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FMD2900 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Hillary won t be able to claim a vast right-wing conspiracy when she sees the article the left-leaning New York Times published. The article outlines how Hillary aggressively pursued the women her husband willingly chose to have sex with while he was married to her. Hillary never considered the women her philandering husband had sexual relations with were merely victims of a serial sexual abuser. He was her ticket to the ultimate power. The truth of the matter is, Hillary destroyed these women and protected her sexual predator husband, because having the ultimate political power was more important to her than the victims her husband discarded like yesterday s trash. This is the woman who is to be held up as an example for our daughters? This is the woman who young girls on college campuses say they ll vote for because she has matching genitalia? Hillary s true story needs to be told. She is nothing more than a two-bit opportunist who has clung to a charismatic serial sexual abuser of women for one reason, and one reason only to get to this point her ultimate goal the first serious female candidate for President of the United States. As usual with the Clinton s anyone who is harmed on their way up the political ladder, is of little or no consequence to them Last week, Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, criticized Mrs. Clinton over Mr. Clinton s affairs and her response to them, and said he might talk more about the issue in the final weeks before the election.That could be a treacherous strategy for Mr. Trump, given his own past infidelity and questionable treatment of women. Many voters, particularly women, might see Mrs. Clinton being blamed for her husband s conduct.It could also remind voters of a searing period in American history, and in Mrs. Clinton s life.Confronting a spouse s unfaithfulness is painful under any circumstance. For Mrs. Clinton, it happened repeatedly and in the most public of ways, unfolding at the dawn of the 24/7 news cycle, and later in impeachment proceedings that convulsed the nation.Outwardly, she remained stoic and defiant, defending her husband while a progression of women and well-funded conservative operatives accused Mr. Clinton of behavior unbecoming the leader of the free world.But privately, she embraced the Clinton campaign s aggressive strategy of counterattack: Women who claimed to have had sexual encounters with Mr. Clinton would become targets of digging and discrediting tactics that women s rights advocates frequently denounce.The campaign hired a private investigator with a bare-knuckles reputation who embarked on a mission, as he put it in a memo, to impugn Ms. Flowers s character and veracity until she is destroyed beyond all recognition. In a pattern that would later be repeated with other women, the investigator s staff scoured Arkansas and beyond, collecting disparaging accounts from ex-boyfriends, employers and others who claimed to know Ms. Flowers, accounts that the campaign then disseminated to the news media.By the time Mr. Clinton finally admitted to sexual relations with Ms. Flowers, years later, Clinton aides had used stories collected by the private investigator to brand her as a bimbo and a pathological liar. Mrs. Clinton s level of involvement in that effort, as described in interviews, internal campaign records and archives, is still the subject of debate. By some accounts, she gave the green light and was a motivating force; by others, her support was no more than tacit assent.What is clear is that Mrs. Clinton was in a difficult spot. She was aware that her husband had cheated earlier in their marriage, but by her telling, she also believed him when he denied the accusations levied by Ms. Flowers and others.Mickey Kantor, the chairman of Bill Clinton s 1992 campaign, said that Mrs. Clinton wanted to separate fact from fiction and to size up the women making the claims. Let s say the woman has some not-helpful things that she has done in the past, Mr. Kantor said. Wouldn t you want to know that, and evaluate it? Mrs. Clinton and her husband declined to be interviewed, and her campaign did not answer questions about her support of efforts to undermine the women. The country closed the book on these matters close to 20 years ago, and there is nothing whatsoever new here, her spokesman, Brian Fallon, said in a statement.Her campaign also released statements from James Carville, Mr. Clinton s top campaign strategist, and two lawyers who worked for Mr. Clinton, saying that Mrs. Clinton had not overseen the counterattacks. Those who took the lead in responding to those attacks at the time have plainly stated that Hillary Clinton did not direct their work, Mr. Fallon said.Neutralizing the WhispersFour years after Gary Hart fled a presidential race amid speculation about an affair, every accusation of womanizing was viewed as a mortal threat to Mr. Clinton s campaign.Stanley Greenberg, a pollster for the campaign who had strategized with the Clintons in the fall of 1991 about how to handle the rumors of infidelity, recalled Mrs. Clinton s acknowledgment that her husband had strayed. It was an uncomfortable meeting, Mr. Greenberg said in an interview for an oral history of Mr. Clinton s presidency conducted by the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. I remember Hillary saying that, obviously, if I could say no to this question, we would say no, and therefore, there is an issue. Weeks later, their first taste of trouble came in a Penthouse magazine story by a rock groupie named Connie Hamzy, who claimed Mr. Clinton had once propositioned her at a hotel in Little Rock, Ark.Mr. Clinton brushed off the story, saying that Ms. Hamzy had made a sexual advance toward him, George Stephanopoulos, the communications director of the 1992 campaign, recalled in his book, All Too Human. But Mrs. Clinton demanded action. We have to destroy her story, she said, according to Mr. Stephanopoulos.In what became a common tactic, affidavits were collected, from an aide and two others who stated that they were with Mr. Clinton at the hotel and that Ms. Hamzy s story was false. (Contacted recently, Ms. Hamzy said she stood by her account.)When the work was done, both Clintons called Mr. Stephanopoulos, together, to offer their thanks.An Explosive AccusationThe Gennifer Flowers story landed like a bomb weeks before the New Hampshire primary.Ms. Flowers, a lounge singer and Arkansas state employee at the time, sold Star magazine her story claiming an affair with Mr. Clinton that had lasted more than 10 years.In a meeting with aides, the Clintons scripted a unified defense that they delivered in the interview on 60 Minutes. With Mrs. Clinton nodding agreement, Mr. Clinton admitted to the TV audience to causing pain in my marriage, but denied an affair with Ms. Flowers. Mrs. Clinton professed sympathy for Ms. Flowers, saying she had been caught up in rumors through no fault of her own.But at a news conference the next day, Ms. Flowers reasserted her claims, playing excerpts from her calls with Mr. Clinton. The two could be heard discussing the attention the rumors were getting, and she joked about his sexual talents.Glimpsing the news conference in South Dakota, Mrs. Clinton directed an aide to get Mr. Clinton on the phone, Gail Sheehy, a journalist traveling with her, recalled in a recent interview. It was a reaction of no surprise, but immediate anger and action, said Ms. Sheehy, who also described her observations in a Vanity Fair article that year. Not anger at Bill, but at Flowers, the press and Republicans. Back on a plane that night, Mrs. Clinton told Ms. Sheehy that if she were to question Ms. Flowers in front of a jury, I would crucify her. Weeks later, a small group of campaign aides, along with Mrs. Clinton, met at the governor s mansion in Little Rock, and they made a pivotal decision: They would hire Jack Palladino, a private investigator known for tactics such as making surreptitious recordings and deploying attractive women to extract information.An aide to the campaign, who declined to be publicly identified because the aide had not been authorized to speak for the Clintons, said Mrs. Clinton was among those who had discussed and approved the hiring, which shifted the campaign to a more aggressive posture.Mr. Kantor, the campaign chairman, said he did not know whether Mrs. Clinton had specifically approved Mr. Palladino s employment as the other aide recalled. But he said that she had seen a need for outside help. She believed we had to deal with the issue directly, Mr. Kantor said.Mr. Palladino, who did not respond to requests for an interview, reported to James Lyons, a lawyer working for the campaign. In a memo that he addressed to Mr. Lyons on March 30, Mr. Palladino proposed a full-court press on Ms. Flowers. Every acquaintance, employer, and past lover should be located and interviewed, Mr. Palladino wrote. She is now a shining icon telling lies that so far have proved all benefit and no cost for any other opportunist who may be considering making Clinton a target. Soon, Ms. Flowers heard from ex-boyfriends and others who said they had been contacted by a private investigator. They would say that he would try to manipulate them, Ms. Flowers recalled, or get them to say things like I was sexually active. Karen Steele, who had worked with Ms. Flowers at the Roy Clark Celebrity Theater in Branson, Mo., was among those who received a visit. I remember I got questioned about brothers Gennifer and I once dated, she said. It wasn t warm and fuzzy. While Mrs. Clinton considered the Lewinsky affair a personal lapse by her husband, she gave him credit for trying to break it off and manage someone who was a narcissistic loony toon, according to Ms. Blair s papers.Bill Clinton can be seen lying before Grand Jury about sexual relations he had with Monica Lewinsky, a young intern in the Oval Office, for which he was impeached later. Hillary s close friend Diane Blair a political science professor whose papers were donated to the University of Arkansas Special Collections library Hillary Clinton credited Bill Clinton with trying to break away from Lewinsky, whom she called a narcissistic loony toon. :Soon after, Mrs. Clinton expressed pleasure to her friend that she and her husband were able to drive their adversaries totally nuts because they did not appear to be suffering.For entire story: New York Times | 0 | [
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FMD2901 | 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 Tennessee Find Kevin James Sexy? Claim summaries: What is it about maps that makes them seem so credible to the internet?
contextual information: On October 12, 2021, a map supposedly showing searches on the pornography website Pornhub went viral on Twitter as social media users laughed about the bizarre sexual preferences of their compatriots. The state of Texas, for instance, liked lesbian porn, the map claimed, the Northwest states searched for Asians, and Oklahoma liked Gothic Hospital? And Tennessee liked Kevin James? This map has been floating around social media since at least February 2019 when it was posted by @sortabad. When the fake map went viral again more than two years later in October 2021, they claimed credit for the map and shared their original tweet: Pornhub does release analytics via their insights page and they have released maps in the past that show the top searches by state. Heres one such map from around election day in 2020. insights In 2016, they released a map that looks similar to the viral joke map (except, unfortunately, for the inclusion of Kevin James). released a map So what does all this mean? Do Tennesseans find or do they not find Kevin James sexy? Well, we cant really answer that. But we can say that the answer isnt reflected in this viral joke map. 2020 Election Week Searches Pornhub Insights. https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2020-election-week-searches. Accessed 14 Oct. 2021. February 26, { 72 comments }, and 2016 Tweet. The United States Top Searches Pornhub Insights. https://www.pornhub.com/insights/united-states-top-searches. Accessed 14 Oct. 2021. | 0 | [
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FMD2902 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: An attack that killed more than 300 people in North Sinai has prompted Egyptian officials to renew efforts to enlist local tribes whose support will be critical in attempts to defeat Islamic State, security and military sources said. Brandishing an Islamic State flag, masked men in military-style uniforms fired on worshippers at a village mosque on Friday in the worst such bloodshed in modern Egyptian history. It was a dramatic setback for the military, which has been fighting militant groups in the Sinai peninsula for years with air strikes, ground assaults and mass arrests, while hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed. Lacking sufficient counter-insurgency skills, the army began recruiting tribesmen three years ago, hoping their mastery of the Sinai s inhospitable terrain would provide intelligence on the militants and their arms smuggling routes. That campaign has produced limited results and the latest bloodshed will pressure the army to secure better cooperation from tribal leaders despite some gains against Islamic State this year. No group has claimed responsibility for Friday s assault, whose brutality shocked Egyptians. On Wednesday, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered the military to secure the Sinai within the next three months. You can use all brute force necessary, he said. Tribes in the Sinai vowed to unite and join forces with the army after fellow Bedouins were killed in Friday s carnage. But such declarations by Sinai tribes which accuse the Cairo government of treating them like second-class citizens have in the past produced limited results. In addition, tribesmen remain divided over feuds and other local issues. The Egyptian military has more than enough weapons. The biggest issue when it comes to doing anything in the Sinai is to make sure they have good intelligence, said HA Hellyer, an Egypt expert and senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council. If it is going to be a counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency set of strategies, that will necessitate involvement from the tribes at a very significant level. Three security and military sources said that over the past two days talks had been held between security officials and tribal leaders in north and central Sinai. Those security officials said greater coordination and cooperation were needed to defeat the militants. The tribes were divided into five groups and security officials sat separately with each group. We asked them to help us to control the militants in the areas that they live, farm and move in, because each tribe knows its own people best, said one of the sources. There are many things that make them cooperate with us and they vary from each tribe to the next. That s why we sat separately with each tribe. One tribe needs services, and there is economic cooperation on projects with another tribe. A spokesman for the military said it had made no statement on tribal affairs in Sinai and he could not comment Alliances with tribes have succeeded in other countries facing serious extremist threats under the right conditions. In 2006, Sunni tribesmen joined forces with U.S. troops in Iraq and rebelled against al Qaeda in what became known as the Sahwa , or Awakening. By January 2009, Washington had invested more than $400 million in the Awakening program, according to U.S. data. Fighters were paid as much as $300-400 a month. That investment paid off, helping Iraqi security forces to defeat al Qaeda then. Under a Sisi initiative in 2015 to reinforce cooperation, several hundred Bedouins were to be recruited. Occasionally, they joined patrols and manned checkpoints under supervision. But some tribal leaders were reluctant to team up with the army without more weapons to confront battle-hardened militant fighters. Authorities are wary of supplying arms to tribes with a history of animosity to Cairo, security officials say. When the security officials spoke to the tribal leaders, they told them that there is no third option in front of them. Either with us or against us, another source said. Most of the tribes immediately announced their cooperation with security forces, and others asked for some time to think. But I think that the security forces don t have the time to give them to think. Mustafa al-Aqili, of the Supreme Council of Arab Tribes, said heavy losses in the mosque attack could encourage both sides to work more closely together. But he stressed waging war against radicals was the responsibility of the military. Sinai s people grew stronger after that attack and they are standing more with the army, he said. They are keen to join the fighting. But that is the job of the army. A security source in El-Arish, the main city in North Sinai, said ties have improved. The Bedouins are cooperating with us and have increased their cooperation, he said. Bringing Sinai s tribes together and on the military s side will not be easy. The cash-strapped government would have to create jobs and invest in schools and infrastructure. To appease angry residents for now, authorities announced $10 million in funds shortly after the attack. We have no relationship with politics or anything else, and don t cooperate with the army or armed groups, said Mansur Eid, who lost his son in Friday s attack. We just live in poverty here. Egypt may face a bigger challenge if Islamic State militants defeated in Iraq, Syria and Libya join comrades in the Sinai. Help from tribes would be even more important. Friday s attack was similar to Islamic State s approach in Iraq, where it has bombed places of worship in a bid to deepen sectarian strife. Sisi has said that fighters returning from Iraq and Syria may seek refuge in Libya and target Egypt from there. In his most recent speech released in September, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urged followers in North Sinai to keep fighting after the group was defeated in Mosul. Tribal leaders say there are around 800 militants, mostly Egyptians, with some Palestinians and other foreigners, in the North Sinai. But even small numbers of fighters have inflicted heavy casualties with suicide bombings in Egypt and elsewhere. Islamic State is also seeking to enlist tribesmen in the Sinai, and Ahmed Zagloul, a researcher on Islamist movements, said it had managed to recruit from the largest tribes. By capitalizing on frustrations with the government and civilian deaths, Islamic State has won some support despite its brutal methods. Many in the Sinai were not won over by the government s methods of fighting terrorism, which had left some villages completely destroyed, said Sheikh Ibrahim al-Menei, a leader of the Sawarka tribe. | 1 | [
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FMD2903 | 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: President Obama's Asian Trip - $200 Million per Day? Claim summaries: Will President Obama's November 2010 trip to India cost $200 million per day?
contextual information: Claim: President Obama's November 2010 trip to India will cost taxpayers $200 million per day. Example: [Collected via e-mail, October 2010] I have no first hand knowledge of this, just passing along. I could not belive this was true (but had also heard it on the air, thought was hype), but when you Google it and read a number of sites, it does appear to be true. Tell him to stay there !!! Just in case some of you dont follow current events as closely as I do (yes, I am a "news-junkie") you may have missed the following information since it never appears in our wonderful newspapers or on most TV news. The Barack Obama family is leaving tomorrow for a ten day trip to India . This is going to be an historical and incredible trip, mostly in the numbers of people going, costs, etc. 1) The entourage will include THREE THOUSAND people 2) FORTY aircraft will be making this trip 3) TWO marine helicopters are being dismantled, flown to India, put back together to fly the Obamas around the country 4) The entire 500 room Taj Mahal Hotel has been reserved for this group 5) Cost is estimated to be $200 million PER DAY for ten days 6) Keep this in mind when you get the next notice of an increase in your taxes!!! No one should ever wonder why taxpayers are angry about this type of extravagance while most citizens are struggling with day-to-day costs of living, etc. Origins: On 2 November 2010, the Press Trust of India published an article about U.S. President Barack Obama's upcoming 10-day Asian trip (scheduled to begin in India, followed by visits to Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan), stating that the American chief executive would be accompanied by a contingent of 3,000 people and would be taking over the entire 570-room Taj Mahal Palace hotel during his stay in Mumbai, at a cost to U.S. taxpayers of about $200 million per day. Another report from the same source claimed the President would be "protected by a fleet of 34 warships" during his time in Mumbai: article report "The huge amount of around $200 million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit," a top official of the Maharashtra Government privy to the arrangements for the high-profile visit said. About 3,000 people including Secret Service agents, US government officials and journalists would accompany the President. Several officials from the White House and US security agencies are already here for the past one week with helicopters, a ship and high-end security instruments. [President Obama] will also be protected by a fleet of 34 warships, including an aircraft carrier, which will patrol the sea lanes off the Mumbai coast during his two-day stay there. "Except for personnel providing immediate security to the President, the US officials may not be allowed to carry weapons. The state police is competent to take care of the security measures and they would be piloting the Presidential convoy," the official said on condition of anonymity. The information from that Indian article was quickly picked up and repeated as fact by a number of media outlets in the U.S. and elsewhere, but its veracity is dubious. The only source for the claim about the mind-blowing $200 million per day expense outlay was a single foreign news report which quoted an anonymous Indian official and provided no detail whatsoever (or even a general explanation) about how the $200 million sum was derived or could possibly be expended. Any presidential trip abroad (the purpose of this trip is official business, not a personal "vacation," as claimed by some sources) involves considerable expense to transport and house security officials and presidential aides and staffers, and those costs will likely be on the higher side for this tripsince President Obama will be traveling to a city which was recently the target of terrorist attacks and will be attending the G20 Summit in Seoul, South Korea, along with other world leaders (all of which requiresheightened security, as well as the presence of additional numbers of U.S. government officials). G20 Summit However, citing a cost figure of $200 million per day stretches credulity to the breaking point: That number would entail a total outlay of $400 million for the two-day visit (a whopping $2 billion if the cost were applied across the entire ten-day trip), and even if President Obama were accompanied by a prodigious 3,000-person entourage, with the U.S. government picking up the entire tab for all of them, the U.S. would have to be spending the unbelievably staggering sum of $66,000 per person per day to reach that figure. And, as the the Wall Street Journal observed, the details of the report are "demonstrably incorrect," and it certainly isn't the case that the U.S. will be picking up the tab for everyone traveling with the president: The report is demonstrably incorrect. It says the White House had blocked off the entire Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai it hasn't and that the press traveling with Mr. Obama will be staying there. We won't. Besides, the press pays its own way at considerable cost to the media outlets, not the U.S. taxpayer. Additionally, U.S. officials disclaimed numeric figures cited for the President's Asian visit as "wildly inflated" and "absurd": White House spokesman Tommy Vietor shot down the $200 million-a-day figure: "The numbers reported in this article have no basis in reality. Due to security concerns, we are unable to outline details associated with security procedures and costs, but it's safe to say these numbers are wildly inflated," Vietor said. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell also outright rejected the claim that 34 warships would patrol the Mumbai coast while Obama is in town. "I think there has been a lot of creative writing that's been done on this trip over the last few days," he said. "We obviously have some support role for presidential travel ... but I will take the liberty this time of dismissing as absolutely absurd, this notion that somehow we are deploying 10 percent of the Navy, some 34 ships and an aircraft carrier in support of the president's trip to Asia that's just comical. "Nothing close to that is being done, but the notion that president would require security as he travels to India and elsewhere should not come as a surprise to anyone," he said. A military official also [said] the warship claim was inaccurate. The official knew of no such plans and said, besides, a carrier strike group typically has 10-12 ships at most. Moreover, CNN noted that the cost of similar trips undertaken by other presidents came nowhere close to the $200 million per day figure being claimed of President Obama's Asian visit: While the exact cost of Obama's 10-day trip to Asia is not known to the public, an examination of similar presidential excursions in the past support the likelihood that the $200 million-a-day figure is exaggerated. For example, an 11-day trip by then-President Bill Clinton to Africa in 1998 involving about 1,300 people cost $5.2 million a day, according to the federal Government Accountability Office, which adjusted for inflation. The U.S. government isn't likely to be forthcoming with a cost breakdown for President Obama's Asia trip (particularly since a large chunk of the expenses necessarily involve security arrangements, which obviously can't be publicly outlined or detailed), but it's probably safe to say that the ultimate cost will be well short of the claimed $200 million per diem figure. Some readers who inquired about this item amusingly garbled its details, mistaking Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace hotel for the famous Taj Mahal mausoleum in Agra: Is it true that President Obama rented the entire Taj Mahal and is bringing in the near future, thousands of people to a meeting there? Last updated: 5 November 2010 Martinez, Luis. "Pentagon Dismisses Reports of 34 Warships for Obama Trip Security." ABCNews.com. 4 November 2010. Robinson, Dan. "Obama Aims to Expand, Strengthen Relationships on 10-Day Asia Trip." VOANews.com. 1 November 2010. Weisman, Jonathan. "Fuzzy Math Dogs Obama's Asia Trip." The Wall Street Journal. 4 November 2010. CNN.com. "Debunking the Myth: The Cost of Obama's Trip to Asia." 5 November 2010. Economic Times. "Force One Inspect Venues of Obama's Visit." 3 November 2010. FOXNews.com. "Security Entourage Earning Epic Reputation Ahead of Obama India Visit." 4 November 2010. Press Trust of India. "US to Spend USD 200 Mn a Day on Obama's Mumbai Visit." 2 November 2010. Press Trust of India. "White House Paraphernalia to Be in India for Obama Visit." 4 November 2010. | 0 | [
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FMD2904 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: As the Department of Justice prepared to investigate Flint, Michigan s poisoned water, someone allegedly broke into a vacant office where the city s water records are stored.For more than 18 months, residents of the city of Flint have been sounding the alarm over the appearance, taste and smell of the water flowing through their taps.As Addicting Info reported here in January of 2014, the water had an offensive odor, foul taste and looked like chocolate milk on tap. Yet for months officials in republican governor Rick Snyder s administration assured the public the water was safe. These assurances came even after independent testing showed high levels of lead in the city s water supply.As additional testing confirmed a sharp increase in the level of lead present in the blood of Flint s children, public outrage and heightened media attention followed.ACLU investigative journalist Curt Guyette soon uncovered a wealth of damning evidence, showing that Snyder officials knew that the water flowing into the city was not safe to drink. As we reported here the ACLU s investigation showed that officials rigged tests and falsified documents, repeatedly breaking the law, in order to cover up the fact that the water was essentially poison.On January 6, the United States Department of Justice finally announced that the agency was preparing to conduct a formal investigation into the Flint lead-poisoning scandal.Strangely enough, in the midst of all this, someone allegedly broke into Flint City Hall. On January 11, city officials confirmed that the alleged break-in targeted the vacant office where the city of Flint s water records are stored.Flint mayor Kevin Weaver and Police Chief James Tolbert have refused to say if any records were stolen from the office.When asked about security video of the break-in, Police Chief Tolbert said, The video doesn t show anything. How convenient that someone just happened to break into the vacant office where the city s water records are kept, just as those very records were about to come under intense public and legal scrutiny. The fact that the burglars managed to get in and out of a government building without being seen by anyone, or even caught on video, also seems pretty damn convenient.Across Michigan citizens have been calling for the arrest of governor Snyder, as more and more evidence emerges showing that he and his administration purposely allowed the residents of Flint to drink water contaminated with lead for more than a year, all while assuring them it was safe.Given everything we already know about Snyder, the odds that this break-in was not related to Flint s poisoned water are slim to zero.Rick Snyder s watergate scandal is looking more and more like Richard Nixon s every day.Featured image credit: Brandon Anderson, via Flckr under CC 2.0 | 0 | [
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FMD2905 | 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 Kamala Harris Involved in Bailing Out 'Violent Rioters' Amid George Floyd Protests? Claim summaries: The claim appeared to stem from a June 2020 tweet from Harris.
contextual information: On Aug. 11, 2020, then-U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden selected California U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris as his Democratic running mate in the race against Republican incumbents Donald Trump and Mike Pence. Joe Biden Kamala Harris Donald Trump Mike Pence Following that announcement, Trump and his supporters attempted to call attention to what they framed as immoral judgment by Harris the Trump campaign alleged she wrongly encouraged Americans to help people who were arrested during protests over the police in-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. George Floyd For example, in an Aug. 17 speech to supporters in Mankato, Minnesota (which is about 80 miles southwest of Minneapolis), Trump said, according to a Factba.se transcription of the event: Factba.se transcription Kamala Harris encouraged Americans to donate to the so-called Minnesota Freedom Fund do you know that is? which bailed out the rioters, looters, assaulters, and anarchists from jail. And Biden's staff did the same thing; they donated a lot of their money to get them out of jail so that everyone was right back on the streets. Think of that: This is what is running for office. Less than two weeks later, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, doubled down on the president's claim, alleging in a tweet: "Kamala Harris helped violent rioters in Minnesota get out of jail to do more damage." Sen. Tom Cotton tweet Around the same time, at least one conservative website purported in a headline that Harris donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF), which indeed gives cash to people who cannot afford bail so they don't have to wait in jail until court hearings, or agree to high-interest loans. one conservative website Over the course of months, numerous Snopes readers contacted us to investigate whether Harris had actually given money to the Minnesota-based organization, and, if so, whether those contributions allowed for any of the roughly 170 people who were arrested during protests to get out of jail and commit more crimes. First, let us identify what appeared to be the basis of those assertions. Following Floyd's death, supporters of the civil rights movement nationwide (including many celebrities) donated more than $30 million to MFF, according to the nonprofit and news reports. High-profile donors used social media to promote their contributions, and Harris, on June 1, used her official accounts as a vice presidential candidate to express her support for the fundraising effort. including many celebrities more than $30 million accounts "If you're able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota," she wrote on Facebook and Twitter, including links to an MFF donation page on the left-leaning fundraising site, ActBlue. @MNFreedomFund In other words, while it was true Harris publicly expressed support for the nonprofit and encouraged others to donate to it in summer 2020, she did not say on social media or via any other public statement that she herself donated money to the organization. Next, we analyzed how Harris' 2020 campaign spent money and if, or to what extent, it helped the nonprofit, despite the fact she had not publicly declared the possible financial tie in a speech, interview, or on social media. Based on campaign filings compiled by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and Center for Responsive Politics, no expenditure receipt listed "Minnesota Freedom Fund" debunking the possible claim that she used campaign money to help the nonprofit. Federal Election Commission Center for Responsive Politics Snopes reached out to MFF, asking if Harris at any point donated money and, if so, for the contribution's details. Greg Lewin, the organization's interim executive director, responded to us via email: "No, we have nothing in our records indicating a donation from Vice President Harris." We also reached out to Harris' press secretary, Symone Sanders, to comment on critics' accusations, but we have not heard back. We will update this report when or if we do. (As part of a wide-sweeping proposal to reform the country's criminal justice system, the Biden-Harris administration has pledged to eliminate the country's cash-bail system.) has pledged Now, let us move to the latter claim regarding the people who MFF helped during the protests, in light of Harris' June 1 posts praising the organization's work. Established in 2016, MFF is among the many nonprofits that attempt to counteract inequities in the country's cash-bail system by paying detainees' criminal and immigration bonds. Then, when those people attend court proceedings to determine the outcome of their case or whether they indeed broke the law prior to their arrest they must return the full value of the cash bail to the Minnesota-based nonprofit. The MFF website states: inequities states Weve never made decisions based simply on pretrial charge and we wont now. [...] We have always prioritized those who are unable to pay for freedom and face the greatest level of danger and marginalization. We will continue to center and prioritize the following groups in our bail payment: BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) Those experiencing homelessness People arrested who live in Minnesota Those who have been detained while fighting for justice Nearly half the people we pay bail for have had their case completely dismissed, suggesting there was never a case for the arrest or charge to begin with. Therefore, if a judge has decided that someone can be released so long as they can afford the price, we will pay that fee if we can afford it. Like in dozens of U.S. cities where people protested Floyds death, peaceful marches during the day between May 26 and early June set the stage for vandalism and destruction at night. However, the overwhelming majority of people who were arrested during the large gatherings whether chaotic or peaceful did not need the MFF's help. Citing accounting by the American Bail Coalition (a trade group of insurance companies who profit from underwriting bail bonds) and Hennepin County jail records, The Washington Post reported in September that all but three of the 170 people arrested during the protests were released from jail within a week. Of the 167 released, only 10 had to put up a monetary bond to be released, and, in most cases, the amounts were nominal, such as $78 or $100. In fact, 92 percent of those arrested did not have to pay bail and 29 percent of those arrested did not face charges, the news outlet reported. American Bail Coalition The Washington Post "We have paid all the protest bails that have come our way," the MFF website said. "[Many] of the people who were arrested during the uprising werent detained and instead were given citations then released, have been released with no bail, or held with no bail." said However, among the small group of people who did receive direct bail assistance from the nonprofit, one man was arrested on suspicion of shooting at police with an AK-47-style mini Draco pistol in the early hours of May 30, as well as a woman who allegedly stole from a cell phone store in a Minneapolis suburb and other businesses the day prior, according to The Washington Post and other news reports. As of September, the nonprofit paid $75,000 in cash to help the former suspect and $750 to assist the latter. AK-47-style mini Draco pistol woman The Washington Post news reports Additionally, a 32-year-old man whom MFF bailed out on an assault charge in July a case that was unrelated to the protests was charged with committing third-degree assault the following month, leaving the victim with a traumatic brain injury and a fractured skull, according to news reports. Lewin said in a statement afterward that the organization needs to "strengthen our internal procedures" to ensure its clients stay out of the criminal justice system after their first go-around. news reports statement In sum, while Harris indeed expressed public support for MFF following Floyd's death, it was false to claim she donated money to the organization, or that it helped protesters "get out of jail and do more damage," like Cotton alleged. Rather, no evidence existed to show the handful of people who received direct bail assistance for arrests related to the demonstrations committed more crimes after their initial detainment. For those reasons, we rate this claim "false." | 0 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
FMD2906 | 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: Austin is burdened by the fastest-growing tax increases of any major city in the nation.
contextual information: An activist expressed elation after Austin voters rejected a $1 billion rail-and-roads proposition, stating that the rail component of the plan would have been a financial headache. Jim Skaggs, founder of Citizens Against Rail Taxes, told the Austin Monitor for a Nov. 5, 2014, news story that the rail costs would have been imposed on a community already burdened by the fastest-growing tax increases of any major city in the nation. Mark Nathan, a consultant for Let's Go Austin, which advocated for the proposition, asked us to verify Skaggs' claim. To our inquiry, Skaggs said by email that he believes he learned of Austin's dubious status from an Austin Business Journal story. "I do not have time to research it at the moment," Skaggs wrote on Nov. 5, 2014. City spokeswoman Melissa Alvarado said by email that the city does not track taxes in other jurisdictions. Alvarado also pointed us to a city chart showing its property tax rate mostly sliding from 1993 through 2009 and increasing or holding steady since: Source: Austin, Texas, Approved Budget 2013-14, Volume 1, page 19 (downloaded Nov. 24, 2014). Alvarado continued, "Please keep in mind the city is only one taxing jurisdiction. There's also the county, school district, health district, and more, depending on where exactly someone lives." She also noted that appraisals are a factor for taxes, not just the tax rate, and mentioned that the 2015 tax rate is the same as the 2014 rate. Indeed, surging property values are a driver of local government revenues, as the Austin American-Statesman has noted; an April 2014 news story quoted Travis County's chief appraiser, Marya Crigler, stating that taxable residential values—a home's market value minus property-tax exemptions—were up an average of 8 percent for 2014. Changes in those values, the story said, influence government spending plans. Our search for a breakdown of changes in taxes among U.S. cities led us to analyst James Quintero of the conservative-leaning Texas Public Policy Foundation, who pointed out by email that since 2008, according to a graph in the city of Austin's proposed fiscal 2015 budget, Austin residents have experienced a larger increase in their share of income paid in city property taxes than residents of Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, or Houston. Specifically, Quintero said, the percentage of median family income spent on property tax bills for median-value homes in the Austin area represented a little less than 1.1 percent in fiscal 2008. In fiscal 2014, that figure had increased to just under 1.5 percent, representing an increase of 0.4 percent. The other major Texas cities demonstrated smaller increases over the same period. Skaggs claimed that Austin's tax increases were the highest among major cities nationally. We turned to Beverly Kerr, lead researcher for the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, who sifted through information compiled by the Cambridge, Mass.-based Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. The institute, which focuses on property valuation and taxation policy, urban planning and development, land economics, and property rights, annually issues a 50-state property-tax comparison study. Kerr, drawing from the latest study issued in March 2014 by the center and the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence, emailed us charts indicating that numerous cities had significant property tax hikes in recent years and that, by one measure, Austin ranked close to No. 1 nationally in its increases compared with the most populous cities. One institute analysis looked at how much revenue per resident different cities have taken in. Our takeaways: From 2006 to 2011, per-person property tax revenue collected in Austin by all local government units (including school districts, the city, and the county) decreased by 4 percent, as measured in constant 2011 dollars. However, per-person revenue from city property taxes alone increased by 6 percent; Austin ranked 35th among the 50 largest cities for that rate of increase. Higher rates of increase were recorded by cities including Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, New York, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Chicago, which experienced a 60 percent spike in per-person property tax revenue. Over a longer span, from 2001 to 2011, Austin ranked 27th nationally for its 26 percent increase in per-person revenue from city property taxes. The Texas capital was outpaced in percentage growth by cities including San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, New York, and Los Angeles. Austin experienced a 2 percent increase in per-person revenue from all taxes from 2006 to 2011, ranking 25th in this regard. Its increase trailed hikes occurring in the more populous cities of San Jose, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. Another institute breakdown highlighted by Kerr shows Austin ranking among cities with the greatest increases in taxes on a median-valued home. Our snapshots: From 2009 to 2013, Austin's effective tax rate on a median-priced home increased from 1.93 percent to 2.22 percent; that bump amounted to the 11th-greatest increase (0.29 points) among the 50 biggest cities. As of that year, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Jacksonville, and Chicago were the more populous cities than Austin that ranked higher by this indicator. In this instance, the effective rate is not the rate by which a government unit can generate the revenue it raised the year before. Rather, the study defines the effective rate as the total tax on a median-priced home divided by its total value, which takes into account variations in assessment rates and value exemptions across localities. While Austin's effective tax rate in 2013 was ahead of its rate in 2009, it was less than the 2.44 percent rate of 2005. In 2013, property taxes on a median-value Austin home ran $1,049 ahead of those taxes on such a home in 2005, up nearly 26 percent. That percentage increase placed Austin 10th nationally in this regard, behind Portland, San Jose, Denver, Philadelphia, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Albuquerque, Columbus, and Cleveland—and only San Jose, Portland, and Philadelphia had greater dollar increases than Austin. Among the 15 largest cities at that time, Austin ranked third behind San Jose and Philadelphia for the percent change in net tax from 2005 to 2013. Over a shorter period, from 2009 to 2013, Phoenix, San Jose, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, and Jacksonville experienced greater increases in net property tax on a median-value home. (Dallas, Chicago, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, and Indianapolis had smaller increases.) Our ruling: Skaggs claimed that Austin has the fastest-growing tax increases of any major U.S. city. Among the nation's largest cities, Austin appears to have had the third-fastest growth in its property-tax bite on a median-valued home from 2005 to 2013. It seems reasonable to speculate that local taxpayers feel the pinch. However, Skaggs did not provide, nor did we find, evidence of Austin ranking first in tax growth among the country's major cities. We rate the statement False. | 0 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
FMD2907 | 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: Papa John's Won't Share 'Excessive Profits' with Employees? Claim summaries: A fictitious quote about the pizza chain's earnings was attributed to Papa John's CEO John Schnatter.
contextual information: On 18 February 2016, the Facebook page "I Acknowledge Class Warfare Exists" posted a meme featuring a photograph of Papa John's CEO John Schnatter along with a quote ostensibly uttered by him about not sharing company profits with employees: Although several web sites, such as AZ Quotes, Sherman's Wilderness, and the Straight Dopemessage board,have attributed this phrase to Schnatter, none of these web sites conclusively documents where or when Schnatter purportedly made this statement. In fact, our attempt to source this quote led us through a never-ending circle of memes; in the end, we found no record in any credible publication linking Schnatter to these words. AZ Quotes Sherman's Wilderness Straight Dope The quote was likely created in an attempt to paraphrase comments the Papa John's CEOmade in 2012, just before the implementation of the Affordable Care Act: comments "Our best estimate is that the Obamacare will cost 11 to 14 cents per pizza, or 15 to 20 cents per order from a corporate basis. "We're not supportive of Obamacare, like most businesses in our industry. But our business model and unit economics are about as ideal as you can get for a food company to absorb Obamacare. "If Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders best interest." In November 2012, Schnatter wrote an op-ed piecefor the Huffington Post, maintaining that some of his comments had been taken out of context. piece | 0 | [
"0",
"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
FMD2908 | 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 school walkout been scheduled in reaction to the Parkland mass shooting? Claim summaries: School walkouts and a protest in Washington, D.C. are being planned in response to a deadly February 2018 school shooting in Florida.
contextual information: Following the school shooting on February 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, people began posting information about planned school walkouts and protests, frequently using the hashtags #schoolwalkout or #nationalschoolwalkout. Readers expressed confusion about the various dates promoted by different groups. Below is a breakdown of planned events. On February 20 and 21, 2018, students from at least 50 high schools in South Florida participated in a walkout as part of at least two regional demonstrations staged by students in response to the shooting in Parkland. The Sun Sentinel reported that perhaps the largest crowd gathered on Wednesday, February 21, 2018, when teens from various schools converged on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, where authorities say Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 17 people. The demonstrators formed long lines that snaked for several city blocks, as seen in aerial images captured by news helicopters. Drivers passing by honked their horns in support. U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, D-Fla., was outside Marjory Stoneman, praising the students. "You all are so strong and so articulate," Nelson told the students as they nodded. "Keep that message going, because if you don't, it will get swallowed up into the same old same old, just like it has been."
On March 14, 2018, Women's March Youth EMPOWER, an organization sponsored by the Women's March Network, which planned large-scale protests the day after Donald Trump's inauguration and a year later, is planning a walkout for March 14. It will last for 17 minutes, one minute for each of the people killed in the Parkland shooting.
On March 24, 2018, survivors of the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and other students are planning a protest in Washington, D.C., called "March for Our Lives." The event has attracted the interest of celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey and George and Amal Clooney, who have donated large amounts of money to the cause. "Sister marches" will take place in cities around the world.
The most highly publicized walkout appears to be planned for April 20, 2018, the 19th anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado. Details about the event vary across social media, ranging from a full-day absence to signing children out (or having students walk out) at the time the Columbine massacre occurred. At least one high school has threatened disciplinary action against any student participating in a school walkout.
On Facebook, a "No Kids Left" event was scheduled for April 20, 2018, urging parents to keep their children out of school for the entire day: "Parents and Caregivers, please keep your children out of the classroom on Friday, April 20, 2018, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre. This will be a simulation of the extreme outcome if we continue to only offer thoughts and prayers when our children are murdered at school. #nokidsleft Together, let's send a message to our representatives and the current administration in Washington to take action. I'm a mom who doesn't know what else to do, but we must do something. Please share this event and RSVP to show your solidarity. Please help families who cannot afford to stay home from work by offering your service of childcare."
NOTE: We are working with www.noshootings.com to make the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting a day when no kids get shot because no kids will be at school. The Twitter account @schoolwalkoutUS, created in February 2018, provided a date of April 20 and clarified that the event was separate from the March 24 demonstrations: "On Friday, April 20th, we want students to attend school and then promptly WALK OUT at 10:00 a.m. Sit outside your schools and peacefully protest. Make some noise. Voice your thoughts. 'We are students, we are victims, we are change.'"
We contacted event organizers for clarification, and National School Walkout responded: "Hello, The Walkout is real. It will take place at 10:00 a.m. on the anniversary of the Columbine killings, April 20th, and will be an opportunity for young people to send a clear message that we will not tolerate inaction on gun violence. Other organizations are planning similar events and protests. We fully endorse those events as well, and we hope that together we can end the violence that terrorizes our country."
