs About EMV Credit Cards."
CreditCards.com. 17 June 2016. KrebsonSecurity. "The Great EMV Fake-Out: No Chip for You!"
16 February 2016. | 0 | [
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FMD3854 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: By Brandon Turbeville
As the United States marches forward with its war of terror abroad it is, as predicted by researchers and informed observers many years ago, clamping down on the domestic population at home. Indeed, it is virtually inevitable that the great eating machine of the empire returns home to be turned on the people who ignored it while it was grinding up so many innocent lives overseas.
So as the war drums beat louder and as America ekes closer toward the impending Clinton coronation and the possibility of the declaration of yet another “ no fly zone ,” this time over Syria, becomes more and more likely, it is poetic justice that a no-fly zone is being declared inside the United States.
While Russia stands in the way of America’s march to create Libya 2.0 in Syria, there is no one willing and virtually no one able to stand in the way of America’s declaration of war on itself, personified by the vicious police state brutality being visited upon the protestors at Standing Rock – indigenous and otherwise – and the crackdown on virtually every amendment to the Constitution including the arrest of demonstrators and journalists, some of whom are facing incredibly ridiculous amounts of time in jail.
Indeed, the United States has even declared a no-fly zone over the protest area, preventing media coverage of the ensuing bravery of the protesters and brutality of the “Serve and Protect” crew who are willing to bash every skull and crush every human right in the quest to “just do their jobs.”
One need only take a look at the photos of the protesters vs the heavily armed and militarized police (can we still call them police?) forces amassed around the location to see the crumbling of America into the police state foreseen for Western countries as the rug gets pulled out from under them economically, socially, and culturally despite their use as tools of imperialism abroad. The blunt hammer of Anglo-American hegemony that is the United States is falling apart even as it continues to strike at Syria, Iran, and Russia.
While police can murder with impunity and Black Lives Matter activists can destroy cities at will, Standing Rock protesters are charged with high crimes for spray painting bulldozers; and journalists who dare to even cover the protests are arrested and charged with trespassing, inciting riots, and conspiracy. Even left gatekeepers like Amy Goodman have been charged with such crimes. But, while Goodman’s charges were eventually dropped, other journalists such as Deia Schlosberg face 45 years in prison simply for filming a protest that involved the disruption of the pipeline’s operations.
In regards to the current events taking place at Standing Rock, Jay Syrmopoulos writes ,
This latest flashpoint in the ongoing conflict is north of the larger and more permanent encampments, which have been constructed on federally owned land where over 200 Native American tribes have gathered to oppose the pipeline’s construction.
On Wednesday, a heavily militarized law enforcement presence began mobilizing heavy equipment, including Humvees, armored personnel carriers, and buses and demanded the protesters leave the occupied area.
In an ominous sign, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has restricted flights , and banned the use of drones within a radius of about 4 ½ miles of Cannon Ball. The FAA declared that only aircraft affiliated with the North Dakota Tactical Operation Center are allowed within the restricted airspace. The flight restriction went into effect Wednesday and will last until November 5.
Indian Country Today reports :
What began with prayers and a single tipi alongside Highway 1806 quickly grew to more than a dozen tipis surrounded by tents, buses, cars and hundreds of water protectors. Some are calling it the “1851 Treaty Camp” to acknowledge their Treaty rights.
Across the road is the encroaching pipeline and a heavily militarized police force with armored vehicles, helicopters, planes, ATVs and busloads of officers. Tensions are growing as unarmed citizens worry that police will use unnecessarily harsh tactics.
In recent weeks, nearly 300 unarmed water protectors who were arrested have been subjected to pepper spray, strip-searches, delayed bail, exaggerated charges and physical violence, according to interviews with several who were taken into custody. The ACLU and National Lawyers Guild recently sent attorneys to Standing Rock to help the Red Owl Collective, a team of volunteer lawyers headed by attorney Bruce Ellison, who are representing many of those arrested.
The massive law enforcement contingent, consisting of sheriff’s deputies and officers from numerous other states and counties, as well as National Guard, began staging near the encampment — with scores of Armored Personnel Carriers, buses and Humvees poised at the ready.
“At some point the rule of law has to be enforced,” Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney said Wednesday. “We could go down there at any time. We’re trying not to.”
Dakota Access LLC, the pipeline developer released a statement encouraging trespassers to “vacate the land immediately” or be “removed from the land.”
“Alternatively and in coordination with local law enforcement and county/state officials, all trespassers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and removed from the land,” the company said. “Lawless behavior will not be tolerated.”
Just days ago, sheriff’s officials had said earlier they didn’t have the resources to immediately remove activists from the private land, about 50 miles south of Bismarck. Subsequently, law enforcement officials put out a call for reinforcements, with hundreds of officers from out of state responding.
So there is an official “no fly zone” over the Standing Rock protest (which can be seen here at the FAA website ) and, on the ground, we have an army of storm troopers no doubt eager to bust heads and fire off some rounds into a group of people who only want clean water, property rights, and the honoring of the legal agreements they signed.
Across the ocean, however, we await another no fly zone with the creeping Clinton coronation and possibly even a last stab by the Obama administration once the fix for Hitlery is officially in.
In the last of three Presidential (in name only) debates, Clinton stated clearly her support for war in Syria by virtue of establishing a “no fly zone.” She stated ,
I’m going to continue to push for a no-fly zone and safe havens within Syria not only to help protect the Syrians and prevent the constant outflow of refugees but to, frankly, gain some leverage on both the Syrian government and the Russians so that perhaps we can have the kind of serious negotiation necessary to bring the conflict to an end and go forward on a political track.
Of course, the establishment of a “No-Fly Zone” is tantamount to a declaration of war . Such has even been admitted by top U.S. generals when explaining exactly what a No Fly Zone would entail. As General Carter Ham stated ,
We should make no bones about it. It first entails killing a lot of people and destroying the Syrian air defenses and those people who are manning those systems. And then it entails destroying the Syrian air force, preferably on the ground, in the air if necessary. This is a violent combat action that results in lots of casualties and increased risk to our own personnel.
General Philip Breedlove also echoed this description when he said,
I know it sounds stark, but what I always tell people when they talk to me about a no-fly zone is . . . it’s basically to start a war with that country because you are going to have to go in and kinetically take out their air defense capability
When Senator Roger Wicker asked Gen. Joe Dunford what it would take to impose a no fly zone upon Syria, the General responded , “Right now… for us to control all of the airspace in Syria would require us to go to war against Syria and Russia.”
Thus, the entire Western “sphere of influence” is slowly descending down to become a place of no fly zones, riot police, and a boot slowly stamping on the human face. At home, those individuals who resist the “new normal” will be steadily dealt with either by economic hardship or a rude reminder that dissenters will be silence, imprisoned, or killed.
Elsewhere, however, the Anglo-American system has begun to encounter nations who are not only willing to fight back but who are able to do so. A dying empire caught in its death throes, trying to remain alive by creating the “absence of dissent” might well launch a third world war with a nuclear power as a last stab at hegemony.
On the other hand, Rome could just burn slowly.
Rest assured, however, the skies above the city will be empty. | 0 | [
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FMD3855 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: / south africa
Issues surrounding a minimum wage bill, education and services are being utilized in attempts to overthrow the African National Congress
South African President Jacob Zuma has come out publically to state that there are efforts underway by the West to undermine the African National Congress (ANC) government which has held power for over 22 years.
A myriad of challenges are facing the South African ruling party including an economic recession, the bringing of several allegations about corruption within the office of the presidency, a declining stock market and national currency along with increasingly worsening relations with the United States.
In Africa there are numerous examples from the post-colonial period of the last five decades where the intelligence and military apparatuses of the imperialist states have sought to reverse the forward progress of the masses of workers, farmers, youth and their leadership. In the recent period in the South American state of Brazil, the first woman President Dilma Rousseff of the Worker’s Party, was forcefully removed from office in a political coup.
In addition to the decline in the South African economy largely due to the overall world crisis which has driven down commodity prices and systematically disinvested from the emerging states, there has been a fracturing of the national democratic movement and the workers organizations over contentious debates surrounding a way forward. In an October report delivered at the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) 17 th Congress in Durban, South Africa, Dr. Blade Nzimande, the Secretary General of the South African Communist Party (SACP), placed these contradictions inside the national democratic revolution and the largest trade union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), within a broader context of the desire by the imperialist states to reverse the advances of the liberation struggles.
In a recent article published by the Agence France Press (AFP), President Zuma emphasized that: “Western powers want to remove the ANC because they do not want the ANC to develop relations with those countries which helped the party in the anti-apartheid struggle.” This statement was made by President Zuma on Nov. 19 laid the blame directly on certain Western countries which do not wish the ruling African National Congress success.
Zuma spoke to ANC supporters at a rally in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga Province that the imperialist states were utilizing some ANC members to further their agenda, adding that some party members had been won over to the views of Western countries. The president said that those ANC members calling for his resignation were in fact serving the interests of the Western states.
The Political Economy of Destabilization
Since 1994 there have been substantial reforms initiated under the ANC government. There has been the construction of housing for the poor and working class, the expansion of healthcare, the breaking down of racial barriers in public facilities, along with access to household utilities and clean drinking water.
However, the fundamental relations and ownership of production remains under the control of the capitalist class. As a manifestation of modern-day capitalism, high unemployment, rising costs of living including education fees as well as problems associated with service delivery, have continued.
“In all other countries, the majority controls everything from politics, economy and defense . . . It’s only in this country (South Africa) where we don’t have economic freedom. It’s controlled by the minority and those who oppressed us,” Zuma stressed. (AFP, Nov. 21)
The president went on to say: “That is why they are scared that we will take away this economy. They want to take away the strength of the ANC because they know the ANC is the only organization trying to balance the scales.”
Zuma said that his government would not break ties with longtime friends internationally in order to win the approval of the imperialist governments. The president had also spoke at the WFTU 17 th Congress noting that the capitalist system would not relinquish concessions to the working class without demands based upon mass struggle.
Recounting the history of the national liberation movement in South Africa, Zuma said: “Socialist countries like Russia and China helped the ANC, giving it military training and aid during the anti-apartheid struggle. The socialist countries came to our aid. It was Russia who trained us and helped us with the tools to fight. China and other socialist countries helped us.”
In addition Zuma said the Western states are retaliating against the ANC government due its affiliation with the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) Summit. The advent of such blocs among the emerging states was a threat to Western hegemony of the world economy.
“They are fighting us because we joined BRICS. Some are in ANC gear but are in the company of the West. We are at war. We are going to protect the ANC,” Zuma emphasized.
In an article published by the South African Mail & Guardian in reference to the stock values of holdings traded on the local market, it noted: “Should South Africa avoid having its credit rating cut to junk in the next two weeks, it could just be staving off the inevitable. More than half of 12 economists surveyed by Bloomberg said S&P Global Ratings will strip the nation of its investment-level rating. The median probability of South Africa retaining its current assessment in December is 45%, falling to only 20% in 2017, the survey shows. The economy faces a cut to junk on its foreign-currency credit rating as output is forecast to expand at the slowest pace this year since a 2009 recession, delaying the government’s plans to narrow the shortfall on the budget and rein in debt.” (Nov. 18)
Debate Surrounds a National Minimum Wage Amid Allegation of Regime Change Agenda
The ANC government has proposed the adoption of a national monthly minimum wage of 3,500 rand which is approximately $242 U.S. dollars. 47 percent of the working population earns less than this proposed amount. (BBC, Nov. 21)
Despite the possible introduction of such legislation, it falls far short of what is actually needed to maintain a basic household. Prof. Chris Malikane of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg suggested that 12,000 rand per month was essential in maintaining a decent home. (BBC, Nov. 21)
This issue is controversial among the business interests which claim that any significant government-mandated increase in the minimum wage would create further unemployment which stands officially at around 25 percent. Over the last few years there have been large-scale job losses in the mining sector which is impacting economic recovery.
Two years ago COSATU proposed a minimum wage of 4500 rand per month. With inflation since 2014 the amount would be at least 5000 today.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said the 3,500 rand per month figure was decided by a panel of experts. Ramaphosa said: “We are now a step closer to finalizing discussions on the national minimum wage. All social partners will now decide what their take is.” (BBC, Nov. 21)
The ANC must address the issues of joblessness, poverty and service delivery in order to win back its two-thirds majority electoral base inside the country. Local governmental elections which were held in August saw a decline in support for the ruling party by approximately ten points although it remains by far the most popular party in South Africa winning 54 percent of the votes in the August poll.
A commission report issued several weeks ago alleged that the government of President Zuma has been involved in corruption. Zuma has denied the charges and attempts to pass motions of no-confidence in parliament failed on numerous occasions. The current ANC leadership seems solidly committed to keeping Zuma in office until his term expires in 2019.
The party maintains that Washington through its embassy in Pretoria is pursuing a regime-change agenda. Party spokesperson Zize Kodwa stated in March: “They have taken about 45 young people to America to train them as part of their leadership program. What we got from those young people is not what they expected; they were trained on how to destabilize the country and regime change.” (Xinhua News Agency, March 16) | 0 | [
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FMD3856 | 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 national debt is on track to double during Obamas presidency.
contextual information: Possible presidential aspirant Scott Walker opens his newbookwith a dismal depiction of conditions in the nations capital. If you are like me, the view from Washington, D.C., these days is pretty grim, the Republican governor writes in Unintimidated: A Governor's Story and a Nation's Challenge, which is due out Nov. 19, 2013. Barack Obama has been elected to a second term. Obamacare will not be repealed anytime soon. Congress has approved massive tax increases. Then Walker makes this claim: The national debt is on track to double during Obamas presidency. Lets see how much the debt has grown and to what extent Obama is responsible. What is the debt? We hear plenty about the federal debt and annual federal budget deficits. So, lets make sure were on the same page before we dig in. Total federal debt, also known as gross debt, is the amount of debt issued by the U.S. Treasury and other federal agencies. It has two components: Debt held by the government is money the government owes itself. Mainly, the government borrows from trust funds such as Social Security and Medicare -- payments owed to beneficiaries in the future -- to fund current government operations. Debt held by the public is owed to investors outside the federal government, including individual and corporate investors in the United States and overseas, foreign governments, the Federal Reserve and other entities. It's money the government borrows when it runs annual budget deficits -- in other words, the money the government needs to bridge the gap between what it spends and what it takes in. How much is the debt? Jacquelynn Burke, a publicist for Sentinel, Walkers publisher, responded to our request to Walker for information to back his claim. She told us Walker was referring to total debt and to the portion held by the public and cited two documents from Obamas own administration, a2013 reportfrom the Council of Economic Advisers and Obamas2014 budget. Its helpful here to note that debt is tallied at the end of the fiscal year and that the federal fiscal year runs from October through September. So, fiscal 2008 started in October 2007 and ended in September 2008. The documents Walker relies on show total debt on pace to double -- from $9.99 trillion in fiscal 2008 to an estimated $20 trillion in fiscal 2016; and debt held by the public to more than double, from $5.8 trillion to $14.7 trillion. (FactCheck.org also reports that debt held by the public ison pace to doubleduring Obamas presidency.) Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, cited the same documents Walker did when we asked him about Walkers claim. Edwards said that, even though fiscal 2008 ended more than three months before Obama was first inaugurated, it is a good starting point because most of the debt accumulated in fiscal 2009 was from Obamas stimulus plan. Joshua Gordon, policy director at the centristConcord Coalition, which advocates for fiscal responsibility, argued that a better starting point is the end of fiscal 2009 -- a year later than what Walker uses -- since Obama would have been in office for nearly nine months at that point. He also argued against examining total debt, saying that since it includes borrowing from Social Security, it doesn't really have any economic significance. Gordon cited figures from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office for debt held by the public. They show that that portion of the total debt was $7.54 trillion at the end of fiscal 2009, but isnt projected to double until fiscal 2019, after Obama leaves office. Gordon and Marc Goldwein, senior policy director of the nonprofitCommittee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan organization focused on debt reduction, also made another point on comparing debt levels over time. They told us measuring debt as a percentage of gross domestic product is better for comparison purposes than simply using raw dollars. According to Congressional Budget Office figures, debt held by the public as a percentage of gross domestic product wont double during Obamas presidency. They show debt held by the public at the end of 2009 was equal to 52.3% of gross domestic product. Thats expected to reach 76.2% at the end of fiscal 2014, but then drop during the rest of Obamas presidency. At the same time, the federal debt is commonly reported in raw dollars, not as a percentage of GDP. So, at least in terms of raw dollars, there is evidence that debt is projected to double during Obamas time in office. Who's to blame Walker implied that Obama plays a role in how much the debt has grown, but he didnt say the president caused the increase. That squares with how weve evaluated similar claims in the past. For one thing, each president inherits the previous presidents budget, as well as the interest payments needed to pay off debts accumulated under previous presidents. Moreover, about two-thirds of the annual deficit during Obamas presidency term has been from entitlements and interest. Entitlements, such as Social Security and Medicare, are less susceptible to a presidents policy preferences than discretionary spending that Congress must approve on an annual basis. Entitlements are also more heavily driven by demographic factors, such as the aging of the population, which is also out of any presidents control. For its part, The White House didn't challenge Walker's claim, but cited documents indicating that annual deficits are becoming smaller. A couple of other points on responsibility for the debt before we close. Ananalysisby the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities acknowledged that deficits and debt have been sharply higher under Obama. But the analysis says the Great Recession, tax cuts adopted under President George W. Bush, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq explain most of the deficits that have occurred on Obamas watch. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, meanwhile, traces the the debt problem back even further, to around 1970, when the government decided to significantly increase spending without a corresponding increase in revenue. The problem cant be fixed, according to thatanalysis, without creating a mechanism to prevent the government from running persistent deficits in the future. Our rating Walker said: The national debt is on track to double during Obamas presidency. Documents from Obamas own administration indicate the debt is on pace to double in raw dollars, the way the debt is commonly reported, though not as a percentage of gross domestic product. Walker aptly indicated that Obama bears part of the blame. We rate Walkers statement Mostly True. To comment on this item, please go toJSOnline.com. | 1 | [
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FMD3857 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: As the investigations into how Russia meddled in our election escalate, Facebook has turned records relating to ad buys from Russian actors over to Congress. Facebook has found itself in the crosshairs of Democrats and Republicans alike because of this (and for other reasons), and Mark Zuckerberg is finally, finally wondering if maybe he should be taking a more active role in his own company.Why? Because Facebook sold over 3,000 pro-Trump and pro-right wing ads to fake accounts run by Russians and people with ties to Russia. They turned those records over to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. They re going to re-evaluate the processes they use to review political ads, and they will supposedly offer a higher standard of transparency on those ads than what the law requires for radio, television and other platforms.For many, it s too little, too late, though. Trump was elected, a hostile foreign power helped him win, and the true scope of how Russia used and manipulated Facebook is still unknown. When they first came under fire for allowing the proliferation of fake news following Trump s win, Zuckerberg s excuse was that they were a technology company, not a media company. The implication was that they couldn t be held responsible for any of that.They re only now starting to come around to the truth, but the sad thing about this is that Zuckerberg was warned about people misusing his platform to swing the election several times. In fact, none other than President Obama himself literally pulled Zuckerberg aside during a conference in Peru to practically beg him to take the threat of fake news and disinformation seriously. Obama told Zuckerberg that, unless he actually paid attention, this would only be worse in four years.But Zuckerberg blew him off. He told Obama that such messages weren t widespread on his platform, and that there wouldn t be an easy solution to it. Like his pathetic excuse of being a tech company, Zuckerberg shirked any and all responsibility for it. Obama tried. Zuckerberg didn t really seem to care.Discovering that another country would even dare to try and influence our elections should be a horrific epiphany for any American. It s true that neither Zuckerberg, nor anyone else at Facebook (or anyone really) could have sufficiently predicted that anything like this would happen. As recently as two to three years ago, most of us would have made fun of the conspiracy theorists making bizarre claims about shady and hostile foreign actors working to swing our elections to their favor. That s reality now, but early warnings like Obama s seem to have slid right off Zuckerberg s back, as he was more concerned with his product than with how his product was being misused.Russia weaponized Facebook, and it s not over. Facebook has its part to do and they need to get to it post-haste. But another part may lie with Washington, with our lawmakers. It may well be time to apply laws similar to those that govern political advertising elsewhere to social media. Facebook hasn t yet provided many details about how they ll be transparent, especially given the fact that many of their political ads don t meet current legal definitions for political ads. They are, however, talking the talk. Now they need to walk the walk, or be forced to do so under law.Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD3858 | 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: McCain and Bush are millionaires who are for tax cuts for millionaires.