Chokey, Aric, Juan Ortega, and Brett Clarkson. "'Enough Is Enough,' Students Chant As Thousands Stage Walkouts Across South Florida." Sun Sentinel. February 21, 2018. Williams, David. "Schools Threaten To Punish Students Who Join Walkouts Over Gun Control." CNN. February 21, 2018. Women's March. "ENOUGH: National School Walkout." Accessed February 22, 2018. | 1 | [
"0",
"1",
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] | 1 |
FMD2909 | 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: Costco 'Free Grocery Box' Scam Claim summaries: Making fraudulent promises about free holiday groceries as unemployment rises during a pandemic is a surefire way to earn coal in your stocking.
contextual information: On Nov. 29, 2020, a Facebook page purporting to represent Costco, a chain of membership-only warehouse stores, posted a message offering a free grocery box to anyone who shared and commented on their post. The message was allegedly written by Costco's CEO, Craig Jelinek (whose name was misspelled "Jelinekand" in this scam Facebook post due to a typo): "My name is Craig Jelinekand, and I'm the CEO of Costco Inc. To celebrate our 35th birthday, every single person who shares and comments in the next 24 hours will get one of these Christmas Food Boxes delivered straight to their door on Monday, November 30th. Each food box contains groceries worth $250 and a $35 Costco voucher. Make sure you validate your entry. Limit one food box per person." This message was not posted on Costco's official page, nor was it written by the company's CEO. This is a scam shared by an imposter Facebook page. A nearly identical version of this scam (with Aldi swapped in for Costco) was also shared on social media in November 2020. Costco has not commented on this scam offer yet, but Aldi posted a message on Facebook alerting their customers about the scam: "Hey ALDI fans! Looks like another Facebook scam is making its way around. We can confirm it is a scam, and the page has no affiliation with ALDI. We're sorry for any confusion this may have caused! We have been working with Facebook since yesterday to get the page taken down, but we'd love your help! Please share this post to help us spread the word, and always be sure to look for the blue check mark by our name for authenticity!" One indication that this "free Costco grocery box" offer is a scam is that it did not originate on Costco's Facebook page. Rather, this message was shared to a page called "Costco US," whereas Costco's real page is called "Costco." Here's a screenshot of the real page (left) that has a verified symbol and the fake page (right), which does not. Social media users could have also clicked the "Page Transparency" button on Facebook to uncover more details about this fake page. In this case, the page transparency button reveals that the scam "Costco US" page was created on Nov. 29, the same day that this "free grocery box" scam started to circulate. It would be unusual, to say the least, for Costco to start an entirely new page (one that its shoppers do not know about) to host a giveaway. A reverse image search on the included photos also shows that this page is not legitimate. The image supposedly showing "free Costco grocery boxes" is actually several years old and did not originally display boxes adorned with the "Costco" logo. The original image shows plain cardboard boxes. The scammers inserted a digital version of the Costco logo to make it seem like the store was genuinely giving away boxes of groceries. A similar scam involving the grocery store Aldi also used a doctored version of this image. The best way to tell that this offer is a scam, however, is to ask yourself a simple question: Does it seem too good to be true? This type of scam is commonplace on social media. A fraudulent page (in this case, a fake Costco page) posts an especially appealing offer (free grocery boxes) and then asks social media users to like, share, or comment on the post. This ensures that the scam message will spread to as many people as possible, giving the fraudsters a better chance of success. "Success," in this case, means tricking people into parting with personal information, such as email addresses, passwords, or credit card numbers. We've had many occasions to alert readers to this kind of fraud: These types of viral coupon scams often involve websites and social media pages set up to mimic those of legitimate companies. Users who respond to those fake offers are required to share a website link or social media post to spread the scam more widely and lure in additional victims. Then those users are presented with a survey that extracts personal information such as email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and sometimes even credit card numbers. Finally, those who want to claim their free gift cards or coupons eventually learn they must first sign up to purchase a number of costly goods, services, or subscriptions. The Better Business Bureau offers consumers several general tips to avoid getting scammed. | 0 | [
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"1",
"2"
] | 0 |
FMD2910 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is a Woman the Family 'Breadwinner' for Running a Foster Care Scam? Claim summaries: The facts just don't add up in this email sent to the Rush Limbaugh Show.
contextual information: The item reproduced below originated as an e-mail sent to radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh in July 2010 by Dr. Sebastian J. Ciancio, a urologist practicing in Danville, Illinois. In that e-mail, the doctor encouraged the radio host to "share this story with your listeners so that they know how the ruling class spends their tax dollars." In this example collected from the Snopes inbox in August 2010: I was speaking to an emergency room physician this morning. He told me that a woman in her 20's came to the ER with her 8th pregnancy. She stated "my momma told me that I am the breadwinner for the family." He asked her to explain. She said that she can make babies and babies get money for the family. The scam goes like this: The grandma calls the Department of Children and Family Services and states that the unemployed daughter is not capable of caring for these children. DCFS agrees and states that the child or children will need to go to foster care. The grandma then volunteers to be the foster parent, and thus receives a check for $1500 per child per month in Illinois. Total yearly income: $144,000 tax-free, not to mention free healthcare (Medicaid) plus a monthly "Link" card entitling her to free groceries, etc, and a voucher for 250 free cell phone minutes per month. This does not even include WIC and other welfare programs. Indeed, grandma was correct in that her fertile daughter is the "breadwinner" in the family. Variations: In December 2010 the following photograph was added to circulating versions of this item, even though the pictured family has no connection to the story and no mention of race appeared in the original text: In 2014, the setting was moved from Illinois to Florida. The gist of this "story" is the claim that an Illinois woman who was pregnant with her eighth child (while still in her 20's) admitted to an emergency room physician that she was deliberately having children and giving them up to foster care in order to earn money for her family, with her grandmother volunteering to raise the children and collecting $1,500 per month from the state for each child, for an annual tax-free income of $144,000 (plus additional benefits). Is the story true? It's a second-hand account, and Dr. Ciancio declined to identify the physician who supposedly told it to him, which makes verification of that aspect of the tale difficult. Nonetheless, whatever a pregnant patient may have told an unnamed emergency room physician, the scenario described simply isn't possible. According to payment rates published by the State of Illinois' Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), monthly payments for licensed relative home care range from $384 to $471 per child, depending upon the age of the child: payment rates The maximum monthly payment (for a child age 12 and over) is $471 per month, not $1,500 per month, so the largest amount of money a foster parent caring for eight children would receive in a month (assuming all of those children were at least 12 years old) would be $3,768, for an annual total of $45,216 a far cry from the $144,000 yearly income claimed above. (And even the $45,216 figure is a generous projection, given that it's an obvious impossibility for a woman who is pregnant with her eighth child to already have eight children all over the age of twelve.) Pickel, Mary Lou. "Tea Party at the Capitol."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 28 February 2009. | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD2911 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: When supporters of the Democrat Party start using ads that appear to be inspired by Islamic acts of terror, you know they are not the party your parents and grandparents supported, and they re certainly not the party that most Americans want to be affiliated with. When the Latino Victory group released a disgusting video (see below) a couple of days ago, many thought that it was made to resemble terror attacks that have become all too common in European nations. Sadly, today, that concept of using a truck as a weapon to kill innocent people became a reality in New York City, as an Islamic terrorist driver used a rented Home Depot truck as a weapon to kill 9 innocent people and to injure dozens more.Note to Democrats: Creating a terror-inspired ad with a man chasing down innocent kids in a truck through their neighborhood is not funny, and it s definitely not a clever way to get people to vote for your candidate. According to FOX News Democratic candidate for Virginia governor Ralph Northam is not distancing himself from the controversial ad suggesting supporters of Republican candidate Ed Gillespie are seen as Confederates who attack minority children.The new opposition ad titled American Nightmare was released Monday by Democratic group Latino Victory Fund (LVF) and is scheduled to run through Election Day. The opposition ad shows minority children seemingly being chased by a driver in a pickup truck, decked out with a Confederate flag, a Gillespie for governor bumper sticker and a Don t tread on me license plate.The driver makes his way toward the scared children who shout, Run! Run! Run! when they see the truck. The ad concludes with a scene of a Charlottesville-like rally, with a narrator asking: Is this what Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie mean by the American Dream? The Latino Victory group tweeted the video that was so violent, that Twitter has now suspended their account. Here is what their tweet said:Ed Gillespie and Donald Trump promise the American dream, but can only deliver an American nightmare. No more. Vote @RalphNortham. #GameOnVA pic.twitter.com/mwpWXM47HZ Latino Victory (@latinovictoryus) October 30, 2017Northam s campaign told Fox News Tuesday that the ad was not shocking based on Gillespie s campaign. Independent groups are denouncing Ed Gillespie because he has run the most divisive, fear-mongering campaign in modern history, Northam campaign spokeswoman Ofirah Yheskel said in a statement to Fox News. It is not shocking that communities of color are scared of what his Trump-like policy positions mean for them. But Gillespie said the ad was an attack on his supporters, whom he calls good decent hardworking Virginians who love their neighbors. - FOX NewsMaking an ad that depicts a white man with a confederate flag flying from his pick-up truck, sporting an Ed Gillespie (Republican candidate for Governor) bumper sticker on the back, chasing minority kids around their neighborhood is not only sick, it is hateful and divisive. It s ironic that the end of the ad, the words REJECT HATE are flashed across the screen with a message asking, Is this what Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie mean by The American dream ? | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD2912 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Zimbabwe s new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, on Tuesday announced a three-month amnesty window for the return of public funds illegally stashed abroad by individuals and companies. Upon the expiry of the amnesty at end of February next year, the government will arrest and prosecute those who have failed to comply, Mnangagwa said in a statement. Mnangagwa was sworn-in as president on Friday and promised to tackle corruption, which had become endemic under former president Robert Mugabe s 37-year rule. Those affected are thus encouraged to take advantage of the three-month moratorium to return the illegally externalized funds and assets in order to avoid the pain and ignominy of being visited by the long arm of the law, Mnangagwa said. Zimbabwe s new president is under pressure to deliver, especially on the economy, which is in the grip of severe foreign currency shortages that have seen banks failing to give cash to customers. Mnangagwa told heads of government ministries on Tuesday that he was putting together a leaner government, which would see the merging of some departments to enhance efficiency. Critics say Zimbabwe has a bloated civil service, which chews more than 90 percent of the national budget. Mnangagwa, however, said only workers of retirement age would be laid off. He promised to rebuild the economy and improve the livelihoods of Zimbabweans. My government will have no tolerance for bureaucratic slothfulness, which is quick to brandish procedures as an excuse for stalling service delivery to citizens, investors and other stakeholders, Mnangagwa said in a statement read to the government officials. After recovering under a unity government between the ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition between 2009 and 2012, the southern African nation s economy has unraveled with the unemployment rate above 90 percent. Mnangagwa is expected to announce a cabinet this week, with all eyes on whether he breaks with the past and names a broad-based government or selects old guard figures from Mugabe s era. An official at parliament said Mnangagwa had asked for curriculum vitaes of ZANU-PF legislators on Tuesday as he moves to put the new cabinet in place. Meanwhile, deputy parliament speaker Mabel Chinomona told the house that she had been informed by ZANU-PF that the party had recalled five legislators from parliament, indicating the five had been dismissed as ZANU-PF lawmakers. The members, all linked to the G40 group that supported Mugabe s wife Grace, include former ministers Savior Kasukuwere, Jonathan Moyo and Ignatius Chombo, who is facing corruption charges in court. | 1 | [
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"1",
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] | 1 |
FMD2913 | 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: How Have the Net Worths of Presidents Changed? Claim summaries: An image comparing changes in the financial status of former and current United States presidents is not particularly revealing.
contextual information: An image comparing changes in the financial status of former and current United States presidents was widely shared on social media at the end of 2017, with minimal text suggesting that the data it presented was particularly revealing of something (without providing any detail about what that "something" might be). As for the hard data, we won't dwell on precise numbers because net worth figures are typically estimates that are at least partially based on assets with fluctuating valuations, and federal election disclosure laws have only required that candidates list their assets and liabilities in ranges rather than specific amounts. However, in general, we can note that the information in the image is at least within the ballpark of reasonableness. The Clintons' net worth was reported as $700,000 in their 1992 statement, the Obamas' net worth was estimated at about $1.3 million in 2007 (mostly derived from book publishing advances and royalties), while the Trumps' net worth was pegged at $3.7 billion in 2016. As of 2017, the Clintons were estimated to have made $240 million since Bill Clinton left office in 2001, the Obamas' combined net worth was reckoned to be about $24 million, while the Trumps' net worth was thought to have dropped to about $3.1 billion. Suffice it to say that the Clinton and Obama families have done very well for themselves since leaving the White House, but the Trumps have realized no similar windfall and have possibly seen their overall wealth decline a bit. The comparison in this image is one of apples and oranges, however, and therefore it reveals nothing remarkable or surprising. It contrasts two men who each served eight years as President and are no longer in office with one man who has only been the U.S. chief executive for a year and still occupies that position. The longer one holds high office, the more opportunity one has to establish connections and build experience that might prove financially lucrative later on, so obviously, two men who sat in the White House for eight years each have a considerable advantage over the one who has barely been in Washington for a year. More importantly, though, is that former Presidents Clinton and Obama are ex-presidents who have returned to private life, and thus they can avail themselves of many money-making opportunities common to ex-presidents—writing books, giving speeches, consulting for private companies, holding board seats, advising businessmen and politicians—that are simply not available to a sitting president. For the incumbent chief executive, the position of President of the United States affords its holder little time to manage any outside business interests, and conflict of interest laws make it difficult for presidents to engage in profitable business ventures while they are serving as public officials. Most sitting presidents choose to put their business interests into blind trusts or otherwise delegate their day-to-day management to others during their terms of office. This image also conveniently omits data that demonstrates the money-making proclivities of former presidents to be neither an aberration nor an activity limited to Democrats: George H.W. Bush saw his fortune grow from $4 million in his pre-presidential days to $23 million in 2017, and his son, George W. Bush, began his presidency with $20 million and is now reportedly worth $35 million. Finally, nothing about this subject has anything to do with any presidents, current or former, "stealing" anyone's money. Whatever controversies may have surrounded Presidents Clinton, Obama, and Trump so far, none of them has been accused of enriching themselves by looting the public treasury. | 2 | [
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FMD2914 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Watch President Trump hammer Senator McCain and the weak Senator Flake at an Arizona rally, where he also threw his support behind Dr. Kelli Ward:AP Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake s re-election race is becoming a case study in the GOP s convulsions among the establishment, a furious base, and angry donors.After bucking Donald Trump in a state the president won, Flake is bottoming out in polls. Yet Republicans look like they may be stuck with a hard-core conservative challenger who some fear could win the primary but lose in the general election.A White House search for a candidate to replace former state Sen. Kelli Ward in the primary appears to have hit a wall. And now conservatives want to turn Arizona into the latest example of a Trump Train outsider taking down a member of the GOP establishment. People are fooling themselves if they think Jeff Flake is anything but a walking dead member of the United State Senate, said Andy Surabian, whose Great America Alliance is backing Ward. I don t see how he survives a primary. I don t see how he survives a general. The numbers just don t add up, added Surabian, who worked at the White House as an adviser to Steve Bannon, then the president s top strategist.Despite discontent among some Republicans over Ward, Bannon met with her last week at a conservative conference in Colorado Springs to encourage her campaign, according to a Republican official who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the previously unreported private meeting.Ward unsuccessfully challenged Arizona s senior senator, John McCain, in last year s election, losing in the primary by a wide margin. But in Flake, she would face a more vulnerable candidate at a moment when the GOP establishment is on the defensive, facing a simmering anti-incumbent mood heightened by Republicans failure to make good on seven years of promises to scrap Barack Obama s health care law.Flake is in danger of becoming the latest victim of this voter wrath. Yet rather than making an effort to soothe pro-Trump GOP voters, he s all but dared them to take him down by kicking off his campaign with an anti-Trump manifesto, Conscience of a Conservative, a book in which he bemoaned his party s failure to stand up to Trump in last year s presidential race. We pretended that the emperor wasn t naked, Flake wrote.Trump, in turn, has lashed out at Flake on Twitter, calling him toxic, while praising Ward. White House officials say there s little chance Trump will have a change of heart over supporting Flake. One official, speaking on condition of anonymity to disclose private deliberations, said Trump is irritated not only by Flake s public criticism but by what Trump sees as the senator s attempts to use his critiques of the president to gain attention.Nevertheless, Flake, 54, insists he won t be getting out of the race. The primary is Aug. 29. | 0 | [
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FMD2915 | 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, Jeff Bezos Is Not Rich Enough To Give Everyone $1 Billion Claim summaries: A simple arithmetic error made this screenshot go viral.
contextual information: On Jan. 9, 2024, a user posted a Twitter screenshot to the r/Facepalm subreddit showing a comment claiming that Jeff Bezos, the chairman and founder of Amazon, could give everyone in the world $1 billion, thus solving world poverty, with plenty of money left over: r/Facepalm subreddit (OpenlyBasics/Reddit) Bezos is rich, but not that rich. A math error led to the incorrect conclusion that he could end world poverty and give everyone $1 billion each and still have $91.5 billion left. Snopes was able to find the original New York Post article, published on May 14, 2020, which claimed that Bezos was on track to become the world's first trillionaire by the year 2026. The article was indeed posted to the publication's X (known as Twitter at the time) account. However, in the comments of that post, we were not able to find the original reply to the post as shown in the screenshot on Reddit. Therefore we conclude that the user either realized the error in the post and deleted it, or that the reply never existed at all. New York Post article posted These kind of math mishaps are relatively common. Snopes checked the math of a user making a similar claim about Elon Musk in 2022, and in 2020, Politifact checked a tweet that appeared live on MSNBC claiming that Michael Bloomberg, who at that point was in the midst of a presidential campaign, could have done a similar thing with money left over. Elon Musk in 2022 Politifact checked a tweet But the post left us with a few interesting questions: How much money could Bezos distribute equally to everyone in the world? What about, let's say, if the world's 10 richest individuals distributed their money equally to everyone in the world? How much money would it take before you could give everyone $1 million? We used Forbes' Real Time Billionaires page for wealth data and Worldometer's population counter to estimate the current world population, which we rounded to 8.085 billion (and growing!) Forbes' Real Time Billionaires Worldometer's population counter First, the easiest calculation: Forbes lists Bezos's net worth at $176.2 billion. To calculate how much every individual would receive, we divide Bezos's wealth by the number of people on the planet. That calculation, $176,200,000,000 / $8,085,000,000, can be simplified a bit by removing some of the remaining zeroes at the end, bringing it down to $176,200 / 8,085 = 21.79. That's roughly a $20 bill for every person on the planet, with some pocket change thrown in. Alongside Bezos, we found seven technology titans including Elon Musk (No. 1), Mark Zuckerberg (No. 5) and Bill Gates (No. 7) the investor Warren Buffet (No. 6), and the owner of the French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, Bernard Arnault (No. 2). The total wealth of the top 10 individuals adds up to $1.455 trillion. Dividing that wealth by the 8 billion people on the planet gives us a result of $179.93 per person, $45 short of the weekly food cost for a family of four using the USDA's Monthly Cost of Food Report for November 2023. USDA's Monthly Cost of Food Report November 2023 This is a thought experiment, so we're going to ignore the obvious economic and social consequences of such an action. Multiplying 8.085 billion people by $1 million per individual adds an extra six zeroes, giving us a total of 8.085 quadrillion. We're going to have to up our scale factor dramatically. The gross domestic product (GDP) is a number that measures the value of all of the goods and services produced in a certain area over a certain amount of time. According to data from Statista.org, the GDP of the United States is about $25 trillion. Using that comparison, there would have to be over 100 U.S.-level economies in the world just to reach 2 quadrillion. In fact, the GDP of the entire world economy is estimated at only about $100 trillion. $25 trillion $100 trillion Given those totals, if everyone in the world had exactly the same amount of money as everyone else, we would all have $12,368.58 in our bank accounts. It's safe to say that Bezos isn't going to be handing over $1 billion to everyone on the planet any time soon. | 0 | [
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FMD2916 | 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: Florida Business Owners Engage In Shootout with Looters; 31 Confirmed Dead Claim summaries: A fake news site exacerbated Hurricane Matthew fears by claiming that looters were involved in a massive deadly shootout in Daytona Beach.
contextual information: While the state of Florida was fleeing Hurricane Matthew on 7 October 2016, the Boston Tribune web site falsely reported that 31 people died in a massive shootout between looters and local business owners in Daytona Beach: Boston Tribune reported In the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, estimated to be one of the most destructive and deadly hurricanes to hit the United States in decades, 31- individuals have been confirmed dead after a group of store owners within a Florida strip mall engaged in a deadly shootout with looters. The incident occurred this morning at approximately 10:00 AM when a large group of 42-looters attempted to forcefully steal from businesses at the Willow Brook shopping center located just outside of Daytona Beach, Florida. [Business owner Conner] Olsen told reporters, As a small business owner who (has) lived in Florida his entire, Im no stranger to natural disasters and the tragedy they bring. Ive gone through this before and have been looted completely cleaned out. In our current economy my business just couldnt survive large scale theft and vandalism. My options were to fight for my business or go bankrupt I cant feed my wife and 3 children with thoughts and prayers. According to police reports, the shootout lasted approximately 4-minutes and resulted in the deaths of 31-individuals; 12 store owners and or store employees and 19 would be looters. Chief of Police Daniel Griffin made the following statement during an afternoon press-conference, What occurred at the Willow Brook shopping center today was unnecessary and nothing short of a tragedy. During these difficult and trying times we plead with you to help your neighbors and community members. We urge you to look out for and take care of each other not rob, steal, and shoot at each other. While the effects of Hurricane Matthew are undoubtedly devastating we are a strong community and we will get through this by working together. Although the Boston Tribune (like the Baltimore Gazette) sounds like a major city newspaper's digital counterpart, it is actually a front for known hoax purveyor Associated Media Coverage, a far older fake news site that usually spreads fabrications about laws or statutes that solely affect a specific subset of the population. A number of fellow fake or "satire" news sites feature disclaimers informing readers their articles are fabricated, but Associated Media Coverage (and the Boston Tribune) do not. Baltimore Gazette Associated Media Coverage sites The image appended to the article (reproduced above) was captioned "Florida Police Officers Arrest Store Owner After Killing Looter," but highlighted visual elements of the photograph indicate it was not taken inside the United States. Moreover, the photograph was captured as early as June 2016 and unrelated to any incidents that occurred during Hurricane Matthew or its aftermath: Associated Media Coverage falsehoods involve laws that would be a nuisance to specific groups often targeted gun owners or motorcycle enthusiasts; those items included claims of an impending motorcycle curfew in March 2016, a motorcycle speed ban in August 2016, a FDA e-juice ban in mid-2016, a "two pet maximum" ordinance in numerous jurisdictions (leading many households to believe they would be forced to rehome beloved pets), a 50-state ban on open carry, the elimination of Wisconsin's food assistance programs, and a sweeping 23-state ban on hollow point ammunition. curfew speed ban e-juice two pet maximum open carry Wisconsin's ammunition Associated Media Coverage broadened their scope into more upsetting but entirely unfunny fake news items (like the looter shootout), which included claims someone died in a transgender bathroom controversy-related confrontation (a piece published during nationwide debate over the issue), Casey Anthony sought to open a home daycare center, a dead baby was abandoned in a Walmart DVD bin, and Jodi Arias was granted early release from prison. transgender bathroom Casey Anthony DVD bin Jodi Arias | 0 | [
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FMD2917 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The wu$$ification of our military Army ROTC cadets are complaining on message boards that they were pressured to walk in high heels on Monday for an Arizona State University campus event designed to raise awareness of sexual violence against women.The Army openly encouraged participating in April s Walk A Mile in Her Shoes events in 2014, but now it appears as though ROTC candidates at ASU were faced with a volunteer event that became mandatory. Attendance is mandatory and if we miss it we get a negative counseling and a does not support the battalion sharp/EO mission on our CDT OER for getting the branch we want. So I just spent $16 on a pair of high heels that I have to spray paint red later on only to throw them in the trash after about 300 of us embarrass the U.S. Army tomorrow, one anonymous cadet wrote on the social media sharing website Imgr, IJReview reported Monday.In a Reddit Army thread on the subject titled Okay, who put the cadets up to this? one user said the claims were legitimate and added, I just don t understand why [General] Combs would court political controversy like this. Isn t the military supposed to avoid faddish political movement and religious issues. Army ROTC cadets are complaining on message boards that they were pressured to walk in high heels on Monday for an Arizona State University campus event designed to raise awareness of sexual violence against women.The Army openly encouraged participating in April s Walk A Mile in Her Shoes events in 2014, but now it appears as though ROTC candidates at ASU were faced with a volunteer event that became mandatory.Via: Washington Times | 0 | [
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FMD2918 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson received compensation worth $27.4 million last year when he was chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp, the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer, regulatory filings showed on Thursday. He and other senior executives got raises even though Exxon’s net income fell more than 50 percent in 2016 as the company, like many of its peers, tried to cut costs and weather a period of low oil prices. The value of Tillerson’s compensation package last year rose about 0.5 percent largely due to a 4 percent boost in his salary to $3.2 million and an 8 percent jump in the value of stock awards to $19.7 million, an Exxon filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed. The value of perquisites Tillerson received from Exxon last year, including personal security and a life insurance policy, rose 7 percent to $575,850. Tillerson, 65, was nominated by then President-elect Donald Trump to be secretary of state in December. Tillerson retired from Exxon at the end of the year. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in early February. His current post carries an annual salary of $207,800, according to the federal Office of Personnel Management tables. As part of an ethics agreement when Tillerson assumed his government post, Tillerson forfeited unvested Exxon stock worth $2.8 million and potential for a bonus of $3.9 million. He also waived his right to retiree health benefits. Tillerson’s vested Exxon stock was put into a trust worth about $180 million at the time, the proceeds of which will be paid out over the next decade, much in the same way proceeds are paid out to all Exxon retirees. The trust is prohibited from investing in Exxon. Tillerson will not be allowed to work anywhere in the oil and gas industry for the next decade. If he does, the entire trust’s value would be donated to a charity that neither he nor Exxon chooses, according to the regulatory filings. Darren Woods, Exxon’s CEO as of January, saw his compensation rise 64 percent last year, when he was Exxon’s president, to $16.8 million. Woods saw his base salary rise 36 percent to $1 million and the value of stock and stock option awards, his pension and company perquisites, including the cost of a home security system, rise as well. | 1 | [
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FMD2919 | 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: 'Unidentified Flying Object' Seen as SpaceX Rocket Exploded? Claim summaries: Video capturing the explosion of SpaceXs Falcon-9 rocket during a test fire seems to show an unidentified flying object pass above the rocket just beforehand.
contextual information: On the morning of 1 September 2016 a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket carrying an Israeli satellite called Amos-6 exploded three minutes prior to a scheduled static fire test. SpaceX confirmed the event, stating that an anomaly had occurred in the upper stage of the oxygen tank as they were loading propellant into the rocket. The cause is still under review. anomaly Also lost during the explosion was the rockets payload: the Amos-6 satellite, which was built by Israel Aerospace Industries (an aerospace and defense contractor) and operated by the telecommunications company Spacecom. According to Spacecoms web site, the new satellite would provide expanded coverage and redundancy in case of other existing satellite malfunction: expanded coverage and redundancy AMOS-6 strengthens 4W orbital location with wider coverage and new services. AMOS-6 high power and large amount of Ku-band transponders offer Spacecoms existing and new customers a reliable growth-engine for their business. AMOS-6 enhances Spacecoms existing service offering by supporting a full range of services, including Direct-To-Home (DTH), video distribution, VSAT communications and broadband Internet. Facebook had also leased some of the communication equipment on this satellite to support their effort to provide free internet access to large swaths of Africa. After this loss of the satellite, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a statement: posted a statement As I'm here in Africa, I'm deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX's launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent. Fortunately, we have developed other technologies like Aquila that will connect people as well. We remain committed to our mission of connecting everyone, and we will keep working until everyone has the opportunities this satellite would have provided. The most widely shared video of the explosion comes from USLaunchReport.com (an NGO that produces video reports of all things space"). This video appears to show a rapidly moving object cross above the rocket right before it explodes: USLaunchReport.com https://www.youtube.com/embed/_BgJEXQkjNQThe video does show an object that enters from the right of the screen and passes in a fairly straight line above the rocket (at least from the camera angle) as it explodes. This has led to accusations from some corners of the internet that someone or something of intentionally bringing the rocket down. The video Reddit, Sptember 2016Early this morning there was a test-fire for Elon Musk's Falcon-9 rocket, which is standard procedure before any launch (static fire test). They reported an anomalous explosion originating near the second stage oxygen tank. From footage posted by USLaunchReport.Com, (a non profit that brings Veterans to rocket launches I don't question the footage on that note) there is a clearly identifiable-unidentifiable that passes by at incredible rate of speed as the explosion occurs. It destroyed the launch vehicle & the payload. Hypothesis: The AMOS-6 was destroyed by the passing UFO. (I know this is hard to accept for some, but others who are aware of certain things going on right now will appreciate this.) Some culprits discussed on the original Reddit thread include: aliens, a private aerospace competitor to SpaceX, a government worried about an Israeli spy satellite/weapons system, and/or Facebooks world domination plans. These claims have been amplified by the conspiracy focused website Neon Nettle and others. Reddit thread Neon Nettle What complicates this evidence is that there are a number of other objects, generally reported as birds or bugs, that make similar appearances before (and after) the explosion with far less fanfare. To successfully argue something scandalous, one has to prove that the object cant be a bird or a bug. Those in favor of an intentional sabotage conspiracy point to three arguments: Unfortunately, the fact that a massive telephoto lens captured the video adds to the challenge, if not outright impossibility of accurately assessing any of these questions scientifically. This camera, based on the time it took the noise of the explosion to reach it (~12 seconds) is easily over two miles away from the pad (assuming sound traveling at 0.2 miles per second). The further the zoom, the more of an effect the lens will have on an object's perceived distance and size. An object closer to the camera, additionally, would be required to travel at a much slower speed to make it from one side of the frame to the other compared to something two miles away. more of an effect Moreover, YouTube videos such as the uslaunchreport.com video are subjected to lossy compression, an effect resulting in loss of information as well as the introduction of potential artifacts. Per the FBIs Recommendations and Guidelines for the Use of Digital Image Processing in the Criminal Justice System: lossy compression Recommendations and Guidelines for the Use of Digital Image Processing in the Criminal Justice System Lossy compression achieves greater reduction in file size by removing both redundant and irrelevant information. Because the irrelevant information (as determined by the compression algorithm) cannot be replaced upon reconstruction of an image for display, lossy compression results in some loss of image content as well as the introduction of artifacts. This effect is minimal when you are not zooming in; but it becomes a bigger issue when you try to get a level of detail that has already been removed by a compression algorithm. compression algorithm An image treated in this way has been making the rounds as evidence that this object was clearly behind the left-most tower on the launch pad (these towers are used to protect the rocket from lightning strikes): image treated in this way Without more information, it is impossible to know what these pixels are telling us. If the object is in the foreground (and not in the background, as conspiracy theorists suggest) then the issues of the object's apparent larger-than-bird size and faster-than-bug speed can easily be attributed to that fact. The other argument in favor of the object being both distant and fast moving also comes from questionable handling of compressed images. According to some believers, there is a reflected glow off of the object when it passes over the explosion. These images, which also purport to show that the object doesnt look bird- or bug-like, have been enhanced, by methods that are not plainly documented: These images It is unclear what processes, outside of inverting the colors, went into the creation of these images; but zooming in on the object in each frame without any enhancement does not appear to reveal much about reflected light or shape: https://www.snopes.com/uploads/2016/09/Screen-Shot-2016-09-07-at-11.32.48-AM.pngA final flaw in the alien/government/evil corporation argument is that it does not explain how an object traveling above the rocket (without making any physical contact) would cause its explosion, nor does it touch on why this novel method might have been employed. Do we know for sure what this object is? No. But the prevalence of similar harmless objects prior to the explosion, the fact that the evidence is based on wishfully enhanced screengrabs of downsampled video, and the fact that rockets are super explosive on their own, make an outside agent low on the list of possible explanations. Updated [30 September 2017]: Added information about other websites sharing similar claims. | 2 | [
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FMD2920 | 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 Image Show a Peaceful Meeting of a Lion and a Zebra at a Watering Hole? Claim summaries: Food and drink, all in the same place!
contextual information: Lions and zebras generally do not coexist completely peacefully in the wild. Photographs and videos of these animals together on the plains of Africa frequently depict stalking, hunting, chasing, fighting, and, of course, eating behaviors. This is likely why an image purportedly showing a lion and zebra sharing a moment of peace together at a watering hole is often shared with comments such as "unbelievable but true!" This image has been circulated with various captions over the years, including "It's not eating time," "Alex and Marty" (a reference to the animated zebra-lion friendship in the movie Madagascar), "National Geographic: Behind the Scenes," and "Morning Sam" (a reference to an old cartoon in which Ralph E. Wolf and Sam Sheepdog put their feud on hold when they clock out of work for the day). However, this picture is not an accurate representation of a lion and a zebra enjoying a moment at a watering hole. It was digitally created for a 2010 advertisement for Traveler's Insurance. The general concept of the advertisement was that while animals would normally be skittish at a watering hole (as predators might be nearby), Traveler's Insurance could "take the scary out of life" so that customers might enjoy the world in peace. The description for the advertisement via Coloribus states: "This commercial featuring baboons, lions, zebras, crocodiles, vultures, and all sorts of other animals getting along famously at what would normally be a very dangerous watering hole, is the first spot in the new 'Take the scary out of life' campaign from Travelers Insurance." The viral image may appear genuine when viewed on its own, but in the context of the commercial (where it can be glimpsed around the 10-second mark), it becomes clear that the representation was created with the aid of digital editing. Not only is this image fabricated, but the idea that watering holes serve as neutral safe spaces for thirsty animals does not seem to be supported by much evidence. This notion most likely originated with, or at least was popularized by, a passage from Rudyard Kipling's The Second Jungle Book, in which he described a "water truce" during a severe drought: "By the Law of the Jungle it is death to kill at the drinking-places when once the Water Truce has been declared. The reason for this is that drinking comes before eating. Everyone in the Jungle can scramble along somehow when only game is scarce; but water is water, and when there is but one source of supply, all hunting stops while the Jungle People go there for their needs. In good seasons, when water was plentiful, those who came down to drink at the Waingunga or anywhere else, for that matter, did so at the risk of their lives, and that risk made no small part of the fascination of the night's doings." This water truce played a part in Disney's live-action remake of The Jungle Book, released in 2016. Lions sometimes do not attack typical prey animals for various reasons (e.g., they are severely outnumbered; they cannot match the speed of the prey without first sneaking up on it), but if a lion is hungry, the concept of a waterhole "truce" will not stop it. A 2013 study about the predatory habits of a group of lions in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park found that the felines frequently hunted near watering holes, especially when resources were scarce, as such sites are frequented by a variety of prey. The study noted, "Lion kills were located in a preferentially selected zone around artificial waterholes, suggesting that these scarce resources form passive traps for ungulate prey. Lions are stalk-and-ambush hunters that use vegetative cover for concealment during hunting and are known to ambush prey in habitats surrounding high-prey abundance areas. In the Hwange ecosystem, lion habitat selection and movements are driven by waterholes, and lions appear to rotate their hunting behavior between these different hunting grounds. Water sources are also considered crucial in lion habitat selection in the Serengeti and are thought to act as passive traps for ungulates in the Kruger ecosystem. Contrary to our predictions, areas close to waterholes were highly selected for kills regardless of seasonal conditions." | 0 | [
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FMD2921 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The Philippine environment minister said on Wednesday that a ban on new open pit mining in the country would remain in place, with President Rodrigo Duterte rejecting government panel recommendations to reverse it. The ban, implemented by former environment minister Regina Lopez from April covers new projects including the $5.9-billion copper-gold Tampakan project in southern Mindanao island, the biggest stalled mining venture in the Southeast Asian nation. The President sets the policy. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources will implement what the President deems as best for the country s interest, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu told Reuters in a text message. Open pit mining is allowed under the laws of the Southeast Asian country, the world s top nickel ore exporter, where many mines use it to extract minerals. But Lopez said the process ruins the economic potential of places where it is carried out. Duterte said late on Tuesday that he had rejected a recommendation by the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) to lift the ban because such mining is destroying the soil and environment and no corrective measure is immediately (being) implemented . He added that while mining brings good profit , he can let it go . The comments by the firebrand leader followed an announcement on Monday by his spokesman that Duterte had not reversed the ban. The MICC, an inter-agency panel that makes recommendations on mining policy, is chaired by Cimatu and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez. Cimatu said last month that he supported the removal of the open pit ban and that his agency would strengthen regulations to prevent any excesses by miners. The ban would further halt development of the Tampakan project in the southern South Cotabato province. The project was first stopped after South Cotabato banned open-pit mining in 2010, and operator Glencore Plc quit the project five years later. Lopez, who stepped down in May after failing to win congressional confirmation after 10 months in office, has said the project would cover an area the size of 700 soccer fields in what otherwise would be agricultural land. Also covered by the ban is the $1.2 billion Silangan copper and gold mine in Mindanao by Philippine miner Philex Mining Corp. | 1 | [
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FMD2922 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Republicans in the U.S. Congress are moving to repeal regulations adopted by the Obama administration in October that would have subjected internet service providers to stricter scrutiny than websites to protect customers’ private data. Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona introduced a resolution on Tuesday backed by 34 other senators to undo the regulations under a provision that allows Congress to repeal recently approved federal regulations. Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who chairs a House panel on telecommunications, introduced a companion measure on Wednesday. Republicans control both chambers of Congress. Last week, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission temporarily blocked some of the rules from taking effect, a victory for internet providers such as AT&T Inc (T.N), Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) and Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N). Consumer advocates opposed the FCC move. Under the rules, which were scheduled to take effect last Thursday, internet providers would need to obtain consumer consent before using precise geo-location, financial information, health information, children’s information and web- browsing history for advertising and internal marketing. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, nominated by Republican President Donald Trump on Tuesday to serve a new five-year term, told a Senate panel on Wednesday that consumers would have privacy protections even without the Obama administration rules. Republican commissioners including Pai said in October the rules unfairly give websites like Facebook Inc (FB.O), Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) or Alphabet Inc’s Google unit (GOOGL.O) the ability to harvest more data than service providers and dominate digital advertising. The American Civil Liberties Union criticized Flake’s proposal to undo the rules. “With this move, Congress is essentially allowing companies like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon to sell consumers’ private information to the highest bidder,†ACLU general counsel Neema Singh Guliani said. | 1 | [
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FMD2923 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Earlier today, President Trump tweeted about the Alabama Senate race where Republican candidate for Senate Judge Roy Moore has been the target of the left ever since he won in the GOP primary race in September, against the less conservative candidate, Luther Strange.The last thing we need in Alabama and the U.S. Senate is a Schumer/Pelosi puppet who is WEAK on Crime, WEAK on the Border, Bad for our Military and our great Vets, Bad for our 2nd Amendment, AND WANTS TO RAISES TAXES TO THE SKY. Jones would be a disaster! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2017Since the first day I took office, all you hear is the phony Democrat excuse for losing the election, Russia, Russia,Russia. Despite this I have the economy booming and have possibly done more than any 10 month President. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2017Unfortunately for the Democrats, their attempt at destroying the character of Roy Moore, by attempting to paint him as a sexual predator of teenage girls, continues to fall apart. Roy Moore s team is coming out and demanding that the high school yearbook used as evidence by one of Moore s accusers is more looked at by forgery experts after it was discovered that the signature doesn t match that of Roy Moore s and that two different colors of ink were used for the signature. The stepson of the woman who used what many are saying was a forged Roy Moore signature in her yearbook, has also come out to say his stepmother is lying about her encounter several decades ago with Roy Moore. Even the high-profile, leftist, media-whore lawyer, Gloria Allred, who represented the accuser with the yearbook, appears to have gone into hiding. Meanwhile, polls are showing that Roy Moore is ahead by anywhere from 5-15 points and that the left s shameful attempt at stealing the election from the popular conservative candidate in Alabama, is quickly falling apart.Now that President Trump has endorsed Roy Moore, the left appears to be giving up the ship Sunday on ABC s This Week, network analyst Cokie Roberts said now that President Donald Trump had supported Alabama GOP U.S. Senate hopeful Roy Moore, it will be very hard to defeat Moore in the December 12 special election.Roberts said, He doesn t have to go to Alabama. He s done plenty for Roy Moore. Moore can put it in his ads, which he s doing. He s clearly got the endorsement of President Trump. Without the endorsement of President Trump, he won the primary. I think with the endorsement of President Trump, it will be hard to defeat him in the general election. Breitbart News.@CokieRoberts tells @ThisWeekABC Roy Moore clearly has the endorsement of Pres. Trump: Without the endorsement, he won the primary. I think with the endorsement, "it is going to be very hard to defeat him." pic.twitter.com/Hyw6wSligG ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 26, 2017 | 0 | [
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FMD2924 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is This a Picture of 'El Chapo' and U.S. Democrats Plotting Open Borders? Claim summaries: The infamous drug lord seemingly traveled and dressed well while serving time behind bars in Mexico.
contextual information: An online tweet-turned-meme attempted to link then-U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, and Mexican drug lord Joaqun Archivaldo Guzmn Loera (commonly known as "El Chapo") in a plot to "keep the USA/Mexico border open": Nothing implied or stated in this meme from January 2019 stands up to scrutiny, though. First off, the suggestion that the featured photograph captured some form of furtive meeting or secret negotiations between El Chapo and Democrats Pelosi and O'Rourke does not reflect reality. This picture was taken in May 2016 while Guzmn was in custody in Mexico awaiting extradition to the United States in conjunction with a tour of three Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership countries undertaken by a bipartisan U.S. House delegation. The man standing next to Pelosi is not El Chapo, but then-President Enrique Pea Nieto of Mexico: tour Pelosi and a delegation of representatives met with Mexican President Enrique Pea Nieto, kicking off a three-country tour to discuss security, trade, migration and human rights. The delegation also included Democratic Reps. Norma Torres, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Pete Aguilar and Linda Sanchez (Calif.); Beto O'Rourke and Henry Cuellar (Texas); Ruben Gallego (Ariz.); Michelle Lujan Grisham (N.M.); and Republicans Michael Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and Richard Hanna (N.Y.). The U.S. delegation will also visit Peru and Chile, two Latin American countries that, along with Mexico, are signatories of the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership, President Obama's signature trade deal. A better version of the photograph was contemporaneously posted to Facebook by U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, who was talking with Nieto at the time the picture was snapped (but was cropped out of the version used in the meme): It is true that another drug lord claimed during El Chapo's January 2019 trial that the latter had paid a bribe of $100 million to Nieto, but the alleged bribe was supposed to have been solicited to induce Nieto to call off the authorities' attempts to find and arrest El Chapo, not to "keep the US/Mexico border open": claimed The former president of Mexico, Enrique Pea Nieto, took a $100 million bribe from Joaqun Guzmn Loera, the infamous crime lord known as El Chapo, according to a witness at Mr. Guzmans trial. The stunning testimony was delivered in a New York courtroom by Alex Cifuentes Villa, a Colombian drug lord who worked closely with Mr. Guzmn from 2007 to 2013, when the kingpin was hiding from the law at a series of remote ranches in the Sierra Madre mountains. According to Mr. Cifuentes, Mr. Pea Nieto first reached out to Mr. Guzmn about the time he was elected president in late 2012, asking the drug lord for $250 million in exchange for calling off a nationwide manhunt for him. Moreover, the bribe accusation against Nieto as related in court was both unproved and somewhat far-fetched: accusation Did members of the [Nieto] administration take bribes? says Alejandro Hope, a Mexican security analyst and columnist at the El Universal newspaper. Yeah maybe. But at the end of the day Guzmn was captured twice, then extradited. So if he did make those bribes they were a very poor investment. Taking handouts from business has become almost expected, especially among members of Pea Nietos PRI party, which ruled Mexico for 71 years. Taking a briefcase of cash from the worlds most sought-after drug lord, though, is a brazen, idiotic move, Hope says. You would think someone in that position could at least transfer it through shell companies in the Cayman Islands. Finally, O'Rourke did not run a "$70 million open borders campaign." His position on immigration has been to oppose the construction of a border-long wall (of the type U.S. President Donald Trump has called for) as an unnecessary and ineffective measure for improving border security, but not to advocate for "open borders": immigration Q: Would you accept some compromises here if you want to make changes, including, for instance, funding the president's border wall? A: I think this one is going to be on the American people. And I think, when we make the choice clear that we can do the right thing by this country and for those kids, and not do it at the price of a 2,000-mile, 30-foot-high, $30 billion wall; not doing it at the price of deporting people who are seeking asylum, deporting people in some cases back to certain death; not doing it at the cost of ending family migration, which is the story of this country -- certainly of the O'Rourkes -- and millions of families who have fled terror or starvation in their countries to be here. I think the American people are going to force us to do the right thing. That always happens in America. It is frustrating. It's slow. It doesn't happen right away. But, ultimately, we get it right. And I'm confident that the American people this time are going to get it right. We already have a border wall that we don't need. Don't need more walls and militarization at a time that the border has never been safer. pic.twitter.com/J6mdMUdyWL pic.twitter.com/J6mdMUdyWL Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) April 20, 2017 April 20, 2017 Nieto left office in December 2018, and El Chapo was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years by a U.S. court in July 2019 and is currently serving his sentence at ADX Florence. sentenced Feuer, Alan. "Former Mexican President Pea Nieto Took $100 Million Bribe, Witness at El Chapo Trial Says."