contextual information: An ad goes after Sen. John McCain for being just like President George W. Bush, hitting McCain onIraq, oil companies and health care.It also criticizes him on tax policy. A millionaire who's for tax cuts for millionaires. McSame as Bush, the ad states. It's true that Bush and McCain are both millionaires, with McCain being somewhat wealthier. Bush's net worth in 2006 was between $7.6-million and $20.1-million, based on his personal financial disclosures required by law and analyzed by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. McCain, meanwhile, is worth somewhere between $27.8-million and $45-million. (Sen. Hillary Clinton's net worth is between $10.4-million and $51-million, while Sen. Barack Obama's is between $456,012 and $1.1-million.) So McCain and Bush are both millionaires, and that part of the statement is correct. We couldn't find any proposals John McCain supports that offer new tax cuts for millionaires, so we suspect this is a reference to McCain's support of the Bush tax cuts. Bush's tax cuts lowered rates across the board for those who pay federal income taxes, so they benefited both millionaire and nonmillionaire taxpayers. But data compiled from the Congressional Budget Office indicate that millionaires saw the most sizable drops to their tax rates measured as a share of income. Those tax cuts will expire during the next presidential administration unless Congress acts to keep them in place. McCain actually opposed the Bush tax cuts before changing his mind and supporting them now. He said the reason for his change of heart is that rescinding the tax cuts would be the equivalent of a tax increase after they had been in effect for so long. (Both Obama and Clinton want to roll back the Bush tax cuts for higher incomes.) If you're trying to identify the candidate who supports the Bush tax cuts, McCain is your man. But we're concerned that the ad leaves the impression that McCain advocates new, additional tax cuts for millionaires rather than keeping the present situation in place. For that reason, we knock this claim down one peg on the Truth-O-Meter and find it Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD3859 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: President Barack Obama will meet with the leaders of Canada and Mexico on Wednesday for his final “Three Amigos†summit, a meeting that may signal how keen the North American partners are to tout trade at a time of rising protectionist sentiment. The Ottawa summit comes on the heels of Britain voting to leave the European Union after more than 40 years. It also falls ahead of a U.S. presidential election on Nov. 8 where presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has made stagnant wages and U.S. manufacturing job losses focal points of his insurgent campaign. The so-called Brexit vote is bound to be an important theme for Obama’s meetings with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Canada had negotiated a trade deal with the EU that is slated to take effect next year. The Brexit may delay its ratification and hurt Canada’s commodity-driven economy. The referendum results are also seen as a setback to talks on a U.S.-EU trade deal. Mexico, which already has a trade deal with the EU, has prepared a draft proposal for a pact with the United Kingdom. At the summit, leaders will also look at how best to foster trade with each other, said Mexico’s Finance Minister Luis Videgaray. “One of the important issues, without doubt, is how to give a fresh impulse and greater value to North American integration,†Videgaray said. All three are part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation trade deal that Obama had cast as an update of the North American Free Trade Agreement. He wants to finalize the TPP as part of his economic legacy in Asia. The TPP has become a target of both the left and the right in the U.S. election, and Congress has so far been unenthusiastic about ratifying the deal. The United States is the top export market for both Canada and Mexico. In 2015, U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico totaled $663 billion and $584 billion, respectively. But in Canada, only one in four people say the 22-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is good for the country, a poll released on Monday showed. The long-running Canada-U.S. battle over softwood lumber seems more likely than not to resume as early as October. Given all the controversy over trade, the leaders may decide to try to focus their summit talking points on other topics. “I expect them to try and stay away from it,†said Carlo Dade, director of the Canada West Foundation’s Center for Trade and Investment Policy. Ahead of the summit, the White House revealed that the leaders would commit to a new regional goal of 50 percent of power coming from clean energy by 2025, up from about 37 percent in 2015. The three countries also plan to unveil a plan to fight heroin production. At a joint press conference, the leaders are likely to field questions about the upcoming U.S. election and its implications for both Canada and Mexico. It will also be Obama’s first chance on an international stage to promote his recent endorsement of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, his former secretary of state. In March, Pena Nieto roundly condemned Trump, who has promised to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs, and has complained about what he calls unfair trade. Mexico also named a new ambassador to aggressively promote its contributions to the U.S. economy. On Canada, Trump has so far been mostly silent. “That doesn’t mean Canadians don’t feel the sting†of his protectionist ideas, said Chris Sands, director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Trudeau is likely to tread carefully so as to not endanger relations with a potential president. “It’s unlikely there will be any formal discussion of Trump, who of course is the elephant in the room. In some ways, it’s better if there isn’t,†said one official involved in the summit. “The message the leaders will be sending is eloquent enough | 1 | [
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FMD3860 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The NFL needs to get its “priorities in order,†and a team should hire Colin Kaepernick because many league players have criminal backgrounds, according to USA Today. [Christine Brennan writes in an article for America’s largest daily newspaper that because “at least a men who have been accused of physical or sexual assault have been welcomed into the NFL over the past week,†then Colin Kaepernick deserves to play. All Colin did was disrespect America’s flag, the soldiers who gave their lives fighting for it, the law enforcement officers who shed their blood on the country’s streets, and the National Anthem that reminds Americans at every NFL game just how fortunate they are to be living here. For some reason Brennan chooses not to protest the NFL’s encouraging the employment of players with violent crime backgrounds, instead, she argues that the league’s employment of such deadbeats vindicates Kaepernick. According to Brennan, “It was quite a surprise to see so many young men with so much violence attached to their names drafted by NFL teams little more than a week after USA TODAY Sports reported that Ray Rice himself was going to participate in the league’s social responsibility education program this year. You think everyone is getting with the plan, and then you realize they’re not. Not at all. †Brennan defends Kaepernick’s assertion that he simply exercised his rights as a U. S. citizen, but does not defend the teams right to reject a social justice warrior extraordinaire. Moreover, Brennan believes that the 49ers quarterback deserves to be picked up by an NFL team, especially since he is better than Blaine Gabbert, who Kaepernick replaced last year during the season, and appears to be signing with the Arizona Cardinals. Of course, Gabbert stands for the singing of the National Anthem during the ceremony. Harry Edwards, a sociologist employed as a consultant by the San Francisco 49ers, worked with Kaepernick and claims it would be in the “leagues interest†to have Kaepernick play somewhere. Edwards says to not make a, “martyr out of him, especially when they have people on teams accused of rape and knocking women out. He was just named one of the 100 most influential people in the world (by Time magazine). Give me a break. If you’re the NFL, you want him on a team. †Now that Kaepernick will no longer be protesting the Star Spangled Banner, Edwards informs that he has moved from “resistance to resolution†and, therefore, would make a “great model†for other players on the team. If Kaepernick fails to be picked up by an NFL team, the sociologist activist proposes that the NFL should hire him as a deputy commissioner. “If for no other reason than to have his input and perspectives on the management of emerging situations†he stated. | 1 | [
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FMD3861 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Our White House is currently occupied by someone who s likely certifiably insane, yet for many on both the right and the left, the real travesty is that Trump s predecessor is *gasp* earning a lot of money in speaking fees, just like just about every white male former president in the last 40 years.The news that former President Barack Obama will reportedly accept $400,000 to give a speech to Wall Street investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald has inspired a strange paroxysm of rage from writers on the center-left. Obama s $400,000 Wall Street speaking fee will undermine everything he believes in, Vox s Matt Yglesias proclaimed. Obama and Bill Clinton biographer David Maraniss said the 44th president does not need the money and should not accept it. Others noted the unseemliness of the fee at a time of income inequality and seemingly rampant populism, especially since Barack and Michelle Obama have already struck insanely lucrative book deals.Even Elizabeth Warren was troubled by Obama s speaking fees. Bernie Sanders called the fees distasteful. Well, everyone can relax now. On Wednesday it was announced that the Obamas would be giving that amount and far more to help youth in Obama s adopted hometown of Chicago. One of the things that we ll be starting this year is Michelle and I are personally going to donate $2 million to our summer jobs programs here in the community, he said at the South Shore Cultural Center. [It s] so that right away young people can get to work and we can start providing opportunities to all of them. Obama is expected to use the center as he focuses on issues such as criminal justice reform and education for underprivileged children now that he has left office. Social media was quick to notice that the Obamas are literally donating five times what he will earn for that one speaking fee.THIS is President Obama. Compassion & class. FIVE times his speaking fee. The @GOP can now shut the hell up. #ObamaFoundation #DemValues ?? https://t.co/IfQH7zvV08 Fight Back America (@RonIsrael) May 3, 2017Will all the commentators who condemned Obama for his $400,000 speaking fee commend him for his $2,000,000 charity donation today? Crickets. eli friedmann (@eligit) May 3, 2017@bravenak @edfischman @JessikaJayne @Endoracrat @tinalc1958 @KikiAdine @webgenie01 @Wharfrat2004 @MonicaChilton @imwithher61 @Quietness_Trust @HerbertjeJames @Fangirl31 @Toncuz @SadCondiment @edisn @total_janarchy @adirado29 @dcpetterson @pollyollydoodle @RoseRoselaurie @JustAGurLnSwedn @Zebop @Deemoney521 @IngridBush @Wilkey43 @alaskawater @EmilyEggbert @Eviljohna @Playfulimp @jamescoleman07 @JohnSmithChgo @ShirlsAdams @goodtroubleme @abracadabraNY @livemusic4me @jmichaelkell @RBReich @PolitikMasFina Bernie has the audacity to attack Obama over his speaking fee? When has Bernie ever given to charity? pic.twitter.com/j7FWPkBkSc Impeach tRump (@vicsepulveda) May 3, 2017Obama just donated $2 million to a summer jobs program so I don t want to hear shit about his $450,000 speaking fee. ?liberal bitch? (@ALiberalLady) May 3, 2017Of course, there s also the fact that President Obama is retired. He can spend the rest of his days Twitter trolling Donald Trump and passing out Kenyan flags and it would be perfectly within his rights. But that s not who Obama is. As this proves, he still has his principles and he s still managing to kick everyone s ass in his game of three-dimensional chess.Featured image via Scott Olson/Getty Images. | 0 | [
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FMD3862 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: In Gary Shteyngart’s 2010 novel, “Super Sad True Love Story,†characters carry around smart devices called äppäräts, which are something like iPhones on meth. The book is set in the near future. Staten Island is the new Brooklyn, and all the characters use their äppäräts to chat and shop and beam their lives out to the world, nonstop. Äppäräts are also equipped with a program called RateMe Plus, which constantly calculates (and broadcasts, of course) a status ranking based on users’ jobs, financials and online popularity, which is gauged by the quantity and quality of what they share. the most intimate details of your life is the only way to get ahead — job promotions and romantic prospects depend on it. Shteyngart’s extrapolations from social media are beginning to prove surprisingly prescient. The biggest companies are now slaving away to bring his vision ever closer to real ity. It’s not a philosophical or ideological statement on their part it’s just that their business model is predicated on sharing, and finding new ways to extricate more and more from us. This spring, Facebook introduced its 1. 7 billion users to a new feature called Live, which allows anyone to broadcast his or her life in a stream to friends and family. The company also said it would prioritize personal posts like Live over those from brands or news organizations — a sign that, like Shteyngart, it thinks people are far more invested in voyeurism than in anything else. (And in theory, it should know.) In August, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, followed suit with a feature called Stories, allowing users to post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. The company described it as a way to “share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep. †It all feels like harmless fun, but our online lifestyles have begun to make a real impact in our offline worlds, a trend that doesn’t seem to be reversing. In 2014, Facebook talked with lenders about the possibility of linking profiles to credit scores, and one recent survey showed that 40 percent of officers now say they peruse applicants’ profiles in addition to evaluating G. P. A.s and essays. Social media tends to reward those who share the most — which means we tend to see way more from certain people than we want to see. You probably already know what I mean, and have seen it in your own feeds, as friends, and complete strangers faithfully transcribe their inner monologues in a stream. Even those who make a living in the public eye aren’t immune to the perils of oversharing — on the contrary. Two recent examples come to mind: Jennifer Weiner, a very successful author by any measure (her 2002 book, “In Her Shoes,†was made into a movie starring Cameron Diaz) recently wrote an embarrassingly long diatribe on Facebook blasting Oprah for not selecting her latest novel for her book club and the rapper the Game has posted obscene, selfies on Instagram that emphasize an enormous bulge in his underwear that may or may not be Photoshopped. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with either example — but they each clearly underline the ways that social media has stripped away our ability to tell what is O. K. to share and what is not. It’s not just that watching people vie for your attention can feel gross. It’s also that there’s a fine line between appearing savvy online and appearing desperate. In contrast, let’s look at Beyoncé for a moment. Unless televised live performances count, she has never a day in her life. She rarely gives interviews, so what we know is scraped from her presence — which isn’t much. I can tell you what outfit and hairstyle Beyoncé posted on social media last week, but I couldn’t tell you where in the world she was, what the inside of her house looks like or even which continent her primary residence is on. Her images tend not to be or even look as if they were taken with a cellphone. I couldn’t tell you who took the photos of her, because, unlike most celebrities, Beyoncé rarely posts selfies. I have no idea who comes to her pool parties, if she has a pool or has ever been to a pool party. I couldn’t guess what she wears to bed. And yet, when I speak about her, it’s as if we’ve been attached at the hip since birth. I feel, very intimately, that I know her. Beyoncé’s feed is the rice cake of celebrity feeds: low in caloric content but mystifyingly satisfying. Most people treat social media like the stage for their own reality show, but Beyoncé treats her public persona more like a Barbie — she offers up images and little more, allowing people to project their own ideas, fantasies and narratives about her life onto it. Take, for example, her response after a video leaked of her sister, Solange, attacking Beyoncé’s husband, Jay Z, in a hotel elevator. Rather than posting tweets explaining the whole thing, Beyoncé simply posted a series of photographs of herself and her sister having fun, quelling any rumors of a rift. This logic extends to her creative work too. Earlier this year, she spent an entire album, “Lemonade,†stoking rumors of marital strife with Jay Z. Lines like “You’re gonna lose your wife†seemed to confirm that her relationship was on the rocks. The release of that album felt cathartic, an answer to questions about her personal life that her fans had been obsessing over for months. But then, before the fervor over that album faded, news of another album leaked: this time, a duet album. With her husband. In a single calendar year, Beyoncé managed to reveal what seemed to be a lifetime’s worth of secrets and pain, without it being clear whether she had revealed anything at all. If anything, that only made people want more. Conventional wisdom casts Beyoncé as a control freak, and perhaps she is, but control isn’t such a bad thing. Lately, I’ve been thinking about her bifurcated self in the context of cyberfeminist theory. In the 1980s, academics believed that technology would introduce profound changes for humankind, especially women. Donna Haraway, emerita professor of the history of consciousness and feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an inspiration for cyberfeminism, wrote that new technologies could liberate women from patriarchy and other oppressive systems. In the distant future, she believed, people could assume virtual bodies, allowing for “permanently partial identities†that could exist beyond gender, beyond reproach and without limits. The internet preserved many of the same biases and hierarchies Haraway so desperately hoped we could escape. And there are no true cyborgs yet. But social media has, in its own way, provided us a means of generating other selves. We just haven’t yet learned to set them free. Beyoncé has, in her own way. The Beyoncé we follow seems to live and breathe, and provokes a real emotional reaction. It’s an illusion that feels intimate and real, a hologram self for us to interact with that, in theory, provides the actual Beyoncé space to exist away from our prying eyes. This isn’t a strategy that works for only the incredibly rich and famous. I believe it’s a useful way of thinking about how we could all behave online. Why fret about oversharing, or undersharing, or to what extent our online selves are true to our ac tual self? We could instead use social media as a prism through which we can project only what we want others to see. We can save the rest for ourselves — our actual selves. | 1 | [
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FMD3863 | 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: All the money the Department of Citrus has is paid for by the citrus growers. You don't save dollars by eliminating the Department of Citrus.
contextual information: At an Associated Press meeting Jan. 19, 2011, about the state's upcoming legislative session, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Adam Putnam was asked about an idea floated by Gov. Rick Scott to merge two state departments: Citrus and Agriculture.Putnam wasn't sweet on the idea.All the money the Department of Citrus has is paid for by the citrus growers, Putnam said. You don't save dollars by eliminating the Department of Citrus.Government departments usually are funded, at least in part, with taxpayer dollars. So we wondered, is that not the case with the Department of Citrus? Is the entire department's budget paid for by the growers?Putnam spokesman Sterling Ivey explained via e-mail on Feb. 1: Although it's a state agency, the FDOC is unique in that its operations are not funded through the state's general tax revenue fund. Florida's citrus industry pays its own way in the form of an excise tax placed on each box of citrus that moves through commercial channels.The department is well-known in the citrus-growing areas of Central Florida, but less so in other parts of the state. So Ivey sent us some background from the department'swebsite.It was established in 1935 by legislative approval of the Florida Citrus Code. It's not affiliated with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The 12-member Florida Citrus Commission, appointed by the governor, sets the annual tax rate that growers pay. The department regulates every aspect of the industry, including research, production, fertilizing, maturity standards, harvesting, licensing, transportation, labeling, packing and processing.Ivey also sent us a link to thedepartment's 2010-11 budget.We contacted Comptroller Debra Funkhouser, who has been with the department for 16 years, and she broke down the budget. The total is about $58 million this year. About 85 percent comes from the box tax, 9 percent from the federal government, and the remainder from interest and carryover dollars, she said in an interview Feb. 2. That breakdown does not fluctuate much, and the department has been funded that way for decades, Funkhouser said.Approximately 57 employees work for the department now, and none of its expenses -- including overhead and salaries are paid from state tax dollars, Funkhouser said. She did confirm that the department has received only $10 million from state general revenues in its 76-year history, a one-time occurrence after crops were devastated by hurricanes in 2004-05.The box tax is assessed to growers, collected by the processors and remitted to the citrus department, she said. The tax for oranges, for example, is currently 25 cents for a 90-pound box.Does that mean the box tax is passed on to customers buying citrus?I would have to say there is a correlation, just like the cost of farmers' fertilizer, just like the cost of harvesting that fruit. It's not a direct association, she said.An article in theLakeland Ledgeron Jan. 18, 2011, described a meeting about a month earlier between Ken Keck, the citrus department's executive director, and two officials from Scott's budget office. Keck said the officials discussed possible changes that included a merger with the Agriculture Department or another marketing agency, such as tourism, as well as privatization.Citrus officials argued any proposed Citrus Department reform would not advance Scott's stated agenda of cutting taxes for Florida businesses and residents because none of their taxes go to the department, theLedgersaid. To the extent this is a general-revenue issue, this does zero for the state budget, Keck was quoted in thearticle. It's unclear whether the governor is aware of that.The article noted that the department contributes about $2 million annually to the state's general fund through a service charge levied on every state agency, (Florida Citrus Commissioner Jay) Clark said.We also looked at thesunset review-- routinely done of state departments to determine whether they should be retained, modified or abolished. The Senate Committee on Agriculture was the primary sunset review committee for the 2008 review. The sunset review recommended keeping the citrus department as a free-standing department because a merger would make it inefficient at a time when the citrus industry was facing challenges, including recovering from hurricanes.Putnam claimed: All the money the Department of Citrus has is paid for by the citrus growers. You don't save dollars by eliminating the Department of Citrus. In fact, about 85 percent is paid for by the growers -- of the rest, about 9 percent comes from the federal government. So Putnam is correct that Florida won't save state taxpayer dollars by eliminating the department, but he's missing the context of the additional federal dollars. We rate this statement Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD3864 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Those who govern the world are destroying the world finance system, e.g. via leakage of "Panama papers". War is coming. | 0 | [
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FMD3865 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The FBI has opened an investigation into U.S. links to South Africa s Guptas, escalating a scandal over the family s alleged use of a friendship with President Jacob Zuma to control state businesses, the Financial Times said on Thursday. Separately, Britain s banking regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said it was in contact with two UK banks over any possible links to the Gupta family. The Guptas and Zuma have denied any wrongdoing. Gupta family spokesman Gary Naidoo could not be reached for comment and the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria had no immediate comment. The family, founders of a business empire spanning media, mining and consulting, have been named in a trove of leaked emails alleging graft in dealing with South Africa s state-owned companies, which also named several global firms. The Financial Times, which cited people familiar with the matter , said U.S. investigators had been looking at individuals, bank accounts and companies in the U.S. for ties to alleged graft involving the family. It gave no further details. Britain s FCA said it was in contact with HSBC and Standard Chartered banks following reports in British newspapers that the finance minister had asked regulators to investigate the lenders possible ties to the Gupta family and Zuma. The FCA is already in contact with both banks named and will consider carefully further responses received, the regulator said. Standard Chartered in London said they were not able to comment on details of client transactions but added that after an internal investigation, accounts were closed by us by early 2014 . HSBC said it had no comment on the matter. Britain s parliament is expected to discuss British banks possible involvement in the Gupta case on Thursday. Zweli Mkhize, one of several potential candidates to replace Zuma as head of the African National Congress in December, said the United States and Britain were within their rights to investigate. If there is any information suggesting corruption or irregularities, it needs to be investigated across the borders. It should not be restricted to South Africa, he told reporters. The Guptas and their companies have not been charged with any crime in South Africa, but the scandal is one of many that have dogged the Zuma presidency. Local media have reported extensively on the so-called Gupta-leaks | 1 | [
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FMD3866 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: November 20, 2016 at 6:09 pm
“She well documents everything.The history in these United States as well as elsewhere is all an illusion,people are trapped in a matrix.”
You say this as if existence itself is NOT an illusion. It very well could be. How would we know? glitter 1 November 21, 2016 at 2:43 pm
Ed_B,
“You say this as if existence itself is NOT an illusion. It very well could be. How would we know?”
You know by now where I’m coming from.People,the inhabitants on this planet are born,they live and die,never truly understanding how they/we got here,the purpose/meaning of life and where they/we are going once the last breath is taken. Here is my simplest answer/response:
John 14:6King James Version (KJV)
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
It’s either true or a lie.It can be accepted as such or rejected. Eric
Actually I already knew about Graham. Was a little shocked about Nixon. But not really.
This is a BIG CLUB. And you ain’t in it. Guido November 19, 2016 at 3:26 am · Reply
For those in the alt-media who were already on the anti-Trump bandwagon long before Trump won the election, NOBODY he proposes to man his cabinet (whether allegedly or actually) will pass their litmus test. They will be sure to find fault with EVERY one of his selections or rumored selections, and then revel in their own “brilliance” by telling us in their articles, videos and posts that they warned us. Essentially, Trump’s alt-media critics are doing the job of the MSM, who on the very next day after Trump won the election went on a tear about how he was planning on staffing his cabinet with insiders.
It’s clear that those who engage in this sort of “reporting” are intent on disrupting Trump’s support base by giving the impression that he is defaulting on his promises and engaging in business as usual. I’m dubious of anyone who engages in perpetual rumor and speculation by relentlessly parroting names that are circulating about as part of an organized disinfo campaign. When the choices are made and announced, then we could fairly engage in worthy critique if need be. Every one of us is bound to find fault with at least someone in his cabinet. This is all completely normal because no reasonable person ever expected that his choices would be saints who were free of all unsavory baggage. But the key word here is REASONABLE, something that is sorely lacking these days.
In so far as the aftermath of the election, the MSM seriously miscalculated the intelligence of the American people in the days following the election. They thought that by giving the pampered protesters carte blanche coverage, their support base would grow beyond all proportions as a mass anti-Trump movement swept the nation. Instead, the shattered hearts of the coddled candy-asses who lack the basic fortitude to handle defeat of ANY kind, has been laid bare for all too see. They are the poster children of everything that is wrong with the deviant and dysfunctional left in the US. The Purple Revolution is backfiring miserably as the nation is waking up to the reality that a minority of snot-nosed deplorables are attempting to rip the country apart at the seams. It ain’t gonna fly, no matter how much cash massa Soros pumps into their basket.
No, the left isn’t quite dead yet, but it’s gasping for air. The cat’s out of the bag now, and the blowback that will come down the pike in the following months will leave no doubt as to what side of history this gaggle of miscreants will end up on when the final chapter is written. Ed_B November 20, 2016 at 6:55 pm · Reply
@Guido
Agreed. The back-stabbing has commenced and all the sore losers in our country are lining up to receive free blades from their masters. Perhaps it is they who could use some time in a “re-education camp”?
It’s now clear all with an IQ above room temp that the MSM have completely sold their credibility for political access and favors, which leaves them with NOTHING of any value to sell.
But all this is OK. Their complaining and whining will pale to insignificance when Trump succeeds with various promises he’s made. Not that he can keep them all, of course, but the general direction in which he moves will be a substantial improvement over the past 8 years.
Speaking of idiots, lol… did you see where Obama was telling Trump that he “needs to be tough with the Russians”? I almost choked on my morning coffee over that one. The dish rag is counseling the pit bull on how to be tough! LOL!! Guido November 20, 2016 at 7:30 pm · Reply
Ed, did you ever see that video where Barry is pretending to workout with weights? Tough? Not quite. What about that one where he’s throwing the first pitch at a major league ballgame? Not exactly my idea of toughness. Compare this pansy to footage of Vlad engaging in the martial arts, shooting firearms, riding horseback shirtless, or hobnobbing with that outlaw biker club in Russia (some of whose members volunteered to fight with the pro-Russian resistance in Ukraine after the US-led coup). Granted, it’s all theater, but it does get the point across in no uncertain terms.
8 years of Barry has been too much to take, but just think of the entire generation of numbskulls and meatheads who not only went through their formidable years while this fool played pretend at the White House, but actually cite him as one of their top influences and heroes. It’s no wonder these wanna-be community organizers and communist revolutionaries are prancing around the streets at professional protests chanting the trendiest slogans of the week.
Oh well, at least mommy and daddy have a bit of free time to themselves while the kiddies are away playing dress-up. But they’ll be back to the basement soon enough. videoctr November 19, 2016 at 6:37 am · Reply
I like the idea of calling the alt-media, new media instead. I also like the idea suggested in this interview, to not only confiscate George Soros money and arrest him. Also, efforts should be made to go after the Rothschild globalists if they are connected with funding radical groups. Confiscate their wealth the same way drug dealers money is confiscated by the police. dcm November 19, 2016 at 9:43 am · Reply
Hello Sean , My take away from this video which will challenge you . The interviewee espoused a core premise of modernism , when a person physiologically internalizes this concept , the process of natural or organic , if you will , understanding is diminished. Put hand in fire – hot it burns- etc . This psychological meme ( what is called modernism) is man made , a product of what is referred to as the “enlightenment” period historically . The names of the practitioners of this FALSE meme is recorded historical fact , as well the reason for the development of, and the spread of. My challenge for you is to search human history for societies that practiced infanticide as well societies that practiced sodomy , were there cultures that practiced both at the same time ? Or did one diminish and the other take over , or variations such as open human murder , referred to as human sacrifice. What was the out come of these cultures ? Millicent November 19, 2016 at 10:31 am · Reply
I decided to make a project of tracking some of the dumbest statements made on this blog…
When I saw Glitter make the “call” for December 2016 PM price points of $100 Silver and $3500 Gold back in February of 2016 I knew that I had a winner.
December will come & go and his “call” will not be even remotely close. Eric will keep yammering his psycho babble about books, how I’m stupid, etc., etc. but the the fact remains that Glitter did not have a clue about what he was predicting and somehow I will be blamed for calling him out and telling him he was a moron for making that “call”.
Eric keeps asking why I say that he is being conned. Eric is so hopelessly immersed in the con that he has become a part of it and will probably never wake up to the fact. Eric
Millicent,
You ARE stupid. I’m sorry I have to be the one to tell you.
Now can you at least have a little credibility and tell me what the con is? If you want to make a point, provide some information.
Monetary base and Fed’s balance sheet increased 5 fold. There’s no good reason why the Gold price won’t increase by at least the same amount.
Don’t forget to remember my speculative prediction of $2500 Gold/$60-$75 Silver by end of 2017.
Too bad you missed my Trump wins in a landslide if there is an election. Nailed that one.
Millicent = useless eater and comment critic. bt
eric ,return email at [email protected] have message for you | 0 | [
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FMD3867 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has pledged to raise taxes on the wealthy, preserve the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and provide a path to citizenship for undocumented workers. Here are the proposals the former secretary of state has made as part of her argument that she is best qualified to occupy the Oval Office. (For a Factbox on Republican opponent Donald Trump’s proposals, please see) Clinton has said the rich, not the middle class, would see their taxes go up. She supports billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s eponymous tax proposal calling for those making more than $1 million a year to pay an effective tax rate of 30 percent. Clinton has also called for an additional 4 percent tax on those making more than $5 million annually. Clinton has pledged to raise the estate tax levied on property transferred from a deceased person to their heirs. She also supports a tiered inheritance tax structure, with a top rate of 65 percent on the wealthiest estates of more than $500 million for a single person or $1 billion for a couple. Clinton has pledged to unveil a plan to rebuild U.S. infrastructure during her first 100 days, saying this would create new jobs. She would use some of the revenue generated from her tax plan to pay for making community colleges tuition-free and ensuring students can graduate from public colleges and universities without incurring debt. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that independently scored Clinton’s proposals in their totality, estimated her policies would cost $1.8 trillion over the next decade and would be offset by $1.6 trillion, mostly generated by taxing high earners. The group said the remaining $200 billion could be covered by $275 billion in corporate tax revenue the Clinton campaign has called for but not yet spelled out in sufficient detail for them to credit as an offset at this time. Clinton has promised to propose broad legislation within her first 100 days in office to overhaul the immigration system and establish a process for undocumented workers to become citizens. Clinton has said she will defend executive actions taken by Democratic President Barack Obama to defer deportations of children brought illegally to the United States and the parents of children who are citizens or legal residents. She has said if Congress does not pass comprehensive immigration reform, she will similarly use executive action to defer deportations in “sympathetic cases.†A federal court has ruled that Obama did not have the authority to issue his executive orders on immigration, known as DACA and DAPA. The U.S. Supreme Court, currently short one member, split 4-to-4 on whether to hear the administration’s appeal, leaving the lower court’s ruling in place for the time being. Clinton has promised to preserve the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law enacted after the financial crisis, and to pursue further measures to toughen Wall Street regulations. She has proposed a fee for large financial institutions based on their size and the level of risk they pose. She would also give regulators additional authority to force institutions that pose high risks to break apart or reorganize. Clinton has also urged strengthening the Volcker Rule, which restricts proprietary trading by commercial banks. She has called for a new tax on high-frequency trading and for stricter oversight of hedge funds, private equity firms and other players in the so-called shadow-banking system. She has promised stiffer policies on people who commit financial crimes, including an extension of the statute of limitations on such crimes and a requirement for bank executives to return bonuses if their institutions suffer major losses. Changes to Dodd-Frank have stalled in the Republican-controlled Congress, and it is unclear whether Clinton could get congressional backing to strengthen the law, unless Democrats win control of one or both chambers in the Nov. 8 election. Clinton has pledged to defeat Islamic State and has said the first step to fighting the militant group is to eliminate its strongholds in Iraq and Syria. In a departure from the Obama administration, she supports the establishment of a no-fly zone over Syria and has called for an intensified air campaign by the U.S.-led coalition. Clinton has said she would send additional American special forces to help Arab and Kurdish forces already on the ground. She opposes sending additional U.S. ground troops to the region. Clinton has said the United States and European allies must share intelligence more effectively in order to thwart potential attacks. She has urged Silicon Valley companies to work with the government to track militant recruitment tactics on the internet. Current and former Obama administration officials have told Reuters they believe Clinton would take a harder line on Russia than either Obama or Trump. Clinton has said she believes Russian hackers are behind the breach of Democratic Party systems in an attempt to influence the U.S. presidential election. Clinton has said Russia should play a role in fighting Islamic State in Syria, and her foreign policy adviser has said she would consider arming government forces in Ukraine, one of Russia’s neighbors, in a move to combat Russian “aggression in Europe.†Russia has backed ethnic Russian separatists in Ukraine. Clinton was a key player in Obama’s “pivot†to Asia when she served as his secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Clinton has said she will “aggressively pursue trade cases and impose consequences†against China when it commits trade abuses. She opposes granting China market-economy status, which China will be seeking when a World Trade Organization clause expires in December, and has said she would make sure a newly installed trade prosecutor would ensure that China is playing by the rules. Clinton has said she would treat cyber attacks from countries such as Russia and China “like any other attack†and that the United States “will be ready with serious political, economic and military responses.†| 1 | [
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FMD3868 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: No, Fox News Did Not Say Trump Vowed To Pardon Ghislaine Maxwell in 2024 Claim summaries: Left-wing critics of the former president enthusiastically shared weakly-sourced claims in light of Maxwell's conviction, in December 2021.
contextual information: In late 2021 and early 2022, critics of former U.S. President Donald Trump, primarily from the left, enthusiastically shared a social media post that seemed to lend credibility to long-standing rumors about him. On Dec. 29, a jury in New York convicted English socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of assisting her longtime companion, the disgraced billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein, in procuring underage girls for sexual abuse over many years. Epstein died in prison in August 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges, in what the New York City medical examiner determined was a suicide. Like other influential and well-connected politicians and businessmen, Trump knew and socialized with both Epstein and Maxwell, and he has long been the subject of unsubstantiated rumors of sexual impropriety involving young women and even girls. Against that background, @USAlight3, a Twitter account that regularly posts left-wing, anti-Trump content, wrote on Dec. 30: "FOX NEWS: Trump vowed to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell if he wins in 2024." The claim was that Fox News reported Trump had said he would pardon Maxwell if he were elected president again in 2024. In reality, Fox News had reported no such thing. Back in the summer of 2021, several outlets discussed a snippet from Michael Wolff's book "Landslide," which alleged, based on unnamed sources, that Trump had mentioned Maxwell in the context of conversations about his presidential pardon power before he left office in January 2021. Notably, Trump did not actually pardon Maxwell, even though the charges against her were well known by that time. By logical necessity, any "vow" by Trump to pardon Maxwell if he won the election in 2024 would have had to take place after President Joe Biden's election win in November 2020 (otherwise, Trump would have framed his intention in terms of a second term). We could find no such report on the Fox News website during the period since Biden's victory. Nor did we find any similar reports from any other reputable news source. So the "2024" claim, in particular, was baseless. However, although unproven, the broader allegation that Trump has held an interest in pardoning Maxwell was at least based on some external source, namely Michael Wolff's 2021 book "Landslide." In it, Wolff describes the chaotic final days and weeks of Trump's presidency, and in one section, writes about Trump's approach to issuing pardons as follows: Bored by the process and the details, Trump nevertheless, in the last week, would trawl for candidates, with sudden spurts of determination not to leave this power unused. "Who do you think should be pardoned? Give me one person, who's your top pick?" became a frequent conversational interruption. One "Oh, shit" moment involved his sudden interest in Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, now facing years in prison over allegations of her role in the Epstein sex-abuse scandal. Trump had tried hard to downplay his own long relationship with Epstein. "Has she said anything about me?" he openly wondered. "Is she going to talk? Will she roll on anybody?" But pardon talk almost immediately segued to the question of whether he should pardon himself: "They say I can. Unlimited pardon power." Wolff's putative sources are unnamed, so we cannot even begin to test the accuracy of that description. However, one thing we do know for certain is that Trump did not actually pardon Maxwell of anything while he was president, despite having the power and opportunity to do so. | 0 | [
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FMD3869 | 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 Stacey Abrams Owe More Than $50,000 in Back Taxes? Claim summaries: A graphic criticizing the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate was not inaccurate, but neither was it a "gotcha" moment.
contextual information: A graphic circulated online about 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams owing a large sum in back taxes was technically accurate, but it omitted several key details in an attempt to frame her as irresponsible or dishonest. The meme showed a photograph of Abrams along with a caption reading, "This is Stacy [sic] Abrams, the Democrat on the ticket for Georgia governor. She owes the IRS $50,000 in back taxes." Abrams publicly revealed that she owed a $54,000 debt to the Internal Revenue Service when she released her personal financial disclosure documents in March 2018. However, although she is in debt, she is not delinquent in her taxes, as documents show she is on a payment plan after deferring payments for the tax years 2015 and 2016. The candidate elaborated on her situation in an op-ed published by Fortune magazine on April 24, 2018, stating that even though she earned $95,000 a year at her first job after graduating college, the cost of her education left her with more than $100,000 in debt before she had to take on additional financial responsibilities. She wrote, "I'd love to say that was the end of my financial troubles, but life had other plans. In 2006, my youngest brother and his girlfriend had a child they could not care for due to their drug addictions. Instead, my parents took custody when my niece was five days old. Underpaid, raising an infant, and battling their own illnesses, my parents' bills piled up. I took on much of the financial responsibility to support them, and even today I remain their main source of financial support. Paying the bills for two households has taken its toll. Nearly twenty years after graduating, I am still paying down student loans and am on a payment plan to settle my debt to the IRS. I have made money mistakes, but I have never ignored my responsibilities; I will meet my obligations—however slowly but surely." Abrams' opponent in the 2018 gubernatorial race (which she lost), Republican Brian Kemp, was reportedly also in heavy debt. He was sued by an investment company in June 2018 after allegedly failing to repay a $500,000 loan he guaranteed for an agricultural company in which he invested, Hart AgStrong LLC. Kemp has claimed that he is not responsible for paying the loan, but the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in September 2018 that, according to court documents, Kemp also promised to cover around $10 million in other loans for the company. | 1 | [
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FMD3870 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Was Donald Trump at Ground Zero Searching for Survivors Two Days After 9/11 with Workers He Paid For? Claim summaries: A meme echoes President Trump's 2001 comments about having hundreds of workers search for survivors after the terrorist attacks in Lower Manhattan.
contextual information: On 11 September 2018, our readers asked for verification of a meme circulating on social media that reported Donald Trump had helped with search-and-rescue efforts in the rubble of the Twin Towers after the 9/11 terrorist attacks 17 years prior: "2 days after the September 11th attacks Donald Trump was at ground zero with hundreds of workers that he payed for to help find and identify victims. Share this photo to remind people exactly what kind of American our President is!" Although the image used in the meme above was taken on 18 September 2001 outside the New York Stock Exchange, the meme reflects comments Trump made two days after the attack, when he told an interviewer for a German television station about his efforts to help: taken Well I have a lot of men down here, right now. We have over 100 and we have about 125 coming. So we'll have a couple of hundred people down here. And they are very brave and what they're doing is amazing. And we'll be involved in some form in helping to reconstruct. Trump made similar remarks to an NBC News reporter: NBC News Trump: I have hundreds of men inside working right now and we're bringing down another 125 in a little while. And they've never done work like this before. And they're hard-working people but they've never seen anything like it. And they've never done work like this before, it's terrible. Reporter: Have you spoken to any of your men? Do you know how they're reacting to this, because emotionally this must be so incredibly difficult. Trump: Well there are a lot of them but they've never seen bodies like this -- bodies all over. The great thing is when they find somebody that's alive like the five firemen that they just found a little while ago. So that's the great thing, and that's what they were all striving for. But generally speaking that's not the case. So, they are working very, very hard, but it's a very depressing situation for these folks. President Trump described it a little differently during a speech at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2019, saying he went down to Ground Zero on the day of the attacks "with men who worked for me to try to help in any little way that we could." described it a little differently Trump's statements were vague, so they didn't provide any specifics that would help verify who the men he referenced were, what their relationship to him was, and whether he "paid for" their labor, making it difficult to tease out the accuracy of what he said. His claims about what he did and witnessed on the day terrorists flew jetliners into the World Trade Center buildings have been sources of confusion or consternation since the real estate mogul launched his bid to seek the presidency in 2015. Richard Alles, a retired deputy chief with the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), who now serves as director of 9/11 community affairs for the law firm Barasch McGarry Salzman and Penson, told us that in all the hours, days and months he spent at Ground Zero as an FDNY battalion chief starting 20 minutes after the buildings collapsed, he never witnessed a large group of workers hired by Trump at the site helping with search and rescue. "This is the first Im hearing of it," Alles told us by phone. "There would have been no need for that. Between police, fire and the construction crews, we had it all covered." Alles added that the construction crews he saw at Ground Zero who came to help rescue workers were from the trade unions and were not hired by Trump. John Feal, founder of the 9/11 first responder health advocacy non-profit the FealGood Foundation, responded to Ground Zero on 12 September 2001 as a construction demolitions expert. He also told us he didn't see evidence of hundreds of workers hired by Trump at the site, and added that by 15 September 2001 the area was on lock down. "There was no way anyone could get in and out of there without a [government-issued] badge," he told us. (Feal was forced off the site as of 17 September 2001 when he suffered a life-threatening injury caused by a 4-ton piece of steel falling on his foot, crushing it and resulting in a major infection.) non-profit forced off According to the New York Times, the entire Trump organization didn't even encompass enough people in 2001 to have assisted in the manner described: New York Times [Timothy] OBrien, the author [of TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald], said the size of the Trump Organization at the time was a little bit over a dozen people, which would have made it impossible to send hundreds of people to participate in the relief effort. At the time, Mr. Trump had a large number of casino workers based in Atlantic City, but there is no documented evidence of him marshaling his resources to aid in the relief effort. Hes very comfortable propagandizing that event for political purposes, Mr. OBrien said. Even in the face of tragedy, he cant help but self-promote and self-aggrandize. We reached out to the White House Press Office and the Trump Organization asking for corroborating evidence of these claims but received no response, although we don't know of anyone who raised questions about the veracity of his statements at the time they were made. But now that Trump is president, his political opponents seized on the opportunity to proclaim that he was lying about having helped in the aftermath of 9/11: Heres video of @realDonaldTrump claiming he helped look for survivors & clear rubble on 9/11. He didn't. He was lying. #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/gvc3MsbaJZ @realDonaldTrump #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/gvc3MsbaJZ Scott Dworkin (@funder) September 11, 2018 September 11, 2018 It's not the first time Trump's accounts of his experiences in New York related to the 11 September terrorist attacks have been called into question. In the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, some critics cited a TIME magazine report that placed Trump in Chicago at the time of the attacks -- but that was due to an error in the report. For his part, Trump claimed at a campaign rally in 2015 that he watched from his apartment in Trump Tower as people jumped from the burning WTC buildings to their deaths, but multiple news organizations pointed out that would have been an impossibility because Trump Tower is four miles away from Ground Zero: some error pointed out I have a window in my apartment that specifically was aimed at the World Trade Center, because of the beauty of the whole downtown Manhattan. And I watched as people jumped, and I watched the second plane come in Trump also famously but falsely claimed repeatedly that he witnessed Muslim Americans in New Jersey celebrating as the WTC buildings came down: falsely claimed Hey, I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering. Keneally, Meghan and Liz Kreutz. "Where Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Were on 9/11."