The New York Times. 15 January 2019. Phippen, J. Weston. "Did Former President Enrique Pena Nieto Take That $100 Million Bribe?'
Rolling Stone. 16 January 2019. Dobuzinskis, Alex. "Mexican Drug Lord 'El Chapo' Begins Life Term in Colorado 'Supermax' Prison."
WKZO. 19 July 2019. Bernal, Rafael. "Pelosi: Mexico Should Not Worry About Trump."
The Hill. 3 May 2016. | 0 | [
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FMD2925 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Just about every day, Rush Limbaugh s big fat lies are systematically exposed and debunked online by a variety of sources, and it never stops being awesome. But when it comes from one of his own dittoheads and on his own show, no less it s especially entertaining. Not only is it fun to hear callers stick it to him, it s even more fun to watch Limbaugh squirm and pluck his chest, desperately struggling to wiggle out of the call.Such was the case on Tuesday following President Obama s executive order to expand background checks and to provide additional funding for mental health treatment and new resources for the FBI and the ATF.During the January 5 edition of his radio show, Limbaugh was ranting about something he yanked out of his diseased bunghole, suggesting that Obama s executive order forces patients to tell their doctors where they re storing their firearms and ammo. Of course, this is total hooey, and Limbaugh would ve continued to elaborate on his lie if it hadn t been for an industrious and pro-gun caller who totally undermined Limbaugh s entire rant with the, you know, facts.Hashtag flop-sweat.The caller noted that there are, in fact, state-level statutes in place already that mandate doctors to ask mental health patients if they believe they re a danger to themselves, but there s nothing in either state law or Obamacare or in Obama s executive order demanding that doctors known where patients are hiding their weapons. Nothing. It doesn t exist. Limbaugh made it up.Via Media Matters:CALLER: [Y]ou re telling a half-truth, at least for my state a half-truth for my state. You need to get the information from the pamphlets that were sent out to health professionals at that time for each state. And we weren t it does not say you ask where the gun is. It asks sensible things like are you going to hurt yourself? If they are, of course, stupid enough to say yes, you re, you know do you have access to ways are you planning on hurting someone else? But nothing on that says that I have to ask him, Where is your gun? and so forth. I got that information and that was from my state, not from Obama. That was from my state, and I know federal trickles down to state, but I take a little issue with some of your blanket statements when most of it was common sense prior to that, but it is state statute in Illinois a long time ago that if, say grandma has dementia and she lives with you, that you have a certain way to store that, and that s just called gun responsibility.Limbaugh stammered and tried desperately to dodge the truth. The caller, meanwhile, kept hammering away, noting that it s perfectly acceptable to, for instance, call the police if we think someone in our household is a danger to him or herself. The caller refers to this action as a civic responsibility. Needless to say, Limbaugh s call-screener will likely be spending the New Year looking for a new job.By the way, you have to listen to the audio of the call just to hear Limbaugh completely choking on the truth.Featured image via video screen grab. | 0 | [
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FMD2926 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: 100 oz Sunshine Silver Bars Just $0.29/oz Over Spot ANY QTY! Posted on Tweet Home » Silver » Silver Coins » 100 oz Sunshine Silver Bars Just $0.29/oz Over Spot ANY QTY! You must be logged in to post a comment. Today's Top Articles Privacy Policy THE ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION PROVIDED ON SILVERDOCTORS IS FOR YOUR EDUCATION AND ENTERTAINMENT ONLY, IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR TRADING PURPOSES. THE DOC IS NOT AN INVESTMENT ADVISER AND INFORMATION OBTAINED HERE SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN FOR PROFESSIONAL INVESTMENT ADVICE. THE COMMENTARY ON SILVERDOCTORS REFLECTS THE OPINIONS OF THE DOC AND OTHER CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS. YOUR OWN DUE DILIGENCE IS RECOMMENDED BEFORE BUYING OR SELLING ANY INVESTMENTS, SECURITIES, OR PRECIOUS METALS. WE DO NOT SHARE IN YOUR PROFITS, AND THUS WILL NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR LOSSES AS WELL. Search | 0 | [
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FMD2927 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The arrest of two Reuters journalists in Yangon this week was a signal that press freedom is shrinking in Myanmar and the international community must do all it can to get them released, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday. Guterres said his main concern over Myanmar was the dramatic violations of human rights during a military crackdown in Rakhine State that forced more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee the country for southern Bangladesh, and the arrest of the journalists was probably related. It is clearly a concern in relation to the erosion of press freedom in the country, he told a news conference in Tokyo, referring to the detention of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who had been working on stories about the strife in Rakhine State. And probably the reason why these journalists were arrested is because they were reporting on what they have seen in relation to this massive human tragedy, he added. Myanmar s Ministry of Information said in a statement on Wednesday that the Reuters journalists and two policemen faced charges under the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act. The 1923 law carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. The reporters illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media , the ministry said in its statement, which was accompanied by a photo of the two reporters in handcuffs. Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh say their exodus from the mainly Buddhist nation was triggered by a military offensive in response to Rohingya militant attacks on security forces at the end of August. The United Nations has branded the military s campaign in Rakhine State a textbook example of ethnic cleansing of the minority Rohingya. Guterres said the international community should do everything possible to secure the journalists release and freedom of the press in Myanmar. He called for aid to be delivered, violence contained and reconciliation promoted in Rakhine State, and for the Rohingyas right of return to be fully respected and implemented. Britain has expressed grave concerns to the government of Myanmar over the arrest of the two journalists, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told reporters in London on Thursday. We are committed to freedom of speech and people s ability to report the facts and bring into the public domain what is happening in Rakhine state, he said. Canada s Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland tweeted that she was deeply concerned by the reports about the arrests. Freedom of the press is essential for democracy and must be preserved, she said. And the president of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani also called on Myanmar to protect media freedoms and release the two. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo went missing on Tuesday evening after they had been invited to meet police officials over dinner on the outskirts of Yangon. The authorities have not confirmed where the journalists are being held and, as of Thursday evening, Reuters had not been formally contacted by officials about their detention. At Htaunt Kyant police station, where the journalists were charged, family members of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were told that the pair were being detained at another location by an investigative team. They are not here, said Police Second Lieutenant Tin Htway Oo, according to Pann Ei, wife of reporter Wa Lone. The police investigation team took them soon after they were arrested. He said he did not know where the journalists were, Pann Ei added, but he did tell her they would be brought back to the station in two to three days at most. Reuters could not immediately reach Tin Htway Oo for comment. Police Lieutenant Colonel Myint Htwe of the Yangon Police Division told Reuters the reporters location would not be disclosed until the investigation was complete. It will be known later. Please wait a while, he said. Reuters President and Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler said in a statement on Wednesday: We are outraged by this blatant attack on press freedom. We call for authorities to release them immediately. The Foreign Correspondents Club of Myanmar said it was appalled by the arrests and gravely concerned about the state of press freedom in the country. In a statement, it called on the authorities to ensure the safety of the reporters and allow their families to see them. The foreign correspondents club in neighbouring Thailand said it was alarmed by the use of this draconian law with its heavy penalties against journalists simply doing their jobs . Wielding such a blunt legal instrument has an intimidating effect on other journalists, and poses a real threat to media freedom, the Bangkok-based club said in a statement, calling for the journalists to be released. | 1 | [
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FMD2928 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Increasing numbers of children have high blood pressure, largely as a consequence of their obesity. A growing body of evidence suggests that high blood pressure may impair children’s cognitive skills, reducing their ability to remember, pay attention and organize facts. In the most comprehensive study to date, published on Thursday in The Journal of Pediatrics, 75 children ages 10 to 18 with untreated high blood pressure performed worse on several tests of cognitive function, compared with 75 peers who had normal blood pressure. The differences were subtle, and the new research does not prove that high blood pressure diminishes cognitive skills in children. Still, the findings set off alarm bells among some experts. “This study really shows there are some differences,†said Dr. David B. Kershaw, the director of pediatric nephrology at C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan, who was not involved with the research. “This was not just random chance. †Dr. Marc B. Lande, a professor of pediatric nephrology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and his colleagues had children tested at four sites in three states, matching those with and without high blood pressure by age, maternal education, race, obesity levels and other factors. The researchers excluded children with learning disabilities and sleep problems, which can affect cognitive skills. Children with elevated blood pressure performed worse than their peers on tests of memory, processing speed and verbal skills, the researchers found. But all the scores were still in the normal range. Because of increased obesity, elevated blood pressure, also called hypertension, is no longer rare in children, though it is underdiagnosed. In a recent survey, about 3. 5 percent of 14, 187 children ages 3 to 18 had hypertension. “Most people don’t understand that cardiovascular risk factors — in this case, hypertension — can affect thinking and memory, and certainly they don’t think there could be an effect in childhood,†said Dr. Kristine Yaffe, a professor of psychiatry, neurology and epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco, who has researched the effects of cardiovascular risk factors on cognition. Dr. Lande and his colleagues noted that children with high blood pressure tended to have other risk factors that might negatively affect cognition, including insulin resistance and obstructive sleep apnea. Children who had a formal diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea were excluded from the new study, but some adolescents with poor sleep participated. Dr. Lande said the study found “that the presence of hypertension made the effect of poor sleep on cognition even worse. †Lower scores on cognitive tests do not necessarily indicate that a child is struggling in everyday life, experts cautioned. “Yes, there are certain differences, but what they mean in terms of life functioning isn’t clear,†said Dr. Julie R. Ingelfinger, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a senior consultant in nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital. But, she added, “We know from other studies that problems with memory, attention and cognitive function have a lot to do with how well you do in your job and at school. †Children may be uniquely susceptible to cognitive deficits, Dr. Kershaw said. “One of my concerns is, if you have high blood pressure and you’re 10 to 18 years old, it may impact your cognitive function more than if you’re 40 or 50,†he said. The areas of the brain that control executive function mature until a person’s early 20s. So the idea is that perhaps hypertension could hinder that function, Dr. Kershaw said. Observational studies have shown that having high blood pressure in one’s early 40s to 60s increases the risk of cognitive decline later in life. Clinical trials have not shown, however, that controlling high blood pressure with drugs or lifestyle changes can prevent cognitive problems. More research is needed to decipher whether treating children who have high blood pressure with dietary changes, exercise or medication could improve their cognitive ability. The work is already underway: The 75 children with hypertension in the latest study are being treated and followed for a year. The last child will finish the study early next year, Dr. Lande said. “Then we’ll be able to know if subtle neurocognitive differences between hypertensive kids and the controls go away with treatment or not,†he said. Dr. Ingelfinger applauded the “carefully done†research, but said she was more interested in seeing the research. “The most important thing is, if blood pressure is controlled, do these cognitive changes go away?†| 1 | [
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FMD2929 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: This week, the momentum in Syria shifted dramatically as the Syrian Army liberated the Old City in eastern Aleppo, so far retaking 80% of rebel -held areas in the city. As a result, operatives in Washington and their allies are now taking desperate measures in order to try and preserve the viability of remaining terrorist forces on the ground in the hopes of extending Syria s five year bloody conflict and overthrowing the legal government in Damascus. 21WIRE will post more ALEPPO UPDATES as new information comes in The Western mainstream media continue to give a twisted picture of reality in Aleppo.During CNN s coverage of newly liberated areas of East Aleppo on Wednesday afternoon, CNN anchor Kate Bolduan (who cried profusely over staged Dusty Boy Omran image) spoke to her correspondent Fred Pleitgen by telephone (offering no real images, so it s impossible to verify if Pleitgen was actually in East Aleppo as CNN claimed, more than likely he was not), and Bolduan refers to Pleitgen as the first western journalist inside East Aleppo, which is in itself a lie, as RT s Lizzie Phelan (who is British and therefore western) was already reporting from the East-West green line in Aleppo since late Monday.CNN was characterizing the liberation of East Aleppo as a humanitarian disaster as theatrical Bolduan then gushes at the end of the segment to Pleitgen, another polemic along the lines of, Thank you Fred, it s so great we have brave journalists like you to show the world what s really going on All that after CNN has, for the last 4 years straight, been spinning and completely misrepresenting events on the ground, and presenting reports by Clarissa Ward which appear to glorify terroist suicide bombers and various rebel terrorists (Al Nusra, Arar al-Sham, Nour al-din al-Zenki et all) occupying east Aleppo, effectively giving additional PR support to al Nusra-led efforts. Ward is flanked by another US asset promoting jihadist extremism, Bilal Abdul Karim, together producing what are clearly staged reports, alongside CNN s endless airing of unvetted, staged White Helmets imagery and passing it off to the viewing public as authentic video and photos supplied by nameless Syrian activists . Throughout the west s proxy war against Syria, CNN has only reported the rebel/terrorist perspective, shamelessly portraying militant terrorists as moderate rebels and freedom fighters, while systematically demonizing any Syrian or Russian who is defending the nation state of Syria. Unlike CNN s intentionally skewed US State Dept-slanted propaganda (eg. fake news), the following reports by RT s Phelan, and R&U Vids, is real. The following footage is stunning, and very revealing . Battles continue between pro-government forces and rebels in Aleppo s Old City, with Damascus slowly winning back territory. RT s Lizzie Phelan and her crew were the first journalists to visit the neighborhoods just captured by the government. Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKmVqKVIB4M . The following is more footage of the Syrian Army advancing through the streets of East Aleppo. You can see multiple flags and insignias of listed terrorist fighting groups, once more proving that extremist terrorists forces not moderate rebels , had full operational control over East Aleppo. Watch this stunning footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eoHDkcmu-4 .. READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A [email protected] | 0 | [
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FMD2930 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Hillary Clinton tells a reporter from liberal rag Mother Jones that she s above any investigation into Uranium One This is really comedy gold! Delusional!Hillary s delusional reasoning: If they send a signal that we re going to be like some dictatorship, like some authoritarian regime, where political opponents are going to be unfairly, fraudulently investigated, that rips at the fabric of the contract we have, that we can trust our justice system It will be incredibly demoralizing to people who have served at the Justice Department, under both Republicans and Democrats, because they know better. But it will also send a terrible signal to our country and the world that somehow we are giving up on the kind of values that we used to live by and we used to promote worldwide. Here s the latest on just how corrupt Hillary really is and why she s pushing back she s guilty!This is why she s saying this is an abuse of power Guilty!!!The Uranium One corruption runs so deep with the Obama administration that it is a threat to Obama too. This corruption must be investigated! This is the real Russian scandal!The videos above provide so much information and proof that this is a crime If this doesn t warrant a special counsel, what the heck does ?Here are the seven facts about the Uranium One deal you need to know: Peter Schweizer Broke the Uranium One Scandal Government Accountability Institute (GAI) President and Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large Peter Schweizer broke the Uranium One scandal in his book Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich. In the book, he reported that Clinton s State Department, along with other federal agencies, approved the transfer of 20 percent of all U.S. uranium to Russia and that nine foreign investors in the deal gave $145 million to Hillary and Bill Clinton s personal charity, the Clinton Foundation. The New York Times Confirmed the Scandal in 2015 The New York Times confirmed Schweizer s Uranium One revelations in a 4,000-word front-page story by a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. It detailed how the Russian energy giant Rosatom had taken over the Canadian firm with three separate purchases between 2009 and 2013, largely coinciding with Hillary Clinton s time as secretary of state. The FBI Uncovered Evidence that Russian Money Was Funneled to the Clinton Foundation The Hill reported last week that ahead of the deal, the FBI had uncovered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering to expand Russia s nuclear footprint in the U.S. as early as 2009. The agency also found that Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. to benefit the Clinton Foundation. The Justice Department would sit on the evidence for four years before looking to prosecute, by which time the deal had been approved. Congress Is Now Investigating The Senate Judiciary Committee has launched a probe into the scandal and has sent requests for more information to 10 federal agencies involved in the approval of the partial sale of Uranium One, asking what they knew about the FBI investigation and when. Bill Clinton Was Paid $500,000 for a Speech in Moscow Bill Clinton bagged a $500,000 speech in Moscow paid for by a Kremlin-backed bank shortly after Russia announced its intention to take a majority stake in the company. According to the Times, Clinton traveled to Moscow in June 2010, the same month Rosatom struck its deal for its majority stake in Uranium One. The Clinton Foundation Took Big Bucks from Uranium Investors According to theTimes, The Clinton Foundation received $2.35 million in donations from Ian Telfer, a mining investor who was also the chairman of Uranium One when Rosatom acquired it. It also received $31.3 million and a pledge for $100 million more from Frank Giustra, the Canadian mining financier whose company merged with Uranium One. Senate Republicans Want an FBI Gag Order Lifted Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has called for the Justice Department to lift the gag order on the FBI s whistleblower, indicating that he may have more explosive revelations related to the case and on what the Clintons and the Obama administration knew about the case and when they knew it. Read more: Breitbart NewsDEVELOPMENTS TODAY MOVE THE BALL FORWARD: Devin Nunes just announced a probe into the Uranium One Deal that smells to high heaven of corruption and money laundering by the Clintons and the Obama administration:BREAKING: Devin Nunes announces probe into the #UraniumOneDeal. pic.twitter.com/c7p9mVdTYa Based Monitored (@BasedMonitored) October 24, 2017FBN S LOU DOBBS SPOKE WITH THE AUTHOR OF CLINTON CASH : Biggest scandal in the history of American politics While speaking with Peter Schweizer, the author of Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, and Breitbart News senior editor-at-large on Friday, Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs argued that the Uranium One deal could end up being the biggest scandal in the history of American politics.Dobbs said, There is no clear statement as to why we would give up, for any reason, any price, 20% of our uranium in this country. And that is a question that is left open still unanswered. and secondly, have you ever heard of anyone putting $145 million, at one moment, into the hands of the Clinton foundation? And the answer is, of course not. These questions, most basic and fundamental, were armed by the very committee made up of the very agencies, departments, and individuals responsible for national security. this, this is the biggest Obama scandal. I think it may well turn out to be the biggest scandal in American political history. | 0 | [
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FMD2931 | 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: Communication from the employer Claim summaries: Employer issued letter to employees that any further taxes on his business will result in his shutting it down?
contextual information: Claim: An employer issued a missive to his employees stating that any additional taxes on his business would result in his shutting the company down.
To All My Valued Employees,
There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your jobs. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn't pose a threat to your jobs. What does threaten your jobs, however, is the changing political landscape in this country. Of course, as your employer, I am forbidden to tell you whom to vote for—it is against the law to discriminate based on political affiliation, race, creed, religion, etc. Please vote for whom you think will serve your interests best. However, let me share some facts that might help you decide what is in your best interest.
First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you must understand that for every business owner, there is a backstory. This backstory is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You've seen my big home at last year's Christmas party. I'm sure all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life. However, what you don't see is the backstory. I started this company 12 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300-square-foot studio apartment for three years. My entire living space was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company that would eventually employ you. My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn't have time to date. Often, I stayed home on weekends while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business—hard work, discipline, and sacrifice. Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week, made a modest $50K a year, and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars, lived in expensive homes, and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting Nordstrom's for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the Goodwill store, extracting any clothing item that didn't look like it was birthed in the '70s. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business with a vision that someday I too would be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.
So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9 a.m., mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5 p.m., I don't. There is no "off" button for me. When you leave the office, you are done, and you have a weekend all to yourself. I, unfortunately, do not have that freedom. I eat, sleep, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day, this business is attached to my hip like a one-year-old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that labor—the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations... you never realize the backstory and the sacrifices I've made.
Now, the economy is falling apart, and I, the guy who made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail out all the people who didn't. The people who overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for. Yes, business ownership has its benefits, but the price I've paid is steep and without wounds. Unfortunately, the cost of running this business and employing you is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit, and let me tell you why: I am being taxed to death, and the government thinks I don't pay enough. I have state taxes, federal taxes, property taxes, sales and use taxes, payroll taxes, workers' compensation taxes, unemployment taxes, and taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes, and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates, regulations, and all the accounting that goes with it now occupy most of my time. On October 15th, I wrote a check to the U.S. Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my "stimulus" check was? Zero. Nada. Zilch.
The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people with good-paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or the single mother sitting at home, pregnant with her fourth child, waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, the government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country. The fact is, if I deducted (read: stole) 50% of your paycheck, you'd quit, and you wouldn't work here. I mean, why should you? That's nuts. Who wants to be rewarded with only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree, which is why your jobs are in jeopardy.
Here is what many of you don't understand: to stimulate the economy, you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had the government suddenly mandated that I didn't need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now. When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don't defibrillate and shock his thumb, thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the masses of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth, and this is the type of change you can keep.
So where am I going with all this? It's quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple: I will fire you. I will fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child's future. Frankly, it isn't my problem anymore. Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You see, I'm done. I'm done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, my citizenship. While tax cuts to 95% of America sound great on paper, don't forget the backstory: If there is no job, there is no income to tax. A tax cut on zero dollars is zero.
So, when you make the decision to vote, ask yourself who understands the economics of business ownership and who doesn't. Whose policies will endanger your job? Answer those questions, and you should know who might be the one capable of saving your job. While the media wants to tell you, "It's the economy, stupid," I'm telling you it isn't. If you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the Constitution, and changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me in the South Caribbean, sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about.
Signed,
Your Boss | 0 | [
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FMD2932 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is Snapchat creating a database that uses facial recognition technology for government agencies? Claim summaries: Online conspiracy theorists claim Snapchat's image filter feature called "Lenses" is covertly amassing a database of users' faces to share with law enforcement agencies.
contextual information: One of the more whimsical messaging options offered by Snapchat a social media app for mobile devices introduced in 2011 is the ability to personalize selfies in real time and share them instantly with other users, a feature that has at once contributed to the app's immense popularity (Snapchat boasts an estimated 166 million users daily) and raised privacy concerns among some of its customers. Snapchat's rotating toolbox of image filters, called Lenses, enables users to manipulate photos and videos to humorous effect, as seen in these examples shared publicly on Instagram by celebrity Snapchatter Chrissy Teigen: Cute and innocent though it may appear, the feature has become the target of conspiracy theorists claiming that Snapchat's corporate owner, Snap Inc., uses it to collect facial recognition data which it allegedly stores and shares with law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and CIA. We've found examples of such rumors dating back to Fall 2015 (soon after the Lenses feature was officially rolled out): you guys are all swooning over the snapchat filters... And The FBI is getting the most extensive facial recognition library ever TEENWOLF (@TEENWOLFREMIX) October 3, 2015 October 3, 2015 It wasn't until April of the following year that the rumors reached takeoff speed, however, thanks largely to a tweet composed by hip hop artist, songwriter, and unabashed flat-earth theorist B.o.B to his roughly two million followers: tweet flat-earth when you realize all the snap chat filters are really building a facial recognition database ? B.o.B (@bobatl) April 16, 2016 April 16, 2016 In May 2016, with civil cases already pending against Facebook and Google alleging unauthorized use of facial recognition technology, a class action lawsuit was filed by two Snapchat users in Illinois complaining that the app violated their rights under the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by failing to obtain adequate permission before gathering and storing their "biometric identifiers and biometric information". lawsuit BIPA The company flatly denied it: denied Contrary to the claims of this frivolous lawsuit, we are very careful not to collect, store, or obtain any biometric information or identifiers about our community. The class action suit was eventually dismissed in favor of arbitration in September 2016, but as of this writing the case remains unresolved. Crucial to Snapchat's defense is their position, as stated in the Privacy Center of the company's web site, that the app relies on object recognition, not facial recognition, to make Lenses work: arbitration stated Have you ever wondered how Lenses make your eyes well up with tears or rainbows come out your mouth? Some of the magic behind Lenses is object recognition. Object recognition is an algorithm designed to understand the general nature of things that appear in an image. It lets us know that a nose is a nose or an eye is an eye. But object recognition isnt the same as facial recognition. While Lenses can recognize faces in general, they can't recognize a specific face. If it's true that Lenses can't recognize (i.e., identify) specific faces, then the claim that the app produces anything qualifying as a "biometric identifier" under Illinois law is seriously in doubt. (The district judge in Illinois overseeing the Google facial recognition case previously defined "biometric identifier" as "a set of biology-based measurements ... used to identify a person.) case As to the wider claim that Snapchat is building a "facial recognition database," the distinction between object and facial recognition, at minimum, places a burden of proof on those trumpeting the claim to show that the app is capable of identifying specific faces in the first place. If this explanation (provided by the web site Vox) of how the software works is accurate, Snapchat doesn't need to be able to identify specific faces to accomplish the task. It has to recognize a face as a face, and identify the parts of a face as the nose, eyes, ears, chin, etc., but it doesn't have to recognize who the face belongs to: this Moreover, Snapchat's Privacy Policy states that the company neither collects nor permanently stores user-created content (meaning photos and videos) let alone preserves such items in a database: states Snapchat lets you capture what its like to live in the moment. On our end, that means that we automatically delete the content of your Snaps (the photo and video messages that you send your friends) from our servers after we detect that a Snap has been opened by all recipients or has expired. And although the policy further acknowledges that Snap Inc. may share users' personal information "to comply with any valid legal process, governmental request, or applicable law, rule, or regulation" (and transparency reports show that the company has indeed complied with such requests in the past), they can't grant the FBI (or any other agency) access to a "facial recognition database" that doesn't exist. reports Some rumors die hard, however. An updated variant that cropped up in early 2017 brought two new claims to the mix: one, that the FBI literally created Snapchat's image filtering software (and alleged facial recognition database); and two, that there is a smoking gun to prove it namely U.S. patent #9396354: granted According to an analysis by Sophos' Naked Security blogger Alison Booth, the patent proposes using facial recognition software to identify individual subjects in photos, whereupon the latter would be modified and/or their distribution restricted in accordance with the subjects' pre-established privacy settings. analysis There is a catch. Implementation of the process would, of course, require amassing a facial recognition database. "For facial recognition to work," writes Booth, "Snapchat would need to store images of all users that sign up to the feature as a reference image to compare photos against." So, there it is a "facial recognition database" of the sort conspiracy theorists have been going on about since 2015, except that Snapchat has not, to date, implemented such a feature (a fact we were able to confirm with the company), nor is there evidence that the FBI (or any other law enforcement agency) was involved in creating it, nor does the patent itself mention sharing facial recognition data with government entities. Despite finding no legitimate basis for the claim that Snapchat is currently engaged in collecting, storing, or sharing facial recognition data on its users, we do not wish to downplay the increasing prevalence of facial recognition technology in both commercial and government applications, nor the privacy issues this raises. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota) articulated some of these issues in a statement announcing the release of a 2015 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the privacy implications of the technology: report The newly released report raises serious concerns about how companies are collecting, using, and storing our most sensitive personal information. I believe that all Americans have a fundamental right to privacy, which is why it's important that, at the very least, the tech industry adopts strong, industry-wide standards for facial recognition technology. But what we really need are federal standards that address facial recognition privacy by enhancing our consumer privacy framework. The tech industry has yet to address these concerns to the satisfaction of consumer privacy watchdogs, however, nor has Congress made progress toward establishing the federal standards Franken called for. Thus far, issue has been dealt with primarily in the court system via cases such as the aforementioned BIPA class action lawsuits against Facebook and Google. watchdogs lawsuits One of the ironies of the false alarms about Snapchat's alleged sharing of facial recognition data with the FBI is that the agency already maintains a biometric data network comprising the facial images of more than 117 million Americans (about half the U.S. adult population, and growing), mostly drawn from state DMV databases and other non-criminal sources. A 2016 report by the Georgetown Law Center for Privacy and Technology warned that the technology is both error-prone, with a disproportionate impact on communities of color, and almost totally unregulated. already report disproportionate In testimony before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing chaired by Sen. Franken in 2012, Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Jennifer Lynch urged Congress to act sooner rather than later to protect the biometric privacy of all Americans: testimony Face recognition and its accompanying privacy concerns are not going away. Given this, it is imperative that government act now to limit unnecessary biometrics collection; instill proper protections on data collection, transfer, and search; ensure accountability; mandate independent oversight; require appropriate legal process before government collection; and define clear rules for data sharing at all levels. This is important to preserve the democratic and constitutional values that are bedrock to American society. Booth, Alison. "Snapchat Turns Facial Recognition Technology on Its Head."
Naked Security. 20 July 2016. Danley-Greiner, Kristin. "Snapchat Defends Procedures After Facial Recognition Class Action."
Legal Newsline. 2 September 2016. Garvie, Clare et al. "The Perpetual Line-up: Unregulated Police Face Recognition in America."
Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology. 18 October 2016. Graham, Meg. "Illinois Biometrics Lawsuits May Help Define Rules for Facebook, Google."
Chicago Tribune. 13 January 2017. Korte, Amy. "Federal Court in Illinois Rules Biometric Privacy Lawsuit Against Google Can Proceed."
Illinois Policy. 8 March 2017. Maass, Dave. "Memo to the DOJ: Facial Recognition's Threat to Privacy Is Worse than Anyone Thought."
Electronic Frontier Foundation. 18 October 2016. Mathies, Daven. "The Incredible Underlying Technology of Snapchat's Selfie Lenses."
Digital Trends. 1 July 2016. Nelson, Steven. "Half of U.S. Adults Are in Police Facial Recognition Networks."
US News & World Report. 18 October 2016. Roberts, Jeff John. "Tech Industry's Facial Recognition Plan Bashed by Privacy Groups."
Fortune. 16 June 2016. Thielman, Sam. "FBI Using Vast Public Photo Data and Iffy Facial Recognition Tech to Find Criminals."
The Guardian. 15 June 2016. Trujillo, Mario. "Facial Recognition Quietly Taking Hold."
The Hill. 1 August 2015. Welinder, Yana. "EFF Urges Congress to Protect Privacy in Face Recognition."
Electronic Frontier Foundation. 18 July 2012. Yakowicz, Will. "Snapchat Sued Under Illinois Biometric Information Usage Law."
Inc. 18 July 2016. Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Testimony of Jennifer Lynch to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law."
18 July 2012. Google. "Patent: Apparatus and Method for Automated Privacy Protection in Distributed Images - US 9396354 B1."
19 July 2016. Government Accounting Office. "Facial Recognition Technology: Commercial Uses, Privacy Issues, and Applicable Federal Law."
20 June 2015. U.S. Senate. "Sen. Franken: New Report on Facial Recognition Technology Highlights Lack of Privacy Standards."
30 July 2015. U.S. Senate. "Sen. Franken Releases Extensive Report Detailing Concerns with FBI Facial Recognition Program."
15 June 2016. | 0 | [
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FMD2933 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Obama Youth Brigade Claim summaries: Message details requirements of the GIVE act?
contextual information: Claim: Message details requirements of the GIVE (Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education) Act. false Example: [Collected via e-mail, April 2009] Obama and his Youth Brigade Is this the change you really voted for? President Obama has only been in office for two months. Now we have HR 1388. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) with 37 others. The bill was introduced to the floor of the House of Representatives, where both Republicans and Democrats voted 321-105 in favor. Next, it goes to the Senate for a vote and then on to President Obama. This bill's title is "Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education" (GIVE). It forms what some are calling "Obama's Youth Brigade." Obama's plan is to require anyone receiving school loans and others to serve at least three months as part of the brigade. His goal is one million youth! This has serious Nazi Germany overtones. The bill would forbid any student in the brigade from participating in "engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization." That means no church attendance or witnessing. Again, is this what America voted for? Here is part of the HR1388 bill's wording: SEC. 1304 PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS. Section 125 (42 U.S.C. 12575) is amended to read as follows: SEC. 125. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS. (a) Prohibited Activities - A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not engage in the following activities: (1) Attempting to influence legislation. (2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes. (7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization. This bill DOES exist. It has been passed in the House of Representatives and is now in the Senate. I have just looked it up. Below is the link to the bill if you wish to read it. I am not sure that it disallows one from attending church, but it certainly prohibits any sort of participation in teaching or leading. https://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1388/text https://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1388/text Origins: On 21 April 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act (also known as the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act, or GIVE), a piece of legislation that amended the National and Community Service Act of 1990 (NCSA) and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 (DVSA) (acts which originally funded, among other programs, AmeriCorps and the National Senior Service Corps) to revise their programs and reauthorize appropriations for them. The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act authorizes a dramatic funding increase for AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs and the creation of new programs for seniors and veterans. It establishes a goal of expanding from 75,000 government-supported volunteers to 250,000 and would increase education funding and establish a summer volunteer program for students, paying $500 (which would be applied to college costs) to high school and middle school students who participate. As Michael Hais and Morley Winograd noted in an editorial on the eve of the bill's signing, voting support for it in Congress was divided along party lines: GIVE represents a major redemption of candidate Obama's promise to offer his most loyal and largest constituency, Millennials, born between 1982 and 2003, a chance to serve their country at the community level and, in return, earn assistance with the cost of their college education. Not everyone is ready to join hands and sing the praises of the concept, however. While GIVE enjoyed bipartisan sponsorship in both the Senate and the House, that didn't prevent a majority of Republicans from voting against the bill on final passage. They complained that the bill was "too expensive" and would crowd out pure volunteer work with program participants receiving a modicum of financial support for their efforts from the federal government. In the House, 149 of 175 Republicans voted "no," joined by 19 of their colleagues in the Senate, including the party's two top leaders. Contrary to the claims made in the e-mail example reproduced above, GIVE does not "require anyone receiving school loans and others to serve at least three months." The bill allows students to earn $500 credits towards college costs by participating in volunteer service programs; it contains no provisions for mandatory service as a condition of receiving student loans or for any other reason. (The original version of the bill merely called for a feasibility study regarding "Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented," but even that language was dropped from the passed version of the bill.) GIVE also does not "prohibit any sort of participation in teaching or leading" of religious instruction or services by individuals who take part in national service programs. It states that AmeriCorps members may not engage in those activities while they are operating in that role. Last updated: 29 April 2009. | 2 | [
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FMD2934 | 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: Strip in U.S. Banknote Claim summaries: Does the plastic strip embedded in U.S. currency enable the government to track it?