ABC News. 9 September 2016. Waldman, Paul. "Trumps Long History of Lying About 9/11 and Exploiting It for Personal Gain."
The Washington Post. 11 September 2018. Hind, John. "21 Awful Truths About 9/11."
The Telegraph. 5 September 2001. Neilan, Terrence. "Hopes Are Raised, And Dashed, About Rescue of Firefighters."
The New York Times. 13 September 2001. Balsalmo, Michael and Nancy Benac. "Trump's Claims About 9/11 Don't Hold Up to Scrutiny."
Associated Press. 20 April 2016. Rogers, Katie. "Fact-Checking Trumps Claim He Spent a Lot of Time With 9/11 Responders."
The New York Times. 29 July 2019. | 2 | [
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FMD3871 | 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: Whether you like to admit it or not, half our general revenue goes to education.
contextual information: A budget storm is brewing in Tallahassee, and Senate President Mike Haridopolos is making clear that no agency, program or area may be spared from impending cuts.Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, met with reporters on Jan. 12, 2011, to offer his outlook regarding Florida's $3.62 billion budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year. Haridopolos predicted that it would be difficult to pursue any significant tax cuts -- like those being championed by Gov. Rick Scott -- and that everyone should expect spending cuts.That includes education funding, he warned.More than $3 billion in federal stimulus funds have helped the state fill education budget holes for the past two years, but those funds sunset this spring. And while some additional federal funds are coming available, about $555 million, Florida's budget picture remains bleak, Haridopolos said.Whether you like to admit it or not, half our general revenue goes to education, Haridopolos was quoted as saying in theOrlando Sentinel. It's a very difficult spot to be in, and the reason we wanted to make the adjustments to the class-size amendment defeated by voters in November. Haridopolos was referring to an amendment proposed by the Legislature to ease class-size requirements at Florida schools so the state could save money. That measure failed to receive the needed 60 percent voter approval to pass.For this fact check, we decided to zero in on Haridopolos' claim that half of state general revenue goes to fund education.Understanding the state budget and education fundingIn his claim, Haridopolos is talking about a subset of the state budget, which is a subset of state's share of education funding in Florida, which is a subset of overall education funding in Florida. Oh, and he's not just talking about K-12 spending, but also state spending on the state university system, pre-Kindergarten and student aid programs.We'll walk you through it.Let's start with the state budget, which you can imagine by picturing a three-legged stool.Leg one: General revenue (what Haridopolos is talking about). General revenue makes up about 34 percent of the current state budget. The money mostly comes from sales taxes -- though some comes from telephone and cable taxes, corporate income taxes (which Scott has vowed to phase out), and taxes on property transactions. The state has broad discretion on how general revenue is spent.Leg two: State trust funds. State trust funds make up about 27 percent of the current state budget. That is money collected by the state to be used for a specific purpose. The state gas tax is funneled into a transportation trust fund, for example, to pay for road building projects. Florida Lottery proceeds roll into the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund. (The Legislature, at times, has raided trust funds to help balance the budget. )Leg three: Federal dollars. Federal dollars this year comprise about 39 percent of the state budget. Federal dollars primarily fund the state's Medicaid program, but also help fund education, road projects and the criminal justice system.So while each leg helps fund education programs from pre-K through college, Haridopolos is focusing on the general revenue fund. In the current budget, 56 percent of all state education spending came out of general revenue, and it's the portion of state spending the Legislature can most easily control.Now, here's a second important primer.The state doesn't fund education all by itself. Hardly. Local school districts contribute billions of dollars on their own through local property taxes. Most of those property taxes, believe it or not, are set at rates mandated by the Legislature through something called the Required Local Effort. In short, school districts are forced to collect the amount of property taxes the Legislature decides, or the districts won't get to share in state funding.In addition, there are other property taxes individual school districts have discretion over. None of those funds are technically state revenues for the purpose of this analysis.If this isn't confusing enough already, the context of Haridopolos' statement also is important. He's talking about potential cuts in education funding because of less federal dollars and lower sales tax receipts that are affecting the state's bottom line. One way to offset those cuts would be to raise the Required Local Effort, but the Republican-led Legislature that sets the tax has been opposed to that idea. Drilling down on general revenueNow, sticking to Haridopolos' statement and examining only general revenue, the Senate president is correct.Of the $23.8 billion of general revenue budgeted to be spent between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2011, $12.5 billion was directed to education -- pre-K through college.Divide one into the other and you see that education spending currently equals more than 52 percent of general revenue. You can see the full breakdown of general revenue spending on Page 5 ofthis report.Haridopolos spokesman David Bishop said the state expects to receive $22.6 billion in general revenue for the 2011-2012 fiscal year.If you look at the overall state budget, education funding made up about 32 percent ($22.4 billion) of the entire $70 billion state budget in 2010-2011. RulingAs Haridopolos talked in Tallahassee about the grim state budget prospects for this coming year, he said state education funding might see cuts. Part of the problem is just how much of the budget is tied to education funding, he said -- half of the state's general revenue fund.To be honest, Florida's education funding structure is way more complicated than Haridopolos let on. But he's right that the state general revenue fund, which is a little more than a third of the overall state budget, is being used primarily to fund education.We rate this statement True. | 1 | [
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FMD3872 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Only the strongest will survive in the dog-eat-dog world of Socialism. This is the result of a society that believed the government is more capable of running their lives than they are. This is Bernie s world. This is the reality of the utopia Bernie has been promising his supporters. These are the same policies Hillary is promising she ll support if she s able to escape federal prosecution before the election. By morning, three newborns were already dead.The day had begun with the usual hazards: chronic shortages of antibiotics, intravenous solutions, even food. Then a blackout swept over the city, shutting down the respirators in the maternity ward.Doctors kept ailing infants alive by pumping air into their lungs by hand for hours. By nightfall, four more newborns had died. The death of a baby is our daily bread, said Dr. Osleidy Camejo, a surgeon in the nation s capital, Caracas, referring to the toll from Venezuela s collapsing hospitals.The economic crisis in this country has exploded into a public health emergency, claiming the lives of untold numbers of Venezuelans. It is just part of a larger unraveling here that has become so severe it has prompted President Nicol s Maduro to impose a state of emergency and has raised fears of a government collapse.Hospital wards have become crucibles where the forces tearing Venezuela apart have converged. Gloves and soap have vanished from some hospitals. Often, cancer medicines are found only on the black market. There is so little electricity that the government works only two days a week to save what energy is left.At the University of the Andes Hospital in the mountain city of M rida, there was not enough water to wash blood from the operating table. Doctors preparing for surgery cleaned their hands with bottles of seltzer water. It is like something from the 19th century, said Dr. Christian Pino, a surgeon at the hospital.The figures are devastating. The rate of death among babies under a month old increased more than a hundredfold in public hospitals run by the Health Ministry, to just over 2 percent in 2015 from 0.02 percent in 2012, according to a government report provided by lawmakers.The rate of death among new mothers in those hospitals increased by almost five times in the same period, according to the report.This nation has the largest oil reserves in the world, yet the government saved little money for hard times when oil prices were high. Now that prices have collapsed they are around a third what they were in 2014 the consequences are casting a destructive shadow across the country. Lines for food, long a feature of life in Venezuela, now erupt into looting. The bol var, the country s currency, is nearly worthless.The crisis is aggravated by a political feud between Venezuela s leftists, who control the presidency, and their rivals in congress. The president s opponents declared a humanitarian crisis in January, and this month passed a law that would allow Venezuela to accept international aid to prop up the health care system. This is criminal that we can sit in a country with this much oil, and people are dying for lack of antibiotics, says Oneida Guaipe, a lawmaker and former hospital union leader.But Mr. Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Ch vez, went on television and rejected the effort, describing the move as a bid to undermine him and privatize the hospital system. I doubt that anywhere in the world, except in Cuba, there exists a better health system than this one, Mr. Maduro said.For entire story: NYT sMuch like the drooling college students who are turning out by the tens of thousands to Bernie Sanders rally s in the United States, the citizens of Venezuela elected the controversial Nicolas Maduro as their president, and now they are paying a very heavy price. BBC While he lacks the magnetism followers of Mr Chavez attributed to the late president, he is a commanding figure in Venezuela, and not just because of his stature of (6ft 3in).Derided as a poor copy of his mentor, Mr Maduro has not been ousted by the opposition or by rivals in his own party, as some had predicted when he was elected in April 2013.However, he has failed to win over the opposition after sticking very closely to the fiery rhetoric of Mr Chavez.Tough stance His government s tough approach to mass anti-government protests in the first half of 2014 and the jailing of thousands of demonstrators prompted criticism from human rights groups and sanctions from the United States.His opponents paint him as a ruthless despot who detains his political rivals on overly harsh charges pressed by a judiciary under his party s control, while his followers say he is protecting the country from another coup.But with oil prices plummeting below $50 ( 33) a barrel, Mr Maduro s approval rating has been falling, too.Venezuela s economy is almost entirely reliant on its oil exports and the president is facing a severe economic crisis as well as a hostile opposition.And with financing for the government s generous social programs in jeopardy, some are questioning how committed those who voted for Mr Maduro really are to the socialist cause and their leader. | 0 | [
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FMD3873 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Spain s finance minister on Monday blamed the Catalan government for companies moving their headquarters out of the region, while his euro zone colleagues played down the impact of the Spanish crisis on the shared currency. In recent weeks, a stream of Catalonia-based firms and banks have moved their legal bases outside the regionas a crisis over a Catalonian push for independence from Spain deepened. Caixabank, Spain s number 3 bank, and Banco Sabadell, the number 5, have both moved their head offices out of Catalonia last week following an independence referendum that the Madrid government attempted to block. The exit of many companies from Catalonia is the consequence of the irrational and radical policies implemented and pursued by the (regional) government, minister Luis de Guindos said as he arrived for a meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Luxembourg. Losing Catalonia would have a significant impact on Spain, as the region makes up a fifth of the country s economic output and more than a quarter of its exports. Some fear it will impact on the euro zone economy, which is slowly recovering from a recession at the start of the decade. Nevertheless, most euro zone ministers declined to get drawn into a discussion on the situation in Catalonia, with Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem describing it as a domestic issue . I hope that those prevail in Spain, who understand that, as the Spanish Prime Minister has said, law and constitution are the basis on which we operate, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said. European Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici, asked about the economic impact of the Catalan debate, said the Spanish constitutional order must be respected. This situation cannot be solved by violence, we have to find a solution through dialogue, this is also true when you consider the economic oint of view, he said. Spain also sought to reassure international investors concerned about the political situation in the country. The message is crystal clear: Catalonian independence is not going to happen, De Guindos said. | 1 | [
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FMD3874 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Has a group affiliated with the Republican party put up billboards in Minnesota that oppose Trump? Claim summaries: The billboards are real, but the so-called Republican group has an interesting donor behind it.
contextual information: An eye-catching billboard in the state of Minnesota caused some controversy in the early days of January 2018. Purportedly sponsored by "Republicans for Honesty in Government," the billboard showed a photograph of President Donald Trump accompanied by the words "Big Mistake." billboard We received several inquiries from readers about the authenticity of the billboard, and whether it was actually produced by Republicans. The billboard is real, as is another similar one found elsewhere in Minnesota. However, the group behind it"Republicans for Honesty in Government"is run by a Democratic donor and businessman in the state, suggesting there is more to the campaign than meets the eye. On 2 January 2018, the left-wing Facebook page Occupy Democrats posted a photo of the billboard, along with a message emphasizing the apparent party affiliation of its sponsors: photo REPUBLICANS erected this billboard in Minnesota...speaks volumes about the current state of our Liar-in-Chief's presidency, doesn't it? That post was shared almost 25,000 times within three days. The photo appears to have originally been posted to Facebook in October 2017 by Rosemary Rocco, who said the billboard was located along U.S. Route 52, in the state's second congressional district, which includes parts of Minneapolis-St. Paul and Wabasha County. She wrote: posted Seen on MN Highway 52 south-CD2! Proof there are Republicans who care about our country. Note the disclaimer on the billboard. This is what country first looks like. Earlier in October, a Reddit user posted another photograph of a billboard bearing a photograph of Trump along with the word "Clueless." It was also purported to have been erected by the same group. photograph According to records held by the Minnesota Secretary State, Republicans for Honesty in Government was first registered as a non-profit corporation in Minnesota in 2006, as reported by the regional news web site Bluestem Prairie. Its registered agent is Robert Johnson, founder and director of the Minnesota real estate investment firm AEI Capital. records Bluestem Prairie AEI Capital Republicans for Honesty in Government shares its address with that of AEI Capital. The group was dissolved in 2009, but was reinstated in March 2017. However, despite being the man behind a non-profit organization that labels itself Republican, Johnson is a prolific donor to Democratic candidates and the Minnesota branch of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party (DFL). Federal Election Commission records show that a "Robert P. Johnson," "Robert Johnson" or "Bob Johnson" at "AEI Fund Management" or related company names in Minnesota has donated a total of $43,830.50 in federal campaign funding since 2004. All of it went to DFL and Democratic candidates or political action committees. records Johnson told the Minnesota news web site GoMN that he had leaned towards the Republican party in the past, but switched allegiances after what the web site described as a shift to the right within the GOP. GoMN "My political position was staked out decades ago and has not changed," he told GoMN. "What has changed is the positions of the parties and their platforms." Federal Election Commission records show that in 1980, Johnson did donate $500 to the Minnesota Independent-Republican Finance Committee, his only non-Democratic federal election donation. records However, Johnson registered "Republicans for Honesty in Government" in 2006, two years after he began donating exclusively to Democratic and DFL candidates, including $7,000 to former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, and more than $10,000 to the Minnesota DFL party. $7,000 We asked Johnson questions about his involvement with Republicans for Honesty in Government, his party affiliation, his political donations, and the purpose of the billboards. We did not receive a response. He told GoMN that the billboards were intended to provoke Minnesotans to think more carefully about their electoral choices"to maybe rub their chin metaphorically a little bit and wonder, what kind of decisions are we making?" Sorenson, Sally Jo. "Is Billboard on Highway 52 for Real?; Or, Who Are Those 'Republicans for Honesty in Government'".
Bluestem Prairie. 2 January 2018. McLaughlin, Shaymus. "Who is the Group Behind the Donald Trump 'BIG MISTAKE' Billboard?"