contextual information: Claim: The plastic strip embedded in U.S. bank notes enable the Feds to tell how much money you have on you. Examples: [Collected on the Internet, 2001] This past weekend, a friend visiting our house told us that the anti-counterfeiting strip put in newly printed paper money can be used to determine how much cash you are carrying. She said that the ever-present "they" at the airport have a machine that can determine how much cash you have on your person or in your luggage, and if you are carrying a sufficiently large amount of cash, you will be detained by the police and interrogated until you confess your guilt as a drug smuggler. [Collected on the Internet, 2003] I did not get this in an e-mail but my bank teller in Kirksville, MO told me this one. Evidently there is an urban legend floating around that the new "security strip" in the new $20's can be read by satellites with the implication being the Govt. can beam a satellite on you and eventually, when all the bills in circ. will have these, be able to tell how much $ you are carrying around. This teller told me that she has had customers come in requesting "no new $20s" for this reason! We had a good laugh about it and we both agreed that the Govt. is going to be sorely disappointed if they turned this hypothetical satellite on us! Origins: The ongoing effort to stay one step ahead of the counterfeiters has led to the inclusion of a number of security features in U.S. currency. One countermeasure in particular has come to be the focus of a widely-believed bit lore: the embedded inscribed security thread. According to scuttlebutt, the purpose of the thread isn't really to make it more difficult for the ill-intentioned to introduce worthless currency into circulation by fooling its recipients into thinking it genuine, but instead to allow the government to know exactly how much money anyone is carrying at any particular moment. With the use of special scanners, or possibly a beam from a distant satellite, the Feds can quickly count the value of all bank notes being carried on or about one's person and thus track how much money is entering or leaving the country, and with whom. This knowledge, says the behind-the-hand whisperings, is used to finger drug dealers and smugglers. The rumor is bunk. The strip's sole purpose is the foiling of counterfeiters. It, along with a number of other security features worked into the nation's bank notes, make it far harder on the criminal element to produce phony bills that will be mistaken for the real thing. Other features include the microprinting of "The United States of America" within the rim surrounding the portraits on bills, a watermark displayed elsewhere on the bill of the figure in the portrait, and optically variable ink (OVI) which changes from green to black in the number in the lower right-hand corner of the bill when viewed from different angles. As for the suspect strip, it is made of polyester and is inscribed with the denomination of the bill. Nothing about the composition of these strips renders them detectable by scanner or satellite. In 2004, the false belief attaching to this security feature was enhanced by the claim of these bands containing RFID tags. As technology advanced, so did the rumor, leading many to microwave their $20 bills into ashen submission by falling for the canard that nuking their currency would disable these RFID tags transmitters. Yet the belief about governmental detection of concealed sums via a subterfuge worked into the currency even predates the polyester security threads. In the 1980s, those similarly worried about being tracked by Big Brother fretted over the ink with which bank notes were printed, muttering to themselves that the "magnetic ink" they believed to have been used rendered the bills somehow magnetic and thus detectable by machine. Back then, the concern was more that this magnetic money would serve to pinpoint the location of the person carrying it rather than it give away how much of it was being ported, but it is another form of the same belief. One confirmation that nothing in and of itself is detectable about the polyester strips embedded in bank notes arises out of the news about security technologies now used at some U.S. airports, including Chicago's O'Hare. Were caches of greenbacks already being ferreted out via their embedded threads, descriptions of the BodySearch scanner, a device that uses special "backscatter" X-rays to produce images of items that might be concealed under passengers' clothing, would not always impart the glad tidings that this gizmo reveals the presence of currency as well as narcotics, plastic explosives, and plastic weapons. While in the main, the "sneakily embedded technology allows for the surreptitious tracking of people or their assets" rumor attaches to currency and blames the government for the supposed spying, the belief also carries to other items and points fingers at other parties. [Kamradt, 2003] Some students have not picked up their new ID cards through the re-carding project, which ends today, because of a rumor that there is a locator chip inside the IDs so Purdue can track their whereabouts. "To dispel the transponder rumors, I was closely involved in developing the requirements for production of the ID cards and I can ensure students that no secret electronic devices were embedded in these cards," said Terry Schroeder, project manager for the Purdue ID Re-carding Project. "From my understanding, most of the group that met to discuss this issue (as a result of distributed flyers) were wearing aluminum foil beanies." [Mulkins, 2000] I heard that a person carrying a large number of $100 bills, going through the PikePass readers, could be detected and the exact amount of money determined. The authorities are using PikePass to detect drug dealers and then confiscating the money, even confiscating the money of innocent persons. (PikePass is a prepaid toll device containing a battery and a radio-frequency modulator placed on the windshield of a vehicle. As a car bearing one travels under a transmitter overhanging a turnpike lane, the device intercepts the signal being broadcast and returns a signal exclusive to that particular PikePass customer. The signal is read, and the toll is subtracted from the customer's account.) PikePass Whereas student ID cards and prepaid toll signalers do at least have a whiff of the enigmatic to their technology, which works to encourage belief that some of that incomprehensibility might be of nefarious intent (we mistrust what we don't understand, after all), this next expression of the rumor is even farther afield: [Collected on the Internet, 1999] I recently received an email telling me that I need to take the labels off my canned good and mark the bare cans with a marker, or at least black out the UPCs. Why? Well, it seems the government has helicopters equipped with scanners that can read the UPCs of the food you have stored. Ostensibly, the government is doing this so they can confiscate food for redistribution in the up coming Y2K breakdown of society. When asked to verify, the poster informed me she was told this by a 'family friend" who flies one of these scanner-equipped helicopters. Of course he doesn't want to be named for his own safety, but he risked telling his dear friends because he loves them. While most folks will laugh off the thought of their soup cans spying on them, the same cannot be said of the belief that their long green is being counted by surveillance satellites sent into orbit by a government intent upon keeping tabs on its citizens a great many appear to believe that. Barbara "watch your money, don't worry about your money watching you" Mikkelson Sightings: In a first-season episode of television's The X Files ("E.B.E.," original air date 18 February 1994), a member of a group that believes the government is up to any number of monstrous conspiracies takes a $20 bill from Agent Scully, holds it up to the light, rips the left side off, and pulls out its security strip, saying, "They use this magnetic strip to track you. Whenever you go through a metal detector at an airport, they know exactly how much you're carrying." Additional information: Inscribed Security Thread (Secret Service) Money Design Features (Secret Service) The Redesigned $20 Note (Bureau of Engraving) Last updated: 19 May 2011 Garber, Andrew. "New Airport Gadgets Strip, Sniff, Scan." The Seattle Times. 23 October 2001 (p. A1). Kamradt, Kori. "Officials Dismiss Rumors About New IDs." The [Purdue University] Exponent . 14 November 2003. Mulkins, Phil. "PikePass Can't Count Dope Dealers' Money." Tulsa World. 28 July 2000. Webb, Tom. "U.S. Currency to Get Makeover." The Denver Post. 14 July 1994 (p. A4). Zane, Maitland. "Counterfeit-Proof Cash Makes Its Debut." The San Francisco Chronicle. 26 July 1991 (p. A1). The Associated Press. "O'Hare Officials Install Scanner, Hoping to Replace Body Searches." St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 23 November 1999 (p. B2). | 0 | [
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FMD2935 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Across the country, conservative groups are working to pass anti-LGBT legislation that would bar transgender people the right to use public restrooms. The faulty logic at play is that transgender people are simply dressing up as the opposite gender to gain access to young boys and girls.This. Is. Not. Happening.But rather than take a moment of reflection and realize that what s really at work here is regular old transphobia and fear-mongering being used to hit back at the LGBT community for having scored a number of recent victories at the state and federal level, conservatives are trying to invent the problem to justify their barbaric solution. For an obvious example, look no further than designated hate group American Family Association, whose director of governmental affairs, Sandy Rios, just admitted that her organization has been sending men into women s bathrooms at Target in the hopes of eliciting a reaction.Why Target? The store recently outraged Republicans by publicly standing with the LGBT community and saying its customers can use whichever bathroom they feel most comfortable with. This set in motion the usual calls for boycotts, the usual right-wing smears, and now this a movement to harass women in Target bathrooms so they are scared enough to demand the policy change. I think there s no question that when you say that there are no barriers in the bathroom, Rios said, and that if men or women feel like they are men or women, the opposition of however they are equipped, and you have no restrictions, the net effect will be that people will not be stopped. We ve already had people testing this, going into Targets and men trying to go into bathrooms. There is absolutely no barrier. And so the chief concern, she continued, even more than just, I think, trauma, certainly for little girls of having men dressed like women coming in their bathrooms, the chief concern of the American Family Association is the predators who will take advantage. AFA is correct in believing that having a right-wing Christian fundamentalist storm into a women s bathroom for no discernible reason would be deeply traumatizing. Unlike other women, whether transgender or not, these AFA volunteers aren t there to use the bathroom. They are there to scare people. It s unclear how that translates to a need to ban transgender people. Instead, the scariest people are yet again the ones who are actively pushing for discrimination.It cannot be overstated just how little evidence there is that transgender people pose a danger to young girls if they are allowed to use the gendered bathroom they identify with. No case has ever been found that demonstrates that this is a tactic child predators seriously use. It s so non-existent, in fact, that a right-wing hate group like the American Family Association has had to get male volunteers to do it themselves.Ironically, AFA s efforts have done absolutely nothing to show that transgender people shouldn t be allowed in public bathrooms. On the other hand, there seems to be mounting evidence to suggest employees of AFA should be kept as far away from Target bathrooms as possible. Who knows what they ll do.Listen to Rios brag about harassing women in the bathroom below, via Right Wing Watch:Featured image via Crooks and Liars screengrab | 0 | [
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FMD2936 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Which brings me to President Obama. While I m not calling him a genius, I do think he s extremely intelligent. I also believe that his tendency to use big picture thinking while drafting policy is something most Republican voters simply can t understand. Take Obamacare for instance. It s not a fix health care today law. In fact, the law itself is made to grow and evolve over time. My belief is that it s a springboard to true socialized medicine. But, as it is now, it s a long-term outlook on our health care. While many Republicans want to look at the now aspect of the Affordable Care Act, they seem unable to grasp the reality that as more Americans get health insurance, giving them access to preventable care, this lowers expenses down the road for everyone. If people can prevent very costly heart attacks, strokes or other debilitating health issues now, that s an overall savings for practically everyone from consumers to health insurers to doctors who now have more patients. Quite literally, improving the overall health of Americans will improve the health of this country. It even makes sense for our economy. If workers are healthier, because they have access to quality health care, that means there will be fewer people calling in sick to work, showing up sick to work (putting other employees at risk) or relying on government programs because their health conditions (that were preventable) render them unable to work at all. But to see all of that requires big picture thinking and Republicans seem unable to understand anything beyond the spoon-fed bumper sticker talking points they re given by the GOP and the conservative media.GIMME A BREAK!!!! LIBERALS ARE RIDICULOUS!Read more: Forward Progressives | 0 | [
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FMD2937 | 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: Scam involving counterfeit $80 coupons at Wegmans Claim summaries: Grocery chain Wegmans warned Facebook users that a digital coupon was a scam.
contextual information: In late January 2016, Facebook users began sharing a post that promised a $200 coupon for the Wegmans supermarket chain to users who completed a short series of steps. In July 2019, social media users encountered a similar offer for an $80 coupon. The embedded links in those posts pointed to a URL not associated with Wegmans. Users who attempted to complete the steps and claim the coupon were directed to a page that resembled content hosted on Facebook, but its URL didn't match the social network's. The landing page was familiar to all who had encountered similar scams in the past. Wegmans' official Facebook page warned customers about the coupon scam, and a Better Business Bureau article provided shoppers with tips on avoiding survey and coupon scams operating in that fashion. The article advised, "Don't believe what you see. It's easy to steal the colors, logos, and header of an established organization." Scammers can also make links look like they lead to legitimate websites and emails appear to come from a different sender. Legitimate businesses do not ask for credit card numbers or banking information on customer surveys. If they do ask for personal information, like an address or email, be sure there's a link to their privacy policy. When in doubt, do a quick web search. If the survey is a scam, you may find alerts or complaints from other consumers. The organization's real website may have further information. Watch out for a reward that's too good to be true. If the survey is real, you may be entered in a drawing to win a gift card or receive a small discount off your next purchase. Few businesses can afford to give away $50 gift cards for completing a few questions. | 0 | [
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FMD2938 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A boy was found dead by his mother on Monday evening after accidentally shooting himself while streaming on Instagram Live. [Malachi Hemphill was streaming on the site, showing his friends a gun that was in his possession. It was unloaded, so one of the viewers asked why there was no magazine in it. After loading the gun following instruction from his viewers, he accidentally shot himself. “I heard a big boom. I couldn’t tell if it was a gunshot or what,†Shaniqua Stephens, his mother, told 11 Alive Atlanta. She had just watched her son take out the trash when she heard the noise. Running upstairs with her daughter, they found him “laying there in a pool of blood. †“My daughter screamed and said. ‘Mom turn his phone off!’ As I proceeded to look at his phone he was on Instagram Live,†Stephens recounted. Hemphill was rushed to Grady Hospital, but it was too late. “This is just a pain that will never go away,†she said. “He was my only son. He was just only 13. Just the thought of me seeing him on the floor will never leave my brain. †After returning home, several of his friends were outside the house. “There was about 40 to 50 kids outside,†Stephens said. “I guess these were the kids that were watching on live that live in the area. I guess when it happened they just ran over here. †It is unclear how Hemphill came to have the gun on him. He was allegedly handed the gun by a friend police are looking into where the gun came from originally. This is not the first time a death has been streamed live on the internet using social media. In January, an Arkansas woman collapsed and died in front of her children while video livestreaming on Facebook. In December, a in Georgia hanged herself on Facebook live. Jack Hadfield is a student at the University of Warwick and a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech. You can like his page on Facebook and follow him on Twitter @ToryBastard_ or on Gab @JH. | 1 | [
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FMD2939 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Is this why we worked so hard to get a GOP majority in the House and Senate? Spineless weasels Republican House members blasted their GOP leadership Wednesday for caving to Democratic leaders demand that they abandon the House s bipartisan bill to tighten screening of refugee applicants from Syria and Iraq. The bill to bolster the Syrian and Iraqi [refugee] vetting process passed with a veto-proof majority and is supported by a vast majority of Americans, said Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC)57% , who is one of the two co-authors of the original House bill that GOP leaders are now abandoning. It would be a shame to bow to the wishes of Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and the White House, leaving our country vulnerable to foreign terrorism, he told Breitbart News exclusively.After the Paris attacks that killed over 120 people, the House passed a bill with a huge bipartisan majority that would implement tough screening requirements for refugees. The bill was criticized by Democrats and President Obama, who vowed to veto the legislation and suggested that Republicans work with them to tighten oversight of visas given to legal visitors.Now, House Republican leaders are reportedly planning to abandon their original idea to tighten screening of refugees and are instead caving to Democrats who want to only fix security gaps in the legal-visitor visa program.Republican House leadership is backing away from the refugee problem because they fear their fix will be rejected by Democrats and lead to a partial government shut-down.Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) also told Breitbart News exclusively that he isn t surprised that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is following in the steps of former House Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)32% by bowing to Democrats, rather than putting up a fight.He called the original vote a show vote that was arranged by the leaders, and told Breitbart News that the entire refugee program needs to be stripped of its funding.Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) told Breitbart News exclusively that GOP House leadership should fix both problems. This should not be an either or question, Babin said. Both should be addressed in a timely manner. We should concern ourselves first and foremost with the safety and security of the American people. Babin recently released a letter, signed by more than 70 of his colleagues, calling on House leadership to include language in the must-pass omnibus spending bill that would defund the refugee resettlement program. More than 70 of my colleagues joined me in calling for an immediate suspension in the refugee program to give us time to put in place security measures that the Administration has failed to implement Babin told Breitbart News. We must restore Congressional authority and ensure that Congress has a final sign-off on any Administration proposed Security measures. Congress has until December 11th to pass the omnibus bill.Via: Breitbart News | 0 | [
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FMD2940 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: U.N. special envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura will arrive in Kazakhstan s capital on Friday to take part in Syria peace talks, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, according to Russia s state news agency RIA. De Mistura will fly to Astana after talks in Moscow on Thursday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Kazakhstan is hosting negotiations that aim to end the Syria crisis. Discussions in the past few months have focused on establishing de-escalation zones in Syria. | 1 | [
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] | 1 |
FMD2941 | 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 President Trump Sign an Executive Order Giving Veterans Free Care at Any Hospital? Claim summaries: A viral Facebook post exaggerated efforts to give military veterans affordable and accessible health care.
contextual information: In March 2018, a Facebook post deriding "Trump haters" and touting one of the president's accomplishments an executive order that grants veterans free health care at any hospital in the United States started going viral: post For all the Trump haters; today President Trump signed an executive order allowing our veterans to get 100% medical bills paid at hospitals other than a V.A. hospital. This will save the lives of many American service men and women who have been on V.A. waiting lists, some for years and many dying while waiting. Now they can go to ANY hospital they want... This is how our veterans SHOULD be treated!!! Thanks President Trump!!! There are a number of problems with this Facebook post, starting with the claim that President Donald Trump signed an executive order "today" (5 March 2018). A list of Presidential actions (including executive orders) available on the White House's web site shows that no executive order at all, whether for veteran's health care or anything else, was signed on this date. list The language in this post seems to be referring to the Veterans Choice Act, which was signed into law by President Obama in August 2014. President Trump signed a bill to extend this program a few months before it was set to expire in August 2017: Veterans Choice Act signed signed President Donald Trump extended the Veterans Choice Act on Wednesday to set the stage for a push in Congress to expand the program and allow more access to private care for veterans. Flanked by veterans at an Oval Office ceremony, the president signed the bill to extend the Choice program, which was to expire on Aug. 7, and allow the expenditure of the remaining $950 million in the program. This was not an executive order; furthermore, the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 did not accomplish all of the things set out in this Facebook post, such as grant free health care at any hospital. Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 The Veterans Choice Program expanded the "availability of medical services for eligible Veterans with community providers," but it did not grant veterans the opportunity to receive completely free health care at any hospital of their choosing. A fact sheet provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs laid out the criteria for veterans to seek health care outside established providers: Veterans Choice Program fact sheet As directed by the Choice Act, VA will administer the Veterans Choice Fund to implement the Veterans Choice Program (the Program). The Program will operate for 3 years or until the Fund is exhausted. The Program will provide Veterans who were enrolled as of August 1, 2014 or eligible to enroll as a recently discharged combat Veteran with a Veterans Choice Card, and allow those Veterans who are unable to schedule an appointment within 30 days of their preferred date or the clinically appropriate date, or on the basis of their place of residence to elect to receive care from eligible non-VA health care entities or providers. This is separate from VAs existing program providing Veterans care outside of the VA system. Eligible non-VA entities or providers must enter into agreements with VA to furnish care, must maintain the same or similar credentials and licenses as VA providers, and must submit to VA a copy of any medical records related to care and services provided under the Program for inclusion in the Veterans VA electronic medical record. The VA elaborated on the criteria that veterans must meet in order to seek treatment at outside providers. Even then, the choice of hospitals is limited to the facilities that have agreed to participate in the program. Furthermore, this bill does not include a provision stating that it covered all of the health care provided at these facilities. Some veterans may be eligible for free health care services, but most are required to pay for a portion of their treatment: elaborated eligible While many Veterans qualify for free healthcare services based on a VA compensable service-connected condition or other special eligibilities, most Veterans are required to complete a financial assessment or means test at the time of enrollment to determine if they qualify for free health care services. Veterans whose income exceed VA income limits as well as those who choose not to complete the financial assessment at the time of enrollment, must agree to pay required copays for health care services to become eligible for VA healthcare services. The future of the program is uncertain, however. Critics of the program say that it's too expensive, and that it could eventually lead to downsizing. Critics Hicks, Josh. "A Simple Summary of the New VA Bill."
The Washington Post. 29 July 2014. Jackson, David. "Obama Signs Veterans Health Care Bill."
USA Today. 7 August 2014. Rein, Lisa. "Its Killing the Agency: Ugly Power Struggle Paralyzes Trumps Plan to Fix Veterans Care."
The Washington Post. 9 March 2018. Sisk, Richard. "Trump Signs Bill to Extend Veterans Choice Program."
Military.com. 19 April 2017. | 0 | [
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FMD2942 | 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 Hillary Clinton Utilize Hand Gestures to Manipulate the Debate? Claim summaries: Conspiracy theory holds that Hillary Clinton and moderator Lester Holt rigged the first presidential debate by communicating via hand signals.
contextual information: Just when we thought we'd had our fill of debate-related conspiracies, a new one came along, this one in the form of a video purportedly documenting that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and moderator Lester Holt had colluded to rig the first presidential debate through a system of secret hand signals: Scratching ones face is one of the oldest signals in the book. You can be sure if this was a blackjack table and the house noticed a player making similar signals to a dealer theyd be investigated. When the alt-right web site True Pundit shared the video, they did so along with the additional claim that Clinton had never made similar gestures in previous debates, campaign appearances, or speeches: Before critics view this video and scream Conspiracy, True Pundit cross referenced Clintons speeches, campaign appearances and her 2008 debate performances against President Obama. According to that analysis, Clinton never previously used these hand motions to supposedly scratch her face. In fact, she rarely touches her face at all. (So, you haters can save the trouble of instructing people to remove their tin-foil hats.) The above-displayed video does not provide any evidence that Hillary Clinton and Lester Holt communicated via hand signals so that Clinton could indicate to Holt when she wanted him to call on her so she could get in a "zinger." The creator of the video simply strung together several unrelated events Clinton scratching her face, Holt making a comment, Clinton replying to Trump and then claimed that they were somehow connected to a furtive signaling plot without providing any proof. But before we dig deeper into the video, let's look at the accompanying claims about it from True Pundit and Infowars. Hillary Clinton has been in the public eye for decades. She was the First Lady of Arkansas in 1983, the First Lady of the United States in 1993, a U.S. Senator in 2001, a presidential candidate in 2008, Secretary of State in 2009, and and a presidential candidate again in 2016. It is simply ridiculous to claim that Clinton never once touched her face during a speech, campaign rally, or debate: Clinton touched her face during speech It should be noted that Hillary Clinton was not the only one making these gestures during the first presidential debate: It should also be noted that (as shown in the image at the head of this page) the two candidates were physically separated on the stage, and therefore in order to catch the supposed "signals" from Hillary Clinton, moderator Lester Holt who didn't have the advantage of the split-screen shot presented to television viewers would had to have been rather obviously watching her even when she was not speaking. If Donald Trump truly "dominated the early part of the debate" but then lost his advantage, the more logical explanation is that his opponent's strategy to throw him off his game simply worked as expected: strategy The quiet Mr. Trump took the first shift, presenting a general-election version of his forceful campaign persona minus the bluster, insults and defenses of his anatomy. He pushed his case firmly, hitting his campaigns focal points on the economy and trade. defenses of his anatomy But it didnt take long for Mrs. Clinton to find the other Mr. Trump under that thin second skin. Her needling began immediately. She referred to her opponent as Donald, where he pointedly called her Secretary Clinton. (Yes, is that O.K.? he asked at his first reference to her.) She referred to his starting a business with a $14 million loan from his father, which Mr. Trump preferred to call a very small loan. The digs targeted Mr. Trumps status and founding mythos, triggering his image-protection reflex. He became combative and rattled, letting his opponent lead him down rhetorical detours (at one point he revived an old feud with Rosie ODonnell) knowing that he would follow his ingrained ABCs: always be counterpunching. It was Tony Soprano vs. Dr. Melfi, TVs biggest antihero blustering against the woman who had gotten inside his head. This conspiracy theory also doesn't account for the much more obvious approach that if Hillary Clinton really wanted to say something during the course of the debate when it wasn't her turn to speak, she could simply have interrupted her opponent rather than invoking secret hand signals and waiting to be called upon by the moderator as she did in fact do multiple times ... while Donald Trump also did so, but three times as often. three times | 0 | [
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FMD2943 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: This nightmare could have all been prevented if America was able to look past their unwarranted white guilt for one second, and realize they were electing a second rate community agitator, with sealed records and a questionable birth certificate If Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination and defeats likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in November, President Obama will sabotage the economy in his final months in office, predicts talk-radio host Michael Savage. If Trump wins and I think he will there will be an economic crash, Savage told listeners of his nationally syndicated show, The Savage Nation, Monday. The reason I say that is not because of his policies, but because of what Obama will do on the way out the door. Savage said that if anyone thinks that a President Trump will be able to easily turn this huge ship around, you don t know much about navigation in turbulent waters. Wait until you see what happens in the last few months if Trump wins, Savage said. Wait until you see what that nice guy in the White House does. (Federal Reserve Chairman Janet) Yellen ups interest rates, Obama and his band of unmerry pranksters Sharpton and company unleash the mobs, Savage said. (George) Soros makes a last-ditch effort to distract Trump and the new Justice Department from currency manipulation and other financial games he may have been playing. Spends tens of millions on social agitation. Obama floods the U.S. with Central Americans, Syrians and Africans, mainly Muslim, mainly young males, and grants pardons to 10,000 more Central American drug dealers, Savage continued. Let s see what else might these decent Americans do? Release a few more billion pork barrel green projects? You can guess! Prior to his remarks about Obama s final days in office, Savage told his listeners he believed Trump would defeat Clinton in a landslide, describing the former secretary of state, senator and first lady as Fidel Castro in a dress. Savage cited the new Rasmussen poll of likely voters showing Trump with a 41-39 lead over Clinton nationally. And this is only an early poll, Savage noted on his show Monday. I said a long time ago that when it comes down to Trump vs. Clinton, he would win by a landslide, 60-40, 59-41, something like that. No matter how many illegal aliens Obama tried to flood into this country, Trump will win by a landslide, he said.In February, Savage warned that the banking deregulation under the Bill Clinton administration that led to the 2008 recession appears to be on the verge of impacting the economy again. We re being set up for an economic meltdown similar to the one that triggered the Great Depression, he said.This time, however, Savage continued, it s going to occur on a global scale, and it s unlikely that we ll be able to recover within even the next several decades, once it happens. For entire story: WND | 0 | [
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FMD2944 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A fly on the wall? More like a spy on the floor of your home. It turns out that your dog isn t the only one who should be weary of your Roomba. This popular home cleaning device has been mapping homes using a camera and sensors since 2015 in order to maximize efficiency. However, they plan to sell this data to smart home device manufacturers such as Google, Amazon and Apple, the company said Tuesday.While it may seem like the information being gathered is minimal and harmless, there is a lot to be said for the maps each device is collecting. It knows the floor plan of your home, the basic shape of everything on your floor, what areas require the most maintenance, and how often you require cleaning cycles, along with many other data points.If this doesn t make you suspicious, it probably should. This is all part of the larger mission for major companies to glean every bit of data about you that they can. Now, they want to know all about your living space. iRobot CEO Colin Angle stated that user data won t be sold without permission and he thinks most people will want to take advantage of the greater functionality.In actuality, their terms of agreement allow the company enough freedom to share your data internally, with subsidiaries, third party vendors, and the government upon request. A section within their terms of agreement specifically states that they may share your personal information with other parties in connection with any company transaction, such as a merger, sale of all or a portion of company assets or shares In summary, they do not need your consent if iRobot wanted to sell its user data in bulk. Unless you want the details about your home and family in the hands of third parties without your knowledge, think twice next time you are shopping for a new cleaning device.Read more: New York Post, Gizmodo | 0 | [
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FMD2945 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Former Vice President Joe Biden described attacks on the press and the judicial branch as corrosive and dangerous, without mentioning President Donald Trump who has made incendiary comments about both institutions, ABC News reported. “What worries me the most,†Biden said late on Wednesday, is the “almost drumbeat of denigration of the institutional structures that govern us.†“When you delegitimize the courts, you delegitimize the legislative body. It’s corrosive. and it makes it impossible to reach compromise,†he said in Washington, where he was receiving the Patriot Award for political courage and leadership from the Bipartistan Policy Center, ABC reported. Biden did not mention Trump, who has called U.S. Judge James Robart a “so-called judge†whose “ridiculous†opinion “takes law enforcement away from our country.†Trump’s remarks came after the judge ordered a temporary lifting of the president’s travel and immigration ban in February. Biden, who served two terms as vice president under Democratic President Barack Obama, received the award at the Newseum, a museum dedicated to journalism and First Amendment freedoms. Trump has called the media an “enemy of the American people†and often refers to negative coverage of his administration as “fake news.†“To question the actual legitimacy of a free press is one of the most dangerous things out there. The degree that we depart and denigrate our institutions and the fourth estate, I think we really, honest to God, honest to God, weaken our ability for self-government,†Biden said. “We undermine it and become weaker and not stronger.†| 1 | [
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FMD2946 | 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: Even with a permanent income tax increase... the budget is more than $1 billion out of balance
contextual information: Illinois record budget standoffended July 6with legislative Democrats, joined by a handful of Republicans, approving a $36 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that began July 1, which is underpinned by a 32 percent hike in the state income tax rate. Enactment came July 6 over the objections of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who two days earlier hadvetoed the budget. Even with the (House Speaker Michael) Madigan permanent 32% income tax increase, this budget remains $2 billion out of balance for fiscal year 2018, Rauner wrote in his July 4 veto statement. More than two months later -- after a summer in whichtension over school fundingmade the budget debate seem a faint and distant memory -- Rauner has revived his claim that the Legislature has placed the state on a path to fiscal doom. Even with a permanent income tax increase costing the average Illinois household more than $1,000 a year, the budget is more than $1 billion out of balance, Rauner said in aSept. 7 press release. However, his office cautions not to read too much into the downward revision of the unbalanced budget claim from $2 billion in July to $1 billion now. The difference, the administration says, is due to technical reasons and doesnt mean the budget is in better shape than the governor originally asserted. The not-so-subtle subtext of Rauners claims in both his July veto message and his renewed criticism is that Democrats significantly jacked up taxes to impose a woefully deficient budget. Unpacking the governors argument requires a trip into the weeds of budget minutia, not to mention a detour into political hypocrisy. When it comes to budgeting, Rauner has been clearly guilty of some of the same sins he is now complaining about. But being inconsistent and being wrong arent necessarily the same thing. Is Rauner correct that the General Assembly has produced a budget deeply in the red? We took a look at the numbers. TheIllinois Constitutiondefines a budget as balanced when spending doesnt exceed funds estimated to be available for the fiscal year. But estimated has given politicians license to stretch or shrink their definition of balanced to suit their needs. The Civic Federation, a Chicago-based government fiscal watchdog, noted in aSept. 7 analysisthat the budget as passed on July 6 -- which contained a $360 million operating surplus -- met the textbook definition of balanced. On paper, the budget enacted by the General Assembly on July 7 in an override of another gubernatorial veto has a modest surplus, noted the federations Institute for Illinois Fiscal Sustainability. But the budget is built on assumptions and making it work will depend on whether Rauner and the General Assembly can make those assumptions hold up, said Civic Federation President Laurence Msall. Governor and ILGA should work together to create credibility of States FY2018 surplus for borrowing plan to proceedhttps://t.co/thNHqFGLBK Two of those assumptions form the bulk of Rauners claim that the budget is in the red by more than $1 billion. The first involves a Rauner-driven change in state pension options that Democrats came to embrace. Referred to as Tier 3, it gives state workers a choice to divert some of their traditional benefits into a 401(k) style savings plan. The budget enacted over Rauners veto projects Tier 3 will save $500 million this fiscal year. But Rauner spokesman Jason Schaumburg said savings from this plan wont happen during this budget year. And Illinois Teachers Retirement System Executive Director Dick Ingramtold the Better Government Associationthat TRS anticipates an effective date of July 1, 2019, for the new plan. That means savings wont show up until FY 2020. This validates a significant part of Rauners out of balance claim, but the irony here cant go unmentioned. The $500 million savings figure in the current budget came from an estimate originally presented in Raunersill-fated budget proposalfrom last February. That budget also contained $4.6 billion in phantom money identified only as Working together on grand bargain. And it washardly the only timeRauner has pushed a budget full of the same sort of holes he now condemns. Thefirst budget Rauner proposed in 2015anticipated $2.2 billion in savings from a sweeping overhaul of pensions that at the time was of questionable constitutionality and was soon rendered invalid by the Illinois Supreme Court. TheSept. 7 press releasein which Rauner made his claim about the budget imbalance also announced that the state would issue $6 billion in bonds to pay down part of the$16 billion bill backlogthat accrued during the budget impasse of 2015-2017. The Illinois Comptrollers Office said at the end of FY 2017 that the state was paying late payment penalties of 9 and 12 percent on $5.5 billion contained in the backlog. This costs the state about$2 million a day, according to the comptroller. By borrowing, the state can lower that rate by up to half while also getting payment quickly to creditors. Thus, the budget enacted in July contained a provision empowering the governors office to borrow up to $6 billion for this purpose. But as the Civic Federation noted, the small projected budget surplus was estimated to support only $3 billion in borrowing capacity. Rauner was more pointed in his press release: (A) $6 billion issuance would require 12 annual principal payments of $500 million, plus interest payments depending on the interest rate. The legislature-passed budget did not account for the increase in debt service costs to cover the bill backlog bond issuance. Schaumburg put the total figure at $600 million annually, which roughly squares with the Civic Federations statement. The governor's office is identifying several hundred million dollars in possible spending reductions to address this budgetary shortfall, Rauners press release said. The governor also would like the General Assembly to return to Springfield this fall to work with him to balance the budget and enact structural reforms that could save much more. But one of the budgets chief architects, Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, said Rauner is trying to make a crisis from what should be a source of fiscal relief. Though the budget gives the governors budget office the authority to borrow up to $6 billion, Rauner need not do it all at once. If the administration borrows $3 billion and uses it to pay down outstanding Medicaid bills, it will get $3 billion in matching funds from the federal government that can go toward paying down the backlog, Harris said. A huge portion of the bills are Medicaid, Harris said. Thats money thats just sitting there. Medicaid bills make up $4.1 billion of the $16 billion backlog, according to the Illinois Comptrollers Office. But an even bigger chunk of the backlog comes from bills owed to providers in the State Employee Group Insurance Program. In itsMay monthly report, the General Assemblys Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability said the state owed $4.65 billion in group health insurance payments plus $462 million in late fees. The comptrollers office now estimates group health insurance costs make up $5.1 billion of the total backlog. The Civic Federation report also emphasizes that the $360 million surplus claimed in the budget (and disputed by Rauner) is fragile at best. It is built in large part on proceeds of $240 million from the sale of the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago. The sale of the 17-story behemoth in the heart of Chicagos Loop has been stymied by political fighting ever sinceRauner first proposed itin October 2015. The (budget) surplus could be reduced if it takes longer than expected to find a buyer or if the structure is sold for less than the projected price, the report says. Rauners office also complains that new revenue projections provided in August by the Illinois Department of Revenue to the Governors Office of Management and Budget show more trouble ahead. The General Assemblys budget was based on an earlier revenue projection from April, but FY17 revenues continued to underperform for the remainder of FY17, Schaumburg said. As a result, the GOMB estimate is $500 million lower than the General Assemblys FY18 revenue estimate. This argument, however, ignores the budget-making calendar in the Illinois Constitution, which puts a May 31 deadline on passing a budget with a simple majority in the Legislature. The tone of Rauners news release makes clear that there will be tension in Springfield in the months to come as lawmakers work to, as Msall puts it, make the budgets assumptions hold up. This is not an unfamiliar position for Rauner and the Legislature, even though for the entirety of Rauners term they have yet to agree on a full budget. In March 2015, state government faced the prospect of running out of money unless the governor and lawmakers closed a gap of $1.6 billion. Working together, Rauner and the Legislature hammered out a solution that appeared, briefly, to signal good things for future bipartisan cooperation. Then as now, the effort involved salvaging an existing budget. Thats a departure from the two fiscal years in between, when government operating without any budget controls ran up the $16 billion bill backlog. Gov. Bruce Rauner said Illinois current operating budget is is more than $1 billion out of balance The head of the Illinois Teachers Retirement System confirms Rauners claim that the new pension plan expected to generate $500 million in anticipated savings wont be enacted during the current fiscal year (or even the next one). The Civic Federation reports that the small surplus in the budget will finance only $3 billion of the $6 billion Rauner plans to borrow. But putting $3 billion toward past-due Medicaid bills would generate $3 billion in federal matching funds -- something Rauner has not discussed. Failure to sell or get the expected price for the Thompson Center are possible scenarios that could further imperil the budget. Some of the assumptions identified as sources of the trouble originated in Rauners own budget, a fact that Rauner does not acknowledge and that needs to be considered here. Whether or not the imbalance reaches more than $1 billion is debatable, but Rauner is correct that there remains much work to do. We rate his statement Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD2947 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Myanmar s army chief called on Thursday for people internally displaced by violence in Rakhine State to go home and rebuild communities, but he made no mention of 422,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled to Bangladesh to escape his force s operations. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, in a major speech on his plans for Rakhine state on his first visit there since the latest strife erupted, said the military had handled the situation as best as it could after a wave of coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on Aug. 25. The United Nations has said the military response to the insurgent attacks is ethnic cleansing aimed at pushing the Rohingya Muslim community out of Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Myanmar denies that, saying its forces are waging a legitimate campaign against Muslim terrorists who have been attacking and torching villages of Buddhists and other non-Muslims, some 30,000 of whom were internally displaced. Min Aung Hlaing did not mention the accusation of ethnic cleansing in his speech to business people, officials and some of the displaced, in Sittwe, the state capital. Regarding the rehabilitation of villages of our national races, for the national races who fled their homes, first of all they must go back to their places, he said. National races is a Myanmar term referring to members of officially recognized indigenous ethnic groups who make up the diverse nation. The Rohingya are not recognized as a national race , and are instead seen as illegal immigrants and denied citizenship. Animosity between Buddhists in Rakhine state and the Rohingya goes back generations, but has seethed in recent years, fueled in part by a surge of Buddhist nationalism since nearly five decades of strict military rule came to an end. The important thing is to have our people in the region. It s necessary to have control of our region with our national races, Min Aung Hlaing said. We can t do anything if there are no people from our national races ... that is their rightful place. Min Aung Hlaing did not refer to the return of Muslims to their villages in the north of the state, almost half of which have been abandoned and torched. The crisis has drawn international condemnation and calls from the United Nations and U.S. President Donald Trump for the military to stop the violence and support diplomatic efforts for a long-term solution for the Rohingya. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in her first address to the nation on the crisis on Tuesday, said Myanmar was ready to start a verification process to take back refugees, under a 1993 arrangement with Bangladesh. Refugees from this country will be accepted without any problem, she said. Min Aung Hlaing did not mention the return of refugees from Bangladesh. | 1 | [
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FMD2948 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Russia recognized 11 years ago the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which had been part of the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia and were seeking independence even before the disintegration of the Soviet Union. This occurred after a five-day war between Georgia and South Ossetia in August 2008, which killed 1,692 people and injured about 1,500 civilians in South Ossetia.
In addition to Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Nauru also recognized the independence of Abkhazia. Syria announced the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on May 29, 2018. | 0 | [
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FMD2949 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Monday night s debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was so one-sided that virtually everyone, short of the most ardent Trump supporters, thinks the GOP candidate tanked, bigly.Social media isn t pretty for Trump. Even his white supremacist base is doubting him after his subpar performance in Monday s debate. Here are just some from Stormfront. If you aren t familiar with Stormfront, they are proud white nationalists and they are very pro-Trump. They re still pro-Trump, but they know that their candidate dug himself a hole on Monday night. Here are a few of their posts, courtesy of the Concourse:Stormfront isn t the only group that believes Hillary mopped the floor with Trump. 4chan, the alt-right message board, was filled with disheartened white supremacists (our favorite kind). They were filled with excuses, but the overwhelming opinion seemed to be that their candidate was beaten by a woman.Some were offended when Trump said the DNC hack could have been orchestrated by someone weighing 400 pounds and sitting on his bed.White nationalists aren t the only conservative voters complaining that their candidate lost. I m not positive Hillary actually won the debate. But I m sure Trump lost it. He choked, writes Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol.Ouch, when Bill Kristol turns on you Even if you are a Trump supporter, you have to think that he left a lot on the table, writes GOP supper lobbyist Ed Rogers, a veteran of the Reagan and Bush 41 White Houses. He didn t see the openings and he didn t swing at the softballs that came his way. He never used the word change, he didn t bore in on Hillary s email scandal and he never got around to the Clinton Foundation and Hillary s suspect integrity. Trump was inarticulate and rarely hit the bull s eye. Not exactly giving props to Hillary, but After the first 20 minutes, it may have been the most lopsided debate I ve ever seen and not because Clinton was particularly effective. But you don t need to be good when your opponent is bad, writes National Review s David French, who considered running for president as an independent. Why didn t he have a better answer ready for the birther nonsense? Has he still not done any homework on foreign policy? I felt like I was watching the political Titanic hit the iceberg, back up, and hit it again. Just for fun. The Washington Post has a bunch of other conservative reactions.While it s doubtful the white supremacists or any of the other quoted conservatives will pull the lever for Hillary Clinton, it is clear that Trump showed his vulnerabilities last night and he proved that he s not fit, at all, to be Commander-in-Chief.Featured image via Michael Bocchieri/Getty Images | 0 | [
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FMD2950 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: PARANÃ, Argentina — An Argentine court reopened an investigation on Thursday into accusations that former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sought a secret deal with Iran in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires. The original case was filed by Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor whose mysterious death in 2015 convulsed the country. Three judges on the Court of Cassation, Argentina’s highest criminal appeals court, voted unanimously to reopen the criminal complaint, which accused Mrs. Kirchner and her foreign minister, Héctor Timerman, among others, of sealing a deal with Iran to cover up the role Iranian officials were said to have played in the bombing of the Jewish community center, which killed 85 people. An appeal to the Supreme Court by Mrs. Kirchner is possible, but legal experts say it could face challenges because the Court of Cassation did not issue a final ruling on the case, but rather called for a new investigation. “Of course we are going to appeal,†said Alejandro Rúa, Mr. Timerman’s lawyer. “This case has been plagued with violations of constitutional guarantees. And if we run out of local instances of appeal, we are going to the Commission of Human Rights. †With the ruling, the three judges — Ana MarÃa Figueroa, Mariano Hernán Borinsky and Gustavo M. Hornos — took the rare step of ordering the reopening of a criminal investigation even though the prosecutor in the court, Javier de Luca, had said that Mr. Nisman’s complaint should not proceed. They also said that a new judge would be selected by lottery, effectively blocking lower court judges who had refused to reopen the case from participating in the investigation of Mr. Nisman’s accusations. In their ruling, the judges made it clear they believed that the lower courts had been too quick to dismiss the evidence that was presented. The delicate nature of the case demands “a quick and efficient resolution, but above all a transparent answer†from the judicial system, Judge Hornos wrote. “It also demands a diligent and exhaustive investigation. †The decision was the latest judicial setback for Mrs. Kirchner, who faces several investigations. On Tuesday, she was indicted in a corruption case having to do with public works contracts, and earlier this year, a separate court indicted her on charges of manipulating the nation’s Central Bank by entering into contracts to sell the bank’s dollars at rates. Mrs. Kirchner has denied the allegations against her, describing them as the work of a justice system bending to the will of President Mauricio Macri, her longtime opponent, who took office in December 2015. In his stunning accusation, Mr. Nisman said that Mrs. Kirchner, who was president from 2007 to 2015, had sought to negotiate impunity for a group of Iranian officials suspected of involvement in the country’s deadliest terrorist attack in order to seal trade deals with Iran. But on Jan. 18, 2015, hours before Mr. Nisman was set to present his case to lawmakers, he was found dead, slumped in a pool of blood in his apartment with a gunshot wound to his head. Mr. Nisman’s death sent shock waves through Argentina’s political system, and the country became engulfed in a seemingly endless debate about whether he had committed suicide or been murdered. Mr. Nisman had been appointed by Mrs. Kirchner’s husband and predecessor as president, Néstor Kirchner, to take over the stalled bombing investigation in 2004. Two years later, he formally accused Iranian officials and the militant group Hezbollah of carrying out the attack. His death, just weeks after Mrs. Kirchner ordered a of the country’s notoriously politicized intelligence agency, remains unsolved, and investigators are looking into claims of a . Mr. Nisman’s complaint has languished in the courts. A federal judge, Daniel Rafecas, argued in February 2015 that Mr. Nisman’s claims did not “minimally hold up†and that there was “not even circumstantial evidence†that could implicate Mrs. Kirchner. An appeals court agreed with Judge Rafecas, as did the Court of Cassation, and the case was closed in May 2015. Then, this past August, DAIA, Argentina’s largest Jewish community association, called on Judge Rafecas to reopen the case, saying it had new evidence. Judge Rafecas and the appeals court disagreed that the evidence, including a phone call between Mr. Timerman and a Jewish community leader discussing Iran’s responsibility in the 1994 bombing, was enough to reverse their earlier decision. Thursday’s decision “took us by surprise,†DAIA’s president, Ariel Cohen Sabban, told a local radio station. “We don’t want the courts to tell us we are right,†he added, “but we do want to be certain that we did everything we could to investigate the worst case of terrorism†in Argentina’s history, “and if there has been any kind of impunity cloak for those who carried out the attack. †A key element of Mr. Nisman’s case was a memorandum of understanding reached between Argentina and Iran in 2013 that would have included a commission to jointly investigate the bombing. But that agreement was never carried out and ended up being declared unconstitutional last year. Iran has long denied any involvement in the bombing. | 1 | [
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FMD2951 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: A JV team threat Shaken by a daring U.S. military strike deep in ISIS territory, supporters of the extremist organization were vowing revenge for the killing of senior leader Abu Sayyaf or claiming the special operations mission never took place, a Vocativ analysis reveals. If they took Abu Sayyaf, we will take Obama, one ISIS supporter posted in the hours after the raid near the eastern Syrian city of al-Amr.Translation: If your goal is killing Abu Sayyaf then our goal is killing Obama and the worshipers of the cross. We have attacks coming against you.Elite American commandos carried out the rare, overnight military operation, killing Sayyaf, capturing his wife, and freeing a Yezidi woman believed to have been held as their slave, the Pentagon said Saturday. Defense Secretary Ash Carter heralded the mission as a significant blow to the Islamic State.Vocativ analyzed social media across Syria in the wake of the strike and discovered some ISIS supporters claimed the news was U.S. propaganda timed to counter ISIS momentum after taking most of the Iraqi city of Ramadi this week. Others tweeted from outside the Syrian city of Raqqa vowing revenge for the strike, saying they heard explosions and helicopters.Carter said Sayyaf was responsible for directing many of the group s military activities and funding, directing its illicit oil, gas, and financial operation. No U.S. forces were killed or injured during the operation, which represented another significant blow to the group, Carter said. And it is a reminder that the United States will never waver in denying safe haven to terrorists who threaten our citizens, and those of our friends and allies, he continued in the statement.The mission included the arrest of Sayyaf s wife, Umm Sayyaf, and the freeing of the Yezidi woman. The trading of Yezidi women has been a major inducement and reward for ISIS fighters in the past. The Yezidis follow a strand of Islam that is rejected by mainstream Muslims as heretical. ISIS last year surrounded the Yezidis villages in northern Iraq, killing and capturing dozens, and taking many of the girls and women as slaves. U.S. forces captured Umm Sayyaf, who we suspect is a member of ISIS, played an important role in ISIS s terrorist activities, and may have been complicit in what appears to have been the enslavement of a young Yezidi woman rescued last night, Carter said. The White House said in a statement that Umm Sayyaf had been moved to a U.S. military detention facility in Iraq. The Yezidi woman would be freed. We intend to reunite her with her family as soon as feasible, Bernadette Meehan, the National Security Council spokeswoman, said in a statement.The operation was coordinated with Iraqi officials, but the U.S. government did not coordinate with the Syrian regime, nor did we advise them in advance of this operation, Ms. Meehan said.According to reports, a team of the Army s Delta Force troops traveled in Black Hawk helicopters and Osprey aircraft into al-Amr in eastern Syria. The Washington Post quoted an unnamed defense official who said a firefight broke out after the troops touched down near a building where Abu Sayyaf was believed to be, and that ISIS fighters tried to use women and children as human shields. It was a real fight, the official told the Post, saying there was hand-to-hand fighting and about a dozen militants were killed. He told the Post that troops collected items that might prove useful intelligence.Via: Vocativ.com | 0 | [
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FMD2952 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: By The Indigenous People
Protests escalated in North Dakota as police moved in with armed vehicles and rubber bullets. Standing Rock youth also tried to deliver a letter to Hillary Clinton’s headquarters. Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo, who just returned from North Dakota, where he and Native Renewables founder Wahleah Johns presented Standing Rock Sioux tribal elders with mobile solar panels on trailers, bringing clean power to the protest encampment where the largest gathering of Native Americans in modern history is taking a stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline .
“This pipeline is a black snake that traverses four states and 200 waterways with fracked Bakken oil ,” said Ruffalo, co-founder of The Solutions Project , which works to accelerate the transition to 100 percent clean and renewable energy.
“We know from experience that pipelines leak , explode, pollute and poison land and water. But it doesn’t have to be that way.”
The solar trailers will provide clean energy to power medical tents and other critical facilities for Native American protesters and their allies at the encampment. The trailers symbolize a healthy, equitable, prosperous energy future made possible by clean renewable energy.
“Water is life,” said Johns, a Navajo leader. “By leading a transition to energy that is powered by the sun, the wind and water, we ensure a better future for all of our people and for future generations.”
Johns’ company, Native Renewables, promotes low-cost clean energy solutions for Native American families throughout the U.S., with an emphasis on job creation and on benefiting the community as a whole. The trailers were built by members of the Navajo nation and were financed by Empowered by Light and Give Power.
Research led by Stanford Prof. Mark Jacobson, another Solutions Project co-founder, shows that it would be technically possible and economically beneficial to transition to 100 percent clean renewable energy in each and every state across the country. In North Dakota , for example, wind and solar energy would be the primary sources of clean power and transitioning to 100 percent renewables would create 30,000 jobs. | 0 | [
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FMD2953 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: South Africa s High Court ruled on Wednesday that President Jacob Zuma must set up a judicial inquiry into state influence-peddling within 30 days, the latest in a series of judicial blows to his scandal-tinged administration. Upholding a recommendation by South Africa s corruption-fighting Public Protector, High Court Judge President Dunstan Mlambo said an application by Zuma challenging the inquiry was ill-advised and reckless and an abuse of the judicial process. The ruling comes days after the same court dealt a stinging rebuke to Zuma by ruling that his appointment of a state prosecutor to decide whether to reinstate corruption charges against him was not valid and should be set aside immediately. Zuma had challenged the right of the Public Protector to call for a judicial inquiry and the appointment by the chief justice of a judge to head it, saying it was the president s prerogative whether to set up such an inquiry. It was not immediately clear if Zuma would appeal against Wednesday s ruling and his spokesman was not immediately available to comment. The 75-year-old president has faced and denied numerous corruption allegations since taking office in 2009 and has survived several votes of no-confidence in parliament. In October, the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld an earlier High Court decision reinstating nearly 800 corruption charges relating to an arms deal that were filed against Zuma but shelved before he ran for president in 2009. The revival of the charges could increase pressure on Zuma to step down before his term ends in 2019. Several judicial setbacks have undermined Zuma s authority and some analysts say it could diminish his influence over who succeeds him when the ruling African National Congress (ANC) chooses a new leader this month. Political instability, including questions over who will replace Zuma has been cited by credit rating agencies as a major factor behind their decision to cut South Africa to junk . Africa s most industrialized economy has grown lethargically over the last six years and the jobless rate stands near record levels. Analysts say the political crisis is making it hard to reform the economy, improve social services and fight crime. The influence-peddling inquiry was recommended in a report released a year ago by the Public Protector, whose job is to uphold standards in public life. Zuma also sought to block the release of the report, entitled State of Capture , which focused on allegations that Zuma s friends, the businessmen and brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, had influenced the appointment of ministers. Zuma and the Guptas have denied all accusations of wrongdoing. Ordering Zuma to pay the costs of the latest court challenge, Judge President Mlambo said the South African leader s conduct was clearly objectionable ... and amounts to clear abuse of the judicial process . A judicial commission was best suited to investigate the allegations against Zuma, Mlambo said, adding: The allegations ... detailed in the report are extremely serious. The court ordered that once the inquiry is set up, it should complete its task and present its report to Zuma within 180 days. The president would then have to inform parliament within 14 days of what action he planned to take based on the inquiry s findings, the court said. In a statement, the ANC some of whose lawmakers are critical of Zuma said a judicial inquiry was crucial in verifying the allegations in the watchdog s report. We therefore trust President Jacob Zuma will implement this judgment without delay in the interest of our country, it said. Opposition leader Mmusi Maimane, who was at the court, welcomed the ruling. The judgment lays out a timeline ... we hope to get to the bottom of this, Maimane said, adding that his party would oppose any appeal in the case should Zuma launch one. Thuli Madonsela, the report s author, who was also at the court, said: An allegation that the state has been captured in the interests of the president and his friends is an allegation that needs to be investigated immediately. Her 355-page report stopped short of asserting that crimes had been committed, saying the watchdog lacked the resources to reach such conclusions and that they should be investigated by a judicial inquiry. Zuma has said he will appeal against the High Court s ruling on Friday that his appointment of a state prosecutor was not valid and that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa should instead appoint a new public prosecutor within 60 days. Ramaphosa, the main rival for the ANC leadership to former African Union chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is Zuma s favored candidate and ex-wife, has recently stepped up criticism of Zuma s scandal-plagued government. | 1 | [
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FMD2954 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: This is a shocking story of corruption and collusion even for a Clinton. Hillary should ve been locked up for this one but instead, her campaign finance director takes the fall. How ironic that Hillary would admit to a top donor that she doesn t do emails because of being under so many investigations. That must be a badge of honor for a Democrat .No matter the size of the scandal, Hillary and Bill always find some magical way to escape prosecution. The scandal seen in the undercover video below shows movie producer Peter Paul discussing emails with Hillary Clinton. Paul claims he spent $2 million to produce a major fundraising event for Hillary. Peter Paul admits he hosted the event in order to gain access to the Clintons. The campaign laws that were in effect at that time limited campaign gifts to $2,000.Watch Peter Paul s stunning story below:Peter Paul s whistleblower site explains the timeline and the significance of the smoking gun video.After [Paul] began to blow the whistle in March, 2001, to four US prosecutors on Hillary s role in the false FEC reports filed by her campaign that hid more than $1.2 million in his expenditures, the Attorney General[ s office ] launched a four year investigation leading to the indictment and trial of Hillary s finance director, David Rosen, in May 2005, for election law fraud. Rosen was solely indicted for providing information that only he knew was false, to Hillary s treasurer for reporting to the FEC The Federal Judge, Howard Matz, (appointed by the Clintons in 1998) who officiated over the subsequent trial of Rosen in Los Angeles, made ethically questionable statements to the jury, prior to the commencement of the trial, stating unequivocally that Hillary Clinton was not involved in any direct way whatsoever in the illegal fundraiser On Fox News in 2005, Doug Schoen, a former Clinton adviser, said that, The prosecutors and defense attorneys said she is not involved Prosecutors made the decision that Mr. Rosen should be tried, it s a fact-based case. It has nothing to do with Senator Clinton. The video appears to directly counter these assertions and instead links Hillary and her aide to the planning of the fundraiser. Hillary Clinton is not a part of this case In fact, if Clinton participated in the planning of the fundraising event, it: would make Paul s substantial contributions a direct donation to her Senate campaign rather than her joint fundraising committee, violating federal statutes that limit hard money contributions to a candidate to $2,000 per person. Knowingly accepting or soliciting $25,000 or more in a calendar year is a felony carrying a prison sentence of up to five years In the tape, Clinton is heard via speakerphone thanking Paul, business partner Stan Lee and other colleagues for their efforts in putting together the fundraiser She also describes the role of longtime aide Kelly Craighead as assisting in day-to-day involvement in preparation for the event as her liaison with Paul and his producers Craighead, Clinton says, talks all the time with Paul, so she ll be the person to convey whatever I need. The aide s hands-on role is significant, because the law also implicates a candidate if any of his or her agents are involved in coordinating expenditures with a donor In another portion of the tape, Clinton is heard discussing her direct solicitation of a large contribution from the entertainer Cher. Paul s legal team, the U.S. Justice Foundation, argues the value of Cher s performance alone vastly exceeded the FEC limits The Hillary Clinton Felony Video The video itself is fascinating. The preface to the tape states that it shows Hillary Clinton in the process of committing at least four or five felonies under federal election law -Via: Doug Ross JournalPeter Paul filed and won a civil suit against the Clinton s in 2010. The segment below is from the Supreme Court precedent setting film Hillary The Movie by Citizens United, shows the polygraph test taken by Hillary s largest donor, Peter Paul, corroborating his claims the Clintons promised to have Bill Clinton work with his public company in exchange for Paul paying more than $1.2 million to elect Hillary to her first political office. This video supports the allegations in the civil fraud suit filed by Paul in 2003 and settled with the Clintons in 2010. | 0 | [
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FMD2955 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Embargo Remains Politically Contentious Within the US
For the first time ever, the US has abstained from the UN vote denouncing the ongoing US embargo of Cuba. The resolution passed through the general assembly 191-0, with the US and Israel the only ones abstaining.
The UN has been voting overwhelmingly against the embargo for decades, but it is only in the past year that President Obama has started to criticize the embargo himself, and has sought to ease a lot of the long-standing restrictions on the island nation.
The matter is hugely politically contentious within the US, however, with many in the Republican Congress condemning the White House for easing the restrictions, and the Congressional leadership so far preventing any more easing of the restrictions on commerce.
The UN resolution itself is non-binding, and the real significance is not that it passed, but rather that the US abstained, which while reflecting the administration’s position is unusual, as it criticizes the US Congress internationally. | 0 | [
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FMD2956 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: INTERVIEW WITH THE SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD
“Syria is paying the price of its independence” by Bashar al-Assad Interviewed by the Cuban journalist Roberto Garcia on behalf of the agency Prensa Latina, the President of the Syrian Arab Republic highlights the cohesion between the different groups within Syrian society and popular participation in defense of the Nation. After noting that preserving national independence was a fundamental factor in the struggle that today is liberating the Syrian state, Bashar al-Assad recognizes the historical similarity between this battle and the recent struggles between Latin American nations.
Voltaire Network | Damascus (Syria) | 2 November 2016 Español President Bashar al-Assad receives the special envoy from Latina Prensa, Roberto García, 21 July 2016. Prensa Latina : Mr President, thank you very much for granting Prensa Latina this historic opportunity to communicate to the world your perspective on the situation in Syria given that, as you know, much information has been manipulated on the foreign aggression your country faces.
How do you assess the current military situation in Syria and what are the main challenges that the Syrian armed forces on the ground face in their struggle against the anti-governmental groups? If possible, we would like your opinion on the current situation on the combat fronts in Aleppo and Homs.
Bashar al-Assad :Obviously, the terrorists have received massive support from different corners of the world. There are more than 100 nationalities participating in the aggression against Syria, relying on the support of countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, that fund them and Turkey that undoubtedly offers them logistical support, as well as the approval and supervision of Western States led by the United States, France, the United Kingdon and other allies.
But since the Russians decided to combat terrorism in Syria, essentially the Al-Nusra Front, the Islamic State (Daesh) and other groups associated to these two extremist entities, the balance of powers has now shifted in our favour and against these groups.
The Syrian Arab Army has succeeded and continues to succeed in making advances in different parts of Syria and is determined to topple them.
The situation in Homs, since the terrorists abandoned it more than a year ago, has improved and is far more stable now. There are some districts in the city infiltrated by extremists where a reconciliation process is now underway. On the basis of this reconciliation process, terrorists have the possibility of laying down their arms and then returning to their normal lives, benefitting from the governmental amnesty. Alternatively they leave Homs for another part of Syria, which is exactly what happened more than a year ago in the centre of this city.
But the situation is different in Aleppo given than the Turks and their Saudi and Qatarian allies have lost many of their cards on the battle fields in Syria, so that Aleppo is its final card, especially for the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has tried his best with the Saudis to send there the largest possible number of terrorists that now totals around 5,000. This they did in the last two months, from Turkey to Aleppo in the hope of occupying this city, but they failed.
In actual fact, our army has succeeded in making advances in Aleppo and the surroundings areas, seeking to find terrorists, then to negotiate with them so as to return them to their normal life. Alternatively they will abandon this zone, or in some other way will be destroyed because they have no other option.
Prensa Latina : What are the priorities of the Syrian armies in their struggle against the terrorist groups? What role do the popular defense groups play in the theatre of operations?
Bashar al-Assad : The priority of the Arab Syrian Army is fighting Daesh [the Islamic Emirate], the al-Nusra Front and groups such as the Ahrar Al-Sham and Yeish al-Islam (the Islamic Army).
These four groups are directly linked to al-Qaeda, given that they share its ideology. They are Islamic extremists that want to eliminate everything that is contrary to their way of thinking and that is not aligned to them.
Regarding the groups of popular defense, at the beginning of the conflicts, the terrorists unleashed a non-conventional war against our army that is a conventional organization, such as any other army in the world.
As a consequence, the support that these groups of popular defense offered was of utmost importance to destroying the terrorists with non-conventional tactics. This has been a great help for the Syrian Arab Army given that the combatants of the popular defense fight in their own zones, cities and towns - places that they are very familiar with. I mean, they really dominate the roads, paths and geography of these zones and for this reason are a great help to the Syrian Arab Army. This is their mission.
Prensa Latina : How does the resistance of the Syrian people materialize against foreign aggression on the economic front? Which sectors in this sphere continue to function despite the war, the international sanctions and acts of sabotage?
Bashar al-Assad :In actual fact, the war against Syria is integral because it is not limited to the support offered to the terrorists but furthermore unleashed a containment policy against our country at the international level…
The third factor is the economy. They give orders to extremists and mercenary agents to destroy the infrastructure that grew the Syrian economy and satisfied the daily needs of its citizens.
At the same time, they began to impose a direct embargo on the borders of our nation, making use of these irregular armed elements from abroad, harnessing the banking systems in the whole world.
Despite this, the Syrian people is determined to pursue a normal life, within the realms of what is possible. This situation has led to many businessmen, essentially medium and small industrials, abandoning the most unstable conflict zones and making their way to other areas where there is greater stability. There they establish their businesses at much-reduced levels, as a way of continuing to exist, to maintain economic activity and to continue to satisfy our citizens’ needs.
In this context, most sectors are still functioning. For example, the pharmaceutical industry is working at more than 60% of its manufacturing capacity and this is very important for our economy in the circumstances that we are going through.
I think that despite our current situation, we are not cutting back on the efforts to broaden once again our economic base, especially following the advances that the Syrian Arab Army is making in different zones of combat.
Prensa Latina : Mr President: let us speak a little about the international environment. What is your opinion on the role the UN is playing in the Syrian conflict and the attempts of Washington and its allies to impose their will on the Security Council and the Geneva Talks?
Bashar al-Assad :Talking about the role of the UN and the Security Council could be ambiguous and confusing given that in actual fact, the United Nations is an instrument that the United States can use to suit its needs.
Washington is able to impose on the [UN] its norms of double standards thereby preventing the organization acting according to the provisions of the UN Charter. They can use it just as they do with any other institution under US administration.
Were it not for the positions taken by Russia and China on certain causes, the UN would be a wholly US institution. But Russia and China have achieved a certain equilibrium in these institutions over the last 5 years, especially on the Syrian cause.
But if you wish to speak of the role of the UN through its mediators and its envoys, such as Mr Staffan De Mistura most recently and before him Koffi Anan, Lakdar Brahimi and others, we can say that these mediators are not independent.
These officials reflect the pressures that Western countries exercise, or, in some cases, the dialogue existing between the main powers, principally Russia and the United States. They are not stable and due to this, you cannot speak of the UN playing a role.
It is a reflection of this equilibrium. So, the UN is not playing a role in the Syrian Conflict. There is only US – Russian dialogue and we know that the Russians are not cutting back on their efforts and that they are working with all sincerity and honesty to topple the terrorists.
However, the US is manoeuvring to use the terrorists rather than to destroy them.
Prensa Latina : Mr President: How do you currently see the co-existence between Syrian ethnic and religious groups in relation to this foreign interference? How does this factor impact the current economic climate?
Bashar al-Assad :The most important matter with respect to this harmony between the different components of the Syrian social fabric, is that it is true and authentic. This is because it has been constructed throughout History and throughout the centuries. This means in this sort of conflict it is impossible to destroy this social fabric.
If you take a tour in the different zones under government control, you can see all the colours of the social fabric of Syrian society living together.
I can add that during the conflict, this harmony improved and was further strengthened. This is not just words - it is a reality that has different reasons. The conflict is a lesson and this diversity that characterizes a society can enrich the country or can be converted into a problem. There is no other outcome.
The people have learnt that we have to work very hard to retain this harmony given that the first argument that the terrorists and their allies in the region and in the West used in relation to the conflict in Syria was of a sectarian character.
They would like to divide the people so that they will fight among themselves with the aim of stoking the fire in Syria but they have failed. The Syrians learnt the lesson how to live in harmony and they were enjoying this harmony before the conflict exploded. Now we have to try to strengthen it.
And for this reason, without any exaggeration, I can say that where this issue is concerned, all is well.
We can also say that the situation is different in the areas under terrorist control. As you know, those that belong fundamentally to the extremist factions associated with al-Qaeda have not decreased their efforts to introduce their oscurantist ideology into the minds of the new generation, an ideology that asserts death, decapitation and all these horrendous practices. And that had success in some areas.
With the passage of time, it will be more difficult to deal with this new generation of youth, saturated with the doctrine and ideology of Wahabism and al-Qaeda. Here is based the only danger that our society will face in relation to the harmony and coexistence to which you have referred.
Prensa Latina : Mr President, let us return to the international scene. What is your opinion on the role that the US-led coalition plays in relation to the groups deployed in the North of Syria, especially the Kurds?
Bashar al-Assad :As you know, when the US administrations build relations with any group or society in a country, it is not for the benefit of that nation or its people but because it serves the US agenda.
Consequently, we have to ask ourselves: why are the Americans supporting someone in Syria? Clearly they are not doing it for the benefit of Syria, but because they have their own agenda. And this US agenda in all countries always aims at dividing.
They do not work to unite people, but to divide them. Sometimes they choose a sectarian group and at other times an ethnic group and lend its support against other ethnic groups or wedge a distance between it and other components of society. That is its agenda.
Therefore it is evident that all this US support has nothing to do with Daesh, nor with al-Nusra, nor even with the fight against terrorism as from the time the US intervened, Daesh has grown. It only started to shrink when Russia lent its support to the Syrian Army last September.
Prensa Latina : Mr President, what is your opinion of the attempted coup that recently took place in Turkey? How do you think it affects the current situation in this country, at the international level and also the conflict in Syria?
Bashar al-Assad :We have to see this coup as reflecting instability and disturbances within Turkey, especially at the social level. It is possible that the effect is political or any other type, but, certainly, when a country is destabilized, the principal causes are rooted in its own society.
This is independent of who governs Turkey and who is its president/ leader because this is an internal matter. We do not intervene nor will we commit the error of saying that Erdogan must step down from power or that he must stay. This is a Turkish issue and it is for the Turkish people to take a decision on this matter.
But the most important matter in this coup is that we have to see the measures and steps that Erdogan and his group adopted in recent days, when they began to attack the judicial system. They expelled from office more than 2,700 judges, more than 1,500 university professors and more than 15,000 employees in the education sector. What do the universities, the judges and the civil society have to do with the coup?
These measures reflect the evil intentions of Erdogan, his bad character and his real intentions with respect to what has happened. If the investigations are still underway, why take the decision to dismiss all these people?
Thus he has used the coup to execute his extremist agenda, a blueprint of the Muslim Brotherhood’s, on Turkish soil. This is very dangerous for Turkey and for the neighboring countries, Syria included.
Prensa Latina : How do you assess your Government’s relations with the opposition based in the country? What is the difference between these oppositional groups and those based abroad?
Bashar al-Assad :We have good relations with the opposition within Syria, based on national principles. Clearly they have their own political agendas and doctrines and we have our own agenda and doctrine. We can enter into dialogue with them directly or through the ballot boxes, which is another form of dialogue.
This is the situation in all countries. But we cannot compare this opposition with the opposition based outside Syria. This is because the concept of opposition signifies using pacific means and not supporting terrorists. This opposition is not formed outside the country and has a popular base among the Syrians that live here.
The popular bases cannot be directed from the chancelleries of the United Kingdom or France or through the Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United States intelligence services. This is not an “opposition” as they call themselves; we call them traitors because the true opposition, the one working for the Syrian people, is based in Syria and adopts its agenda from this people and functions in the interests of the homeland.
Prensa Latina : How do you assess the insistence of the United States and its allies that you have to abandon power and the media campaign that they unleash to smear the reputation of its Government on the international scene?
Bashar al-Assad :With respect to the proposition that I abandon power, they have been saying this for five years yet we have never given it any importance, nor even responded with any declaration whatsoever.
We have never given it importance. This is a Syrian matter and the Syrian people are the only ones with the power to determine who must stay and who must resign, who must stay in office and who must abandon it. The West is abundantly aware of our position on this matter.
Consequently, we are not very bothered with this issue. We don’t even waste time thinking about what they say. I am here thanks to the support of the Syrian people. Were it not for this support, I would not be here. It is as simple as that.
With respect to sullying reputations or attempts to demonize certain Presidents, this is the US’s modus operandi – at least it has been from the Second World War, since they replaced British colonialism in this region and possibly in the entire world.
From that time, the US administrations and the US politicians have never uttered a word of truth on any issue. They always lie. And with the passage of time, they have been converted into expert liars. This is part of their policy. Their attempt to demonize me is similar to their attempt to demonize President (Vladimir) Putin, in the last two years, and to demonize the Cuban leader Fidel Castro over the last five decades. That is how they operate.
So we must know that this is how the US acts and therefore we must pay no heed to what they say. The important thing is to maintain a good reputation in the eyes of our people. This is what we have to concern ourselves with.
Prensa Latina : Mr President, what is your opinion on Syria’s relations with Latin America, especially its historical ties with Cuba?
Bashar al-Assad :Despite the enormous distance that separates Syria and Latin America, the level of knowledge that the people, not simply the politicians, in that region have, on this part of the world, never ceases to amaze us.
I think a number of factors account for this, one of which lies in the historical similarity and commonalities between Syria and Latin America.
For much time, Latin American countries suffered from direct occupation. Thereafter they suffered the action of US companies, coup d’etats and US interference. This is why, the people of this region know what it means for a country to be independent or not. They understand that the war in Syria hinges upon its independence.
But the most important thing in this part of the world is the role of Cuba, which has always been the launching pad of Independent Movements in Latin America. In this context, Fidel Castro is an icon.
As a result, at the political level and in terms of knowledge-base, we can say that there are strong similarities between Syria and Latin America, especially Cuba.
But I do not think that we are doing enough to improve other aspects of our relationship so that they are at the same level, basically in the sectors of education and the economy. This was my ambition before the crisis. I was in Latin America – Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil– to strengthen our relationship. Then the conflict broke out and and it mutated into a huge obstacle pre-empting any action on this matter.
Even so, I do not think that our relations have to be limited to their historical and political aspects. This is not sufficient. There are several sectors and the inhabitants of both regions have to get to know each other better. Distance could prove an obstacle but not necessarily so, since we have strong relationships with the rest of the world to the East as well as the West.
I mean, today, distance no longer presents an obstacle. I think that if we manage to overcome the crisis and this war, then we will have to work with greater force to revive different aspects of this relationship with Latin America, especially with Cuba.
Prensa Latina : Mr President what are your expectations, what do you think of the current electoral process in the United States, especially the presidential elections? How do you think the result may influence the war in Syria?
Bashar al-Assad :We renewed relations with the United States in 1974, 42 years ago. From that time we got to know various US leaders in different cases.
The lesson that we have learnt is that noone must put their money on a US president. This is the most important thing. Thus the problem is not the name. They have institutions and their own agenda and each president comes to execute this agenda in his own way. But, he must, absolutely, comply with this agenda.
Everyone has military agendas. The only difference lies in the method of execution. One deploys its army, as Bush did, and others send in their mercenaries and agencies as Obama did. But every president has to fulfil this agenda.
I do not think that in the United States, the head of the White House is allowed to fulfil his political convictions. He has to submit to institutions and to pressure groups. And these groups have not changed; nor have the plans of institutions changed. This means that the US will not have in the near future, a president that can bring about a serious and radicial change in US politics.
Prensa Latina : What message do you want to sent out through this interview with Prensa Latina to the governments and peoples of Latin America and the Carribean, as well as the people of the United States, especially on the importance of supporting Syria’s struggle against terrorism?
Bashar al-Assad :Latin America is a good example and important for the whole world on how countries and governments have succeeded in recovering their independence. This region is the backyard of the United States, but Washington has used it to try out its maneouvres and to execute its own agenda.
The Latin American people have sacrificed a great deal to reach their independence and after recovering it, they transformed into countries on the path to development or even developed countries.
Thus independence is something very important and greatly cherished by all Latin Americans. We consider that they must preserve it, because the United States will not stop working to topple any independent government that represents the great majorities in each country in this region.
Cuba is very well aware of this and knows, more than any other country in the world, what I am talking about. You have suffered US manoeuvres more than any other country in Latin America and have successfully dealt with all these attempts for more than 50 years, only because your government represents the Cuban people.
This demonstrates that holding a tenacious grip on this independence is of vital importance, in my judgement, for Latin America’s future.
With respect to Syria, we can say that Syria is paying the price for its independence, because at no point in time have we acted against the United States, France or the United Kingdom.
We have always tried to develop good relations with the West. But the problem with these [countries] is that they do not accept that any country is independent, and I think that this is the position they took with Cuba as well.
You have never tried to damage or harm the people of the United States yet they do not accept you as an independent country. The same happens with the other countries in Latin America. This is why there have always been coups in these countries especially during the years 1960-70.
And this is why I think that preserving self-determination in a country cannot be achieved in isolation. If I want to be independent, then I have to support independence across the whole world, because if one acted alone, then I will be weak.
The support for Syria will principally be in international fora. There are many organizations, notably the United Nations, despite its incapacity. Clearly, the support of these entities can perform an active role in supporting Syria.
The natural [locus for support] is the UN Security Council and its position depends on its non-permanent members. The support of any other organization for Syria will also be important.
Prensa Latina : Mr President, we know that you are a very busy person and for this reason Prensa Latina highly values the time that you have granted us for this interview when your time is invaluable. We would wish to have this type of interview in the future with you. Thank you kindly.
Bashar al-Assad :You will be welcome at any time.
Bashar al-Assad Translation
Anoosha Boralessa
Source
Prensa Latina (Cuba) | 0 | [
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FMD2957 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: When we had a conservative Republican president we were losing 750,000 jobs a month.
contextual information: Its been nearlyeight years since George W. Bush was president, but Democrats still plan to run against him. Certainly, thats what Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz promised on the eve of the first Democratic presidential debate. There are so many people who are focused on making sure we can look at the fact that, when we had a conservative Republican president, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month, Wasserman Schultz said on CNNsState of the UnionOct. 11, 2015. Weve come through that -- 67 straight months of job growth in the private sector. People are no longer losing their homes. Thats the contrast well talk about. The DNC press office told us that Wasserman Schultz was thinking of President George W. Bush, and that the time period she had in mind were the last few months of his presidency, November through January. President Barack Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, so its reasonable to count that month as part of the Bush legacy. We pulled up theBureau of Labor Statisticsnumbers and Wasserman Schultz is on solid ground. Month Jobs (000s) Loss Nov 135,469 -765 Dec 134,773 -696 Jan 133,977 -796 Average -752 Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics Benchmark comparison The number is particularly high because Wasserman Schultz chose the three worst months of the Bush presidency. If she had chosen a longer period, say the last full year, the losses would have averaged about 365,000 per month. The losses would shrink even more if you look at longer period of time. Wasserman Schultz didnt mention that the economy continued to shed jobs at or above the 700,000 mark for the first two months of Obamas presidency before the trend began to ease. This chart from theBureau of Labor Statisticsgives a more complete jobs picture. The Great Recession saw employment declines of historic proportions.Government analystscompared the relative losses from 2007 to 2009 to past downturns. The bottom purple line on their chart tracks jobs in the Great Recession which officially began December 2007. Of course, Wasserman Schultzs statement implies that conservative Republican policies alone brought about a massive loss of jobs and the reality is more complicated. Some analysts believe that a portion of the blame goes back to policies that enjoyed Democratic support, including changes in financial regulation passed during the Clinton administration. But Wasserman Schultz did not make that claim specifically. Our ruling Wasserman Schultz said that under a conservative Republican president the country was losing 750,000 jobs a month. Wasserman Schultz was speaking of President George W. Bush and at the end of his term, the monthly job losses averaged about 750,000 jobs. The average would of course be less if she had included Bushs final 12 months -- or a period longer than that. There is an element of cherry-picking here, but the overall point holds up. We rate the claim Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD2958 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: When colleges and universities are added, education spending is the biggest item in the state budget about 52 percent of all state dollars.
contextual information: After Dan Patrick popped a statistic to back his contention that Texas state government spends plenty on education, a reader asked us to check the Republican lieutenant governors accuracy. Patrick, in a June 2017commentary, extolled the state budget then about to besigned into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, specifying: Texas spends $60 billion on schools in our two-year budget, including both federal and state funds. Of that, $41 billion is state funding. That is on top of the estimated $28 billion to $30 billion annually paid by local property taxpayers. When colleges and universities are added, Patrick said, education spending is the biggest item in the state budget about 52 percent of all state dollars. Health care is second, accounting for most of the remaining dollars. It is disingenuous to suggest that we are, somehow, holding back funding that we could spend on schools. Our review of budget documents posted by the Legislative Budget Board led us to find Patricks figure solid though the percentage also proved historic in a low-end way not stated by Patrick. Patrick cites state budget summary Up front, Patrick spokesman Alejandro Garcia responded by email to our inquiry about the basis of Patricks 52 percent by pointing out a chart in the2018-19 state budget, which takes effect Sept. 1, 2017. The chart shows that the budget puts $55.9 billion in general revenue toward public and higher education out of $106.7 billion in all such revenue which breaks out to 52.4 percent of such spending. Next highest: Nearly $34 billion budgeted for health and human services accounts for 31 percent of state spending in the budget. SOURCE: Document,Summary of Conference Committee Report for Senate Bill 1, Appropriations for the 2018-19 Biennium,Legislative Budget Board, May 2017 (accessed June 14, 2017) Some context: The chart shows that the nearly $41 billion in public school aid appropriated by the 2017 Legislature trailed $635.6 million, or 1.5 percent, behind what lawmakers budgeted for public schools the previous two years. On the other hand, the new budget increases state spending on higher education by $195.2 million, 1.1 percent, from the 2016-17 budget, according to the chart. We asked the Legislative Budget Board about Patricks percentage. By email, staff spokesman R.J. DeSilva responded by pointing out the same chart offered by Patrick. Separately to our emailed inquiries, Austin school-finance expert Joe Wisnoski, who works for a firm that represents school districts, and Tom Canby of the Texas Association of School Business Officials didnt quibble with Patricks calculation. Wisnoski added, though, that the 52 percent conclusion may not be the whole story. He alsopointed outthat from all funding sources--including federal aid--lawmakers devoted $80 billion to education, which represented 37 percent of the full $217 billion state budget. Alternate calculation For our part, we noticed one other way of gauging the share of state revenue budgeted for education. Another chart in the budget shows that lawmakers budgeted nearly $58.8 billion for public schools and higher education in state general revenue plus the smaller pot of money consisting of state revenue dedicated to particular expenditures. The combined amount, we found, also breaks out to 52 percent of the full budgets $113.1 billion in state revenue and dedicated state revenue: SOURCE: Document,Summary of Conference Committee Report for Senate Bill 1, Appropriations for the 2018-19 Biennium,Legislative Budget Board, May 2017 (accessed June 14, 2017) Other state funds? When we asked about Patrick's claim, Dominic Giarratani of the Texas Association of School Boards agreed its fair to focus on state general revenue to evaluate budgeted spending on education. By email, though, he also provided a calculation suggesting that public plus higher education accounts for 48 percent of non-federal spending in the budget. Thats correct, it looked to us, though its worth noting the additional spending captured by this alternate analysis folds in chunks of money not easily controlled by lawmakers--including $1.8 billion of earnings on the endowment that benefits institutions in the University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems; nearly $4.6 billion in local tax revenue projected to be provided by property-rich school districts, including the Austin district, to support the states school finance system; and nearly $3.6 billion in payments driven by a 2006 state-mandated reduction in school property taxes. Historic low? Next, we wondered how the 52 percent cited by Patrick for 2018-19 compares to the share of state GR devoted to education in previous budgets. To get a fix on that, we checked spending on education from non-dedicated GR in the previous 10 budgets. Such funds comprise the bulk of each budget and are most directly controlled by legislative decisions. Our finding: In the budgets, which encompass 20 years, no Legislature devoted less than 53 percent of general revenue to education. On average, educations share of state spending through the budgets was 58 percent. State Revenue Budgeted for Education, Texas, 1998-99 through 2018-19 (By Percentage) BUDGET YEARS SHARE OF REVENUE* BUDGETED FOR PUBLIC AND HIGHER EDUCATION 1998-99 61 % 2000-01 63 2002-03 59 2004-05 59 2006-07 56 2008-09 59 2010-11 61 2012-13 57 2014-15 53 2016-17 53 2018-19 52 *State general revenue, excluding revenue constitutionally dedicated to particular purposes. SOURCE: PolitiFact Texas calculations drawing on state budgets adopted by Texas Legislature, 1997-2017as posted bythe Legislative Budget Board (accessed June 14-15, 2017) Our ruling Patrick, saying its disingenuous to suggest lawmakers held back on education aid, said 52 percent of state spending in the 2018-19 state budget was appropriated to public plus higher education. Thats an accurate percentage. Unclarified: Education also accounts for the smallest share of budgeted state spending in at least 20 years, which is as far back as we checked. We rate the statement Mostly True. MOSTLY TRUE The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. Click here formoreon the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check. | 1 | [
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FMD2959 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Posted on February 9, 2015 by DCG | 20 Comments
New Zealand Herald : A $200,000 public sculpture being installed in Auckland is causing a stir with locals, who say it resembles a penis. The Auckland Council-commissioned Transit Cloud has been created as part of a project to breathe new life into traditionally working class New Lynn.
The aerial component – four aluminium mesh cloud forms – hangs more than 8m over a lane linking New Lynn’s shiny new railway and bus station with the town’s library and shopping mall.
The clouds allude to the sky, but two of the forms are being viewed very differently by locals. “Oh my God, it’s a cock and balls,” said Phil Wellman, of Blockhouse Bay.
“Don’t you think it’s rude?” said Henderson mother Janine Waters, walking her two young children in a pram. “It’s definitely that. What else could it be,” she said. Another woman, who did not want to be named, called the forms “masculine”.
Frances Toohey, who works at Pita Pit by the lane, said the sculpture was very phallic. Customers had been commenting a lot, she said. “What the hell is that? It’s certainly not a cloud. It looks like a penis,” said Joy Dale, of Mt Roskill. She said the sculpture was a waste of ratepayers’ money and the council would be better spending the money on more security and patrols in the area.
Sculptor Gregor Kregar, who with his artist wife Sara Hughes and architect Davor Popadich created the work, said there was never any intention of creating a large phallic image in the sky .
Transit Cloud, he said, was connected to 30,000 tinted ceramic dots in the laneway floor, acknowledging the local portage history and modern transport focus of the precinct. The forms above resembled clouds and liquid matter, like raindrops.
“Art is out there to stir reaction,” said Kregar. He was confident people would embrace the work after 50m of neon lights are connected in each form. The sculptor gave the Herald images of the clouds lit up in his New Lynn studio to show how the finished work would look at night.
Mr. Popadich was surprised by the public response to the sculpture, saying it had a joyful and fun aspect . Council arts and culture manager Kaye Glamuzina said art was always controversial and interpretation subjective.
From Kregar’s website :
“ I utilize familiar subject matter such as human figure, body parts , television sets, bottles, inorganic rubbish and animals. I am interested in how the familiar subject can be represented in a way that displaces the original meaning and imbues the subject with new and unfamiliar meanings. My work deals with issues of ambiguity and the uncanny yet it is strongly connected to the social, economical and political environment I live in.”
Let’s take a look at some of his other work, shall we?
This exhibition brings together what appear to be two very different groups of work; Gnomes and Geometric constructions. They do not appear, at first glance, to have any relationship to one another, yet conceptually and historically their paths cross at many points. The gnomes are caught in an existence between the happy and helpful gnome and the frozen mystical being. Practising this alchemy of the everyday, the gnomes are turned from the familiar into sublime, the trivial into a precious and valuable, achieving the noble levels of human perception, emotion and appreciation of the world . Wall “art” next to oversized gnomes.
Sculptor Gregor Kregar is known for his works that challenge the traditional meaning of his subjects . Often representing works in a way that displaces traditional interpretations, Kregar imbues his subjects in new and unfamiliar environments or surroundings. In Reflective Synthesis two oversized gnomes dominate the gallery space in Kregar’s exploration of the trivial everyday aesthetic of his subject, in relation to its mystical and scientific history.
Hope the taxpayers are happy with this most recent purchase!
DCG | 0 | [
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FMD2960 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: October 28, 2016 at 11:28 AM
Reflecting on the WMD called ZIRP, I conclude that ZIRP is the best evidence of the “New World (dis)Order WORL” weapon of mass destruction in which we’ve lived for the last 8 years. This represents the equivalent of having no sheriff in town.
A simple Occam’s Razor view of ZIRP clearly shows interest rates are the equivalent of a sheriff making sure we adhere to the Constitution, both a document that helps insure that monetary rules are followed while being protected against undue harm via the Sheriff’s color of authority.
When rates reflect reality we have a monetary Sheriff watching over our fiscal safety. When rates are zero we see a total absence of law in the world.
Interest rates are the monetary rule makers and law enforcement that drive the reality of risk and reward. If a person, company or country follows the rule and obeys the normal laws of economics, finance and investment and adheres to some reasonable variant of Say’s Law, they are rewarded with reasonable rates that helps them create value,wealth and worth by accessing some form of debt that aids in that growth. The investor is rewarded with a return commensurate with risk. If the same entity runs rampant, disregarding the restraints of interest on their investments, they are called to account and forced to pay for their transgressions.
When ZIRP drives out the rule of law; the equivalent of the interest rate Sheriff being driven out of town; put out to pasture, the potential for high crimes and misdemeanors ramps upward exponentially. Is it an accident that we have seen the ascension of crime family actions that now brings us to ZIRP and its attendant insanity. The last 60 years has seen the constant unrelenting actions against real money and the reality of interest rates as one of the strongest arbiters the world of finance. ZIRP has replaced the rule of law.
Is it an accident that we see the criminal rentier class rolling in with heavy weapons, tanks and bombs, whether in a hard kinetic form that destroys entire countries, cities and neighborhoods (banks now have their own armies) or rolling in with their interest rate WDMs?
This ultra wealthy rentier class strip mines the little wealth remaining in the hands of We, the People with hard force, demented interpretations and variations of good Constitutional law or simply no law except that which they create on the fly, with the aid of a DOJ and FBI complicit i these crimes ( reference our criminal justice system).
The penumbra of destruction that weighs against the rule of law extends to politics, from the lowest to the highest levels and begets the likes of the Clinton, Bush and Obama Kriminal Klans; AJs like Lorretta Lynch and Holder and bankers like Bernanke, Yellen, Draghi, Blankfein and Dimon, all of whom go on to form new age oligarchies that steal from the people with not a single substantive charge levied or day spend in prison.
The system is rigged. There is no justice. There’s Just Us.
None of these people suffers the consequences of their predations because they not only have unlimited access to interest free capital, they own the banks that provide them with tens of trillions in capital with which to engage in war against us. They own the armies to hold us in bond and bondage if we raise a challenge to their rapacity and theft of our substance
If they win a bet against us they make billions or trillions. If they lose a bet against us, we, the tax payers, are forced to make up the losses. Their capital has no cost. Their losses are never charged against the house. Unless it’s your house and you’re forced to move or are thrown out by some variation of their army or Praetorian guard.
I’m guessing that these financial rapists will never stop because there is never enough for them. Pitchforks, torches, molotovs and the weight of humanity pressed against our oppressors will win the day and it will take some serious sacrafices and lives to win against these new age feudalists
On a lighter and better side, the Oregon jury acquitted Aamon Bundy and his friends of all charges. Count one in the win column for the good guys. Now we need to see Cliven Bundy freed from his bondage. | 0 | [
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FMD2961 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The United States wants to cut $1 billion from the total United Nations peacekeeping budget for the year from July 1 to shave over 10 percent off Washington’s share of the bill following calls by President Donald Trump for U.S. funding to be slashed. The proposal by the largest U.N. contributor is an opening bid in negotiations by the 193-member General Assembly budget committee, which has to agree funding for 13 peacekeeping missions and a logistics support office by the end of June. Reuters reviewed a document compiling the peacekeeping budget proposals by states and regional groups. The U.S. proposal of an annual budget of $6.99 billion was the lowest made | 1 | [
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FMD2962 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: European Union foreign ministers approved economic sanctions, including an arms embargo, on Venezuela on Monday, saying regional elections last month marred by reported irregularities had deepened the country s crisis. Anxious not to push Caracas any closer to economic and political collapse as debt restructuring talks begin, EU governments held back from targeting any individuals. The bloc instead left names for a later stage to try to persuade President Nicholas Maduro to calm the situation. Everything we do is aimed at seeking dialogue between the government and the opposition to find a democratic and peaceful solution, Spain s Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis told reporters at a meeting with his counterparts where the sanctions decision was made. Venezuelan opposition leaders said last week they would resume efforts to hold a dialogue with Maduro, even though they say he previously used such talks to stall for time instead of implementing serious reform. Over the weekend, Maduro had termed imminent sanctions by the bloc as stupid. On Monday, his government said the illegal and absurd EU measures were a violation of international norms. The European institutions show their lamentable and shameful subordination to the U.S. government, it added. Spain has long pushed for sanctions on those close to Maduro, whom Washington accuses of installing a dictatorship and slapped sanctions on in July. But the EU has been divided over whom to target. The arms embargo adds Venezuela to an EU list that includes North Korea and Syria, where European defense companies can no longer do business and to which the sale of any goods deemed as being used for repression are also banned. Britain sold 1.4 million pounds ($1.83 million) worth of arms to Venezuela between May 2010 and March 2017, according to The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), which lobbies to end arms sales to repressive governments. In a joint statement, all 28 EU ministers said the legal basis for individual travel bans to the EU and the freezing of any Venezuelan assets in the bloc will be used in a gradual and flexible manner and can be expanded. Representatives of Maduro s government were due to meet investors in Caracas on Monday to discuss renegotiating $60 billion in foreign debt. Some EU governments want to give former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the EU s main envoy for Venezuela, another chance to try negotiations despite unsuccessful efforts in 2016. But in the statement, ministers said regional elections held in Venezuela on Oct. 15 were a turning point that had hardened the bloc s position, having taken place amid reported numerous irregularities. The results appeared to favor Maduro s ruling Socialists, while polls had suggested the opposition would easily win a majority. In the end it won only a handful of governorships, according to the pro-government electoral board. EU ministers will decide whom to target with sanctions at a later stage, but said they would focus on security forces and government ministers and institutions accused of human rights violations and the non-respect of democratic principles or the rule of law. Experts say individual U.S. sanctions spearheaded by U.S. President Donald Trump, while providing strong symbolism, have had little or no impact on Maduro s policies and that oil-sector and financial sanctions may be the only way to force the Venezuelan government to change. | 1 | [
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FMD2963 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Protesters who take to the streets in North Dakota might want to look both ways for changes in the rules of the road.A bill sponsored by state Rep. Keith Kempenich, R-Bowman, would protect drivers from legal consequences if they inadvertently hit, injure or kill pedestrians who are obstructing traffic.The legislation is a direct response to the massive protests around the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, Kempenich said. The ongoing protests have shut down a nearby highway for months and stalled construction of a pipeline that would carry crude from the North Dakota oil patch. If you stay off the roadway, this would never be an issue, Kempenich said. Those motorists are going about the lawful, legal exercise of their right to drive down the road. Those people didn t ask to be in this. The legislation has drawn withering criticism from Standing Rock supporters, who worry that it could be open season for protesters on North Dakota roads.Kempenich said he wants to shift the blame for a crash from drivers to the people who choose to protest in traffic. The legislation, he said, would not protect someone who deliberately tries to run down a protester, and it would not let drivers off the hook if they hit a jaywalker or a child chasing a ball into the street. This bill puts the onus on somebody who s made a conscious decision to put themselves in harm s way, he said. You can protest all you want, but you can t protest up on a roadway. It s dangerous for everybody. Star TribuneHighways shouldn t be used as staging areas for protests, Kempenich said. They re intentionally putting themselves in danger, he said, adding that accidents could result.Blocking roads or highways has also been a tactic adopted on occasion by protesters in other movements, such as Black Lives Matter.A spokeswoman for the pipeline protests said she is concerned the bill, if passed, would give careless drivers a free pass to kill or maim people who are exercising their free speech rights. It is basically giving permission for vehicular homicide, and that is wrong, said Joye Braun, an organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network. Nobody has the right to take the life of another person. The network is an activist group that opposes the pipeline, which would carry Bakken crude oil across the Missouri River just north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Protesters say the pipeline s path crosses sacred land and could endanger the tribe s source of drinking water.Braun said she once was struck by a woman who objected to her video-recording a protest outside a fast-food restaurant in Mandan, and she worries the bill would embolden people to harm pipeline protesters. I believe there is a small element who may use this as an excuse to attack people, Braun said.The proposal has attracted some national attention. Robert Reich, a former U.S. labor secretary and liberal commentator, has criticized the bill.-Inforum | 0 | [
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FMD2964 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Christopher Ashton Kutcher is a well-known figure in the American entertainment industry. Apart from acting, Kutcher is also an investor. A venture capitalist, Kutcher has successfully invested in several high technology startups with some of his investments including Skype, Foursquare, Airbnb, Path and Fab.com. But despite being a businessman and a public figure, societal problems are dear to his heart. In 2008, Kutcher and his ex-wife, Demi Moore decided to tackle one of the more serious crimes facing our modern world – human/sex trafficking.
By basic definition, human trafficking is the trade of humans, most commonly for the purpose of sexual slavery, forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. The trade is a modern form of slavery . It involves controlling a person through force, fraud, or coercion to exploit the victim. Over the years, the United Nations, International Non-Governmental Organizations, human rights activists, and individuals have all stepped up efforts in order to end the trade. However, due to the high rate of unemployment and rising poverty levels in some nations, the trade is still secretly thriving.
Also, with the rise of the Internet and technology, it is becoming increasingly easy for traffickers to lure people, especially young girls, into the dirty business. Mostly, traffickers will hide on the deep web, using sophisticated gadgets to carry out their trade.
Kutcher and Moore decided to concentrate their efforts on the Internet, to thwart the trade of the traffickers. They set up an organization called Thorn. Thorn’s mission is very simple: to eliminate sex-trafficking and child exploitation over the Internet.
With the help of around 20 technology companies, they set up the Thorn Task Technical Force. Technology companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo!, Snapchat and Imgur are all part of this task force.
They dedicate their time and resources to searching the darker corners of the Internet, hunting out traffickers who have been involving in trafficking innocent people. Since establishing Thorn in 2008, the organization has so far, identified and rescued over 6,000 trafficking victims and captured over 2,000 traffickers – many of which are now in the process of facing criminal charges. | 0 | [
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FMD2965 | 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: Say What, Barack? Claim summaries: Rumor: Editorial identifies anachronisms in Barack Obama's 2007 Selma speech.
contextual information: Claim: Editorial identifies anachronisms in Barack Obama's 2007 Selma speech. Example: [Hollrah, 2007] Tuning in to C-Span recently, I found myself listening to a speech by Senator Barrack Hussein Obama, Jr. He was standing in the pulpit of a black church in Selma, Alabama, and as I studied the body language of the dozen or so black ministers standing behind the senator, I couldn't help but be reminded of the little head-bobbing dolls that people used to place in the rear windows of their 1957 Chevrolets. If their reactions are any indication, the new Schlickmeister of the Democrat Party is actually a pretty accomplished public speaker. However, as he spoke, I found my bull alarm going off, repeatedly. But I couldn't quite figure out why until I actually read excerpts of his speech several days later. Here's part of what he said: "... something happened back here in Selma, Alabama. Something happened in Birmingham that sent out what Bobby Kennedy called, "ripples of hope all around the world." Something happened when a bunch of women decided they were going to walk instead of ride the bus after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry, looking after somebody else's children. "When (black) men who had PhD's decided 'that's enough' and 'we're going to stand up for our dignity,' that sent a shout across oceans so that my grandfather began to imagine something different for his son. His son, who grew up herding goats in a small village in Africa could suddenly set his sights a little higher and believe that maybe a black man in this world had a chance."So the Kennedy's decided we're going to do an air lift. We're going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is. "This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country. He met this woman whose great great-great-great-grandfather had owned slaves; but she had a good idea there was some craziness going on because they looked at each other and they decided that we know that, (in) the world as it has been, it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child. There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don't tell me Im not coming home to Selma, Alabama." Okay, so what's wrong with that? It all sounds good but is it? Okay, so what's wrong with that? It all sounds good. But is it? Obama told his audience that, because some folks had the courage to "march across a bridge" in Selma, Alabama, his mother, a white woman from Kansas, and his father, a black Muslim from Africa, took heart. It gave them the courage to get married and have a child. The problem with that characterization is that Barrack Obama, Jr., was born on August 4, 1961, while the first of three marches across that bridge in Selma didn't occur until March 7, 1965, at least five years after Obama's parents met. Obama went on to tell his audience that the Kennedys, Jack and Bobby, decided to do an airlift. They would bring some young Africans over so that they could be educated and learn all about America. His grandfather heard that call and sent his son, Barack Obama, Sr., to America. The problem with that scenario is that, having been born in August 1961, the future senator was not conceived until sometime in November 1960. So if this African grandfather heard words that ''sent a shout across oceans,'' inspiring him to send his goat-herder son to America, it was not a Democrat Jack Kennedy he heard, nor his brother Bobby, it was a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Obama's speech is reminiscent of Al Gore's claim of having invented the Internet, Hillary Clinton's claim of having been named after the first man to climb Mt. Everest, even though she was born five years and seven months before Sir Edmund climbed the mountain, and John Kerry's imaginary trip to Cambodia. As one of my black friends, Eddie Huff, has said, "We need to ask some very serious questions of the senator from Illinois. It's not enough to be black, it's not enough to be articulate, and it's not enough to be eloquent and a media darling. The only question will be how deaf an ear, or how blind an eye, will people turn in order to turn a frog into a prince." [Click here to expand text]. [Click here to expand text] Origins: On 4 March 2007, former president Bill Clinton, along with then-senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama made an appearance in Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of "Bloody Sunday": the 7 March 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march for voting rights that ended with several hundred civil rights marchers' being assaulted with billy clubs and tear gas wielded by state troopers and deputies at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the outskirts of Selma. Bloody Sunday Edmund Pettus Bridge As part of that day's ceremonies, Senator Obama delivered a speech from the pulpit of the Brown Chapel A.M.E. church (the starting point for the "Bloody Sunday" march) praising civil rights achievements (such as the Selma marches) as having helped pave the way for his campaign to become the first black president. speech An editorial by Paul R. Hollrah published a week later attempted to take Senator Obama to task for fudging chronology in order to make a personal connection between key civil rights events and his forebears. Senator Obama's speech was misleadingly ambiguous in some places, but it wasn't quite as anachronistic as made out in the editorial quoted above. editorial One of the editorial's criticisms is that: Obama went on to tell his audience that the Kennedys, Jack and Bobby, decided to do an airlift. They would bring some young Africans over so that they could be educated and learn all about America. His grandfather heard that call and sent his son, Barrack Obama, Sr., to America. The problem with that scenario is that, having been born in August 1961, the future senator was not conceived until sometime in November 1960. So, if his African grandfather heard words that "sent a shout across oceans," inspiring him to send his goat-herder son to America, it was not Democrat Jack Kennedy he heard, or his brother Bobby, it was Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower. One might reasonably infer from the wording of Barack Obama's speech that he was speaking of President John F. Kennedy, since he invoked the name Kennedy immediately after mentioning the White House: What happened in Selma, Alabama and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of the nation. It worried folks in the White House who said, "You know, we're battling Communism. How are we going to win hearts and minds all across the world? If right here in our own country, John, we're not observing the ideals set forth in our Constitution, we might be accused of being hypocrites." So the Kennedy's decided we're going to do an air lift. We're going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is. This would indeed be an anachronism, since JFK did not assume that office until 1961 and therefore could not have been, as President, instrumental in funding a program that brought students such as Barack Obama's father from Kenya to the University of Hawaii in 1959. However, it is true that Senator John F. Kennedy, shortly before being elected president, arranged a grant for a scholarship program to bring Kenyan students to American colleges: In his command of the US political stage over the past year, Barack Obama has inspired many a comparison to John F Kennedy. Both young senators brought a lofty message, an appealing young family and a movie-star aura to the presidential race. But the two men forged a less known link before Obama was even born. The bond began with Kenyan labour leader Tom Mboya, an advocate for African nationalism who helped his country gain independence in 1963. In the late 1950s, Mboya was seeking support for a scholarship program that would send Kenyan students to US colleges similar to other exchanges the US backed in developing nations during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Mboya appealed to the state department. When that trail went cold, he turned to then-senator Kennedy. Kennedy, who chaired the senate subcommittee on Africa, arranged a $100,000 grant through his family's foundation to help Mboya keep the program running. "It was not a matter in which we sought to be involved," Kennedy said in an August 1960 senate speech. "Nevertheless, Mr Mboya came to see us and asked for help, when none of the other foundations could give it, when the federal government had turned it down quite precisely. We felt something ought to be done." Although Mboya did raise money (from a variety of contributors) for scholarships for Kenyan students during a trip he made to the United States in 1959, it was not until July 1960 that he met John F. Kennedy and persuaded the senator to contribute $100,000 to his cause through the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation. Technically, therefore, Barack Obama's father did not come to the United States with money directly provided by the Kennedy family (as Barack Sr. had arrived in the U.S. the year before, benefiting from funds previously raised by Tom Mboya), but he did come to the U.S. as part of an ongoing program that the Kennedy family helped fund. Obama told his audience that, because some folks had the courage to "march across a bridge" in Selma, Alabama, his mother, a white woman from Kansas, and his father, a black Muslim from Africa, took heart. It gave them the courage to get married and have a child. The problem with that characterization is that Barack Obama, Jr. was born on August 4, 1961, while the first of three marches across that bridge in Selma didn't occur until March 7, 1965, at least five years after Obama's parents met. Senator Obama might be considered guilty of engaging in little pandering here by trying to imply a direct line between the 1965 Selma, Alabama, marches and his personal background (since he was speaking in Selma at the time). However, the tenor of his speech was how the overall growth and progress of the Civil Rights movement affected the outlook of blacks (including his family), both in the U.S. and abroad. That movement did not start with the 1965 marches in Selma; it was a process that began and grew across the years, including among its landmark events the 1955-56 bus boycott in Montgomery (which occurred several years before Barack Obama was born, and before his father left Africa for the U.S.) and the 1963 anti-segregation protests in Birmingham all of which (along with the Selma marches) took place in Alabama, and all of which were referenced by Senator Obama in his speech that day: Montgomery Birmingham Yet something happened back here in Selma, Alabama. Something happened in Birmingham that sent out what Bobby Kennedy called, "Ripples of hope all around the world." Something happened when a bunch of women decided they were going to walk instead of ride the bus after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry, looking after somebody else's children. When men who had PhD's decided that's enough and we're going to stand up for our dignity. That sent a shout across oceans so that my grandfather began to imagine something different for his son. His son, who grew up herding goats in a small village in Africa could suddenly set his sights a little higher and believe that maybe a black man in this world had a chance. What happened in Selma, Alabama and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of the nation. As for accuracy, Mr. Hollrah erred himself at the end of his piece by invoking the myth of "Al Gore's claim of having invented the Internet" (as well as consistently misspelling the Senator's first name as "Barrack"). myth Last updated: 9 March 2015 Radelat, Ana. "Selma March Raises Political Stakes for Obama, Clinton." USA Today. 2 March 2007. Schor, Elana. "The Other Obama-Kennedy Connection." The Guardian. 10 January 2008. Associated Press. "Obama, the Clintons Turn Selma Marches into Campaign Event." International Herald Tribune. 4 March 2007. Time. "The African Question." 29 August 1960. | 2 | [
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FMD2966 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is Olive Garden Going Out of Business? Claim summaries: An online ad promoting a list of restaurants closing in 2020 may have stopped breadstick-lovers in their tracks.
contextual information: In December 2020, an online advertisement displayed a picture of an Olive Garden Italian Restaurant sign along with text that read: "Closing Time: Here's All The Restaurant Chains Closing in 2020." This advertisement was misleading. Olive Garden is not closing all of its restaurants. Readers who clicked the advertisement were led to a 50-page story on the website Money Pop. 50-page story While the advertisement promised a list of restaurant chains that would be closing in 2020, the headline on the actual story was different: "These Popular Restaurant Chains Are Losing Money Fast." headline The story mentioned Olive Garden, but it only mentioned that two locations had closed in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Birmingham, Alabama, in March and April, respectively. Springfield, Massachusetts Birmingham, Alabama Olive Garden did not go out of business in 2020, but that's not to say it hadn't faced financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus had led to the closure of dine-in services at thousands of different restaurants across the United States. This meant less revenue, which resulted in lost jobs. In many cases, restaurants closed. lost jobs restaurants closed On June 22, 2020, Nation's Restaurant News reported that National Restaurant Association President and CEO Tom Ben said the restaurant industry had faced "catastrophic losses." reported Darden Restaurants owns the Olive Garden brand, as well as LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze, and Eddie V's. On Dec. 9, 2020, InvestorPlace.com reported that Darden had managed to survive the pandemic thus far, but it also asked: "What's next for Darden Restaurants?" reported The bull case is built on a bear case regarding other restaurants. Without government help, small operators are closing by the score. This means chains like Darden may be all thats left when people again feel safe to eat out. Darden has managed to make money at Olive Garden while closing half its tables. It reinstated the dividend and paid back its $270 million emergency loan. Once the pandemic is over, Cramer predicts, fast-casual chains like Olive Garden will be the height of fine dining. the height of fine dining. Darden is expected to report earnings Dec. 18, for the quarter ending in November. The estimate is for 72 cents per share of net income on $1.7 billion of sales. That would beat last years profit on 17% less revenue. on $1.7 billion of sales on 17% less revenue The Money Pop story also mentioned The Cheesecake Factory on its list. We previously covered that rumor as well. previously covered Snopes debunks a wide range of content, and online advertisements are no exception. Misleading ads often lead to obscure websites that host lengthy slideshow articles with lots of pages. It's called advertising "arbitrage." The advertiser's goal is to make more money on ads displayed on the slideshow's pages than it cost to show the initial ad that lured them to it. Feel free to submit ads to us, and be sure to include a screenshot of the ad and the link to where the ad leads. submit ads to us | 0 | [
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FMD2967 | 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: Walt Disney's Will - First Pregnant Man Claim summaries: Did Walt Disney's will leave a substantial bequest to the first man to become pregnant?
contextual information: Claim: Walt Disney's will specified that a substantial bequest go to the first man to become pregnant or bear a child. Examples: [Collected via e-mail, October 2004] I've actually heard this quite a few times but, I was told that Walt Disney had a section of his will that the first MAN to give birth to a baby would a piece of his estate (I've heard they would get Disney World, I've also heard that they would get $10 million). [Collected via e-mail, January 2008] One day at lunch, we some how got on the subject of Walt Disney, and someone brought up a new thing I had never heard before, he said "It says in Walt Disney's will that the entire Disney corporation goes to the first male to get pregnant." Origins: The eccentric wealthy person who leaves behind a will giving a substantial fortune to the person who accomplishes some difficult feat (or meets some unusual qualification) is a common figure in entertainment and legend. Such figures are generally found more often in fiction than in fact, although real-life instances are not hard to find. (One of the most notable examples is the case of Charles Vance Millar, a Toronto lawyer whose will included a number of capricious bequests, including one that touched off years of legal wrangling in the 1930s in what came to be known as "The Great Stork Derby.") Millar One of the more odd (and puzzling) recent examples of this genre is the claim that Walt Disney's will specified cash or assets worth many millions of dollars be given to the first man to become pregnant or give birth to a child. Although the reason why this particular claim has become attached to the name of Walt Disney may be something of a mystery, determining that it is false is a fairly simple matter, for a number of reasons: Walt Disney was, for the most part, a man whose sensibilities reflected turn-of-the-century, conservative Midwestern values. He didn't truck in the outrageous or bizarre, and the thought of a man's bearing children is something he likely would have found disturbing and repulsive, not something he would have sought to encourage or reward with the bestowment of a considerable fortune. Most versions of this claim have Walt supposedly bequeathing something he could not give away, such as a sum of money exceeding the value of his portion of his estate, or corporate assets belonging to publicly held companies (e.g., Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Walt Disney Productions). Although Walt Disney held a personal financial stake in a few Disneyland attractions (such as the railroad and the monorail) and made a good deal of money licensing the use of his name to Walt Disney Productions, he owned neither the theme park nor the company that bore his name and therefore could not direct that either be "given" to anyone. (At the time of his death, Walt and his wife Lillian jointly owned stock amounting to about 14% of Walt Disney Productions.) Walt Disney's will of March 1966, which was in effect when he passed away in December of that year, contained no provisions for rewarding pregnant men (or any other unusual disbursements). Disney left 45% of his estate to his wife and daughters, another 45% to the Disney Foundation in a charitable trust (most of which was dedicated to CalArts), and the remaining 10% in a trust to be divided among his sister, nieces, and nephews. will CalArts Although some medical researchers have expressed the belief that a man might someday be able to carry a pregnancy to term (even if it isn't necessarily a good idea), and a renowned piece of Internet "performance art" presented the idea that a male pregnancy had already been accomplished, for now the subject still remains one of speculation rather than fact. pregnancy performance art Last updated: 11 March 2008 Sources: Gabler, Neal. Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. ISBN 0-679-43822-X (pp. 629-630). Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination Barrier, Michael. The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007. ISBN 0-520-24117-7 (p. 323). The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney | 0 | [
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FMD2968 | 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: Snowden was declared deceased by his partner in Russia. Claim summaries: A fake news web site's claim that Edward Snowden was "pronounced dead by his girlfriend" has been aggregated by other low-credibility sites but remains false.
contextual information: On 10 August 2016, the unreliable website Disclose.tv published an article reporting that former National Security Agency (NSA) employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden was "pronounced dead by his girlfriend" in Russia. Days after Snowden's rumored death was debunked by journalist Glenn Greenwald and a Russian lawyer, a report emerged claiming that his mistress and girlfriend had confirmed the leaker's demise. Quoting MKRU News of Russia, a conservative site called Get Off the BS stated that Snowden's mistress said he was killed Saturday by a drunken, knife-wielding Buryat man in the Republic of Buryatia. The article from which the claim was aggregated was presented in the style of fiction rather than reporting and was interspersed with salacious fabrications. Late Monday afternoon, the mistress of the infamous Edward Snowden announced his death, alleging that he was killed this past Saturday by a drunken, knife-wielding Buryat man in the Republic of Buryatia. MKRU News reported that a drunken man, who for some reason took exception to a man, presumably Snowden, saving his wife from drowning, attacked a woman by slicing her neck and stabbed her male companion in the thigh, who later died from severe blood loss in a local hospital. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital, where one of them died as a result of extensive blood loss. The unidentified man was allegedly 27 years old. (Snowden, who was born on June 21, 1983, would be 33 now.) That outlet connected the purported death of Snowden to a cryptic, since-deleted tweet issued by the exiled contractor on 5 August 2016. While it was true that the disappearing tweet was interpreted by many as an ominous signal, an insurance key, or a dead man's switch, journalist Glenn Greenwald, who works closely with Snowden to publish leaked material, quickly confirmed that Snowden is alive and well. Disclose.tv and Get Off the BS are sites known for publishing outlandish fabrications and fake news in order to attract readers. On 15 August 2016, Snowden reappeared on Twitter, putting concerns for his safety to rest. | 0 | [
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FMD2969 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: This story is about more than a massive cover-up for an elected officials who sexually assaulted innocent women, it s also about the media s lack of desire to report about crimes that have obviously been covered up in DC for a very long time. Perhaps the media s reluctance to report about the sexual abuse taking place in Washington DC, is because most, if not all, of the elected officials whose crimes are now being uncovered, are Democrats? So far, two of the most rabid anti-Trump Democrats in Washington, Senator Al Franken (D-MI) and now Representative John Conyers (D-MI) have been outed is it a coincidence, or could it be that one of the reasons Democrats are so adamantly opposed to Trump s presidency is because he is shaking things up in Washington, and in doing so, he s breaking up the good ole boys network?Buzzfeed Michigan Rep. John Conyers, a Democrat and the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, settled a wrongful dismissal complaint in 2015 with a former employee who alleged she was fired because she would not succumb to [his] sexual advances. Documents from the complaint obtained by BuzzFeed News from Mike Cernovich, include four signed affidavits, three of which are notarized, from former staff members who allege that Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the powerful House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly made sexual advances to female staff that included requests for sexual favors, contacting and transporting other women with whom they believed Conyers was having affairs, caressing their hands sexually, and rubbing their legs and backs in public. Four people involved with the case verified the documents are authentic.And the documents also reveal the secret mechanism by which Congress has kept an unknown number of sexual harassment allegations secret: a grinding, closely held process that left the alleged victim feeling, she told BuzzFeed News, that she had no option other than to stay quiet and accept a settlement offered to her. I was basically blackballed. There was nowhere I could go, she said in a phone interview. BuzzFeed News is withholding the woman s name at her request because she said she fears retribution.Last week the Washington Post reported that Congress s Office of Compliance paid out $17 million for 264 settlements with federal employees over 20 years for various violations, including sexual harassment. The Conyers documents, however, give a glimpse into the inner workings of the office, which has for decades concealed episodes of sexual abuse by powerful political figures.The woman who settled with Conyers launched the complaint with the Office of Compliance in 2014, alleging she was fired for refusing his sexual advances, and ended up facing a daunting process that ended with a confidentiality agreement in exchange for a settlement of more than $27,000. Her settlement, however, came from Conyers office budget rather than the designated fund for settlements.Congress has no human resources department. Instead, congressional employees have 180 days to report a sexual harassment incident to the Office of Compliance, which then leads to a lengthy process that involves counseling and mediation, and requires the signing of a confidentiality agreement before a complaint can go forward.After this an employee can choose to take the matter to federal district court, but another avenue is available: an administrative hearing, after which a negotiation and settlement may follow.In this case, one of Conyers former employees was offered a settlement, in exchange for her silence, that would be paid out of Conyers taxpayer-funded office budget. His office would rehire the woman as a temporary employee despite her being directed not to come into the office or do any actual work, according to the document. The complainant would receive a total payment of $27,111.75 over the three months, after which point she would be removed from the payroll, according to the document.The draft agreement viewed by BuzzFeed News was unsigned, but congressional employment records match the timing and amounts outlined in the document. The woman left the office and never went public with her story.The process was disgusting, said Matthew Peterson, who worked as a law clerk representing the complainant, and who listed as a signatory to some of the documents.Hillary Clinton and John Conyers have been longtime friends. What is it about Hillary that sexual predators find so endearing? It is a designed cover-up, said Peterson, who declined to discuss details of the case but agreed to characterize it in general terms. You feel like they were betrayed by their government just for coming forward. It s like being abused twice. Two staffers alleged in their signed affidavits that Conyers used congressional resources to fly in women they believed he was having affairs with. Another said she was tasked with driving women to and from Conyers apartment and hotel rooms.Rep. Conyers did not admit fault as part of the settlement. His office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Monday.Citizen journalist Mike Cernovich admonishes journalists who are tasked with reporting the news for a living for ignoring how massive this cover up really is:The Conyers settlement was 1 out of 264!How about you "journalists" stop hating on me and go find those other 263? Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) November 21, 2017The documents were first provided to BuzzFeed News by Mike Cernovich, the men s rights figure turned pro-Trump media activist who propagated a number of false conspiracy theories including the Pizzagate conspiracy. Cernovich said he gave the documents to BuzzFeed News for vetting and further reporting, and because he said if he published them himself, Democrats and congressional leaders would try to discredit the story by attacking the messenger. He provided them without conditions. BuzzFeed News independently confirmed the authenticity of the documents with four people directly involved with the case, including the accuser.Here s citizen journalist Mike Cernovich telling his massive Twitter audience that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan helped to cover up John Conyers disgusting sexual assaults:Congressman John Conyers is a sexual predator, and Paul Ryan covered it all up https://t.co/rHAzX4Hevo Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) November 21, 2017In her complaint, the former employee said Conyers repeatedly asked her for sexual favors and often asked her to join him in a hotel room. On one occasion, she alleges that Conyers asked her to work out of his room for the evening, but when she arrived the congressman started talking about his sexual desires. She alleged he then told her she needed to touch it, in reference to his penis, or find him a woman who would meet his sexual demands.She alleged Conyers made her work nights, evenings, and holidays to keep him company.In another incident, the former employee alleged the congressman insisted she stay in his room while they traveled together for a fundraising event. When she told him that she would not stay with him, she alleged he told her to just cuddle up with me and caress me before you go. Rep. Conyers strongly postulated that the performing of personal service or favors would be looked upon favorably and lead to salary increases or promotions, the former employee said in the documents.Three other staff members provided affidavits submitted to the Office Of Compliance that outlined a pattern of behavior from Conyers that included touching the woman in a sexual manner and growing angry when she brought her husband around.One affidavit from a former female employee states that she was tasked with flying in women for the congressman. One of my duties while working for Rep. Conyers was to keep a list of women that I assumed he was having affairs with and call them at his request and, if necessary, have them flown in using Congressional resources, said her affidavit. (A second staffer alleged in an interview that Conyers used taxpayer resources to fly women to him.)The employee said in her affidavit that Conyers also made sexual advances toward her: I was driving the Congressman in my personal car and was resting my hand on the stick shift. Rep. Conyers reached over and began to caress my hand in a sexual manner. The woman said she told Conyers she was married and not interested in pursuing a sexual relationship, according to the affidavit. She said she was told many times by constituents that it was well-known that Conyers had sexual relationships with his staff, and said she and other female staffers felt this undermined their credibility. I am personally aware of several women who have experienced the same or similar sexual advances made towards them by Rep[.] John Conyers, she said in her affidavit.A male employee wrote that he witnessed Rep. Conyers rub the legs and other body parts of the complainant in what appeared to be a sexual manner and saw the congressman rub and touch other women in an inappropriate manner. The employee said he confronted Conyers about this behavior. Rep. Conyers said he needed to be more careful because bad publicity would not be helpful as he runs for re-election. He ended the conversation with me by saying he would work on his behavior, the male staffer said in his affidavit. | 0 | [
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FMD2970 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The Service Employees International Union is launching a desperate campaign against Donald Trump’s nominee for labor secretary, Andrew Puzder, who is the chief executive of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. [The attacks come from the SEIU’s “Fight For 15†campaign, which has protested companies while trying to unionize the industry’s and unskilled workers. In the addition to the protests, the union is filing 33 legal complaints against Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s franchisees. The Labor Department, as Breitbart News has written, writes the workplace rules and regulations for most Americans. Under President Barack Obama’s administration, the Department of Labor effectively became the Department of Organized Labor. The Obama labor department was openly hostile to advocates of small government. In 2011 U. S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis insulted members of the Tea Party, referring to the activists as “teabaggers,†as Breitbart News reported. The SIEU’s The Fight for 15 website has slammed Andy Puzder and President Trump by claiming: Trump wants to put Puzder in charge of enforcing these very laws that he broke as CEO. He opposes the minimum wage. He thinks workers are overprotected. He is against unions. He even said he wants to fire workers and replace them with machines that can’t take vacations or sue their employers when they break the law. In fact, as a CEO, he regularly broke the laws he’d be responsible for enforcing if he gets the job. Puzder is the wrong choice for labor secretary. He is simply unfit to be put in charge protecting our nation’s workers and we’re calling on Members of the Senate to reject the nomination of Andy Puzder to lead the Department of Labor. Puzder’s spokespeople have hit back, reports Nation’s Restaurant News: “This is more fake outrage from the unions and special interests which will stop at nothing in order to push their own agenda,†a Puzder spokesman said in an email. “Fact is, Andy is a job creator and has provided opportunity for advancement for thousands of employees. His record of creating jobs is exactly what this country needs. †A CKE spokesperson emailed a response Thursday on behalf of the company. “While we do not comment on pending litigation, we’d like to offer a reminder that CKE Restaurants is nearly 95 percent franchised,†the company said. “Each of these 2, 769 franchise stores are run independently and solely responsible for their employees, management and adherence to regulations and labor practices. †Joe Kefauver, managing partner of the Align Public Strategies firm, told Nation’s Restaurant News that the union’s actions would “likely make little difference in the outcome,†and added: “I doubt they expect to scuttle Puzder’s confirmation, they are simply using the process to continue driving their message,†Kefauver said in an email to Nation’s Restaurant News. “Republican leadership in the Senate is wholly committed to confirming the president’s nominees, and I think this nomination is no different. Barring something unforeseen, he will likely be confirmed. †The SIEU will be slashing its budget by 30 percent this year as a result of having to “dramatically †its strategy in the wake of Donald Trump’s landslide victory. news site Raw Story has reported that the workers who were working for the SEIU’s Fight for 15 campaign weren’t making $15 per hour and weren’t unionized. The hearing on Puzzler’s nomination is now scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 7. Follow Breitbart News investigative reporter and Citizen Journalism School founder Lee Stranahan on Twitter at @Stranahan. | 1 | [
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FMD2971 | 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 Fresh American Tea Gathering Claim summaries: Protest against federal spending encourages Americans to mail tea bags to the White House.
contextual information: Claim: Protest against federal spending encourages Americans to mail tea bags to the White House. Example: [Collected via e-mail, March 2009] Mailing Tea Bags to Washington, DC What a wonderful idea, I just wish it had been mine. I have a feeling that USPS is going to have a hell of a lot of tea to contend with, after all it only costs 42 cents to send a message, hopefully heard round the world!!! So please mark your Calendars There's a storm abrewin'. What happens when good, responsible people keep quiet? Washington has forgotten they work for us. We don't work for them. Throwing good money after bad is NOT the answer. I am sick of the midnight, closed door sessions to come up with a plan. I am sick of Congress raking CEO's over the coals while they, themselves, have defaulted on their taxes. I am sick of the bailed out companies having lavish vacations and retreats on my dollar. I am sick of being told it is MY responsibility to rescue people that, knowingly, bought more house than they could afford. I am sick of being made to feel it is my patriotic duty to pay MORE taxes. I, like all of you, am a responsible citizen. I pay my taxes. I live on a budget and I don't ask someone else to carry the burden for poor decisions I may make. I have emailed my congressmen and senators asking them to NOT vote for the stimulus package as it was written without reading it first. No one listened. They voted for it, pork and all. O.K. folks, here it is. You may think you are just one voice and what you think won't make a difference. Well, yes it will and YES, WE CAN!! If you are disgusted and angry with the way Washington is handling our taxes. If you are fearful of the fallout from the reckless spending of BILLIONS to bailout and "stimulate" without accountability and responsibility then we need to become ONE, LOUD VOICE THAT CAN BE HEARD FROM EVERY CITY, TOWN, SUBURB AND HOME IN AMERICA. There is a growing protest to demand that Congress, the President and his cabinet LISTEN to us, the American Citizens. What is being done in Washington is NOT the way to handle the economic free fall. So, here's the plan. On April 1, 2009, all Americans are asked to send a TEABAG to Washington, D.C. You do not have to enclose a note or any other information unless you so desire. Just a TEABAG. Many cities are organizing protests. If you simply search, "New American Tea Party", several sites will come up. If you aren't the 'protester' type, simply make your one voice heard with a TEABAG. Your one voice will become a roar when joined with millions of others that feel the same way. Yes, something needs to be done but the lack of confidence as shown by the steady decline in the stock market speaks volumes. This was not my idea. I visited the sites of the 'New American Tea Party' and an online survey showed over 90% of thousands said they would send the teabag on April 1. Why, April 1?? We want them to reach Washington by April 15. Will you do it? I will. Send it to; 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, D.C. 20500. Forward this to everyone in your address book. Visit the website for more information about the 'New American Tea Party'. I would encourage everyone to go ahead and get the envelope ready to mail, then just drop it in the mail April 1. Can't guarantee what the postage will be by then, it is going up as we speak, but have your envelope ready. What will this cost you? A little time and a 40 something cent stamp.. What could you receive in benefits? Maybe, just maybe, our elected officials will start to listen to the people. Take out the Pork. Tell us how the money is being spent. We want TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY. Remember, the money will be spent over the next 4-5 years. It is not too late. Of course, if you agree with the way things are being done now, just delete!!!!! Origins: On the evening of 16 December 1773, a group of American colonists who called themselves "The Sons of Liberty" furtively boarded the ship Dartmouth, which was docked in Boston harbor with a load of East India Company tea. Working through the night, the colonists dumped over 45 tons of tea into the waters of the harbor as a protest against the Tea Act passed by the British government. The event, which came to be known as "The Boston Tea Party," was one of the seminal events of the American Revolution and remains one of the most iconic moments in all of U.S. history. In 2009, the iconic status of that event was referenced in the name of the New American Tea Party, described as a "coalition of citizens and organizations concerned about the recent trend of fiscal recklessness in government" who have begun coordinating events around the U.S. with the announced goal of protesting largesse in federal spending. The item quoted above seeks to take up the "Tea Party" spirit by encouraging Americans to mail tea bags to the White House on 1 April 2009 (in order to arrive by 15 April, the day on which income tax filings are due) as a form of symbolic protest against "the way Washington is handling our taxes." (The concept is vaguely reminiscent of a 1955 campaign that had citizens mailing small bags of wheat to President Eisenhower to encourage the U.S. to provide surplus food to flood victims in China.) New American Tea Party events wheat Of course, everyone is free to choose whether or not to participate in symbolic protests, so such actions don't have much in the way of verifiable "true" or "false" aspects the only issue is how effective the chosen form of protest is likely to be. With that in mind, we offer a few caveats for those inclined to participate: An entry in the New American Tea Party blog states that they don't endorse the effort: entry We have received hundreds of questions about an email circulating that urges folks to send tea to Washington on April 1st or April 15th. This effort is not endorsed by the New American Tea Party, so we can't answer any questions about it. Given the more stringent security procedures for mail handling enacted after 9/11, there are no guarantees envelopes containing mailed teabags will get through to the White House without being discarded or significantly delayed, something also noted in the New American Tea Party blog: It is a neat idea, but things like that will likely either be held up getting scanned or end up getting thrown away due to security precautions. (A subsequent New American Tea Party blog entry suggested that just mailing the labels from tea bags might be a way of avoiding this potential pitfall.) entry Envelopes that cannot be run through USPS sorting machines are subject to an additional 20 postage surcharge. A mailed item is considered nonmachinable if: nonmachinable It is a square letter (the minimum size for a square envelope is 5 x 5 inches) It is too rigid does not bend easily It has clasps, string, buttons, or similar closure devices It has an address parallel to the shorter dimension of the letter It contains items that cause the surface to be uneven The length divided by height is less than 1.3 or more than 2.5 The specific aims of the tea bag protest are not clearly articulated in the e-mail quoted above, so senders might wish to include explanatory notes with their envelopes stating the desired outcome, such as: "I enclose this teabag as a protest against the passage of any further economic stimulus packages that provide money to businesses without provisions for strict transparency and accountability in how that money is to be spent" or "I enclose this teabag as a protest against the passage of any further economic stimulus packages that include earmarks." Last updated: 12 March 2009 Idaho Statesman. "Local Group Stages 'Reckless Federal Spending' Protest." 27 February 2009. WJXT-TV [Jacksonville, FL]. "'Tea Party' Protests Wasteful Spending." MSNBC. 2 March 2009. | 0 | [
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FMD2972 | 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 Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke has deputies collecting overtime while sitting passively in chairs watching courthouse security personnel work.
contextual information: Milwaukee County SheriffDavid A. Clarke Jr.regularlyuses the mediato criticize other elected officials -- having, for example, accused Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele ofpenis envyand Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett of beingclueless. In contrast, Milwaukee County District AttorneyJohn Chisholmrarely engages in public political battles. So it was a surprise when Chisholm excoriated Clarkein a letteron June 2, 2014. Among other things, Chisholm said the Sheriff's Office was running a budget deficit partly because Clarke has deputies collecting overtime while sitting passively in chairs watching courthouse security personnel work. Chisholms charge seemed worthy of a look. The backdrop The district attorneys letter was in response toa letterhe and the countys chief judge received a few days earlier from Clarke. Clarke, in the wake ofa shootingof a 10-year-old Milwaukee girl, who was gravely wounded in the crossfire between two men on a playground, called for temporarily suspending plea bargaining and probation sentences for major crimes. For years, he wrote, the county's prosecutors and judges had engaged in soft-on-crime practices. Security checkpoints Security checkpoints for the county courthouse complex, which includes the Public Safety Building and the Criminal Justice Facility, are not the responsibility of the Sheriffs Office but rather the county Division of Facilities Management. In other words, county workers, not sheriffs deputies, check visitors and operate metal detectors at the various entrances to the complex. The security work is not part of the sheriffs budget. Clarke, however, has asserted his authority to help provide security. In March 2013,Clarke announcedthat during an integrity check, an undercover sheriff's deputy with a gun cleared security checkpoints at all six entrances into the county courthouse complex. He said that, as a result, he had ordered deputies posted at each security checkpoint in the complex until he is convinced weapons cannot get through. He said the staffing would be paid for with overtime. That staffing is continuing. When we checked the entrances one afternoon in June 2014, we found two county employees manning each checkpoint and a deputy nearby. At one checkpoint, we saw a deputy actively working the metal detector; but at the others, a deputy was only observing. Our colleagues who regularly visit the courthouse told us the same: usually they see deputies merely observing, but occasionally actively working a checkpoint. For his part, Clarke told us the deputies are not posted at the checkpoints to watch the screeners. The deputies are there to provide an armed presence for the protection of the public and employees, and to prevent and deter an armed person from getting into the building, he said in an email. The cost Theres no dispute that overtime pay is being used, at least in part, to pay deputies to work security checkpoints at the courthouse complex. But the amount is not clear. Based on overtime reports the Sheriffs Office submits to county officials, its not possible to tell how much in overtime pay is being spent on deputies working security checkpoints at the courthouse complex, said county Auditor Jerome Heer. Overall, the sheriffs overtime expenditures have gone over budget. In 2013, the Sheriffs Office spent $5.9 million for overtime, exceeding the $3.6 million overtime budget, Heer said. As of June 23, 2014, he said, overtime expenditures were $2.7 million, which is on pace to exceed the overtime budget of $4.1 million. Our rating Chisholm said Clarke has deputies collecting overtime while sitting passively in chairs watching courthouse security personnel work. Theres no dispute that part of the sheriffs overtime budget pays deputies to work security checkpoints at the courthouse complex. The deputies typically are observing visitors passing through the checkpoints, but sometimes get actively involved in screening them or monitoring metal detectors. We rate Chisholms statement Mostly True. To comment, go to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinelwebsite. | 1 | [
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FMD2973 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is Starbucks Opening a Roasting Facility in China? Claim summaries: The announcement that Starbucks is expanding its brand in Asia proved meme-worthy.
contextual information: In mid-March 2020, the coffee brand Starbucks announced it would open a bean roasting facility in China, which prompted a spate of memes aimed at a U.S. audience about "creating jobs for China." announced It's true that Starbucks is investing $130 million to open a coffee bean roasting plant in China, per a company announcement dated March 12, 2020. This will be an expansion of Starbucks' already-existing presence in China, where the chain has been doing business since 1999. Starbucks already has 4,200 stores in 177 cities in mainland China, with a total of 57,000 employees. announcement already has So, while the expansion will indeed create more jobs in China, it's not as if the company is shipping American jobs overseas. Instead, the new roasting facility is geared toward making beans for coffee drinkers purchasing the beverage locally in Asia. The announcement from Starbucks reads: Starbucks Coffee Company, the global roaster and retailer of specialty coffee, announced today it will invest approximately $130 million (USD) in China to open a state-of-the-art roasting facility in 2022 as part of its new Coffee Innovation Park (CIP). As Starbucks largest manufacturing investment outside of the U.S. and its first in Asia, the CIP will incorporate a roasting plant, warehouse and distribution center, creating highly-skilled jobs and new career opportunities that will further drive smart and sustainable coffee manufacturing in China. The plant will serve as a key component of the Companys global roasting network, and the bold infrastructure investment further deepens Starbucks multi-decade commitment to strengthen the specialty coffee industry in China, where it aims to have 6,000 stores by 2022. China Daily, an English-language, government-run newspaper, reported that the Coffee Innovation Park is slated to be built in Kunshan, a city in China's eastern Jiangsu province. reported Starbucks."Starbucks Coffee Innovation Park in China Elevates Manufacturing and Extends Global Roasting Network."