GoMN. 3 January 2018. | 2 | [
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FMD3875 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The Senate has approved a waiver to allow retired U. S. Marine Corps Gen. James “Mad Dog†Mattis to serve as incoming President Donald Trump’s secretary of defense. [Although he only retired in 2013, Gen. Mattis easily cleared an early procedural hurdle after his confirmation hearing, during which he described Russia as a “principal†threat against the United States. Following the Senate Armed Services Committee’s bipartisan vote, the voted vote to in favor of the waiver. The only committee members who voted against his waiver are Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) Richard Blumenthal (CT) and Elizabeth Warren (MA). Current law dictates that an individual must be out of military uniform for at least seven years before taking the civilian position of Pentagon chief. The measure has only been waived for George Marshall in 1950. “Having demonstrated 40 years of loyalty to the principle of civilian control and to the U. S. Constitution, I know what to expect from the uniformed leadership in their interactions with the Department’s civilian leaders,†Gen. Mattis told lawmakers in answers to policy questions posed before the confirmation hearing. “Furthermore, I understand what is required of the civilians tasked with leading our military services. †“If confirmed as the Department’s civilian leader, I will put the right team in place to provide civilian leadership across the Department of Defense, ensure feedback loops are robust, and be responsive to the Congress,†also said Mattis, later adding, “Like all American commissioned officers, I was taught to respect the concept of civilian control of the military from my first day in uniform. I forecast no impact from my past service. †| 1 | [
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FMD3876 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Over the past decade, many American cities have been transformed by young professionals of the millennial generation, with downtowns turning into bustling neighborhoods full of new apartments and pricey coffee bars. But soon, cities may start running out of millennials. A number of demographers, along with economists and real estate consultants, are starting to contemplate what urban cores will look like now that the generation — America’s largest — is cresting. Millennials are generally considered to be those born between the early 1980s and late 1990s or early 2000s, and many in this generation are aging from their 20s into the more traditionally suburban years. There are already some signs that the inflow of young professionals into cities has reached its peak, and that the outflow of couples to the suburbs has resumed after stalling during the Great Recession. Dowell Myers, a professor of demography and urban planning at the University of Southern California, recently published a paper that noted American cities reached “peak millennial†in 2015. Over the next few years, he predicts, the growth in demand for urban living is likely to stall. The flow of young professionals into Philadelphia has flattened, according to JLL Research, while apartment rents have started to soften in a number of big cities because of a glut of new construction geared toward urban newcomers who haven’t arrived. Apartment rents in San Francisco, Washington, Denver, Miami and New York are moderating or even declining from a year ago, according to Zillow. “Certainly the softening of rents is one sign that they are not coming in at the pace that people thought they would,†said Diane Swonk, an independent economist in Chicago. The debate is full of contours and caveats, but it really boils down to this: Are large numbers of millennials really so enamored with city living that they will age and raise families inside the urban core, or will many of them, like earlier generations, eventually head to the suburbs in search of bigger homes and better school districts? Their choices — and it will be at least a few years before a definitive direction is clear — will have an impact on city budgets and gentrification fights. It could change the streetscape itself as businesses shift. It will affect billions of dollars’ worth of new apartments built on the premise that the flood of young people into cities would continue unabated. It could also have a big impact on the American landscape more generally. For the past the trend toward suburbanization has continued with no real opposition. Even in the 1990s and 2000s, when urban areas were starting to turn around, subdivisions continued to expand. Have millennials ended that trend? Here’s one thing we know: People get older. Another is that people’s tolerance for jobs and small urban apartments is highest when they are young adults. So while many things affect the increasing popularity of city living, including lower crime rates and a preference for walkable neighborhoods, one of the biggest factors is simply the number of people who are around 25. Right now, that number is as high as it has been in decades. Another big driver of urban demand, immigration (both documented and undocumented) has been roughly constant since 2000. That number could change with policy, but given the current political climate, immigration seems unlikely to go up. The last time the nation had a huge bubble of was the late 1970s and early 1980s. Then, like now, an influx of people in their early 20s moved into cities. There were newspaper articles about young professionals gentrifying urban neighborhoods “Changing San Francisco Is Foreseen as a Haven for Wealthy and Childless,†a New York Times headline said in 1981. Each era has its economic challenges, and many millennials had the misfortune of entering adulthood during the Great Recession and its aftermath. The people at the tail end of Generation X, who came after the baby boomers, were born in the years of the late 1970s and entered adulthood during the late 1990s financial boom. But the bulk of millennials came of age when jobs were scarce, Mr. Myers noted. They started moving into cities and apartments during years when rent was historically high. The number of young professionals was rising, adding to apartment demand, but supply was tight because new construction stalled during the recession. When city populations started swelling in the early and it had less to do with the first of the millennials moving in than it did with lots of slightly older people not moving out, according to Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. The presence of so many young college graduates upended many American cities. You can see it in the hordes of techies congregating on weekends at Dolores Park in San Francisco and in the battles over gentrification. It’s behind new demands for rent control and the artists who live in cheap but unsafe warehouses. In many cities, the high cost of living has galvanized a generation of young renters who have started to form a “YIMBY Party†that wants more apartment construction, and often pits younger renters against older homeowners. Now, however, the pressure is starting to ease. Apartment developers have responded with a boom in new construction. In 2013, the number of people moving into and out of cities started to balance out for the first time since the recession, largely because those in their 30s and 40s resumed their march to the suburbs, according to Mr. Johnson’s research. Some research also shows that, while millennials seem to prefer cities in their youth, the draw of the suburbs is still strong. The counterargument is some version of “this time is different. †And millennials do seem to embrace cities more than their boomer parents did. They have shown up in greater concentrations, they bike more and drive less, and they have lingered in cities longer — possibly because they are still building a house down payment, delaying children longer or forgoing parenthood entirely. For these reasons and others, Joe Cortright, director of the City Observatory, an urban think tank in Portland, Ore. is predicting that cities will continue to swell with young people coming in and older people staying longer. The decline in births between millennials and the generation after them — often called Generation Z — is more like a slight grade than a cliff, so even as millennials age there will be a new, though smaller, supply of coming behind them, he said. Still, if there is an economic lesson that the Great Recession has stamped upon many millennials, it’s that there is often a big difference between what you want and what you can afford. So while some millennials might have made a declaration that they would rather die than live in a suburb, their selves might feel differently, especially when they realize that suburban housing is often cheaper and suburban public schools are often better. “You can have all the preferences you want, but you have to live somewhere and you have to have a budget,†said Svenja Gudell, chief economist at Zillow. “Those are the cold hard truths you have to live with. †| 1 | [
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FMD3877 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Hundreds of Iranians took part in rallies across the country on Friday to condemn U.S. President Donald Trump s decision this week to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital, state TV reported. Leaders of Iran, where opposition to Israel and support for the Palestinian cause has been central to foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution, have denounced Trump s move, including his plan to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. State TV aired footage of marchers chanting Death to America and Death to Israel , holding up Palestinian flags and banners saying: Quds belongs to Muslims , using the Arabic name for the city. In several cities protesters burned effigies of Trump, Iranian media reported. Iran regards Palestine as comprising all of the holy land, including the Jewish state, which it does not recognize. It has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel and backs several Islamic militant groups in their fight against Israel. Describing the United States and Israel as oppressors, Iran s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that Trump s decision was a sign of incompetence and failure. Opposition to Trump s move has united Iran s hardline and pragmatist factions, with both pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani and commanders of the hardline Revolutionary Guards urging Iranians to join nationwide Day of Rage rallies. Some protesters burned pictures of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while chanting Death to the Devil . Rouhani rejected Trump s decision as wrong, illegitimate, provocative and very dangerous . Senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Friday prayers at Tehran University that Muslims around the world should unite against Israel, state TV reported. We will not leave Palestinians alone, worshippers chanted at Friday prayers in Tehran, TV reported. Iran s army chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri said Trump s decision on Jerusalem was unwise and could fuel tension in the crisis-hit Middle East, Iran s state news agency IRNA reported. | 1 | [
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FMD3878 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Here are the top 10 comments of the week on our digital platforms, as selected by our readers and the journalists who moderate nearly every comment. 1. “ ‘And when you’re a star they let you do it,’ Mr. Trump says. ‘You can do anything.’ †Pay no taxes. Insult whomever you wish. Shoot an immigrant on Fifth Avenue. Fire the losers who support you. — SBMD in Florida, reacting to an article about a tape that captures Donald J. Trump speaking in vulgar terms about groping women. 2. A private conversation which reflects his public behavior. The man has no discretion. Other presidents may have been equally interested in scoring with women but they had the grace not to demean them in public. Obviously, marital vows mean nothing to him, which raises the question what vows will he keep, i. e. [to] uphold the Constitution and fulfill the duties of office of the presidency, so help me God? — Angela Mogin in San Mateo, Calif. 3. Trump paid exactly what was required of him by law, so what’s the issue? Should he have offered to pay more than what was owed? How many people on here can say that come tax time they wish to pay over and above what they owe? — Tom Langlais on The Times’s Facebook page, responding to our reporting about Mr. Trump’s 1995 taxes, which showed a $916 million loss, enough to enable Mr. Trump to avoid paying federal income tax for up to 18 years. This comment received more than 700 likes. 4. It is nobody’s obligation to pay more tax than the law demands. If Donald Trump could order his affairs in such a way that his income tax responsibility was ZERO for any particular year, or series of years, that’s fine with me. But whether or not Donald Trump pays taxes is NOT the issue. The issue is whether or not the tax system is fair. If the law is such that Donald Trump could have the kind of money he has and actually owe no federal income tax, then the law needs to be changed drastically. So ask yourself: Which party, and which candidate, do you think is sincerely interested in changing the income tax laws to make them fairer for the vast majority of us, rather than something to be manipulated by the wealthy? — Boneisha in Atlanta. 5. Mr. Kaine brilliantly phrased the only question worth asking when he repeatedly grilled Mr. Pence, “Why don’t you trust women to make this choice?†I was (surprisingly) moved to tears to hear a man say these words with so much force and conviction. In my 45 years I have never heard a politician stick his neck out for women’s rights like he did. — Alibumbayay in Washington, reacting to an essay by Katha Pollitt about the debate and the candidates’ views on abortion and women’s rights. This comment received more than 1, 700 reader recommendations. 6. It was so refreshing to hear Mike Pence speak about his position and not apologize for his beliefs. Some may not see this as the most important factor for voting for a presidential candidate but many of us still feel it is necessary to discuss abortion and the threat to innocent human life. To me it is very important and I want my president to respect and value life. I wish the Democrats cared about abortion and the destruction it causes as much as they do about other political issues such as free education and health care. — KMW in New York. This comment received more than 40 reader responses. 7. Far from being a distraction from “real issues,†I think looking at the candidates’ marriage histories tells us a lot about how they may govern as president. My takeaway is that Hillary sees all that is good inside a flawed relationship, and instead of abandoning it when unpleasant truths emerge, she confronts the problem, and works to figure out how to save what’s good and change the bad. That’s exactly her approach to governing. Trump, in contrast, appears to view marriage like car ownership. He loves to show it off, and really enjoys the ride, but upgrades to a newer model every six years or so. That same mentality is evident in his policy prescriptions for international treaties, trade agreements, and public policy. Once something stops being 100% favorable to him, it’s time to replace it with something brand new, without any real analysis or thought to consequences. I think any voter, regardless of party, who has survived and flourished in a relationship will clearly recognize how meaningful the wisdom and tolerance, and empathy, and capacity for compromise that marriage engenders is perhaps the most telling qualification for serving as president. — DavidH in Brooklyn, responding to an article about Hillary Clinton’s reactions to Bill Clinton’s affairs during their political careers. This comment received more than 700 reader recommendations. 8. I really hope that common ground can be found. A telescope is no power plant and while it certainly has environmental impacts, those impacts can be reduced to a minimum, when given a little attention and foresight. I believe the protests against this particular telescope, and the telescopes in general, are more of a symptom of how the native [Hawaiians] feel about their general treatment and how little they have been involved in processes affecting their cultural and historical backgrounds. This is a possibility for them to shine some light on their situation and get media attention. If both sides are a solution can surely be found. — Pierre Markuse in Germany, reacting to an article about a clash between astronomers and native Hawaiians over a proposed telescope, which would be the biggest and most expensive of its kind in the Northern Hemisphere. 9. My mom, when she feels she has been served well, loves to ask for the manager. She then compliments like crazy, whoever it was that was kind to her. Whether it’s the porter in her building, a waiter, a store clerk or a receptionist, she is sure to inform their boss. “People are so fast to complain,†she likes to say, “but it’s so easy to take the time to be thankful. †Mr. DeMarco’s letter reminds me of my mom. No matter the circumstance, acknowledge and appreciate a job well done. — Forbes in New York, reacting to an article about a letter sent to the hospital staff by a man after his wife died following an asthma attack, thanking them for caring for her, their families and himself. 10. A man goes for a walk and finds a bottle on a beach. When he pops the cork a genie appears and says, “I shall grant you one wish. †The man says, “I want to see peace in the Middle East. †He then hands the genie a map of the Middle East. The genie studies the map for a while and finally says, “What you wish for is impossible. So I shall grant you another wish. †The man says, “I’ve always wanted to see the Cubs in a World Series. †The genie replies, “Let me see that map again. †— Marianne in Edmonds, Wash. reacting to an article about whether the Chicago Cubs might win a World Series title for the first time since 1908. | 1 | [
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FMD3879 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The U.S. Congress started to come to grips on Tuesday with crafting a multibillion-dollar Hurricane Harvey emergency aid package that President Donald Trump suggested could be historically large, without providing specifics. On a tour of rescue operations after catastrophic flooding in Texas and Louisiana, with rain still pounding Houston and New Orleans, Trump told officials and reporters at a briefing that he was working with Congress on an aid package. “It’s going to be a costly proposition,†he said. “I think we’ll come through ... with the right solution.†He added, “But probably there’s never been anything so expensive in our country’s history and never been anything so historic in terms of damage.†Lawmakers said it was too early to estimate the price-tag for U.S. taxpayer assistance on Harvey, which has killed at least 11 people and paralyzed Houston. Hurricane Katrina, which killed at least 1,200 people in 2005, was the most damaging storm in U.S. history. After Katrina, and two smaller hurricanes that followed behind it, the U.S. government devoted $100 billion to relief and recovery, said the Congressional Budget Office. John Cornyn, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, said Harvey recovery aid will take time. “There may be several different appropriations bills,†Cornyn told KTRH Radio in Houston. “What I would personally like to see is some emergency upfront funds to help with the temporary expenses, but as you can imagine, it is going to take a while to assess the losses.†The head of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee said the panel was prepared to provide the funding needed. Republican Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen said in a statement: “We are awaiting requests from federal agencies who are on the ground, and will not hesitate to take quick action once an official request is sent.†Senator Ted Cruz said on the Hugh Hewitt radio show, “By any measure it is going to be billions upon billions of dollars.†Two senior White House officials said hurricane relief might be handled in Congress as a special emergency request, not attached to other spending legislation. Congressional leaders have not said exactly how they will handle the aid package. House conservatives may favor a standalone measure. “My sense is that they’d want a relief aid package to be a standalone that doesn’t have a lot of unrelated stuff added on,†said Alyssa Farah, spokeswoman for the conservative House Freedom Caucus. | 1 | [
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FMD3880 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: President Barack Obama has turned to senior adviser Brian Deese, an economic expert who previously led the administration’s climate change efforts, to head a team formed to pick a Supreme Court nominee and win confirmation, the White House said. White House counsel Neil Eggleston will be a part of that team and will steer the legal process, including the vetting of potential candidates, administration officials said on Monday. Leading Republicans have vowed to block any nominee Obama chooses, leaving the White House with the challenge of finding someone it believes could change Republican minds or galvanize enough public support to pressure them to back down. Obama has been in the early stages of choosing a candidate to replace conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia since his death two weeks ago. The process is likely to take at least a month, and the Deese-led team was created to ensure the entire White House staff was not consumed with the potentially legacy-defining project. The group will report regularly to chief of staff Denis McDonough, senior advisers and Obama. Deese has a history of taking on projects important to the president within the White House. He was involved in leading the administration’s bailout of the U.S. auto industry, budget deals with Congress and, most recently, international climate change talks that culminated in a Paris deal to fight global warming. “The president has relied on Brian in a variety of critical situations to do important work and to take on important projects,†White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “Given Brian’s performance in his other priorities, I don’t think it’s particularly surprising he would be tapped for this responsibility too.†Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said repeatedly that the Senate will not confirm an Obama nominee in this election year. McConnell and other congressional leaders are scheduled to meet with the president on Tuesday. The White House keeps an ongoing list of potential candidates for the Supreme Court for instances in which a vacancy opens up, according to a former administration official involved in the process previously. That list is now being reviewed and is open to new entrants. Candidates will be vetted and interviewed before Obama makes his final decision. | 1 | [
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FMD3881 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Was it the Grateful Dead who sponsored the Olympic basketball team of Lithuania? Claim summaries: Just keep dribblin' on.
contextual information: In July 2021, as the pandemic-delayed 2020 Olympic Games approached, an interesting tidbit about basketball, Lithuania, and the 1960s psychedelic rock band the Grateful Dead began to circulate on social media. A viral Reddit post claimed that "after the breakup of the USSR, the Lithuanian basketball team couldn't afford to participate in the 1992 Olympics, so the Grateful Dead funded the team's expenses and sent a box of tie-dyed outfits in Lithuania's national colors. They went on to win bronze." This post is generally accurate. The Grateful Dead really did sponsor Lithuania's men's basketball team, and they provided the team with tie-dyed shirts bearing the country's national colors (yellow, green, and red) and a "Skullman" logo designed by Greg Speirs. Our one quibble with this claim is that the band was not the team's sole source of funding. While the Grateful Dead did provide some financial support (one report states that the band wrote a $5,000 check), the band's main contribution was allowing the team to sell special Grateful Dead merchandise, which proved massively popular with fans at the 1992 Olympic Games. Here's a newspaper clipping from 1992 about the popularity of these shirts. According to Grateful Dead spokesman Dennis McNally, around 20,000 shirts sold in the first week. A third of the money raised went to the Lithuanian Olympic Committee, and the band received "nothing more than a good time." The Grateful Dead's connection with the Lithuanian basketball team began in 1992 when Sarunas Marciulionis, the team's star guard, and scout Donnie Nelson showed up at a garage in San Francisco to hear the band play. The team, which would be competing in its first Olympic Games since the country declared independence from the Soviet Union a few years earlier, was seeking sponsors to fund their trip to Barcelona. Here's an excerpt from an article published on NBCOlympics.com in 2012: On a cold and windy Bay Area winter day 20 years ago, Sarunas Marciulionis and Donnie Nelson, a starting guard and a scout, respectively, for the Golden State Warriors, knocked uncertainly on the door of a nondescript garage in San Francisco. The Grateful Dead is in here? Nelson thought to himself. Somebody said to enter, and so they did, metaphorical hats in hand, taking in the sights and, more vividly, the smells. "Well, there was a little pot going on," Nelson recalls today. "The Dead were trying out Beatles covers, doing stuff like 'Here Comes the Sun' and 'Hey Jude,' but they were just kind of working through things and sounding kind of nasally. Sarunas pulls me aside and says, 'Donnie, no way these guys are famous. They're terrible.'" Nelson shakes his head and smiles. "I always think back and wonder what it would be like if someone caught that scene today -- Sarunas in the Dead pot garage." The Dead had heard about the Marciulionis-Nelson crusade to raise money to enable Lithuania, Marciulionis's native land, to try to qualify for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. "You're all about liberty and freedom and, man, we're all about that, too, so we dig what you guys are doing," said Jerry Garcia, the Dead's leader. That's a paraphrase, but if you've ever heard Jerry (who died in 1995), it's pretty close. NBC reported that the band ended up writing the team a check for $5,000. More importantly, the band gave the team a license to use and sell special Olympics-Grateful Dead merchandise. These items were a major hit and helped the team raise funds that were then used to support their participation in the 1996 Olympics. Strong anti-Soviet reactions from the West helped force a treaty, but by the time Marciulionis decided that he wanted to field a team, the nation was nearly bankrupt. He donated some of the money from his $1.28 million Golden State contract, and, with the help of Nelson, whom he had tapped to be Lithuania's assistant coach, set out to raise the rest. Getting the Dead was a major coup. The band wrote a check for $5,000 but, more importantly, granted Lithuania the rights to sell a Dead t-shirt, a stoned-out psychedelic masterpiece splashed with Lithuania's national colors of green, red, and yellow and anchored by the Dead's skeleton symbol. Purely from a fundraising perspective, sales of the t-shirt had more to do with the 1996 Olympics; it financed most of Lithuania's participation in the Atlanta Games. But the t-shirt became the hit of the '92 Games, more treasured than any of the merchandise bearing the likeness of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird, the stalwarts of the United States Dream Team. The shirt kept Lithuania in the news, told the story of its heroic struggle for freedom, its battle to get to Barcelona (it earned a spot through the European Olympic qualifier), and its quest for a medal. For many American basketball fans, the 1992 Olympics are probably remembered for the dominant play of the "Dream Team," the American Olympic team that featured superstars such as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. But the Lithuanian team made its mark as well. In 2012, a documentary was released entitled "The Other Dream Team," which followed Arvydas Sabonis and Sarunas Marciulionis on their somewhat psychedelic journey to a bronze medal. Updated [1 September 2021]: Updated to credit the designer of the Skullman logo. | 1 | [
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FMD3882 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Over 25 million Americans are affected by asthma, one of the most common allergy-triggered diseases of our time. By incorporating these anti-asthma super foods into your diet, you may be able to reduce unexpected asthma attacks. Here are 10 amazing asthma-friendly foods that boost your health. 1. Apples Studies show that apples possess anti-asthmatic properties. One study revealed that drinking apple juice could reduce the chance of wheezing by up to 50%. Apples provide many beneficial effects that may be linked to their high concentration of quercetin, known to possess strong antioxidant, anti-histamine, and anti-inflammatory properties. But be sure to buy organic, as apples are among the worst culprits for pesticide-laden foods. Other quercertin-rich foods include yellow and red onions, capers, broccoli, lovage, red grapes, cherries, citrus fruits, tea, and many berries, including lingonberries , raspberries, and cranberries 2. Avocados Avocado are listed as one of the healthiest foods to eat, thanks to their high concentration of L-glutathione. They are an amazing anti-asthma food that helps protect cells from free radical damage. Avocados also detoxify the body of harmful substances like pollutants, and enable other antioxidants to function. The L-glutathione helps fight inflammation and repair gut health. 3. Bananas Bananas are naturally rich in fiber, which helps prevent respiratory conditions from developing. According to a study conducted in 2011 by researchers from the Imperial College London, having just one banana a day could keep asthma away. Studies found that children who consume a single banana a day reduce their risk of developing symptoms of asthma such as wheezing by more than 30%. 4. Cantaloupe Cantaloupe is rich in vitamin C, which is an antioxidant that can fight free radicals and ward off lung damage. A recent study in Japan observed that preschool children with a low intake of vitamin C were more likely to suffer from asthma that those with a high intake. 5. Flax Seeds Give your asthma-friendly diet a boost by adding flaxseeds to your meals. Flaxseeds are filled with asthma-relieving minerals such as magnesium and potassium as well as omega-3 fatty acids. They are also an excellent source of selenium, as just one cup provides more than 60% of the daily recommended intake. 6. Turmeric Turmeric is an active ingredient that has proven to be one of the most powerful anti-inflammatory nutrients available. This yellow spice has been used for centuries in traditional Asian medicine to treat asthma and other ailments. Recently, western medicine has also started to take notice of this spice, as studies reveal that turmeric contains strong anti-inflammatory properties. You can use turmeric in curry or to add flavor and color to seafood, fish, rice, meat, pasta, and vegetable dishes. 7. Kale Kale is a great source of vitamin C, and this nutritional powerhouse helps block the free radicals that are responsible for sudden contractions in airway passages. Kale also contains beta-carotene, another powerful antioxidant phytochemical that is capable of relieving existing symptoms of asthma while preventing future signs of formation. Your Inbox Will Never Be The Same Inspiration and all our best content, straight to your inbox. It is one of the top vegetables with the highest rating in ORAC, or Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, which measures the food’s ability to fight free radicals that cause constriction of airway muscles. 8. Ginger Ginger is loaded with anti-inflammatory nutrients that process through the entire body. Its root is another rich anti-asthma herb that is said to work better than antihistamine drugs like Benadryl, as it stops inflammation and clears up airways. Ginger also does not cause any harmful side effects, making it safe for you to consume with your everyday diet for good health. 9. Spinach A recent study involving over 68,000 women found that high spinach intake was related to a lower risk of asthma. This may be due to the high vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and magnesium content in spinach. Spinach is also high in potassium, which is said to exacerbate symptoms of asthma when deficient. Asthma is strongly related to magnesium deficiency, as treatments with magnesium have been revealed to help stop an asthma attack. 10. Tomatoes Tomatoes are known for providing lycopene, which helps alleviate symptoms of asthma. Raw tomatoes also contain beta-carotene and vitamin C, with a high amount of potassium in their calorie content. The key to living a long, healthy life is to eat well and stay active. Add these powerful asthma-friendly foods to your diet and see how well your body starts to feel. | 0 | [