12 March 2020. China Daily."Starbucks to Build Up Roasting Capacity in China."
13 March 2020. Bajpai, Prableen."How Starbucks (SBUX) Is Getting Itself Back On Track In China In Wake of COVID-19."
Nasdaq.com.25 March 2020. | 1 | [
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FMD2974 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams said on Tuesday that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has assured him she would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement if she is elected president. Williams’ comments come as Clinton is under pressure on international trade deals from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and supporters of her former Democratic rival Bernie Sanders. Clinton has previously said she wanted to rework NAFTA. Her campaign on Tuesday declined to comment on the meeting with Williams. Williams said he met with Clinton one-on-one prior to the union’s endorsement of her in May, when Sanders was still in the race to be the Democratic party’s nominee. The UAW has more than 400,000 members. “She’s committed to me that not only would (she) dig into NAFTA but she made every indication that she would sit down and try to redo NAFTA,†Williams told reporters during a telephone press conference from Philadelphia, where he is attending the Democratic National Convention. Williams said Clinton “recognizes that NAFTA was not the success that it was supposed to be,†when her husband, Bill Clinton, pushed for it as president two decades ago. Stephen Miller, senior policy adviser to the Trump campaign, said Hillary Clinton “will never renegotiate Bill Clinton’s NAFTA.†The Trump campaign adviser said, “You can be certain when she was personally getting paid millions and millions by Wall Street and big banks to deliver secret speeches she wasn’t breathing a word against globalist trade pacts.†NAFTA, which eliminated most tariffs on trade between the United States, Mexico and Canada, was promoted as a way to support economic growth by eliminating barriers to trade. Opponents say it has robbed Americans of jobs because it makes it easy for U.S. companies to move operations to Mexico where wages are much lower. Williams said he hopes that an updated treaty would help foster stronger worker unions in Mexico, where many auto manufacturers have factories. “She told us all that,†AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in an interview, referring to Clinton’s assurances to labor unions that she would rework NAFTA. The AFL-CIO, a federation of unions which includes the UAW, stayed neutral during the Democratic primary but endorsed Clinton in June once it was clear she would become the party’s nominee. The UAW endorsed Clinton in May. Williams said that support among UAW members for a Trump presidency has fallen to about 19 percent from 28 percent last year, before Trump said that new automotive industry jobs could be placed in states without strong union support at lower wages than those earned by UAW members. | 1 | [
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FMD2975 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: (VIDEO ABOVE)STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON HARF WON T COMMENT ON THE CHERYL MILLS BLOCK OF SENSITIVE DOCUMENTS ABOUT HILLARY CLINTONHillary s Chief of Staff could be part of the key to the truth of so much corruption. Cheryl Mills ran interference the night Benghazi broke. Hillary s claim that an anti-Islam video, created Benghazi, was promoted by Mills. Benghazi information was compromised by Ms. Mills but it would be asking too much to expect her to come clean on it. Truth just isn t in the cards for any of these lowlifes.WASHINGTON When Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, her staff scrutinized politically sensitive documents requested under public-records law and sometimes blocked their release, according to people with direct knowledge of the activities.In one instance, her chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, told State Department records specialists she wanted to see all documents requested on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, and later demanded that some be held back.In another case, Ms. Mills s staff negotiated with the records specialists over the release of documents about former President Bill Clinton s speaking engagements also holding some back.The records requests came under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, the public s main tool to get information from the government. Decisions on what to release belong with each agency s FOIA staff, say experts on the law, to guard against the withholding of documents for political or other inappropriate reasons.Questions about the transparency of Mrs. Clinton s State Department tenure have been bubbling ever since it was revealed that she exclusively used a private email account to conduct her work as secretary. The existence of that private system, which is being investigated by a House special committee probing the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, meant the department didn t have access to her emails when public requests to see them came in.Read more: WSJ | 0 | [
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] | 0 |
FMD2976 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Tech leaders across Silicon Valley have attacked President Trump for his recent decision to pull the U. S. out of the Paris Climate Accord. [Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of social media giant Facebook, was one of many tech elites to speak out against President Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Climate Accord. “Withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement is bad for the environment, bad for the economy, and it puts our children’s future at risk. †wrote the billionaire CEO in a public post on Facebook. “For our part, we’ve committed that every new data center we build will be powered by 100% renewable energy,†he stated adding, “Stopping climate change is something we can only do as a global community, and we have to act together before it’s too late. †Google CEO Sundar Pichai also tweeted his disapproval of Trump’s decision saying, “Disappointed with today’s decision. Google will keep working hard for a cleaner, more prosperous future for all. †Brad Smith, the President and Chief Legal Officer at Microsoft took to LinkedIn to write a lengthy disapproval of the U. S. leaving the Paris Climate Accord saying, “We are disappointed with today’s decision by the White House to withdraw the United States from the landmark, globally supported Paris Agreement on climate change,†Smith writes. “We believe that continued U. S. participation benefits U. S. businesses and the economy in important and multiple ways. A global framework strengthens competitiveness for American businesses. It creates new markets for innovative clean technologies, from green power to smart grids to solutions. And by strengthening global action over time, the Agreement reduces future climate damage to people and organizations around the world. †Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote an internal letter to Apple staff where he too expressed his concerns and disapproval. The full letter, as reported by TechCrunch, reads, Team, I know many of you share my disappointment with the White House’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement. I spoke with President Trump on Tuesday and tried to persuade him to keep the U. S. in the agreement. But it wasn’t enough. Climate change is real and we all share a responsibility to fight it. I want to reassure you that today’s developments will have no impact on Apple’s efforts to protect the environment. We power nearly all of our operations with renewable energy, which we believe is an example of something that’s good for our planet and makes good business sense as well. We will keep working toward the ambitious goals of a supply chain, and to eventually stop mining new materials altogether. Of course, we’re going to keep working with our suppliers to help them do more to power their businesses with clean energy. And we will keep challenging ourselves to do even more. Knowing the good work that we and countless others around the world are doing, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about our planet’s future. Our mission has always been to leave the world better than we found it. We will never waver, because we know that future generations depend on us. Your work is as important today as it has ever been. Thank you for your commitment to making a difference every single day. Tim, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also tweeted that he would be removing himself from all future presidential councils, Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017, and was quickly shut down by former Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz, In support of Paris, CA billionaires pledge to never again fly private, will only fly commercial. — will quit symbolic councils instead. https: . — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 2, 2017, Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com | 1 | [
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FMD2977 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: U.S. President Barack Obama formally endorsed Hillary Clinton’s White House bid on Thursday and called for Democrats to unite behind her after a protracted battle with Bernie Sanders for the party nomination. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts also backed Clinton on Thursday, telling MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show†that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was “a genuine threat to the country.†Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said it “means the world†to her that Obama had her back in a bruising campaign for the Nov. 8 election. Clinton also said she had the “highest regard†for Warren, a fiery critic of Wall Street, and was “really pleased to have her good ideas and support.†Vice President Joe Biden also waded into the campaign on Thursday. “Whoever the next president is, and God willing in my view it will be Secretary Clinton,†Biden said in a speech at the American Constitution Society in Washington. The Obama endorsement increases pressure on Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, to bow out of the race and lend his support to Clinton so that the party can focus on defeating Trump. “It is absolutely a joy and an honor that President Obama and I over the years have gone from fierce competitors to true friends,†Clinton told Reuters in an interview. After an unexpectedly tough battle against Sanders’ challenge from the left, former first lady Clinton made history when she reached the number of delegates needed to win the party nomination this week. That made her the first woman to lead a major U.S. party as its White House candidate. Obama, who enjoys rising approval ratings as he nears the end of eight years in office, will appear with Clinton on the campaign trail next week in Wisconsin. The two were opponents in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary race, which Obama won, but they buried their rivalry and she served as his secretary of state for four years. Clinton is the 2016 candidate who the White House believes will best safeguard Obama’s legacy. “I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office,†Obama said of Clinton in a video. “I’m with her. I am fired up, and I cannot wait to get out there and campaign for Hillary.†Trump assailed the endorsement on Twitter: “He wants four more years of Obama—but nobody else does!†Clinton’s campaign tweeted a brash response: “Delete your account.†Sanders, who galvanized young voters with his calls for more social equality and measures to rein in Wall Street, has been reluctant to concede the race, despite concerns among leading Democrats that continuing party divisions could hamper Clinton’s efforts to beat Trump. Obama and other senior Democrats are seeking a delicate balance of rallying the party behind Clinton, while not alienating Sanders and his supporters. In what appeared to be an attempt to gently ease Sanders toward giving up his campaign, Obama met the democratic socialist for about an hour in the White House, laughing warmly as they walked into the Oval Office. Although Sanders told reporters afterward that he still planned to compete in the final nominating contest in Washington, D.C., next Tuesday, he said he would work with Clinton to defeat Trump. Sanders was then welcomed on Capitol Hill by Senator Harry Reid, the top Democrat in the Senate. Reid said the lawmaker from Vermont was in a “good place†with his Democratic colleagues. He suggested that Sanders was close to acknowledging defeat by Clinton. “I didn’t hear a single word about him trying to change the fact that she is the nominee, I think he’s accepted that,†Reid told reporters. In the endorsement video, Obama recalled the party unity that followed his prolonged primary battle against Clinton in 2008. “Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders may have been rivals during this primary, but they’re both patriots who love this country and they share a vision for an America that we all believe in,†Obama said. Warren told MSNBC she was endorsing Clinton because “a female fighter in the lead is exactly what this country needs.†Warren’s populist credentials will boost Clinton’s ability to court Sanders voters as she prepares to battle Trump. Warren was the only female Democratic U.S. senator who did not endorse Clinton during the primary race. Clinton told Reuters she and Warren had similar views about issues such as economic policy and protecting the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Warren pushed to start. Trump said in an interview with Reuters last month that he would try to dismantle the Dodd-Frank law. In the interview with Reuters, Clinton said her overall economic package, including plans to rein in Wall Street and cut taxes for the middle class, would come during the first 100 days of her presidency if she defeats Trump. Clinton previously said a plan to generate jobs by investing in transportation and other infrastructure spending and immigration reform would be among other early priorities. “One of the things that President Obama said yesterday is he thought his job was to remind the American people what a really serious job this is, the tough choices, the hard decisions, the high stakes in choosing a president and commander in chief,†Clinton said. “And I know how important it is to get off to a really good start in the White House,†she said. Trump, a wealthy real estate developer who became the party’s presumptive nominee last month after seeing off a large group of rivals, is well behind Clinton’s campaign in terms of fundraising and policy infrastructure. On Thursday, his top donors were holding their first official meeting in New York. Trump also met with industry leaders in New York at an event organized by oil billionaire Harold Hamm. | 1 | [
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FMD2978 | 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: Due to ... tax cuts and lower (property) values, 2009 property taxes were almost $3 billion below 2007 property taxes.
contextual information: In his annual State of the State address, Gov. Charlie Crist said Floridians are paying far less in property taxes than they used to.Property owners were seeing double-digit percentage increases in taxes levied prior to the beginning of my administration, Crist said on March 2, 2010. Now, they have seen significant decreases over the past three years. Due to ... tax cuts and lower (property) values, 2009 property taxes were almost $3 billion below 2007 property taxes.Previously, we rated Crist's claim that hepassed the largest tax cutin Florida history. In this item, we'll focus on whether the amount of property tax relief matches Crist's description.The relevant information to back up Crist's claim comes from a Senate committee hearing last month. In the meeting, James McAdams, the Department of Revenue's property tax oversight program director, gave an update on property tax collections across Florida.According to McAdams, Florida property taxes collected between 2007 and 2009 dropped by $2.28 billion, or 7.5 percent, the Associated Press reported.McAdams was unable to delineate how much of the drop was attributed to tax reforms implemented by the Legislature, and how much was a result of falling property values.I would classify that as dropping like a rock, said Senate Finance and Taxation Committee Chairman Thad Altman, R-Viera.Altman's comment prompted a response from Crist during his televised remarks in front of a joint session of the Legislature.Sen. Altman, we agree that does, indeed, qualify as 'dropping like a rock,' Crist said.The Department of Revenue's 2009annual report, meanwhile, included an even bigger reduction. The annual report said property tax collections fell from $31.04 billion in 2007, to $28.14 billion in 2009. That's a $2.9 billion decrease in three years. (See page 32 of the report).In his State of the State address, Crist said 2009 property taxes were almost $3 billion below 2007 property taxes. A report prepared for a Senate committee pegs the number at about $2.28 billion and the Department of Revenue's annual report pegs the number at $2.9 billion. With the qualifier almost, that's close enough not to distort the broader point. We rate Crist's claim True. | 1 | [
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FMD2979 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Obama s ICE Director Sarah Saldana is not the only one determined to help Obama fundamentally transform America. In 2013, Border Agents pleaded with Congress to not pass the Gang of Eight bill. They warned that passing it would make America less safe. ICE Agents warned:The 1,200 page substitute bill before the Senate will provide instant legalization and a path to citizenship to gang members and other dangerous criminal aliens, and handcuff ICE officers from enforcing immigration laws in the future. It provides no means of effectively enforcing visa overstays which account for almost half of the nation s illegal immigration crisis.WE WERE WARNEDU.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, voiced his objections to Sarah Saldana s nomination in 2014 when he submitted the following remarks for the Congressional record on the nomination of Sarah Saldana as Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): Mr. President, I rise to speak in opposition to the nomination of Sarah Saldana. Ms. Salda a has been nominated to head the nation s top immigration law enforcement agency, which has been at the epicenter of this administration s refusal to enforce our nation s immigration laws.When asked whether she rejects the President s unlawful action to unilaterally grant legal residence and work permits to 5 million individuals illegally in the country, Ms. Salda a, currently the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, responded no. Her answer reflects a remarkable disregard for the rule of law that demonstrates that, if confirmed, she will continue the pattern of lawlessness perpetuated by the President and the political leadership of the Department of Homeland Security.Breitbart News- President Obama s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director tells lawmakers that no consequences are planned for sanctuary cities until Congress first passes comprehensive immigration reform. Sarah Salda a testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on criminal alien violence.After hearing emotional testimony from families torn apart by illegal immigrant murderers, Republican members of Congress grilled two administration witnesses: Leon Rodriquez, Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and Sarah Salda a, Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Both Rodriquez and Salda a have been tasked with carrying out President Obama s executive amnesty for so-called DREAMers, which includes work permits and medical benefits for low-income illegal aliens funded by citizen taxpayers.Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) repeatedly pressed Salda a on why the Administration was taking no action against sanctuary jurisdictions that refuse to turn over dangerous criminal aliens from their prisons and jails to federal law officers. Salda a replied that Congress would first have to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Vitter: This has been going on for years and you still are not prepared to say that there is ever going to be any negative consequence to those [sanctuary] jurisdictions. When is that going to change? Salda a: I presume when you all address comprehensive immigration reform; perhaps it can be addressed there. Vitter described Salda a s answer as ridiculous and kept pressing: And absent Congress passing that [Senate immigration] bill, that you and the Obama Administration prefer, you don t think right now we can stop sanctuary cities from flaunting federal law? You don t think right now there can be any negative consequences when they do not properly cooperate under existing federal law with immigration enforcement? Salda a gave a muddled reply: That s what I understand that all of you are working on. Ironically, an immigration bill pushed by Senators Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) would have given amnesty to many of the criminal aliens the families who testified today wish to see deported. As Chris Crane, president of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Council, noted at the time:Senator Rubio left unchanged legislative provisions that he himself admitted to us in private were detrimental, flawed and must be changed. Legislation written behind closed doors by handpicked special interest groups which put their political agendas and financial gains before sound and effective law and the welfare and safety of the American public. As a result, the 1,200 page substitute bill before the Senate will provide instant legalization and a path to citizenship to gang members and other dangerous criminal aliens, and handcuff ICE officers from enforcing immigration laws in the future. It provides no means of effectively enforcing visa overstays which account for almost half of the nation s illegal immigration crisis.Senator Grassley offered an amendment that would that would have barred gang members, such as the notorious MS-13 gang members who have wreaked havoc across the country, from getting amnesty but that amendment was defeated in the Judiciary Committee. The final bill 68 senators voted for therefore expressly made amnesty available to gang members an amnesty that included access to green cards, welfare and the prize of U.S. citizenship.As The Washington Post reported at the time, this was part of a coordinated effort by members of the Gang of Eight to quash amendments that might have damaged the likelihood of the bill s speedy passage:The eight met in private before each committee hearing, hashing out which amendments they would support and which oppose as a united coalition. Senate aides said amendments were rejected if either side felt they would shatter the deal.Politico confirmed this report:During the Judiciary Committee markup in May, the Gang routinely met to decide which amendments they would support or oppose. In one meeting, the senators thought they had all agreed to defeat a proposal from Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to require a biometric exit and entry at points of entry before undocumented immigrants could secure green cards, according to one Senate Democratic aide.The day the bill passed the Senate, National Citizenship and Immigration Services Council president Ken Palinkas and president of the National ICE Council Chris Crane, who together represent more than 20,000 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees on the front line of immigration enforcement, issued this joint statement:ICE officers and USCIS adjudications officers have pleaded with lawmakers not to adopt this bill, they wrote, The Schumer-Rubio-Corker-Hoeven proposal will make Americans less safe and it will ensure more illegal immigration especially visa overstays in the future. It provides legalization for thousands of dangerous criminals while making it more difficult for our officers to identity public safety and national security threats. The legislation was guided from the beginning by anti-enforcement special interests and, should it become law, will have the desired effect of these groups: blocking immigration enforcement. This is anti-public safety bill and an anti-law enforcement bill.Immigration and the transformation of America is shaping up to be the most passionate issue of the 2016 race.When Governor. Scott Walker (R-WI) was question by a DREAMer during a recent campaign stop and said illegal aliens seeking to become Americans needed to return home. He also suggested at the same stop that foreign worker visas should be limited when American jobs and wages are in danger, a position that polls well with liberals and conservatives alike.Via: Breitbart News | 0 | [
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FMD2980 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Once again, the NRA s favored masturbatory aid is responsible for the death of a child. The terrorist group masquerading as a gun rights organization regularly informs us that keeping a gun in the home is probably the safest thing someone can do for his family next to hiring an army of ninja chimpanzees, but the truth is that both can lead to unintended and disastrous consequences the sort that took the life of 5-year-old Haley Moore on Saturday.Neighbors describe Moore s father, Eric (a retired veteran the NRA would normally use as the poster-ammosexual for gun safety), as being vigilant about keeping his guns out of the hands of his child the sort of thing we can expect the NRA to say about most parents who bravely decide to transform their homes into veritable armories but reality, unfortunately, reared its ugly head when he decided to take a shower at around 9:45 a.m., leaving a loaded .45 handgun on the table.Next door neighbor Joy Ursin told WVUE that she learned what happened when Haley s terrified older siblings informed her: The oldest kid, she told me because they came over to us when all this happened, she s traumatized, my sister, my sister shot herself. Ursin says she comforted the older children as their father called law enforcement after he finished his shower, that is. The gun should ve been locked up but at the same time, you should, I think that from an early age, getting children familiar with them and enough to know it s not a toy is the biggest thing, Labat said telling the news station that it s definitely sad when something like this happens. Unfortunately, this isn t the solution either. Not only does the simple act of keeping a firearm in the home increase the risk of harm coming to yourself or your family members, but Mother Jones noted in 2013 that For every time a gun is used in self-defense in the home, there are 7 assaults or murders, 11 suicide attempts, and 4 accidents involving guns in or around a home. While it is comforting for some to think that a child well-informed about the dangers of guns will not touch them, an ABC experiment in which children were exposed to hidden firearms directly after taking a NRA gun safety class ignored the danger and (for the most part) played with the guns they found anyway.Haley died from her injuries in the hospital, another victim of the NRA s jihad against sanity.It is unclear if Eric will be charged with a crime for causing his daughter s death, but we won t be holding our collective breath.Watch a report on the senseless and completely avoidable death below:FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports, SocialFeatured image via Facebook | 0 | [
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FMD2981 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: George Stephanopoulos refused to take shit from Mike Pence on Sunday.The ABC host of This Week grilled Pence for repeatedly defending Donald Trump s false claim that 3 million people voted illegally to help Hillary Clinton win the popular vote. In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally, Trump wrote last month.In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016The claim has been repeatedly debunked ever since and people in both parties have criticized Trump for it.Politifact gave the claim a Pants on Fire rating because Trump got the information from right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones who got it from some guy who refused to provide evidence to support his claim.When Stephanopoulos interviewed Pence, he demanded to know if he thinks it s responsible for Trump to make false claims. That claim is groundless, Stephanopoulos said. There s no evidence to back it up. Is it responsible for a president-elect to make false statements like that? Pence pathetically defended Trump by bringing up a 2012 Pew Center study that even the study s own author says does not prove widespread voter fraud, especially the kind of voter fraud Trump is claiming.Once again, Stephanopoulos informed Pence that Trump s statement is false. Pence continued to pretend that Trump has evidence to back up his claim and suggested that he has the right to make claim claims. I think the president-elect just wants to call to attention the fact that there has been evidence over many years, Pence said. It s certainly his right. It s his right to make false statements? a bewildered Stephanopoulos asked.Pence responded by dodging the question and called Trump refreshing while praising his ability to brainwash people into hanging on his every word. I think one of the things that s refreshing about our president-elect. I think he made such an incredible connection with people all across this country because he tells you what s on his mind. Stephanopoulos refused to let Pence get away with not answering his question. But why is it refreshing to make false statements? he asked.And then the interview got testy as Pence claimed that nobody knows if Trump s statement is false or not, leading Stephanopoulos to hit Pence hard to conclude the interview.PENCE: I don t know that is a false statement and neither do you. There is historic evidence from the Pew Research Center that voter fraud has taken place. STEPHANOPOULOS: Can you provide any evidence to back up that statement? PENCE: He s entitled to express his opinion on that. I think the American people find it very refreshing that they have a president who will tell them what s on his mind. STEPHANOPOULOS: Whether it s true or not. Here s the video via YouTube.This is already shaping up to be a most corrupt dishonest adminstration in American history and Mike Pence doesn t even have the balls to call out Trump on his bullshit.Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 | [
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FMD2982 | 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: SCAM ALERT: Texas Roadhouse Vouchers on Facebook Claim summaries: The bogus promotion ran on at least 13 separate inauthentic Facebook profiles, in September 2021.
contextual information: In late September 2021, Snopes readers asked us to examine the facts surrounding a widely-shared but suspicious-looking Facebook promotion that promised users free Texas Roadhouse vouchers in return for them sharing and commenting on the post. One version of the scam consisted of several photos of what appeared to be Texas Roadhouse steak dishes, as well as a picture of staff attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new restaurant, along with the following text: Im Gerald L.Morgan, CEO of texas roadhouses. I know times have been tough so to help everyone out I have a special surprise for everyone who shares&comments then. Every person who does this by Sep 29th can get a voucher. Each voucher can be used at any texas roadhouses restaurant to get a meal for two with drinks! A second version of the scam invited users to like, share or comment on the post, before clicking on a link and "entering" or "registering" [safe link] for the voucher: registering Users who clicked on one of those links were directed to various dubious websites (we have archived or made screenshots of these links, so they are safe to click on) where they were instructed to "claim" their prize or "register." Clicking on those links, in turn, brought users to a variety of entirely unrelated websites offering various dubious promotions and gift card offers of their own. various dubious websites dubious promotions Snopes discovered that at least 13 separate Facebook profiles ran various versions of the Texas Roadhouse scam, in the final days of September 2021, with all of them using the blatantly inauthentic profile name "Texas Roadhouse's." The actual Texas Roadhouse chain addressed the scam in a Sept. 28 Facebook post, writing: Sept. 28 Facebook post There is a scam circulating on Facebook offering Texas Roadhouse meal vouchers and other benefits to our guests who share their posts. This account is attempting to gain access to personal information... If you see a suspicious post in your News Feed offering free vouchers to Texas Roadhouse, please do not click on any links or share with your friends. | 0 | [
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FMD2983 | 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, Domino's is not providing complimentary digital vouchers for two large pizzas. Claim summaries: Yet another "free coupon" scam attempted to lure social media users with bogus promises.
contextual information: In April 2020, Facebook posts circulating online offered coupons supposedly good for two free large pizzas from the Domino's pizza chain: Users who clicked on the offer were taken to an external website where they were instructed to answer survey questions in order to receive their coupons: After completing the questionnaire, however, users were then required to click a button to share the "offer" with their Facebook friends before they could retrieve their coupons. Those who complied by spamming their friends were then allowed to click a "Receive the Coupon" button, but there was no actual coupon to receive. Like innumerable other "free merchandise" offers on Facebook, this offer was another variation of a common scam. other free merchandise offers Facebook We've had many occasions to alert readers to this kind of fraud: These types of viral coupon scams often involve websites and social media pages set up to mimic those of legitimate companies. Users who respond to those fake offers are required to share a website link or social media post in order to spread the scam more widely and lure in additional victims. Then those users are presented with a survey that extracts personal information such as email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and even sometimes credit card numbers. Finally, those who want to claim their free gift cards or coupons eventually learn they must first sign up to purchase a number of costly goods, services, or subscriptions. The Better Business Bureau offers consumers several general tips to avoid getting scammed: offers consumers | 0 | [
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FMD2984 | 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: Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act Claim summaries: A bill before Congress would prohibit ownership of handguns by those who have not obtained firearm licenses?
contextual information: Claim: A bill before Congress would prohibit ownership of handguns by those who have not obtained firearm licenses. OUTDATED Example: [Collected via e-mail, February 2009] It has started. Very Important for you to be aware of a new bill HR 45 introduced into the House. This is the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sale Act of 2009. We just learned yesterday about this on the Peter Boyles radio program. Even gun shop owners didn't know about this because it is flying under the radar. To find out about this - go to any government website and type in HR 45 or Google HR 45 Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sales Act of 2009. You will get all the information. Basically this would make it illegal to own a firearm - any rifle with a clip or ANY pistol unless: It is registered You are fingerprinted You supply a current Driver's License You supply your Social Security # You will submit to a physical & mental evaluation at any time of their choosing Each update - change or ownership through private or public sale must be reported and costs $25 - Failure to do so you automatically lose the right to own a firearm and are subject up to a year in jail. There is a child provision clause on page 16 section 305 stating a child-access provision. Gun must be locked and inaccessible to any child under 18. They would have the right to come and inspect that you are storing your gun safely away from accessibility to children and fine is punishable for up to 5 yrs. in prison. If you think this is a joke - go to the website and take your pick of many options to read this. It is long and lengthy. But, more and more people are becoming aware of this. Pass the word along. Any hunters in your family - pass this along. Peter Boyles is on this and having guests. Listen to him on KHOW 630 a.m. in the morning. He suggests the best way to fight this is to tell all your friends about it and "spring into action". Also he suggests we all join a pro-gun group like the Colorado Rifle Association, hunting associations, gun clubs and especially the NRA. This is just a "termite" approach to complete confiscation of guns and disarming of our society to the point we have no defense - chip away a little here and there until the goal is accomplished before anyone realizes it. This is one to act on whether you own a gun or not. If you take my gun, only the criminal will have one to use against me. HR 45 only makes me/us less safe. After working with convicts for 26 years I know this bill, if passed, would make them happy and in less danger from their victims. Variations: An August 2009 version of the Blair Holt e-mail combined it with a Handgun Safety and Registration Act (SB2099) e-mail that falsely claims a bill before Congress would require all handgun owners to list their firearms on their federal income tax returns. These are two distinctly different bills. list Origins: On 10 May 2007, 16-year-old Chicago honor student Blair Holt was riding a bus home from school when another teenager began firing a handgun in a gang-related attack. When Holt moved to shield a girl on the bus from the spray of bullets, he was himself hit in the abdomen and died. At Blair Holt's funeral, Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois (representing the state's First Congressional district) promised to honor Holt's memory by introducing a strong gun tracking bill in Congress. One month later, Rep. Rush introduced Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act to Congress, but it was referred to a subcommittee and languished there without ever having been voted upon. On 6 January 2009, Rush introduced essentially the same bill to Congress again as Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 (H.R. 45). H.R. 45 In a nutshell, the Blair Holt bill would: Prohibit possession of any handguns or any semiautomatic firearms that can accept detachable ammunition-feeding devices (excluding antiques) by anyone who has not been issued a firearm license. Require all sales of those types of firearms to go through licensed dealers. Direct the Attorney General to establish and run a federal record-of-sale system. Require the possessors of firearms to secure them (by secure gun storage or safety devices) when they are kept in locales where children might be capable of gaining access to those firearms. In order to be issued a firearm license under the provisions of the Blair Holt legislation, applicants would be required to submit the following information to the Attorney General: a current, passport-sized photograph of the applicant that provides a clear, accurate likeness of the applicant the name, address, and date and place of birth of the applicant any other name that the applicant has ever used or by which the applicant has ever been known a clear thumb print of the applicant, which shall be made when, and in the presence of the entity to whom, the application is submitted with respect to each category of person prohibited by Federal law, or by the law of the State of residence of the applicant, from obtaining a firearm, a statement that the individual is not a person prohibited from obtaining a firearm a certification by the applicant that the applicant will keep any firearm owned by the applicant safely stored and out of the possession of persons who have not attained 18 years of age a certificate attesting to the completion at the time of application of a written firearms examination, which shall test the knowledge and ability of the applicant regarding: the safe storage of firearms, particularly in the vicinity of persons who have not attained 18 years of age the safe handling of firearms the use of firearms in the home and the risks associated with such use the legal responsibilities of firearms owners, including Federal, State, and local laws relating to requirements for the possession and storage of firearms, and relating to reporting requirements with respect to firearms any other subjects, as the Attorney General determines to be appropriate an authorization by the applicant to release to the Attorney General or an authorized representative of the Attorney General any mental health records pertaining to the applicant the date on which the application was submitted the signature of the applicant (Contrary to the example e-mail quoted above, the bill would not require applicants to "submit to a physical and mental evaluation at any time of their choosing"; applicants would have to authorize the release of any existing mental health records. Also, the right of inspection to ascertain compliance with the law would apply to "any place in which firearms or firearm products are manufactured, stored, or held, for distribution in commerce," not to ordinary households.) Proponents of the Blair Holt bill maintain that it is not an attempt to ban or otherwise infringe on the constitutional right to own or carry guns; it would simply establish a system for registering and tracking the ownership of guns that are used illegally, similar to the system currently used for automobiles. Opponents of the bill maintain that it "focuses on the instruments of crime rather than on the criminals who use the instruments," and that, rather than targeting the criminal element, it "would simply further burden law-abiding people." As was the 2007 version of Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act, the 2009 version was referred to the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, and it died there without being voted upon. The fact that the bill did not have even a single co-sponsor made it unlikely that it would ever have beeen brought to a vote before Congress, much less passed. ESPN Outdoors correspondent Wade Bourne summed up the bill's chances of passage thusly: So, how likely is the Blair Holt bill's chance for passage? Pro-gun activists are vigilant but don't seem overly worried about it. They point out that the bill's failure to attract co-sponsors is an indication of a lack of enthusiasm for it among other congressmen. They feel it is too far-reaching and repressive of gun owners' rights to merit serious consideration by a majority of Congress. Lawrence Keane of the NSSF [National Shooting Sports Foundation] states, "If this bill passes, Democrats would likely lose (control of) their chamber in upcoming mid-term elections (2010). The leadership in the House knows that." Keane says some 80 million-plus U.S. citizens own firearms, representing nearly half the households in the nation. He believes that House Democrats will allow the Blair Holt bill to die in subcommittee rather than risk the ire of so many pro-gun voters. Last updated: 15 May 2012 Piland, Thomas. "Proposed Gun License Law Has Some People Concerned." KRIS-TV. 11 February 2009. Rozas, Angela. "Father Relives Trauma of son's Shooting." Chicago Tribune. 7 October 2008. Simon, Matthew. "Federal Gun Bill Angers Alaskans." KTVA-TV. 17 February 2009. | 0 | [
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FMD2985 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Four teenagers were arrested for allegedly having sex in the sea in full view of a large crowd of beachgoers in Cape Cod during July Fourth celebrations.Four teens Julianna Murphy, 19; Stephen Cerrone, 19; Lukas Kaminski, 19; and Molly Hines, 18 were charged Wednesday with disorderly conduct, according to Cape Cod Times.Video of the teens being arrested went viral on social media, with the person who captured the incident adding the caption: Talk about fireworks! Three of those who appeared in court on Wednesday are alleged to have taken part in the sex acts, according to Fox 25.Kaminski was arrested because he allegedly refused police orders to vacate the area where the other teens were being detained. A fifth teen, a 17-year-old male who had allegedly taken part in the public dalliance, was also arrested, but his status as a juvenile prevents the media from revealing his identity. Daily Mail | 0 | [
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FMD2986 | 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 Gov. Cuomo Just Get a $71,000 Pay Raise? Claim summaries: The New York governor was one of several state officials who were voted substantial, phased-in pay raises recommended by a compensation committee.
contextual information: Snopes is still fighting an infodemic of rumors and misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, and you can help. Find out what we've learned and how to inoculate yourself against COVID-19 misinformation. Read the latest fact checks about the vaccines. Submit any questionable rumors and advice you encounter. Become a Founding Member to help us hire more fact-checkers. And, please, follow the CDC or WHO for guidance on protecting your community from the disease. fighting Find out Read Submit Become a Founding Member CDC WHO During the coronavirus pandemic of spring 2020, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York remained at the top of the news cycle for two reasons: His state saw by far the largest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, and his daily press briefings were a staple of television news coverage of the crisis. The New York governor was also praised as a model of political leadership during an emergency by those who were highly critical of President Donald Trump and his handling of the U.S. federal response to COVID-19. largest number During that period, a meme circulated via social media stating that Cuomo had recently requested and been granted a $71,000 pay raise that made him the highest-paid governor in the U.S., and that this activity had taken place "while most NYers were sleeping": It was true that Cuomo had been granted a pay raise that would make him (at least temporarily) the highest-paid governor of any state. But that pay adjustment had been recommended and enacted a year earlier (i.e., in 2019, not 2020), the $71,000 increase was phased in across the span of three years (rather than given all at once), and the matter involved multiple recommendations and approvals from state authorities (largely given because the governor's salary not increased since 1999) which were openly publicized and not hidden from New York residents. On April 1, 2019, both houses of the New York Legislature (Assembly and Senate) approved a pay hike that would increase Cuomo's compensation from $179,500 to $200,000 in 2019, $225,000 in 2020, and $250,000 in 2021. In terms of base salary, that raise created the potential for Cuomo to become the nation's highest-paid governor in 2020, out-earning Gov. Gavin Newsom of California (assuming that no other state raised its chief executive's pay to a higher level before then). Gov. Gavin Newsom The gubernatorial pay hike was one of several salary increases that had been recommended back in December 2018 by the New York State Compensation Committee, which "after months of research and public hearings," advocated substantial pay raises for multiple high-level state officers -- many of whom would, like the governor, would see phased pay increases eventually garnering them well over $200,000 per year: recommended A four-member committee has recommended substantial pay raises for members of the state Legislature, the governor, lieutenant governor, state comptroller and state attorney general. The New York State Compensation Committee consisting of current and former New York state and New York City comptrollers unveiled their recommendations Monday, December 10, 2018, after months of research and public hearings. The Compensation Committee recommends that, starting on Jan. 1 of 2019, state legislators will receive an annual salary of $110,000. Beginning on Jan. 1, 2020, lawmakers will receive an annual salary of $120,000 and their outside income would be capped at $18,000, which 15 percent of their legislative pay. Beginning on Jan. 1, 2021, lawmakers would receive $130,000 a year and their outside income would be capped at $19,500, which is 15 percent of their legislative pay. This would be the long-term compensation for state legislators moving forward. The Compensation Committee is also recommending pay increases for the governor, who would receive an annual salary of $250,000 after a three-year phase-in; the lieutenant governor, who would receive $220,000 after a three-year phase-in; and an annual salary of $220,000 for both the state comptroller and state attorney general after a phase-in period. Executive branch commissioners and department heads would also receive pay raises under the plan, with Tier A commissioners making $220,000 after a three-year phase-in. As the New York Post reported, some legislators "grumbled that the [pay raise] measure was thrown in at the last minute" while they were working overtime to pass a state budget, but Cuomo and others defended it by noting that the compensation committee's recommendations had been published and accepted months earlier: reported Because the governor cant sign off on his own pay hike, the raise required legislative action. The state Senate approved the increase at 2:45 a.m. and the Assembly acted a few hours later. Some lawmakers grumbled that the measure was thrown in at the last minute, while they were grappling with the new $175.5 billion state budget. The salary adjustments were done last December by the pay commission which publicized and put out a report, which was accepted by the legislature, Cuomo said. That was published and discussed in December, so theres nothing new on that. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) backed up Cuomo. It has a fiscal component to it, so theres always the realization to do it, Heastie told reporters. We felt that all the statewide officials were able to get raises ... the governor and the lieutenant governors salaries arent fixed by statute, they have to be done by a concurrent resolution between the Assembly and the Senate and thats the reason why they were done. Gormley, James. "Pay Committee Recommends $50,000 Annual Salary Increase for Lawmakers."
Legislative Gazette. 11 December 2018. Davis, Dominic-Madori and Marguerite Ward. "Here's the Salary of Every Governor in All 50 US States."
Business Insider. 20 April 2020. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Coronavirus Disease 2019 -- Cases in the U.S."
Accessed 20 May 2020. Feis, Aaron. "Andrew Cuomo to Become the Highest-Paid Governor in the US."
New York Post. 1 April 2019. Hogan, Bernadette. "Andrew Cuomo Defends His Huge Pay Raise."