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FMD3883 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: It looks as though Ted Cruz is really proud of himself for everything he believes he is doing for the nation as he is running for president. On Monday, he sent out a campaign email explaining all the sacrifices he s making as he s on the campaign trail. He said, The sacrifices for our campaign are steep, but I m proud to be making them on your behalf. Then he goes on to list the sacrifices:Now, I don t know about you, but I needed a barf bag to get through his list of sacrifices. Someone else who was not at all impressed with Cruz s complaints about life for the good of his campaign is Senator Elizabeth Warren from the great state of Massachusetts. She saw his list of sacrifices and took to Twitter faster than a locomotive to let him know a thing or two about real sacrifice.Yesterday @TedCruz sent a campaign email whining about the significant sacrifice he s made to run for President. pic.twitter.com/yKtLpWG0Ou Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) April 19, 2016.@TedCruz whined about facing constant attacks, nonexistent family time, limited health and sleep, and no personal time. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) April 19, 2016She even said boo hoo that s when I stood up at my computer and applauded.Are you kidding me, @TedCruz? We re supposed to pity you because trying to be the leader of the free world is hard?! 2 words: Boo hoo. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) April 19, 2016Then she goes through his sacrifices one by one and absolutely tears each and every one of them apart with true examples of sacrifice.Know whose health is limited? Workers w/ no paid leave who can't stay home when sick or caring for kids. @TedCruz won't support it. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) April 19, 2016Know whose sleep is limited? Working parents who stay up worrying about getting kids thru college w/o big debt. @TedCruz blocked #refi. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) April 19, 2016Know who gets no personal time? People who work 2 min wage jobs to support their families. @TedCruz opposes giving them a raise. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) April 19, 2016Know who gets no family time, @TedCruz? Moms w/ unfair schedules who drop kids at daycare & find their hrs cancelled. @GOP won't help. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) April 19, 2016Know who s facing "constant attacks," @TedCruz? Hardworking American immigrants, Muslims, LGBT folks, women. Your constant attacks. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) April 19, 2016And @TedCruz? Working people work more, get paid less, can't save, get mistreated, struggle with illness & family but they don't whine. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) April 19, 2016They don't throw tantrums or try to shut down their workplace because they don't get their way & then turn around & demand promotions. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) April 19, 2016Oh, but she wasn t done yet Now she drives it home!You chose to run for President, @TedCruz. You chose to make your sacrifices. Working people don't have a choice. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) April 19, 2016Hey @TedCruz: Maybe you should spend less time complaining about your "significant sacrifices" & more time doing something about theirs. Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) April 19, 2016YES! YES! YES! A thousand million kajillion times YES! Senator Warren, thank you for telling it like it is. Bravo! Never stop being you!The mic has been dropped. Eat crow, Cruz.Featured Photos by Darren Hauck/Getty Images Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Twitter | 0 | [
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FMD3884 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Of course, Black Caucus member and loudmouth activist, Rep. Cummings would be the first to let everyone know how outraged he was if this what a white congressman A Lyft car adorned with congressional plates that went viral on social media belongs to Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), The Washington Post reported Tuesday.A photo submitted to local Washington, D.C., blog Popville last week depicted a black Honda with a pink Lyft driver sticker on its window shield and the words Maryland U.S. Congress 7-A on its license plates.Cummings told The Washington Post that his daughter who just graduated from Howard University has been using the car to drive for Lyft and earn extra income. In an effort to earn some extra money to pay her expenses at school, she signed up for a part-time position with one of the ride-sharing companies, Cummings said. They, in turn, gave her a sticker to apply to the windshield of the car. Cummings added that he has asked his daughter to remove the congressional plates, which afford special parking privileges for members and staffers.Allen B. West Elected to the House in 1996, Cummings is coming up on his 20th year representing Maryland s 7th congressional district which includes over half of Baltimore City and most of Howard County. His district contains some of Maryland s most black precincts, precincts in which statistics for crime and incarceration, homelessness, economic development, school drop-out, unemployment, drug conviction and out-of-wedlock birth rates all are consistently worse than both state and federal levels for all those same statistical categories.Yet despite these facts, Cummings believes its time for EVERYBODY ELSE to realize that black lives matter.In a piece published on afro.com Cummings laid out his plan new plan, Enacting Black Lives Matter into law , stating [in part]: America is at an historic crossroads. Either we will move forward in 2016 with public policies that support greater opportunity for everyone or we will continue to sink deeper into economic inequality, injustice and violence. These are the stakes in our current political struggles and this is why black lives should matter for everyone. It s not the first time congressional cars have come under the spotlight. Roll Call s video of Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) performing a botched park job outside the Capitol went viral last year. Via: The Hill | 0 | [
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FMD3885 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz released four years of his and wife Heidi’s tax returns on Saturday, ranging from 2011-2014, showing $389,124 taxes paid on $1.2 million in 2014. Cruz’s filings follow a similar release of returns on Saturday by rival Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida. Both campaigns called on billionaire businessman and Republican front-runner Donald Trump to make his returns public, too. (Reporting by Alana Wise; Editing by Mary Milliken) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 1 | [
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FMD3886 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: There s a lot being said about football players across the NFL standing together in unity against police brutality. This is even more pertinent now, as even more black men have been gunned down in the street just this week by police.Using his press conference to bring further awareness to this topic was none other than Seattle Seahawks star cornerback Richard Sherman. He said: I m not going to answer any questions today, and it s no offense to you guys, but the state of things in the world today is very interesting. I think you have players that are trying to take a stand and be aware of social issues and try to make a stand and increase people s awareness and put a spotlight on it and they re being ignored. Whether they re taking a knee or whether they re locking arms, you know, they re trying to bring people together and united them for a cause. And I think that the last couple days a couple more guys have gotten shot and killed in the middle of the street and more videos have come out of guys getting killed, and I think people are still missing the point.The reason these guys are kneeling. The reason we re locking arms is to bring people together. To make people aware that this is not right. You know, it s not right for people to get killed in the street. Sherman then explains how he s been proactive in the community and even needing to go so far as to train young people of color on how to behave with the police, but still being fearful that they might get shot. He says, that s an unfortunate time to be living. Especially when people are being killed for no reason.He then has some choice words by those who are supposedly offended by those standing up against police brutality by quietly using their First Amendment right of dissent and protest to bring awareness to the plight. Sherman says: When a guy takes a knee, you can ignore it. You can say he s not being patriotic. He s not honoring the flag. I m doing none of those things. I m saying straight up, this is wrong and we need to do something. And something most certainly needs to be done, and done now.Watch Sherman speak here:Wow this is a must-watch.Seattle Seahawks Richard Sherman addresses police killings of African American men at presser, then walks out. pic.twitter.com/GOAOSgufAx Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 22, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 0 | [
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FMD3887 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Chaos broke out after legal Americans and illegal aliens clashed at a town hall in California:The Los Angeles Times put their spin on what happened to make it seem as though Trump supporters were the trouble. They downplayed the Antifa anarchist in attendance and other pro-illegal people. It just didn t fit their narrative One of the other issues not addressed in the LA Times article is that these town halls have reportedly been used to teach illegals how to escape deportation and how to work the system : Anti-illegal protesters aka American tax payers have characterized it as teaching people who are in the country illegally how to avoid deportation and get federal benefits. Federal benefits and rights? They have no rights and shouldn t be getting ANY federal benefits! Notice how they call the illegal aliens immigrants Congressman Holds Town Hall to Explain (Illegal) Immigrants Rights:The majority of calls into Rep. Lou Correa s Orange County congressional office are about immigration worries and what the Trump administration s enforcement policies mean for Correa s many Latino constituents. There s a lot of fear in my district. he said.So the freshman Democrat has held seven town halls, all focused on immigration and explaining immigrants rights. They ve been peaceful, with representatives from groups such as the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) and the Mexican Consulate invited to help Correa answer questions.But as the crowd of about 100 people gathered at Santa Ana s Delphi Center on Tuesday evening, Correa knew this time would be different. We had some people there, probably a dozen of them, that immediately had signs that were not complimentary to yours truly, he said.Two women arguing about immigration issues had already gotten into an altercation outside the town hall. They were cited for assault and battery, and barred by police from going inside.Correa told the crowd inside he would give a short presentation about immigration policy coming out of Washington, and then have a question-and-answer session.About a dozen people were having none of it. Some of the most tense moments came when Correa started talking about green card holders who served in the U.S. military and have since been deported. Ma am, I m trying to be courteous here, he said as a woman kept speaking over him. As soon as I started speaking, it became very clear they were not going to let me speak, Correa said Wednesday. They just got louder and louder. Video of the town hall posted on social media shows people in the crowd yelling Americans first and illegals have no rights. Correa repeatedly asks them to let him speak. Are you guys going to cooperate, or am I going to have to ask you to leave? he said.About 15 minutes in, as some in the crowd continued to shout and their attention turned to berating a group of counter-protesters, Correa declared the meeting over. | 0 | [
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FMD3888 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Donald J. Trump’s support has plunged across the map over the last 10 days, wiping out his political recovery from September and threatening to undo weeks of Republican gains in the battle for control of Congress. For his party, Mr. Trump’s reversal in fortune comes at the worst possible moment: Having muted their criticism of Mr. Trump in hopes that he could at least run competitively through Election Day, Republicans must decide in the next few days, rather than weeks, whether to seek distance from his wobbly campaign. Should Mr. Trump falter badly in his second debate with Hillary Clinton on Sunday in St. Louis, Republican congressional candidates may take it as a cue to flee openly from their nominee, said two senior Republicans involved at high levels of the campaign who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private party strategy. Mr. Trump has already slipped perceptibly in public polls, trailing widely this week in Pennsylvania and by smaller margins in Florida and North Carolina — three states he cannot afford to lose. But private polling by both parties shows an even more precipitous drop, especially among independent voters, moderate Republicans and women, according to a dozen strategists from both parties who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the data was confidential. Liesl Hickey, a Republican strategist involved in several House races in swing states, said she was dismayed by a sudden exodus of independent voters in more diverse parts of the country. “They are really starting to pull away from Trump,†said Ms. Hickey, describing his soaring unpopularity with independents as entering “uncharted territory. †Mr. Trump’s erratic behavior last week after his poor performance in the first debate with Mrs. Clinton — attacking a former beauty pageant winner over her weight, and making an issue of the Clintons’ marriage — has alarmed a number of Republican senators, including Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader. Mr. McConnell expressed concern that Mr. Trump might not have bottomed out yet and could lose even more support among women, according to a Republican official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to recount a private conversation. If the dip in Mr. Trump’s standing has heightened anxieties among Republican officials and political operatives, a steady if unspectacular performance by his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, in the debate on Tuesday failed to quiet their nerves. “Two weeks ago I would have said Republicans would hold control of the Senate, but there’s just so many seats up and nobody is getting separation,†said Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster, referring to the number of the party’s candidates still locked in tight races. “It worries me that we’re this close to Election Day and you’re not seeing that separation, because it makes you wonder what kind of impact the top of the ticket has. †Other Republicans are holding out hope that Mr. Trump can at least execute what some cheekily call a “ †strategy: holding Mrs. Clinton to a narrow victory, and sparing other Republican candidates in the process. Jay Bergman, a petroleum executive and Republican donor from Illinois, said his fellow contributors were no longer optimistic that Mr. Trump will win, and they have lowered their sights. “They want the guy to make a credible showing,†he said. “They’re afraid that if Trump really screws up and looks bad, then there are going to be a lot more votes for Democrats. †If Mrs. Clinton wins, putting Tim Kaine, as vice president, there to break a tie, Democrats would need four seats to take control of the Senate. Officials in both parties see Republican incumbents in Wisconsin and Illinois as likely to lose, so Democrats would need just two more pickups to capture the majority if they retain the rest of their seats. Republicans worry that Mr. Trump’s difficulties in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, where Republican incumbents are caught between their own base and moderate voters appalled by the party’s nominee, could hand Democrats those decisive seats. Senator Kelly Ayotte, the Republican up for in New Hampshire, demonstrated the vise she is in this week when she said at a debate that Mr. Trump would represent a good role model for children, only to recant a few hours later. Sensing new opportunity, Democrats intend to redouble their efforts to tie Republican candidates to Mr. Trump in states and districts with large numbers of voters and minorities. “I think it’s quite effective in New Hampshire, in suburban Philadelphia and in Nevada,†said Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat. Compounding their difficulties, Republicans are also fending off a challenge to Senator Richard M. Burr in North Carolina, a state Mrs. Clinton is determined to win, and have also become just as worried about Senator Roy Blunt’s prospects in Missouri. Strategists in both parties who have seen internal polling say Mr. Blunt, whose seat initially seemed safe, is now trailing his Democratic challenger, Jason Kander, a deft campaigner who has been helped by Mrs. Clinton’s narrowing deficit in the state. The good news for Senate Republicans, besides Mrs. Clinton’s own unpopularity and Mr. Trump’s history of bouncing back from wounds, is that Democrats may need to pick up more than just two seats to seize the majority. In Nevada, which has the only Senate seat being aggressively fought over this year, strategists in both parties say Republicans have an advantage in the race to succeed Harry Reid, the minority leader. Some Republicans doubt the party will take the step of completely abandoning Mr. Trump unless a landslide gap opens in the presidential race. In that event, Democrats intend to appeal to Mrs. Clinton to spend more of her time and money in areas where the party’s congressional candidates are struggling. In the House, where Republicans enjoy a majority, the party’s strategists still insist that Mr. Trump’s effect has been limited while his poll numbers have fallen since the first debate, he is not yet seen as so much of a drag on the ballot that he could send the party’s other candidates to defeat. House Democrats, however, finished polling 30 battleground districts last week — before the fallout from the first presidential debate — and concluded that Mr. Trump remained toxic for Republican congressional candidates. Geoff Garin, one of the Democratic pollsters who conducted the survey, said undecided or wavering voters tended to see Republicans as “putting party loyalty ahead of the country by supporting Trump. †“Candidates’ support for him and unwillingness to stand up to him becomes a black mark,†Mr. Garin said. In a growing list of House races, Democrats are showing ads that link Republican lawmakers directly to Mr. Trump. A commercial in California brands Representative Jeff Denham as “Donald Trump’s man in Washington. †An ad in Orlando, Fla. describes Representative John L. Mica as having “the same harmful views on women†as Mr. Trump. Kelly Ward, executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said swing voters tended not to distinguish between lawmakers who vocally endorsed Mr. Trump and those who have stayed silent, neither supporting nor actively opposing his candidacy. “They’re trying to live in this mushy middle, and I think that’s where voters will hold them accountable,†Ms. Ward said. “The separation Republicans think they will see from Donald Trump is just defied by history. †A handful of Republicans have explicitly sought distance from Mr. Trump already. Robert J. Dold, a congressman from Illinois who has said he will not vote for Mr. Trump, began running a commercial this week that shows him switching off a television broadcast featuring clips of Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton. And veteran Republicans have urged Representative Scott Garrett of New Jersey, who is seeking in a district Mr. Trump is behind in the polls, to portray himself as a check on Mrs. Clinton, though he has not yet done so. Few have gone even as far as Mr. Dold, fearing backlash from Mr. Trump’s ardent supporters — and perhaps from Mr. Trump himself, who has repeatedly attacked Republicans who have snubbed him. Indeed, at a event outside Chicago last month, Mr. Trump noted in a biting aside that Senator Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, a Republican who opposes Mr. Trump, was on track to be defeated, according to Mr. Bergman, who attended the event. If Mr. Trump fails to recover, Republicans still question whether Mrs. Clinton is capable of piling up enough of a victory margin to pull congressional Democrats into office along with her. Mike Shields, president of the Congressional Leadership Fund, a “super PAC†that supports Republican House candidates, said Democrats were unlikely to win races on Mr. Trump’s weakness alone. “We accepted that we had a challenging nominee,†Mr. Shields said. “But in some districts where Trump is either down or has a very low approval rating, they are not able to take advantage of it. †Mr. Shields added that Democrats have “had to delude themselves that there’s only one presidential candidate running. †| 1 | [
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FMD3889 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: CHEHALIS, Wash. — At this small factory south of Seattle, employees make one of the most specialized products in the aerospace industry: the rubber mats that Boeing workers stand on while assembling jets. As long as there are jets and Boeing, business would seem to be steady. But even here workers are bracing for bumps and economic uncertainty over the gritty details of where aviation parts get made and who makes them. President Trump has talked about border tariffs and new trade deals that many people in aerospace fear could raise the cost of American airplanes bought by foreign airlines or governments. And if Boeing’s sales or profits suffer, its supply chain — more than 13, 000 companies across the United States, and more than 1. 5 million jobs — would most likely feel the pain, too. At SmartCells, 50 employees and a few dozen temporary workers stamp out cushion pads on heavy machines. Executives work in a red building everyone calls the barn, and first names are the rule. Washington feels far away, but it is on just about everybody’s radar. “Let’s hit it with a and see how it reacts, then get a plan,†said Bob Bishop, the chief operations officer at SmartCells, describing Mr. Trump’s style. “That doesn’t always work. †The anxiety, said Mr. Bishop, 46, a former deputy county sheriff who voted for Mr. Trump, centers not so much on politics as economics, specifically the intense competition with the French airplane maker Airbus, which competes toe to toe with Boeing for jet orders in countries around the world in a delicate game of narrow cost differences and giant contracts. Mr. Trump has said he would seek a 45 percent tariff on imports from China, for example, to protect American jobs, and a 20 percent tariff on goods from Mexico. If business costs for Boeing go up as a result, the company — the nation’s single largest exporter by dollar volume — probably would not be able to raise prices on its airplanes to make up the difference, because then it would lose customers to Airbus. For workers and suppliers, the fallout could be brutal. “So what does it mean? It means they may cut jobs,†said Kevin Michaels, the managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, a specialized market analysis company in Ann Arbor, Mich. “It’s a very complex field. †And one that is already changing. Boeing’s commercial airplane division cut 8 percent of its work force, or over 6, 000 jobs, in the United States last year. Some companies in the supply chain, partly because of pressure by Boeing, have shrunk or merged. Since his election, Mr. Trump has tried to pit American aviation companies against one another over the costs of new fighter jets, and has harshly criticized Boeing’s high price tag for a new Air Force One presidential plane. Boeing, founded in Seattle in 1916, employs about 140, 000 people in the United States, about half of them in Washington State. “We’ve got such a huge network here — anything that curtails exports hurts the entire supply chain,†said John Thornquist, the director of the aerospace office at the Washington State Department of Commerce. “We’re very vulnerable. †Companies that sell to Boeing, or sell to other companies that build Boeing components, said that even predicting a trade war was risky, with so many variables — politics, economics, multiple countries — all in play. A modern commercial jetliner can have up to six million components that must be engineered and tested to safety standards, even before assembly starts. “We’re trying to do our best due diligence to put together an assessment, but at this time, the best we can do is just monitor day by day,†said Maurizio Miozza, the vice president for development and strategic planning at Umbra Cuscinetti, an Italian company that makes precision parts for Boeing and that has about 100 employees north of Seattle. But, he added, “the picture is not rosy. †“You prepare yourself for the worst and hope for the best,†he said. Other aerospace companies were hesitant to discuss their worries because it might draw unwanted attention — from competitors, the White House or foreign governments. It is not a good time, several said, to take chances. Boeing declined an interview request for this article, but said in an email statement that talks with the Trump administration were continuing. “The administration has made it clear that they are growth, including in exports and manufacturing jobs,†the company said. “We are engaged with the administration in direct and productive discussion. †In any small business, optimism and practicality are lifeblood forces, and SmartCells’ president, Bryce L. Betteridge, a chemical engineer, says he believes the company’s future is bright. A mix of polymers and wafflelike molds creates the upward bounce of a SmartCells mat, which reduces fatigue for a standing person and can also prevent injuries in falls, he said. The company has already diversified. Amazon warehouse workers and Costco checkout clerks — both employed by companies that started out in the Seattle area — stand on SmartCells mats. And Mr. Betteridge mentioned other new markets and ideas with enthusiasm: rifle stocks, nursing home floors, playgrounds. No idea for a better cushion seems beyond reach. But he said the company’s strategy for the future was shifting on the assumption that international trade under Mr. Trump would become more difficult. For one thing, he said, he has now discarded any thought of expanding the company into China, Mexico or anywhere else where SmartCells’ products could be made and brought into the United States for sale. “That benefit is going to go away, I anticipate,†Mr. Betteridge said. And it is simply too expensive to export heavy, relatively products like cushion mats to other countries from Washington, he said. That means the company’s growth in foreign markets, when or if it happens, will probably come through licensing the technology to manufacturers abroad, which will then hire local workers. Sales and marketing positions might be added here in Chehalis, Mr. Betteridge said, but no added manufacturing jobs would be needed. But a pressure to “buy American†coming from the White House could also be a powerful force, he and other industry leaders said, if companies like Boeing ultimately shift a greater proportion of their airplane component purchases to suppliers in the United States. Currently, Boeing spends about 80 percent of its $40 billion annual budget in the United States, and exports about 75 percent of its products. “Some of the suppliers in Puget Sound might actually be rooting for this, because in the long run it could benefit them,†Mr. Michaels, the industry analyst, said. Kurt Mullins, 56, a former lumber millworker who has been at SmartCells for about a year and a half, often installs floor cushioning systems at Boeing, where he hears the worries of workers there, too. “I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better,†Mr. Mullins said. | 1 | [
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FMD3890 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Republican frontrunner Donald Trump is leading the pack by appealing to the very worst aspects of human nature, and the battle is on the find the sentence that truly expresses the horror and contempt this news generates in the rest of us. We think Trevor Noah might just have found it.Speaking on the Daily Show, Noah said: I hope there are two Donald Trumps that way he can go f*ck himself Yep that just about does it.But Noah s whole rant delivered a brutal drop kick to the Trump campaign and its cynical use of every dirty tactic in the book to gain power with near total disregard for the consequences. We laugh, but it s still more likely there s only one Donald Trump, who is just a cynical, manipulating man, manipulating his followers and his enemies and the media without any concern for what he s doing to the country, That s possible. That s probably the truth. But I do hope I do hope that there are two Donald Trumps. Because that way he could go f*ck himself. Turning to the ever-escalating racist violence spilling out of Trump rallies across the country, Noah didn t mince his words either. Here s the truth: Donald Trump didn t just create an atmosphere for violence at his rallies, he engineered it as carefully and deliberately as Matt Damon did when he was growing potatoes on Mars. Finally the host appealed to fans of Trump s opponents to avoid confronting Trump fans, or attempting to shut down their rallies, saying: If you come in, and you actually try to silence them, it s like trying to put a fire out by putting wood onto it, You ve given Trump the villain that, up until now, he was making up. The issue of course, with failing to confront Trump and his merry band of agitators, is that fascism is the genie you can t put back in the bottle.Donald Trump, and his fellow Republican candidates, have pulled the most noxious, toxic, racist, sexist behavior back into the mainstream.The Republican establishment knows they have opened pandora s box, a box that they cannot now close. They hoped to leverage its toxic contents by turning it into votes for their establishment candidate. Instead, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have been given the chance to take over; two men who would have been unelectable in almost any ballot in modern times. Whatever hell these candidates and their followers reap upon the country, it will taint the Republican party forever.Featured image via screengrab | 0 | [
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FMD3891 | 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 a Student Whose Roommate Commits Suicide Receive a 4.0 GPA? Claim summaries: There are a variety of rumors surrounding higher education bereavement policies that affect students' grades.
contextual information: Variations: Origins: Although many schools offer some form of bereavement consideration under exceptional circumstances, no college or university in the United States has a policy awarding a 4.0 average (or anything else) to a student whose roommate dies. This rumor, or at least its widespread distribution, appears to have originated fairly recently, dating back to approximately the mid-1970s. It most likely began as an expression of the pressures students feel to achieve good grades, taking the form of a morbid joke (i.e., "Even if the pressures of school cause some people to off themselves, there's no reason we can't profit by it!"). The joke evolved into a legend when it was spread as true by credulous students, picking up variations along the way. A similar theme of suicide, along with student grade consideration for witnessing it, can be found in the pencil suicide legend. Pencil Sightings: Dead Man on Campus, Dead Man's Curve. Additional information: Bennett, Gillian and Paul Smith. A Nest of Vipers. Sheffield: Univ. of Sheffield Press, 1990. ISBN 1-85075-256-7 (pp. 69-76). Bronner, Simon J. Piled Higher and Deeper. Little Rock: August House, 1990. ISBN 0-87483-154-7 (pp. 32-33). Piled Higher and Deeper. Brunvand, Jan Harold. Curses! Broiled Again! New York: W. W. Norton, 1989. ISBN 0-393-30711-5 (pp. 295-298). Curses! Broiled Again! Dickson, Paul and Joseph Gouldon. Myth-Informed. New York: Perigee Books, 1993. ISBN 0-399-51839-8 (p. 62). Myth-Informed. Reisberg, Leo. "Hollywood Discovers an Apocryphal Legend." The Chronicle of Higher Education. 11 September 1998. | 0 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
FMD3892 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: I was speaking out on pension reform almost 17 years ago.
contextual information: Next to jobs and the economy, public employee pensions have been among the biggest issues in many 2014 political campaigns. Ernest Almonte, an independent running for general treasurer, was asked during an interview that aired Oct. 5, 2014 on the second half of WLNE's On the Record whether the 2011 overhaul of Rhode Islands state pension system went far enough. First of all, Almonte said, I was speaking out on pension reform almost 17 years ago, warning elected officials that if you didn't take care of this problem, it would take draconian measures to fix it. As a matter of fact, he said, it got to the point of saying that, 'If you're not going to fix this, you should start, (instead of) sending your children and grandchildren birthday cards and Christmas cards, you should just send them invoices and just tell them the truth: You're passing on your debt to them,' So something had to be done. We wondered whether Almonte, who served as Rhode Island's Auditor General from 1994 to 2010, was prescient enough to be warning about problems with Rhode Islands public pension systems 17 years ago, and what kinds of reforms he was saying were needed. Almontes campaign sent us several documents from the auditor general's office. Only a few go back to late 1990s and the relevant ones dealt with pension payment problems in individual communities, not state employees. One was a 1998 letter to Coventry's treasurer saying that some of the town's pension plans have insufficient assets to meet projected benefits. That was 16 years ago. Another was a 1998 copy of a report by the Johnston Financial Review Commission, which Almonte chaired, warning that the town owed $3.2 million in required pension contributions for its employees. For example, Johnston hadn't paid into the firemen's pension fund for more than three years, putting it more than $1.3 million behind in its payments. We note that Almonte's comments in both of these reports are in dry auditor language. Some readers might not take that as the type of scary warning that Almonte says he made. But we also found a May 8, 1988 front-page Providence Journal story reporting how Almonte explained to more than 200 Johnston residents that their town was in deep financial trouble. To drive home the severity of the situation, the story said, Almonte gave examples that sometimes made the audience wince: A bottom-of-the-barrel credit rating. A time between April 1996 and March 1997 when the town's bank account was overdrawn for 146 days. Falling behind $3.19 million in required pension contributions for workers. And that's not all, Almonte said. Still to be reckoned with is an unfunded pension liability that hasn't been quantified, and could add up to untold millions, the story reported. Almonte's campaign also referred us toa March 1999 report, available on the Auditor General's website, for the 1997 fiscal year. It notes that five school districts, five municipalities and three police and fire units were delinquent to the tune of about $1.7 million in their pension payments. The state withheld school aid and traffic fine payments to six municipalities until they paid up. That was 15 years ago. If Almonte wasn't warning about a looming crisis in the state pension system in those days, that's because there wasn't one. His2000 audit of the state Employees' Retirement System, covering the fiscal year that ended in 1999, reported that the funded ratios -- the amount of money each plan had compared to the amount of money it was expected to need to cover its pension costs -- had been growing steadily for years. The ratio for state employees, for example, went from 73 percent in 1993 to 81 percent in 1998. In addition, all the plans had been getting the recommended amount of funding since at least 1996 and, in many cases, even longer. That would change. By 2006, the funded ratio for that plan had dropped to 55 percent. By 2009, it had only gone up to59 percentand the debate about pension costs was poised to explode. We found no documentation from that era suggesting Almonte was advocating thetype ofsweeping changes to the separate pension plans for state employees and teachers that were pushed by General Treasurer Gina Raimondo and approved by the General Assembly and Governor Lincoln Chafee. In an interview, Almonte argued that he was talking about the state's pension problem at the time because late payments he was referring to were payments by cities and towns to the state-run Municipal Employees' Retirement System, also known as MERS, which is under the jurisdiction of the state treasurer. Reform is not just what you to do an employee or an employee's benefits, he said. I was advocating a reform of management to get the communities to make their payments on time, especially when the money being withheld by workers to help pay for pension benefits is being retained by the city or town. When payments are made late, you miss out on earnings, and that's the start of the problem because the problem compounds itself. Our ruling Ernest Almonte said, I was speaking out on pension reform almost 17 years ago. The comment was in the context of a question on the state's pension system. Its clear from documentation Almonte provided and information we found that Almonte was warning about problems years ago. But the documentation he could provide only dealt with problems in municipal plans, although some of those were in the MERS system run by the state. Because his statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information, we rule itMostly True. (If you have a claim youd likePolitiFact Rhode Islandto check, email us at[email protected]. And follow us on Twitter: @politifactri.) | 1 | [
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FMD3893 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Are Biden and Dems Planning to 'Spy' on Bank and Cash App Accounts? Claim summaries: Social media posts mischaracterized how the American Rescue Plan will affect users of cash apps like Venmo.
contextual information: Various social media posts circulating in late December 2021 claimed that thanks to coronavirus stimulus legislation known as the American Rescue Plan, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration and Democratic legislators would begin "spying" or "snooping" on users of cash apps like PayPal and Venmo. Here is an example of one such post: example The truth is, unsurprisingly, more nuanced, but the bottom line is that, contrary to what the above Twitter posts state, the effect of the legislation in question isn't that the Biden administration or Democrats will be "tapping into" or "spying on" bank or cash app accounts. This is a misleading characterization. What the legislation does is significantly lower the threshold for reporting taxable transactions made using cash apps like Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle for goods and services to the IRS. And when you reach that threshold, the app companies will then be required to send a tax form called a 1099-K to both you and the IRS. A 1099-K is, according to PayPal, an "informational tax form that is used to report goods and services payments received by a business or individual in the calendar year." PayPal As of this writing, the current threshold for such reporting is $20,000 and 200 payments in goods and services. Come Jan. 1, 2022, that reporting threshold will drop down to $600. threshold This could have a significant impact on platform users' tax returns. Here's how Bloomberg Tax described how users might experience the change: Bloomberg Tax For example, a model train collector may have paid $5,000 for model train pieces over several years that they now sell for $8,000, and the marketplace that introduced the seller to the buyer and through which the sale took place may charge the seller a total fee of $800. It may cost the model train seller $200 in postage to send the pieces to its buyers. The Form 1099-K that the seller will receive from the TPSO will report $8,000 in gross proceeds paid. However, the sellers taxable gain from that sale would only be $2,000. As a result, collectors and other online sellers will need to keep extensive records of their expenses going forward to avoid over-reporting of income and overpayment of tax. Also, consider the alternativea teenager who walks dogs to earn extra money. If their income in 2022 exceeds $600, their expenses may be limited to the fees charged by the website that connects them to pet owners, but they will owe income taxand possibly self-employment taxon the income they earn. According to PayPal, which owns Venmo, the change doesn't affect people who use the apps for personal transactions, like paying a friend back for your share of dinner, gifts, or chipping in for trips. PayPal also states that its app allows users to categorize their own transactions as personal versus rendering payment for "goods and services." PayPal Business Users on Cash Apps Will Begin Receiving Tax Forms. Heres What You Need to Know. WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather, 14 Oct. 2021, https://www.wjhl.com/news/business-users-on-cash-apps-to-begin-receiving-tax-forms-what-you-need-to-know/. Pflieger, Deborah. "New Form 1099 Reporting Coming in 2022," Bloomberg Tax, 15 Dec. 2021, https://news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights-and-commentary/new-form-1099-reporting-coming-in-2022. New U.S. Tax Reporting Requirements: Your Questions Answered. PayPal Newsroom, 4 Nov. 2021, https://newsroom.paypal-corp.com/2021-11-04-New-US-Tax-Reporting-Requirements-Your-Questions-Answered. "PayPal and Venmo Taxes: What You Need to Know About P2P Platforms." TurboTax, 27 Nov. 2021, https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/self-employment-taxes/paypal-and-venmo-taxes-what-you-need-to-know-about-p2p-platforms/L5DNjOUM1. | 0 | [
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FMD3894 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Washington (CNN) The Republican Party is waking up -- but it might already be too late.
Donald Trump's stroll toward the GOP presidential nomination is starting to turn the denial evident for months among key party power brokers to desperation. The mood of some in the party was aptly summed up Thursday by Republican lobbyist and former congressman Vin Weber on CNN's "The Lead" with Jake Tapper.
"All of a sudden, everybody is saying 'Oh My God — the house is burning down we should have done something before it got this far,'" said Weber, who is supporting John Kasich in the presidential race and is calling on the party to unite behind the Ohio Governor.
Sen. Marco Rubio, who pulled out of the presidential race on Tuesday after failing to take down Trump, had a grim assessment of the Republican Party's state of play on his first day back at work in the Senate on Thursday.
"Hopefully there's time to still prevent a Trump nomination, which I think would fracture the party and be damaging to the conservative movement," Rubio told reporters.
Anti-Trump forces are getting a sense of the backlash they'd face if they deny him the nomination. Trump warned earlier this week on CNN's "New Day" that the convention could deteriorate into a "riot" if he is blocked from power.
And on Friday, a top Trump aide threatened to give up his credentials as a convention delegate and leave the Republican Party in a stark warning to the GOP about the "consequences" if Trump is blocked from the nomination.
"I will tell you this, if the Republican Party comes into that convention and jimmies with the rules and takes away the will of the people, the will of the Republicans and the Democrats and Independents who voted for Mr. Trump, I will take off my credentials, I will leave the floor of that convention, and I will leave the Republican Party forever," Sam Clovis, a national co-chair for Trump's campaign, said Friday on "New Day."
The deepening anxiety in the GOP was underscored by a meeting in Washington Thursday of prominent conservative leaders dedicated to finding a way to prevent Trump from securing the 1,237 delegates needed for the nomination.
Trump's failure to win Ohio on an otherwise successful night of primaries Tuesday opened a narrow window for opposing forces in the Republican Party to wrest the nomination from him because it lengthened his odds of winning a majority of delegates. If he does fall short, Trump could face an acrimonious contested convention in Cleveland in July.
Conservative activist Erick Erickson raised the specter of a "unity" ticket to stop Trump in a statement he issued after the meeting, noting that the party's revered icon Abraham Lincoln was not nominated until after the third convention ballot.
"We believe that the issue of Donald Trump is greater than an issue of party," the statement read. "It is an issue of morals and character that all Americans, not just those of us in the conservative movement, must confront."
One person at the meeting, Deborah DeMoss Fonseca, a former aide to late Sen. Jesse Helms, said that there was "definitely a consensus of not wanting Donald Trump."
"I think there's still several scenarios that could play out. And I think this particular group will look for whatever it is that's going to do it," she said.
Thursday's meeting was especially intriguing because it appeared to be the most concerted effort yet by the conservative movement, many of whose adherents view the New York real estate mogul as a political apostate, to stop Trump.
But it remained unclear whether the initiative would be any more successful than previous attempts by the Republican establishment to thwart Trump.
After all, a scorching speech by former GOP nominee Mitt Romney did nothing to slow the outspoken businessman. Nor did an extraordinary indictment by National Review, which devoted most of an issue to debunking Trump's conservative bona fides. And Trump boasted at his victory party on Tuesday night in Florida that he had won the Sunshine State despite a multi-million dollar negative ad blitz attacking him.
And every candidate who tried to destroy Trump by hammering him on policy, his past business deals or his sometimes vulgar outbursts — including Rubio, Jeb Bush, Rick Perry and Bobby Jindal -- only succeeded in sinking their own presidential prospects.
The conservative uprising on Thursday was not the only eye-opening example of the Stop Trump movement.
Former GOP candidate Lindsey Graham, who once said choosing between Trump and Cruz would be like picking between being shot and poisoned, made his choice. The South Carolina Senator told CNN's Dana Bash that he was now lining up behind the Texas Senator and would help raise money for him.
Graham admitted that Cruz was "not well liked" among his peers on Capitol Hill, but implied he was the lesser of two evils.
"I have doubts about Mr. Trump," Graham said. "I don't think he's a Republican, I don't think he's a conservative, I think his campaign's built on xenophobia, race-baiting and religious bigotry. I think he'd be a disaster for our party and as Senator Cruz would not be my first choice, I think he is a Republican conservative who I could support."
The most fundamental weakness in any organized effort to stop Trump in the remaining contests in the Republican nomination is the math after more than half the states have voted.
The billionaire only needs to win 55.5% of the remaining delegates to be awarded, according to a CNN estimate.
Although he has only won 47% of the delegates awarded so far, the field, now consisting of just Trump, Cruz and Kasich, is much narrower than before and some contests are now winner take all affairs and do not hand out delegates proportionally as was the case in many previous contests.
Republican political strategist Phillip Stutts said the next six weeks will be crucial in defining whether any attempt to deprive Trump of the nomination would even be possible.
"If Trump is not slowed down, there is not a convention fight to be had," Stutts said, pointing to a set of northeastern primaries on April 26 in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island as critical to foes bent on stopping Trump.
Another complication for the anti-Trump forces is that the billionaire could be the strongest force in a string of coming primaries. To slow his march, Kasich must show he can harvest more than the single victory he has so far -- on his home ground of Ohio.
Alternatively, Cruz, who is Trump's closest rival with 418 delegates to the billionaire's 678, according to a CNN estimate, would have to show an appeal outside conservative heartland states that he is yet to demonstrate on a large scale.
The strength of Trump's position has some of his allies warning that any attempt to snatch victory from his grasp would not just be unfair, it would be futile.
Hopes that a compromise candidate could emerge at a contested convention also took a blow on Thursday when House Speaker Paul Ryan ruled himself out — though he admitted that a delegate showdown was becoming more likely in Cleveland.
As the idea of the first contested convention in decades is gathering steam, the institutional leadership of the Republican Party finds itself in an unenviable position.
Any attempt to deprive Trump of the nomination would not just cause uproar in a year in which establishment politicians have been toppled. It would effectively mean the disenfranchisement of 7.5 million voters who have backed Trump in the primary process so far -- voters who the GOP can ill afford to lose at a time when national demographics give Democrats an easier route to the White House.
That's why officials like Republican National Committee Communications Director Sean Spicer say that the process of selecting a nominee must be inviolate if a candidate reaches the magic number of 1,237 delegates.
"Our job is to wait until the voters decide who that nominee will be," Spicer told Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "The Situation Room," calling on Republicans to unite to fight for the "bigger prize" -- depriving the Democrats of the White House.
If the latest attempts to thwart Trump fail, and party power brokers decide they cannot stomach the Republican nominee, there may be a third option by embracing the final stage of grief — acceptance — and trying to limit the damage that they believe having Trump at the top of their ticket would unleash.
That could mean striving to ensure that even if Democrats win the White House, they are unable to boost an incoming president by making significant gains in Congress.
"Keeping the majorities in the Senate and the House is for us where the donors should be putting their money," said Stutts. | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD3895 | 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 Lloyd Austin's DOD Approve Contracts for a Company He Owns Stocks in? Claim summaries: A popular meme regarding the financial entanglements of Biden's secretary of defense used flawed numbers but described a potential conflict of interest.
contextual information: This article has been updated and its rating has been changed from "True" to Following initial publication, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby provided us with this statement: "By prior arrangement, Secretary Austin divested his entire Raytheon portfolio on Jan. 22, 2021, immediately following the Senate vote confirming him as the new Secretary of Defense. Snopes initially received no comment on a Feb. 24, 2021 inquiry about his divestment from Raytheon, and as such, our initial article relied on a divestment timeline provided by Secretary Austin in filings with the Office of Government Ethics. On Feb. 19, 2021, an identically phrased claim went viral on multiple social media accounts, including that of a sitting congressman, after it was posted by a self-described MAGA "global recruiter" with the Twitter handle "@johnnyrwhitsett." The claim references an alleged $285 million defense contract awarded to a company that U.S. President Joe Biden's secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, "owns over [$1 million] of stock in." posted The memes are referring to Austins past financial interest in the military contractor Raytheon. While Austin served on the Board of Directors of Raytheon and once held shares in the company given to him through executive compensation, the statement that he was invested in the company during the time he was in office is, according to Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby, false. The specific monetary value in these memes appears to have their origin in a viral Feb. 17 YouTube video that despite discussing the value 85 million in the actual clip was shared by its creator with the higher number on Twitter. That video derived the number $85 million from an announcement by the State Department which does not award defense contracts approving a proposed sale of missiles produced by the company Raytheon to the government of Chile. YouTube video announcement does not Austin's divestment aside, senators have raised concerns over the close relationship between Raytheon and Austin in general. In correspondence with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Austin pledged to extend his recusal from Raytheon Technologies for four years and to not seek a position on the board of a defense contractor or become a lobbyist after his government service. raised concerns It bears mentioning that Mark Esper, who served as former President Donald Trumps secretary of defense, served as Raytheons vice president of government relations directly before his confirmation. When asked by Warren during his confirmation hearing if he would recuse himself from decisions involving Raytheon, he refused. served refused From 2016 to the day of his confirmation as secretary of defense on Jan. 22, 2021, Austin served on the Board of Directors for Raytheon or a company, United Technologies Corp, that would merge with it. Prior to his confirmation, according to documents filed with the Office of Government Ethics, Austin held vested deferred stock units and vested and unvested restricted stock units in Raytheon. merge documents filed These are special forms of stock-based executive compensation. Deferred stock units are shares inaccessible to the owner until after that person has left the company. Restricted stocks are ownership shares of a company subject to special Securities and Exchange (SEC) restrictions intended, among other things, to prevent premature selling. Both options are often given on a vesting schedule, meaning that the full amount of the stock compensation is not available to that executive (i.e., it remains unvested) until the executive has worked at the company for a certain period of time. Deferred Restricted Austin sold these stocks the day of his confirmation. In his White House financial disclosure form, Austin indicated the value of his vested deferred stocks to be between $500,000 and $1,000,000 and the value of his vested restricted stocks to be between $50,000 and $100,000. Austin, a DOD spokesperson told us, "will file a Periodic Transaction Report and a Certificate of Ethics Agreement Compliance which will both be publicly available on the OGE website." disclosure form Raytheon performs a prodigious amount of work for the Department of Defense. Based on an analysis performed by Snopes, in the first month that Austin served as its secretary, the DOD granted at least $569,756,040 in new contracts or contract modifications to Raytheon or various divisions of Raytheon branches: an analysis $19,950,844 $290,704,534 $49,195,531 $53,861,439 $7,580,414 $8,377,372 $8,220,193 $74,238,334 $13,208,180 $14,921,191 $29,498,008 As part of Austin's ethics pledge, he stated that he would "not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter that to my knowledge has a direct and predictable effect on the financial interests of Raytheon." We asked the DOD how this arrangement would work, given the large volume of business conducted with Raytheon. In response, a spokesperson told us: ethics pledge Through a formal screening arrangement, the Secretary has directed his staff to identify all matters that involve Raytheon as a party or a representative of a party, as well as any matters that could directly and predictably affect the financial interests of Raytheon. Any such matters involving Raytheon are referred to the Deputy Secretary of Defense or another senior official for action or assignment. A copy of the Screening Arrangement is available in the DoD FOIA Reading Room. DoD FOIA Reading Room Because Austin divested entirely from Raytheon prior to any contract being awarded to the company under his leadership, the claim is Updated [March 2, 2021]: Changed rating from True to False based on a late-arriving statement from Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby informing us that Austin divested entirely from Raytheon immediately after the Senate voted to confirm him. | 0 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
FMD3896 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Barack Hussein Obama has been in over his head since he first stepped foot in the White House. Our Community Organizer In Chief just found out how unwelcome his Chicago style politics are in the UK UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage told Breitbart that the visit by President Obama, where he threatened to send Britain to the back of the queue if the public voted to leave the European Union (EU), backfired and caused a Brexit Bounce , swaying Britons to vote for Brexit.Comparing the outcome to the American Independence Day, Mr. Farage said: You [Americans] have your Independence Day where in July you celebrate being your own country, governing yourself, having your own courts, controlling your own borders and that s what happened to us yesterday. We have broken away from a political union where our power was being overruled, our courts were being overruled, and we had a complete open border for anybody from southern and eastern Europe, so this is a major historic step. On the EU post-Brexit, he said: We ve not just changed British history. I m sure that the EU project itself will now come tumbling down. I would like to think and hope that right across the globe what we ve done is to prove that people power can beat the establishment. The European Union project has failed. It is dying before your very eyes. It is unwanted, it is unloved, and people across the country are saying what UKIP has been saying for years: We want our country back, we want our democracy back, we want the closest possible relationship with our neighbours. We re happy to have a NAFTA kind of agreement with free trade, but we don t want political union . Asked of any lessons drawn from his own experiences that could be applied during the American presidential elections, Mr. Farage advised: Threatening people insults their intelligence. Don t threaten people repeatedly because if you do in the end they think you re crying wolf and they won t believe you. It s Project Fear, or in the end when Obama came it was Project Threat.Citing Mr. Obama s visit to the UK at the request of Prime Minister David Cameron:The lessons learnt from the Obama visit are fascinating. Here is the most powerful man in the world coming from a country that we have always had huge regard for. And people in Britain listening to Obama said: how dare the American president come here and tell us what to do and it backfired.And I think we got an Obama Brexit Bounce, because people do not want to be told how to think and how to vote. BreitbartWatch here to see how citizens reacted to Obama s threat:https://youtu.be/w-DSGtfWgegRepublican lawmakers warned US President Barack Obama his controversial intervention into the British EU referendum debate threatens to harm the special relationship. During a visit timed to coincide with Queen Elizabeth II s 90th birthday earlier this year, Obama warned that the United States would be in no hurry to agree a bilateral trade deal with a Britain outside the EU. I think it s fair to say that maybe at some point down the line there might be a UK-US trade agreement, but it s not going to happen any time soon because our focus is in negotiating with a big bloc, the European Union, to get a trade agreement done. And the UK is going to be at the back of the queue, he said.Obama s comments caused furore among Leave campaigners, with UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage accusing Obama of talking Britain down. Former Defense Minister Liam Fox dismissed the president s intervention, calling his views largely irrelevant, as he will soon be leaving the White House. Via: RT | 0 | [
"0",
"1",
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] | 0 |
FMD3897 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Was Target's stock adversely affected by their transgender bathroom policy? Claim summaries: The big box retailer gave investors lower-than-expected forecasts due to increasing online sales, news that affected the company's stock price.
contextual information: On 28 February 2017, Breitbart.com reported that big box retailer Target's stock had "crashed," losing a combined total of $15 billion in investor wealth due to the chain's announcement in 2016 that it would allow transgender customers and employees to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. Reported Target's stock value is now down by 30 percent since it sparked a consumer boycott by embracing the transgender political agenda. That 30 percent drop has slashed investors' wealth by roughly $15 billion. On Tuesday, the stock fell to $58.78, down from its April 19 high of $83.98. In contrast, Walmart is up 3 percent since April, and Kohl's is down less than one percent. Company officials indirectly acknowledged the consumer boycott. "Our fourth-quarter results reflect the impact of rapidly changing consumer behavior, which drove very strong digital growth but unexpected softness in our stores," Target CEO Brian Cornell said in a company statement. The company also admitted that it would likely continue to experience losses throughout the year. On 19 April 2016, Target announced that transgender customers and employees were free to use the restroom that corresponded to their gender identity amid a national row on the subject during the 2016 election cycle. The announcement came after North Carolina enacted the controversial HB 2 in March 2016, a law that became colloquially known as the "bathroom bill," which required public single-sex restrooms to be used only by people of the corresponding biological sex. The controversy, along with Target's definitive stance, prompted conservative groups like the American Family Association (AFA) to launch a boycott. Nearly 1.5 million people had signed the AFA's petition as of 1 March 2017. Target shares did plunge on 28 February 2017, but it wasn't due to its nearly year-old bathroom policy. The drop was attributed to 2017 guidance announced during an investor day event. Projections were far lower than expected by Wall Street analysts (the term "guidance" refers to projected earnings). The drop in Target's stock corresponds to the announcement made at their investor event. According to Edward Jones analyst Brian Yarbough, Wall Street was expecting Target to project earnings of $5.30 per share, but the company instead provided guidance of $3.80 to $4.20 per share, which was "well below" expectations, prompting the drop in share value. According to Reuters, Target's decline dragged others down with it: Target's plunge prompted declines across the retail sector. Walmart Stores Inc. was down 2.0 percent, with Kroger Co. down 1.2 percent and Macy's Inc. off 1.7 percent. Dollar General Corp. fell 4.2 percent. What is affecting Target and other retailers has been competition with all-online retailers like Amazon, which do not have the overhead costs of brick-and-mortar locations. Target, for example, has 1,803 stores. "Online players don't have a huge network of stores, and since they don't have that cost, they can offer lower prices," Yarbough said. Customers also have the immediate ability to do price comparisons with smartphones. These changing patterns are reflected in a statement given by Target CEO Brian Cornell: "Our fourth-quarter results reflect the impact of rapidly changing consumer behavior, which drove very strong digital growth but unexpected softness in our stores. At our meeting with the financial community this morning, we will provide details on the meaningful investments we are making in our business and financial model, which will position Target for long-term, sustainable growth in this new era in retail. We will accelerate our investments in a smart network of physical and digital assets as well as our exclusive and differentiated assortment, including the launch of more than 12 new brands, representing more than $10 billion of our sales, over the next two years. In addition, we will invest in lower gross margins to ensure we are clearly and competitively priced every day. While the transition to this new model will present headwinds to our sales and profit performance in the short term, we are confident that these changes will best position Target for continued success over the long term." Although Target offers online shopping, profits there tend to be lower due to associated costs like shipping and price competition from the likes of Amazon. Retailers are struggling to survive, with more profitable in-store sales lagging and lower profit margins due to a growing number of online shoppers. Although its e-commerce operation is growing quickly, Target reported its third straight quarter of lower sales from existing stores, citing "unexpected softness" and raising new questions about the health of large national retailers in the United States. Target also forecast first-quarter profit well below Wall Street estimates. Shares sank 13 percent, on track for their biggest one-day percentage drop in more than 18 years. Target's stock has lost a quarter of its value since the 2016 holiday season started in November and is now trading at its lowest level since August 2014. Target maintains that the bathroom policy has had no effects on its business, with company spokeswoman Erika Winkels telling us in an email, "We have made it clear over time that we've seen no material impact to the business based on the bathroom policy. We don't have anything new or different to share." A poor performance in the 2016 holiday season was also attributed to online sales outpacing foot traffic, but Target is not the only chain feeling the effects: Department stores across the country are paying the price for underestimating Amazon this holiday season. Macy's and Kohl's both reported lower-than-expected sales during the all-important end-of-year retail period and announced a spate of store closures that will lead to thousands of lost jobs. Sears has even been reduced to selling off one of its iconic brands after a double-digit sales slide. Industry observers blame online competition, as well as department store brands' own shortfalls in adapting to a fundamental shift in consumer behavior. Nevertheless, Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, told us that Target could be worse off than it is: "It's in a much better position than some retailers because its balance sheet is still robust, whereas Sears and Macy's are in a very difficult position. With Target, it's much more about tweaking and reinvention at the edges. [The guidance] wasn't great, but not as bad as other people." Saunders told Reuters that while Walmart has been buoyed by successfully offering groceries, Target has not been able to keep up on that front, calling its grocery offerings "confusing." "Target is neither a full-line grocer nor a player with lots of niche specialty products; it is neither a high-end player nor a price-focused discounter," he said. It is difficult to say with certainty whether Target's commerce overall has been negatively affected by its policy on transgender people. Although company representatives have maintained it has not, shortly after Cornell made the announcement, USA Today reported a study that showed the percentage of people who would consider shopping there the next time they needed something dropped from 42 to 38 percent. But the retail industry as a whole is facing a dramatic shift in consumer behavior, and retailers have struggled to keep pace with it. Reported Target's late February 2017 stock drop, however, was the result of announcements made during an investor day event and cannot be attributed to their policy on bathroom use. | 0 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
FMD3898 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, has offered to testify before congressional committees probing potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia but wants protection against “unfair prosecution,†his lawyer said on Thursday. “General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit,†said a statement from Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner. Testimony from Flynn could help shed light on the conversations he had with Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak last year when he was the national security adviser for Trump’s presidential campaign. Kelner said discussions had taken place about Flynn’s availability to testify with officials of the intelligence committees of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. Both committees are investigating allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. election campaign last year as well as possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russians. Flynn was forced to resign as Trump’s national security adviser in February for failing to disclose talks with the Russian ambassador before Trump took office about U.S. sanctions on Moscow and misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. Questions remain about the scope of the discussions and what other contacts took place between other Trump advisers with the Russians. Earlier this week, the White House disclosed that Trump’s son-in-law and White House senior adviser, Jared Kushner, met executives of Russian state development bank Vnesheconombank, or VEB, in December. U.S. intelligence agencies have said Russia hacked emails of senior Democrats and orchestrated the release of embarrassing information in a bid to tip the presidential election in favor of Trump, whose views were seen as more in line with the Moscow’s. Russia has denied the allegations. Trump has dismissed suggestions of links with Moscow as Democratic sour grapes for losing the election. The Wall Street Journal, citing officials with knowledge of the matter, reported on Thursday that Flynn had sought immunity from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the House and Senate intelligence panels in exchange for his testimony. The newspaper said he had so far found no takers. The House denied the Journal report. “Michael Flynn has not offered to testify to HPSCI in exchange for immunity,†committee spokesman Jack Langer said in a statement. The FBI declined to comment. The Senate committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kelner’s statement did not mention the FBI. He said Flynn “is now the target of unsubstantiated public demands by Members of Congress and other political critics that he be criminally investigated.†Kelner said Flynn would not “submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution.â€Independent Senator Angus King, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN he could not confirm the Journal report, but “if that turns out to be the case, that’s a significant development I believe because it indicates that he has something important to say.†| 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD3899 | 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: Rattlesnake Fang in Boot Claim summaries: Rattlesnake fang embedded in a pair of boots kills owner after owner.
contextual information: Legend: A rattlesnake fang embedded in a pair of boots kills generations of owners. Examples: [Brunvand, 1989] There is a rancher or cowboy who stomps the head of a rattlesnake after stunning it with a rope or quirt. The man sickens and dies within days. The man's son or nephew inherits the boots, and he too soon sickens and dies. Then yet another male relative begins to wear the boots, then dies. And so it goes until someone takes a good look at the heels on the boots and discovers the rattlesnake's fangs broken off and still seeping venom! [Benton, 1937] There's a crazy, far-fetched tale of an old cattleman who bought a new pair of boots. On his way homefrom town he got off his horse for some reason or other and was bitten by a rattlesnake. He died. Some time later his son, seeing the old man's boots in a corner, put them on and went to work. That night he got sick, swelled up, and died. There was a scratch on one of his legs. Nobody knew why he died. A little later another member of the family put on the boots, which were still new. He died also with a scratch on his leg. I've forgotten how many people died from wearing the boots, but the tale has it that the mystery was finally solved by discovering a couple of rattlesnake fangs in the boots. They had broken off there when the old man had been bitten and had continued to bite all those who wore the boots later! Variations: The apocryphal boots of lore are often said to have killed three generations of the same family, or to have done away with three brothers. Origins: This legend is even older than the 1937 print sighting (quoted above) would lead one to believe. Another sighting surfaces in a 1782 book, making it easily the oldest intact urban legend in existence. Snake experts dismiss this story as mere lore due to what's known about the structure of rattlesnake fangs and the potency of that varmint's venom. Although people have been poisoned by the broken or shed fang of a rattler, the tip of such an implement is highly unlikely to contain enough dried venom to do serious damage to the victim, let alone strike him dead. Cases on record have the scratched victim experiencing throbbing and sharp pain in the injured extremity, but only for a few hours. For the injury to be fatal, a much larger amount of venom would have to be injected into the victim a surface scratch by the tip of a fang would introduce only whatever venom happened to be present on the part of the fang's surface that caused the scratch. Although there's no truth to the legend about a fatal pair of boots killing one family member after another, its underlying message that it always pays to be careful around rattlesnakes is worth heeding. Though a fang left that long in a boot wouldn't do much harm, supposedly "dead" snakes have been known to bite, sending a number of victims to the hospital every year. Never assume the head of a decapitated snake is safe to handle. Bites from dead snakes are more common than you might think, said Dr. Jeffrey R. Suchard, a medical toxicologist at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Phoenix. Nearly 15% (5 of 34) snakebite victims admitted to that hospital between June 1997 and April 1998 were bitten by dead snakes. Documented cases of deceased slitherers' delivering fatal bites can be traced back several hundred years to Spanish explorers. In 1956, rattlesnake researcher L.M. Klauber published a study showing that rattlesnake heads are dangerous for 20 minutes to an hour after decapitation. Says Bill Sloan of the Arizona Herpetological Association: "As you go down the evolutionary scale, the functions of the brain and functions of the body become a little more separated. There's a reflex action involved when you touch a snake's mouth. The fang is like a hypodermic needle. It's going to continue to work if you put your hand near it." Which it did in the case of Justin Cluff: [Arizona Republic, 1999] Justin Cluff isn't surprised. The 21-year-old Queen Creek man could have died after picking up the decapitated head of a Mojave rattler a friend had shot with a .22-caliber rifle. The snake head rallied and sank a fang into Cluff's knuckle. "I had been around snakes so much I felt comfortable with them," Cluff said. "I guess I loosened up on my grip. That's when it bit me. The pain was terrible." Cluff ended up losing part of his right index finger. Barbara "fangs for the memory" Mikkelson Last updated: 29 June 2007 Sources: Benton, Thomas Hart. An Artist in America. New York: Robert M. McBride, 1937 (pp. 210-211). Brunvand, Jan Harold. Curses! Broiled Again! New York: W. W. Norton, 1989. ISBN 0-393-30711-5 (pp. 76-78). Curses! Broiled Again! Buckland, Francis. Curiosities of Natural History (First Series, 4th ed.) London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1883 (p. 200). Ropp, Thomas. "Dead Snakes Still Bite." Also told in: Cohen, Daniel. The Beheaded Freshman and Other Nasty Rumors The Beheaded Freshman and Other Nasty Rumors The Big Book of Urban Legends. New York: Paradox Press, 1994. ISBN 1-56389-165-4 (p. 56). The Big Book of Urban Legends | 2 | [
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"2"
] | 2 |
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