New York Post. 2 April 2019. | 2 | [
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] | 2 |
FMD2987 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is the Democratic Party endorsed by AARP? Claim summaries: When individuals support a political party, it does not automatically mean their employer follows suit.
contextual information: In mid-August 2020, Snopes readers inquired about a meme circulating on Facebook that claimed money given to AARP (formerly American Association of Retired Persons), an advocacy organization that lobbies on behalf of retired Americans, goes "directly" to the Democratic party. It's unclear what exactly is meant by the phrase, "what you pay AARP." The organization has an estimated 38 million members, all of whom typically pay annual dues at $16 per year. As a 501(c)4 tax-exempt organization, it also accepts charitable donations. estimated dues at tax-exempt accepts Either way, any money paid to AARP through membership dues or donations does not go "directly" to the Democratic party. The AARP lobbies the government on behalf of causes that affect people aged 50 and older. Those activities may include taking a stand on health care and Social Security. stand Social Security In terms of candidates and political parties, however, AARP's official position is that it is non-partisan. The organization states it "does not support, endorse or contribute to political candidates or parties." states Instead, per AARP, the organization's role in terms of election politics is "connecting voters to information about where the candidates stand on issues most important to them including the future of Social Security and other critical issues related to financial security, health and well-being." We checked the AARP's federal campaign finance data using the website Open Secrets, a project operated by the government accountability organization The Center for Responsive Politics. We found no contributions to any political candidates or parties, Democratic or otherwise, from AARP, the organization. However, contributions from individuals who work for AARP is another matter. Open Secrets "AARP does not have any record of direct contributions to political parties or candidates based on my review of federal campaign finance and tax filings covering recent years, but AARPs officers [executives] and employees can still make political donations in a personal capacity, and contributions from donors listing AARP as their employer in Federal Election Commission records have primarily gone to Democratic candidates in recent years," said Anna Massoglia, a researcher for The Center for Responsive Politics. AARP policy prohibits employees or officers from engaging in any personal political activity using AARP resources or during work hours. policy According to campaign finance data tracked by Open Secrets, individual donors associated with AARP made a total of $96,381 in political contributions as of this writing in the 2020 federal election cycle, the majority (87.45%) of those donations going to Democratic candidates. total majority Massoglia said that as a 501(c)4 organization, the AARP is allowed under U.S. tax code to engage in some political campaign activity. But their activities have been issue-oriented and bipartisan. For example, a 2018 AARP ad praised U.S. President Donald Trump on drug pricing policy. The organization has also supported upholding the Affordable Care Act, the landmark health care law signed by Trump's Democratic predecessor, President Barack Obama. praised supported AARP spokesperson Jason Young told us by phone that the organization, as a 501(c)4 non-profit, is prohibited by law from making political contributions. "Not only does AARP not make donations of this sort, we never have and we don't have a PAC," Young added. Young said that although some AARP employees have made political contributions in a personal capacity, the sum of donations is relatively small. "It's fair to say we are largely absent form this type of political engagement, and that's because AARP as an organization is focused on policy, not politics," Young stated. Although it's true that individuals who work for AARP have donated primarily to Democratic candidates, individual donations are not the same as contributions by an organization. Because AARP as an organization has not contributed to the Democratic party or its candidates, we rate this claim, Hahn, Steve. "Voter and Candidate Reminder: AARP Is Strictly Non-Partisan."
AARP. 26 August 2016. AARP.org. "How Much Does AARP Membership Cost?"
Accessed 18 August 2020. AARP.org. "IRS Definition."
3 March 2011. AARP. org. "AARP Policy on Personal Political Activity."
Accessed 19 August 2020. Bunis, Dena."AARP Urges Federal Appeals Court to Preserve the ACA."
1 April 2019. Updated to include comments from AARP spokesperson Jason Young. | 0 | [
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FMD2988 | 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 largest U.S. companies would owe $620 billion in U.S. taxes on the cash they store in tax havens.
contextual information: Getting companies to pay more in taxes is one of the pillars of Bernie Sanders plans for America. The extra revenue plays a key role in everything from universal health care, to tuition-free college, to rebuilding the nations aging water mains, bridges and highways. How much does he think is there? The largest U.S. companies would owe $620 billion in U.S. taxes on the cash they store in tax havens, SanderstweetedApril 6, 2016. Thats a fair chunk of change, and we thought wed see if it held up. By the way, theres no single definition of a tax haven. The term covers both profits from overseas subsidiaries and the use of offshore accounts in places like Bermuda. The common thread is money is booked in places with lower taxes than the United States. The Sanders campaign directed us to ajoint studyfrom Citizens for Tax Justice and US PIRG, both left-leaning organizations. Their analysis began with the more than $2.1 trillion that Fortune 500 companies are holding in accumulated profits offshore for tax purposes. When the foreign subsidiary of a U.S. multinational turns a profit, the money is taxed at the rate where the subsidiary is based. Uncle Sam doesnt get a penny until the multinational brings the money home. That gets a little confusing because the money might actually be in the United States, but it isnt on the books of the U.S. parent. In any event, for tax purposes, most of those funds are not formally repatriated or brought back to the United States. The logic is simple: Why pay a higher rate in the United States, formally as high as 35 percent, when you might be paying a fifth that much in a foreign country, such as Ireland? The Citizens for Tax Justice/US PIRG analysts looked atthe 57 corporations that actually told regulators how big their tax bill would be if they brought the money home. These 57 companies would owe $184.4 billion in additional federal taxes, the report said. The analysts made some assumptions and applied the results to the companies that didnt release this information. The total for all Fortune 500 companies combined? They would collectively owe $620 billion in additional federal taxes. We asked independent tax scholars what they thought of that estimate. Some of them said it was in the ballpark. Richard Harvey, a former partner at the accounting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers and now at Villanova School of Law, said Sanders might actually be underestimating. Harvey pointed to the foreign earnings that multinationals report as indefinitely reinvested. Officially, thetotal is about $2.3 trillion. But Harvey thinks that overlooks a lot of cash. The total unrepatriated foreign earnings would be even higher because companies like Apple and Pfizer do not label all undistributed foreign earnings as indefinitely reinvested, Harvey said. If one assumes that U.S. multinational corporations have approximately $2.5 trillion to $3 trillion of unrepatriated foreign earnings, and the average tax rate on most undistributed foreign earnings is less than 10 percent (in many cases close to 0 percent), then a $620 billion estimate is very reasonable, and may be low. Edward Kleinbard, professor of law at the University of Southern California and a former chief of staff at the U.S. Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation, took a different approach, and reached approximately the same conclusion. Kleinbard took theJoint Committee on Taxationsestimate of how much revenue would come from a one-time 14 percent tax on those foreign earnings kept overseas. This is in fact what President Barack Obama has proposed in his latest budget. The net haul from that would be about $195 billion. Using that figure, Kleinbard estimated how much would come in if the rate were 35 percent, rather than 14 percent. You get to $488 billion, he said. Thats not perfect, because of how foreign tax credits (offsets to U.S. taxes) would have to be handled, but its the right ballpark. Thats less than the $620 billion Sanders cited, but as Kleinbard put it, it's a honkin' big number. The banking giantCredit Suisseestimated the total new revenues at $533 billion. Edmund Outslay, professor of taxation at Michigan State University, thinks Sanders overshot the mark. Outslay told PolitiFact that he questions a key assumption in the study behind Sanders number. The study estimates an average tax rate of 6 percent that all Fortune 500 companies are paying overseas today. Because any foreign tax bill is deducted from what a firm owes Washington, the lower the foreign tax rate, the higher the potential revenues for the United States. Outslay thinks 6 percent is unrealistic. Some studies I have seen estimate a foreign tax rate of about 16.5 percent, Outslay said. If this number is more accurate, the total tax to be gained (would be) $550 billion. At 25 percent, the net U.S. tax would only be $320 billion. Outslay himself leans more toward a $300 billion figure. In addition to thinking multinationals are paying a higher rate overseas, he also said in most cases, the foreign earnings are actually invested in bricks and mortar. Those dollars are not cash in the way Sanders talked about this. How the IRS would treat that money is unclear. All this leaves us with a range of estimates of the potential tax revenues, ranging from about $300 billion (Outslay), to $490 billion (Kleinbard), to $550 billion (Credit Suisse), to over $620 billion (Harvey). Our ruling Sanders said that if American multinational corporations had to pay taxes on the profits they made overseas, they would owe $620 billion. This is at the high end of the estimates we collected. Sanders also described the overseas holdings as cash. According to one expert we reached, a lot of that money might be invested in factories and other hard infrastructure and might not be available for tax collections. Still, the mid-range estimate from credible sources is in the $500 billion to $550 billion range. All the numbers cited were relatively high. We rate Sanders estimate Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD2989 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: President Trump keeps another promise. The winning streak for Americans continues The Department of Homeland Security will stop processing any new applications for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program. I am here today to announce that the program known as DACA that was effectuated under the Obama administration is being rescinded, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday at a Justice Department news conference.Sessions was critical of the Obama program implemented through executive order in 2012 to give work authorization and government benefits, like Social Security to nearly a million illegal aliens. MRCTV Watch: The brilliant Jessica Vaughan, from the Center for Immigration Studies, shared these important facts about DACA recipients in America, compiled by Harvard University researcher Roberto G. Gonzales, called the National UnDACAmented Research Project. There are important (self-acknowledged) caveats to the findings: The research is based on an online survey of just over 2,000 self-described DACA-eligible respondents and about 200 follow-up interviews. Gonzales believes that for a variety of reasons, the respondents are more educated and well-off than the DACA population as a whole.Nevertheless, the findings are interesting. Here is a sample:73 percent of DACA recipients he surveyed live in a low-income household (defined as qualifying for free lunch in high school); 22 percent have earned a degree from a four-year college or university; 21 percent have dropped out of high school; 20 percent have no education beyond high school and no plans to attend college; 59 percent obtained a new job with a DACA work permit, but only 45 percent increased their overall earnings; 36 percent have a parent who holds a bachelor s degree; and 51 percent were already employed before DACA. None of this is to suggest that these individuals should not be considered for an amnesty or legalization program, but to suggest that the arguments in favor of such a program are largely political rather than economic. Immigrants who are not highly educated and who are working in low-paying jobs are more likely to access welfare and other public assistance programs over the course of their lives. | 0 | [
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FMD2990 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Confronted by Russia in Syria, Ukraine and cyberspace, the next U.S. president will be the fourth to face Vladimir Putin and the challenge of deterring a Kremlin often more willing than the White House to take risk and project power. Over the last four years, the Russian president has annexed Crimea and destabilized eastern Ukraine, stymied U.S. hopes to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and mounted cyber attacks that U.S. officials blame on hackers commanded or orchestrated by Russian intelligence agencies. In his latest gambit, Putin this week suspended a treaty with Washington on cleaning up weapons-grade plutonium. While the United States has imposed economic sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine, these have yet to force it to calm tensions in eastern Ukraine, let alone surrender Crimea. Some current and former U.S. officials argue the White House has failed to understand Putin’s bitterness about the decade after the Soviet Union collapsed, at a time the Russian leader feels the West took advantage of Russia when it was down. Further, they say the United States has little influence over the course of democracy in Russia, or on its willingness to use force in Syria, Ukraine or elsewhere to achieve its ends. The result, critics say, could be that Syria festers, Ukraine stays off balance and unable to draw closer to Europe, and that even areas such as arms control and nonproliferation, pillars of cooperation during the Cold War, could deteriorate. “For Putin and most of the Russian leadership, it’s a zero-sum world,†said Andrew Weiss of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank. Weiss argued the Russian leader was unlikely to change his stripes before Russia’s 2018 presidential election “in an atmosphere where Putin’s own domestic political fortunes depend on having this external enemy, namely the United Statesâ€. A U.S. official suggested Putin, who has yet to tip his hand but is expected to run again, is willing to use force to get his way while the White House, scarred by the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is not. “The administration never understood how bruised Putin and many, many Russians feel about the 1990s, or how determined they are to regain what they consider Russia’s rightful place in the world, much less what Putin is willing to do to get there,†said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He will keep pushing until he meets serious resistance, and so far he hasn’t,†the official added. In the eyes of many current and former U.S. officials, Syria is a case in point. The United States this week announced it was suspending talks with Russia on a ceasefire, all but saying the Russian and Syrian assault on Aleppo had made a mockery of the peace effort. “Where they make a desert, they call it peace,†Secretary of State John Kerry said, quoting the Roman historian Tacitus. Analysts believe Aleppo is likely to fall but the war, now in its sixth year, will grind on with Assad surviving atop a shrunken, broken and fragmented country enduring the world’s worst refugee crisis since World War Two. U.S. officials say the White House has yet to decide what to do next on Syria but few expect Obama to shift strategy in his waning months in office. It is not considering imposing further sanctions on Russia for now, two U.S. officials said. On Monday, Putin suspended a treaty with Washington on cleaning up weapons-grade plutonium, signaling he is willing to use nuclear disarmament as a new bargaining chip in disputes with the United States. “If the relationship worsens, either side could be looking to exert leverage or score points in the nuclear arms control realm,†said Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association. Another area where the United States is weighing its options is the stealthy war in cyberspace that is already under way with Russia and could escalate as relations worsen. U.S. officials anonymously say Russian intelligence services have interfered in the U.S. election process by launching cyber intrusions into the presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and other U.S. political organizations and state election offices. The Kremlin denies the allegations. The White House has refrained from publicly accusing Russia. If hard evidence of Russia’s involvement emerges, Washington has a dilemma in fashioning a response because, by going public, it could tip Moscow to its own intrusions, prompting retaliation. Two U.S. officials suggested critics are taking too short term a view, arguing it can take years to achieve an objective, such as the liberation of the Baltic states from Soviet rule. Cold War-like policies, such as using economic sanctions to weaken Russia’s economy or deploying NATO troops to the Baltics and Poland in January to deter Russia, may work over time. “There’s no quick fix with the Russians,†said one official. | 1 | [
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FMD2991 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Congressman Justin Amash ( ) said that if the House of Representatives does not change course, Republicans might need a new Speaker. [The Michigan conservative responded to a question about gridlock in Washington, saying, “We need either a change in direction from this speaker, or we need a new speaker. †Rep. Amash added that the speaker should be replaced with someone who is “nonpartisan. †Congressman Amash also criticized the House Republican leadership. He said, “When we go home for the weekend, they give us a set of talking points. They say, ‘Here are your talking points.’ That’s not the way you’re supposed to represent a community. †Congressman Amash echoes the sentiment of other conservatives who wonder if Ryan should lead the House. Lou Dobbs, a Fox Business anchor, called on Paul Ryan to resign after the Obamacare repeal fiasco. Ryan seems hell bound on destroying the GOP and working against the American people … It’s time for Speaker Ryan to resign. #MAGA #Dobbs pic. twitter. — Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) March 14, 2017, Judge Jeanine Pirro called for Paul Ryan to resign in her opening monologue after the House Republicans failed to pass Ryancare: Paul Ryan needs to step down as speaker of the house. The reason? He failed to deliver the votes on his healthcare bill, the one trumpeted to repeal and replace Obamacare, the one that he had seven years to work on, the one he had under lock and key in the basement of Congress, the one that had to be pulled to prevent the embarrassment of not having enough votes to pass. Congressman Mark Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said that there are “no conversations going on†in his caucus about replacing Ryan. Congressman Amash later tried to recenter the conversation towards his constituents at the town hall, saying, “I’m the one holding a town hall here — not Donald Trump. †| 1 | [
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FMD2992 | 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 Replaced Rabbit Claim summaries: A family legendarily replaced their neighbor's dead rabbit after mistakenly believing their own dog had killed it.
contextual information: A tale nearly identical in structure to the legend about the dead animal shipped by air freight (which handlers mistakenly thought had died in transit) is the following: dead animal A man moves to town and hunts around for an apartment to rent, but he's turned down by most landlords because of his large dog (mastiff, doberman, etc.). He finally secures a carriage house that's in the backyard of a house owned by two old women by assuring the ladies that the dog is perfectly friendly, which, of course, it is. The landladies have a rabbit hutch in the backyard which contains two white rabbits. Months pass, and everyone gets along just fine. The man had trained the dog not to pester the rabbits while he's away at work, and the dog is quite obedient. One night, though, the man returns from a long weekend away on business. His dog is beside itself with joy to see the master return, but it's late, the man is tired, so he plops right down in bed and falls asleep, leaving the dog outside. In the middle of the night the man is woken up by the strange sounds that his dog is making outside the bedroom window, a kind of muffled whimpering. When he opens the front door he sees the dog standing there with one of the rabbits in its mouth! After a quick smack or two on the head the dog drops the rabbit on the ground, and the man immediately picks the bunny up and brings it inside where it's light. The rabbit is brown with dirt but apparently undamaged, so the man rushes to wash it off and dry it. He slips out the door into the dark night, returns the rabbit to the hutch, and brings the dog inside. Thinking the women won't notice, he falls asleep. In the morning, as he's leaving the carriage house for work, he sees the two old ladies standing around the rabbit hutch, which he must pass by on his way out of the backyard. He figures everything's alright and the rabbit is unhurt, but when he walks up and says good morning he notices that the women are completely distraught and crying. In fact, one of the women is making the sign of the cross over and over again. The man knows that he's probably been caught, but he decides to be cagey and asks, "What happened? Did the rabbits die?" "Well, one of them did," replies one of the women, "but we buried him three days ago and now he's back in the hutch!" Both legends feature persons who, mistakenly believing themselves to be responsible for the death of someone else's pet, try to cover up their culpability by replacing the dead animals only to find that they have exacerbated an unfortunate situation by substituting a live (or seemingly live) pet in place of one that was already dead. A reader tried to slip one past "Dear Abby" advice columnist Jeanne Phillips by submitting an even more twisted version of this tale to her as a first-person experience in September 2004. To her credit, Ms. Phillips spotted it as an urban legend: DEAR ABBY: Last year, my husband's pet rabbit, "Blossom," died. My husband, "Edwin," went into the back yard one morning and found her dead in her cage. He buried her in our yard. Later that day, our neighbor's dog dug up the rabbit. When the neighbor came home, he found the little body on his doorstep. Thinking his dog had killed Blossom, he panicked. He ran out, bought another rabbit that looked just like Blossom, and placed her in our cage. When Edwin returned from work that night, he was stunned to find the rabbit sitting in its cage and immediately concluded that Blossom had returned from the dead. Ever since, my husband has treated the rabbit like a little deity. He built an altar for her and sits in front of her cage in the lotus position and talks to her. The neighbors have since moved, but last week I ran into the wife and she told me the story. Thinking it might help Edwin, I repeated the story to him. He became irate and accused me of trying to ruin the only miraculous thing that had ever happened to him. Should I insist that Edwin seek counseling, or should I continue to live with this? I really don't know where it will end. - At My Wit's End DEAR WIT'S END: You may not, but I do. It's going to end here and now. According to snopes.com, your rabbit tale is an urban legend, and so old it has whiskers. Thank you for sharing it with me. It's still a thigh-slapper. Variations: In some versions the dead pet or the "killer" pet is a cat. The rabbit's owners generally believe some demented person exhumed their pet and replaced it in its pen. In a few versions, however, they think they mistakenly buried the animal alive, and it clawed its way back to the surface, only to die of exhaustion after reaching its cage. The dog's owners learn that the rabbit was already dead from the police, or by talking to the rabbit's owners across the backyard fence. Sightings: We're told a non-talk show sighting of this legend appears in Jeff Foxworthy's 1989 recording, Sold Out, and this tale also formed the plot of an episode of The Chris Isaak Show ("Crimes and Punishment," original air date 26 March 2001). The same story plays out in the 2003 film, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star Brunvand, Jan Harold. Curses! Broiled Again!
New York: W. W. Norton, 1989. ISBN 0-393-30711-5 (pp. 151-156).
Brunvand, Jan Harold. Too Good to Be True.
New York: W. W. Norton, 1999. ISBN 0-393-04734-2 (pp. 40-43).
de Vos, Gail. Tales, Rumors and Gossip.
Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, 1996. ISBN 1-56308-190-3 (p. 216).
Phillips, Jeanne. "Hare-Raising Tale Is Too Good to Be True." [syndicated column]
Universal Press Syndicate. 8 September 2004.
Healey, Phil and Rick Glanvill. Gruesome Urban Myths.
Bucks, Great Britain: Ginn and Company, 1995. ISBN 0-602-26200-3 (pp. 32-35).
The Big Book of Urban Legends.
New York: Paradox Press, 1994. ISBN 1-56389-165-4 (p. 41). Healey, Phil and Rick Glanvill. Now! That's What I Call Urban Myths.
London: Virgin Books, 1996. ISBN 0-86369-969-3 (pp. 99-100).
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FMD2993 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared likely to rule that property owners can challenge the federal government in court over the need for permits under a national water protection law in a case involving a company’s plans for a Minnesota peat mine. The court heard a one-hour argument in a case balancing property rights and environmental law, in this instance the landmark 1972 U.S. Clean Water Act. A majority of the eight justices appeared sympathetic toward North Dakota-based Hawkes Co Inc, which is fighting an Obama administration finding that its property includes wetlands. The law mandates that property owners get permits in such situations. Whether a particular plot of land falls under the law’s jurisdiction is important to developers and other property owners because such a finding triggers a lengthy and expensive permitting process. Hawkes’ lawyers argued the company should be able to contest whether it even needs to go through the permit process. Liberal and conservative justices alike expressed concern about the current arrangement’s burden on property owners. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts said applicants who disregard a government finding that they need a permit do so at “great practical risk.†Liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the process “very arduous and very expensive.†Liberal Stephen Breyer called the government decision that Hawkes needed a permit “perfectly suited for review in the courts.†Only liberal Elena Kagan expressed support for the government, raising concerns about the impact a ruling favoring property owners would have on actions by other government agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission. Property rights advocates said the permitting process can take two years and cost up to $270,000, with owners facing penalties of up to $37,500 a day for noncompliance. Business groups including the National Association of Home Builders and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 29 states filed court papers opposing the Obama administration in the case. The case follows the justices’ unanimous 2012 ruling that property owners facing enforcement action under the Clean Water Act can ask a court to intervene before being forced to comply or pay financial penalties. The Obama administration last year issued a new regulation defining the scope of federal jurisdiction over bodies of water. A federal appeals court put the rule on hold after it was challenged by 18 states. Only eight justices participated in the case following Justice Antonin Scalia’s February death. A ruling is due by the end of June. | 1 | [
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FMD2994 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: More and more dirt on these two grifters who re shockingly still denying the truth or saying nothing to defend themselves. They have pocketed most of the donations with only 15 cents of every dollar donated going to charity. And now this A charity affiliated with the Clinton Foundation failed to reveal the identities of its 1,100 donors, creating a broad exception to the foundation s promise to disclose funding sources as part of an ethics agreement with the Obama administration.The number of undisclosed contributors to the charity, the Canada-based Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, signals a larger zone of secrecy around foundation donors than was previously known.Details of the organization s fundraising were disclosed this week by a spokeswoman for the Canadian group s founder, mining magnate Frank Giustra.The Canadian group has received attention in recent days as a potential avenue for anonymous Clinton Foundation donations from foreign business executives, including some who had interests before the U.S. government while Hillary Rodham Clinton was secretary of state.The partnership, named in part for Bill Clinton, sends much of its money to the New York-based Clinton Foundation. Two of the partnership s known donors Giustra and another mining executive, Ian Telfer are featured in the soon-to-be-released book Clinton Cash for their roles in a series of deals that resulted in Russia controlling many uranium deposits around the world and in the United States.With the foundation s finances emerging as an issue for Hillary Clinton s presidential campaign, a foundation official this week defended the arrangement with the Giustra group, noting in a blog post that Canadian law prevents charities in that country from disclosing their donors without the donors permission.The Canadian partnership has in recent days begun to reach out to its 28 largest donors, each of whom gave donations equivalent to at least $250,000 in U.S. dollars, to seek permission to release their names, said a person familiar with the foundation, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.The large number of undisclosed supporters of a Clinton-affiliated charity raises new questions about the foundation s adherence to the 2008 ethics agreement it struck with the Obama administration, which was designed to avoid conflicts of interest during Hillary Clinton s tenure at the State Department.Read more: WaPo | 0 | [
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FMD2995 | 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 Paul Ryan voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that cost as much as my health care bill -- but wasn't paid for.
contextual information: In closed-doorremarks to campaignsupporterson April 14, 2011, President Barack Obama looked back in frustration at lengthy negotiations with Republicans over funding to keep the federal government operating.Obama opined, as aCBS News onlinestoryreported, that he expects Republicans to continue using the budget process to enact their political agenda under the guise of cutting spending.The president singled out U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the House Budget Committee chairman who has authored a long-term deficit-reduction plan.When Paul Ryan says his priority is to make sure, you know, he's just being America's accountant, trying to be responsible ...This is the same guy who voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that cost as much as my health care bill -- but wasn't paid for, Obama told his supporters. So it's not on the level.In making the remark, Obama pointed to several big-ticket items approved during the Bush administration while Ryan was in Congress -- ones he says have helped drive the nations record deficits.Given the prominence of the protagonists and the timeliness of the comments, we decided to take a look at Obamas critique of Ryan.With the words, Obama is offering an opinion about how Ryan has framed his budget-cutting efforts. We cant fact-check the presidents opinion about Ryans message. But we can focus on the factual assertions, and try to put them into some context.We started with the White House, which declined to comment, saying the presidents remarks spoke for themselves.Lets look at the votes.There is no dispute Ryan voted forAfghanistanandIraqwarfunding; for themajor taxcutsenacted under President George W. Bush in 2001 and2003(andextended in 2010); and for the new Medicare prescription drug benefitcreated in 2003.All were big-ticket items.But Obama goes a step further to assert that all were unpaid for. Thats Washington parlance for bills not offset by corresponding spending cuts or tax increases elsewhere in the federal budget.Budget experts we consulted and the historical record confirm there were no direct offsets built into those bills.Obamas claim on the prescription drug bill was slightly different -- that it wasnt paid for and cost as much as my health care bill.Lets break this into two parts.Obama appears to refer to the gross outlays needed for the two landmark bills.For the Medicare prescription drug bill, passed in 2003 and effective in 2006, we found a range of cost estimates for 10 years: $395 billion to $720 billion. Theofficial Congressional Budget Officeestimatewas the low end.That was at the time. Now, government estimates show the original cost projections were too high, perhaps by as much as 40 percent, said Jon Gabel, senior fellow in health care research at the National Opinion Research Center.Obamas health reform bill -- thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act-- was pricier, with estimates in the$800 billion to $1.4 trillion range. Ryan and Republicans opposed the bill.But the two measures were passed seven years apart, so inflation may be a factor.Paul Van de Water, a former Congressional Budget Office official who is now a senior fellow with the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, did an inflation-adjusted comparison and found the Medicare bill is probably two-thirds or three-quarters the cost of the Obama health care measure.That is, Obamas health care bill is still hundreds of millions of dollars more costly than the Medicare drug bill.So the president was off in equating the gross cost of the bills.On the offset question, the Medicare prescription drug bill, however, indisputably added to the federal deficit. It was not offset by new revenue or other spending cuts.In contrast, theofficial governmentestimateof the 2010 health care laws impact said it would actually reduce the deficit, in part because of the new taxes it enacts to help offset the cost of expanding health coverage.The source for that is the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.TheCBOs estimate is hardly undisputed-- Ryan, other Republican leaders and various budget analysts haveargued that the CBOs report was skewed by questionableassumptionsgiven to it by the Obama administration. They contend the law would actually add to the deficit.Nevertheless, we -- and Congress -- have used CBO estimates as the gold standard on such matters. So Obama has a pretty firm leg to stand on in saying his health bill was paid for while the Medicare bill was not.That covers the details behind the presidents remarks. In this case, its important to put them into their proper context. We consulted several experts and sought Ryans take.Ryan was asked in arecentinterviewabout Obamas citing the Medicare drug program, the two wars and the Bush tax cuts as major drivers of the deficit.He disagreed: We still had these enormous, building, unfunded liabilities, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security -- I mean, the big drivers of our debt.His office sent us a defense of his votes on war funding, quotinghis budget plan: Like all categories of government spending, defense spending should be executed with greater efficiency and accountability. But responsible budgeting must never lose sight of the fact that the first responsibility of the federal government is to provide for the defense of the nation.On the Bush tax cuts, Ryan aides said the congressman believes that we have deficits because Washington spends too much, not because Americans are taxed too little. He says the tax cuts helped fuel economic growth and bring in more tax revenue.Indeed, in December, Obama himself backeda compromise with Republicans, including Ryan,that extended the Bush tax cuts.Bottom line: Ryan has voted for massive new spending and so has the president, said Tad DeHaven, a budget analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute.Iraq war costs have topped $1 trillion, said Scott Lilly, former staff director for the House Appropriations Committee and now a research fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. Neither Bushs war effort in Afghanistan nor Obamas escalation there has been paid for, both analysts noted.In April, bothObamaandRyanunveiled long-term deficit reduction plans in the neighborhood of $4 trillion over a decade or more.So where does this leave us?The president cherry-picked a handful of votes in an effort to show that Ryan is not pristine on the subject of the deficit.Obama got it right on Ryans support for the big-ticket bills, including war funding, Medicare prescription drugs and the Bush tax cuts. He was also on target in saying that none was offset or paid for by spending cuts or tax increases. Thats the main part of his claim.He was off the mark in asserting that one of the bills -- Medicare prescription drugs -- was as costly as his 2010 health care reform bill.That puts him at Mostly True. | 1 | [
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FMD2996 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Despite the fact that Donald Trump received fewer votes than his opponent, Hillary Clinton, he s the victor from Tuesday s election and his supporters aren t handling it well. The worst have behaved deplorably, with hate crimes on the rise. You ve probably seen the less violent Trump supporters on social media, where they have been smug and sometimes verbally abusive. The takeaway, though, at least to them, is that there is still only one group of voters who matter in this country, and that s the white working class. The rest, according to Trump voters, should just bow down.This was the sort of behavior on display on Sunday s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, where the guests included right-wing shill Mary Matalin and liberal icon Van Jones. Needless to say, Jones didn t let Matalin go far with her condescending and downright insulting whitesplaining.After the election, Jones emotionally called the election what it was, whitelash. Here it is:The right, who could have chosen the magnanimous route and addressed Jones concerns, instead chose to belittle him. Matalin did just that by telling him how, as a successful and educated black man, he should ignore racism and simply tell his fellow African-Americans that they too should bow to the white working class. Here s the transcript and video via Media Matters:MARY MATALIN: Van has, to my mind, retracted your whitelash with what you just said No, that we have to not focus totally on the toxic stuff OK, but you should, and if you don t you re wrong. You are not that s not the path for progressives. We ve all agreed at the outset of this show that the path, which is Ellison s message, you say, is to go back to the rust belt and the rednecks you re not going to get there with climate change and Putin and all the rest of JONES: Now listen, I said and stand by it. I said that race was a part and there was a part, that alt-right part, it was a part of a whitelash. If you listened to the whole quote you would agree with what I said, so I don t take that back MATALIN: I did listen and you said what do I tell the kids. What I would tell your kids, I m a black man in America who went to Yale, who s written books, who served a president and now JONES: And I m a ninth generation American man and I m the first one in my family born with all my rights. I m a ninth generation American, and so we have not escaped, because I went to Yale, all the problems of this country.Matalin went on to say that Jones should be a racial reconciler, not a polemicist. That s when Jones very politely and very quietly lost it.JONES: You should be ashamed of yourself for attempting to say that to my face. I have spent more time MATALIN: Would I say it behind your back would be better?JONES: I spent more time than you have trying to be a racial reconciler in this country.MATALIN: Really? How do you know that? Do you know anything about me?JONES: Apparently you don t know anything about me.[ ]Here s the video:Trump voters need to know a few things. First off, only about a quarter of Americans voted for their candidate. Secondly, his election does not give them the moral high ground, and they certainly have not behaved well enough to lecture us on our behavior. Not that they ll listen to me. The implication with Trump s election is that for the next four years, discussions of racism and inequality are off the table. That s frightening. Any progress we ve made over the last several decades will go up in smoke.If Van Jones were any less a man, he probably would have lost his temper, and really, who could blame him. Instead, he handled being whitesplained to with class and elegance. That s so much more than Trump voters have shown him or the rest of us.Featured image via video screen capture. | 0 | [
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FMD2997 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Perhaps a little trigger warning therapy is in order?A cartoonist has been accused of racism after he portrayed Michelle Obama as masculine and butch next to a pageant-ready Melania Trump in a controversial drawing.#InTrumpsAmerica The #FirstLady will be Great Again! #Trump2016 https://t.co/2FGmMQ1bBo pic.twitter.com/g2SOBjFXSI BenGarrison Cartoons (@GrrrGraphics) May 13, 2016The cartoon which has been branded racist and misogynistic shows a muscular Mrs Obama wearing a green dress with a bulge in the groin area.Stood next to her is a feminine, smiling Melania Trump in a pink dress and holding a Trump sign. DMHere are some of the reactions to the CARTOON on Twitter:The artist Ben Garrison tweeted the picture on Friday with the caption: #InTrumpsAmerica The #FirstLady will be Great Again! #Trump2016. the zombies are calling it "racist" and "body shaming"! hahah you triggered them good!!! Mark Dice (@MarkDice) May 15, 2016And finally, here is artist Ben Garrison s awesome response to trigger warning, safe space, racist social media warriors:It's called satire folks-American politicalcartoons have a long tradition of lampooning those in office #DealWithIt pic.twitter.com/oyC2K6T7RZ BenGarrison Cartoons (@GrrrGraphics) May 14, 2016And finally, he created this epic cartoon in response to the anger he inspired from Leftists on Twitter:Thank U to all the many,many new followers-0 unfollows! Here's a #cartoon for the triggered #crybullies #DealWithIt pic.twitter.com/MoCaMD30l0 BenGarrison Cartoons (@GrrrGraphics) May 14, 2016 | 0 | [
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FMD2998 | Task: Please determine whether the text is 0. Fake or 1. True. Answer directly without explanations. Text: Singer/songwriter Joy Villa decided to follow the political theme at The Grammy s tonight by wearing a gown that says Make America Great Again on the front and TRUMP on the back It might not be what the producers expected LOL! WE LOVE IT!If you tweet, PLEASE support this young artist with a retweet! She s being royally abused by the liberals She needs some love from the Deplorables!She s getting lots of attention from the press:From Villa s Website:Who is Joy? True to the lyrics of her song Vagabonds , Joy Villa is a singer songwriter who s never slowing down. Having lived in Hollywood, Seattle, Las Vegas, and now residing in NYC, touring extensively since 2012 to Asia, Australia the US and Europe.Joy s favorite genre has always been rock and roll, and she considers herself lucky to be a female that looks different than the normal Rockstar . A classic renaissance woman, she also paints, models, acts, dances, composes poetry, and writes screenplays and books.Photo credit: Aaron FortnerVia: GP | 0 | [
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FMD2999 | Task: Please determine whether the claim is 0. False, 1. True, or 2. Not Enough Information (NEI) based on contextual information, and provide an appropriate explanation.
The answer need to use the following format:
Prediction: [0. False, 1. True, or 2. NEI]
Explanation: [Explain why the above prediction was made]
Claim: Is the USPS intentionally delaying mail in order to boost Trump's chances of being reelected? Claim summaries: U.S. Postal Service workers nationwide reported backlogs of letters and packages in summer 2020. But was the issue political?
contextual information: As U.S. President Donald Trump accelerated unsubstantiated attacks on the legitimacy of mail-in voting during the summer of 2020, numerous Snopes readers asked us to investigate whether the leader of the U.S. Postal Service was carrying out a nefarious scheme to help Trump win another presidential term. mail-in voting In late July and early August, various rumors surfaced regarding Louis DeJoy, a North Carolina businessman whom the Postal Service's governing board selected to run the agency in May 2020. For example, a viral tweet thread alleged: viral tweet My mailman just confirmed they have all officially been told to "SLOW THE MAIL DOWN," per trump's Postmaster General...He says that there is backed up mail ALL OVER THE FLOOR. He's never seen anything like it. It has ALREADY begun. But as long as we keep each other informed, we can beat their dirty tricks with INFORMATION. The claim's underlying notions were these: DeJoy was a political ally to the Republican president, and the new postmaster general had used his new authority to order Postal Service carriers and clerks to slow deliveries to help Trump win the 2020 November election. A backlog of ballots in the weeks or days before Election Day, critics of the president worried, could lead to votes going uncounted or deemed invalid due to state laws governing mail-in election deadlines. state laws What follows is an examination of federal documents obtained by Snopes including letters by members of Congress, campaign finance reports, and internal memos to Postal Service employees as well as interviews with postal union representatives and a Postal Service spokesperson, to determine the legitimacy of those questions. DeJoy could not be reached for an interview for this report. Note: Snopes not only investigated DeJoy's relationship to Trump, but his financial stake in companies that compete with the Postal Service to evaluate if, or to what extent, his past investments provided any evidence of a plan to undermine the Postal Service's longstanding mission: to provide mail service to every American, no matter their address or income. Yes. DeJoy, who lives in Greensboro, donated more than $1.2 million to the Trump campaign between August 2016 and February 2020, according to campaign finance reports compiled by the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). Federal Elections Commission It's unclear when or how DeJoy developed a relationship with Trump, and why he decided to support the billionaire's political pursuits. In a 2005 interview with Greensboro's local newspaper, DeJoy then-CEO of New Breed Logistics, a distribution and warehousing company appeared less supportive of Trump, saying his self-important attitude on the reality-TV show "The Apprentice" was destructive. 2005 interview The Apprentice "I'd be fired," DeJoy said, if he was a contestant. Nonetheless, by early 2017, DeJoy was among his state's top donors to Trump (see below for The Charlotte Observer's list that ranks DeJoy at No. 3 with a total contribution of $111,000). And by October of that year, DeJoy had become close enough to the president to host him and other donors for fundraiser at his Greensboro house. top donors Greensboro house. Also, by that time, DeJoy's wife, Aldona Wos, had been appointed by the president to serve as vice chair of a White House commission that oversees paid fellowships in federal offices, according to the couple's foundation website. foundation website In addition to his contributions to Trump's political campaigns specifically, DeJoy has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican causes or campaigns over decades, the FEC records show. The Postal Service's governing board, a group appointed by the president with confirmation from the Senate, selected DeJoy as Postmaster General on May 6, 2020, after what it described as an extensive nationwide search for qualified candidates. At the time of that decision, Trump had appointed all six board members Chairman Robert Duncan, John Barger, Ron Bloom, Roman Martinez IV, Donald Moak, and William Zollars since the early days of his presidency. what it described Robert Duncan John Barger Ron Bloom Roman Martinez IV Donald Moak William Zollars DeJoy, who was in charge of fundraising for the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Charlotte when the board made its announcement, made the following donations since the start of 2020, according to filings from the FEC: National Republican Congressional Committee. National Republican Congressional Committee Facebook In sum, considering DeJoy's record of donations, as well as evidence of him hosting a Trump fundraiser at his Greensboro home in fall 2017, it is accurate to claim that the new postmaster general is a political ally to the Republican president. home The answer to this question is less clear. In summer 2020, the viral claim about DeJoy that he had directed carriers to delay mail to benefit Trump's reelection campaign (which we unpack below) took on another layer: that DeJoy had also allegedly invested $70 million of his own money in delivery companies that compete with the Postal Service. another layer allegedly That allegation, which we deemed true (see the explanation below), was particularly worrisome for critics of Trump and DeJoy, who believed the alleged holdings were more proof of the two leaders conspiring together this time in an attempt to privatize the Postal Service. critics Here's some context before we dive into DeJoy's personal assets: Conservative Republicans have long pushed to remove government from mail services that they believe should be left to the private commercial market. Since Trump took office, he has called the Postal Service "a joke" or Amazon's "delivery boy," considering its package rates, and has floated the idea of eventually privatizing the agency. a joke delivery boy eventually privatizing the agency Meanwhile, others fear dismantling the federally-mandated mail service would disproportionately affect people who live in rural areas, where private companies such as FedEx and UPS either charge higher rates or do no shipments at all. At the same time, the Postal Service which does not receive tax dollars for its operating expenses faces a worsening financial situation due to a 2006 congressional mandate that required the agency to prepay health care benefits of retirees, as well as a decline in first-class mail customers. The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated those long-standing problems, forcing several post offices nationwide to completely close or scale back hours. congressional mandate coronavirus pandemic scale back hours For instance, on April 9, 2020, roughly one month before DeJoy was selected to lead the Postal Service, then-Postmaster General Megan Brennan said the agency was preparing for a $13 billion revenue shortfall due directly to COVID-19 and an additional $54.3 billion in losses over 10 years. Considering those projections, she said the agency could run out of cash this fiscal year or the end of September without federal intervention. (Brennan announced her retirement in October 2019, after more than 30 years with the agency.) April 9, 2020 announced her retirement The former Postal Service leader made those comments shortly after federal leaders negotiated a $2.2 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package, called the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which, initially, included a $13 billion one-time boost for the mail service. But, purportedly at the urging of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and aides to Trump, congressional leaders removed that provision from the stimulus package, and instead included a $10 billion loan that the Trump administration could leverage in its favor. Then, on July 29, 2020, The Washington Post reported that under DeJoy's leadership, the postal agency gave Mnuchin's office's proprietary information about the Postal Service's most lucrative private-sector contracts, such as Amazon, FedEx and UPS, in exchange for the loan money. economic relief package Steven Mnuchin The Washington Post By that time, Congressional leaders and Trump were battling yet again over another emergency relief package; Democrats proposed a $25 billion boost for the Postal Service but then lowered that amount to $10 billion during talks with Republicans. On Aug. 13, 2020, during an interview on Fox Business Network, the president said frankly the tug-and-pull over Postal Service funding was part of his administration's plan to try to make it harder for the agency to handle the expected surge in mail-in ballots in the November election. If we dont make a deal, that means they dont get the money, Trump told host Maria Bartiromo, referring to the false claim that Democrats are are proposing a universal mail-in voting system. That means they cant have universal mail-in voting; they just cant have it. told Which brings us to DeJoy's assets, and the above-mentioned claim that he had "$70 million invested in companies that compete with USPS." For the basis of this analysis, we considered private companies that provide shipping or distribution services, such as DHL, the FedEx Corporation, and United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS), business competitors with the post office. For more than 30 years, DeJoy was the CEO of New Breed Logistics, a supply chain business that contracted with a variety of public and private companies, including the Postal Service. In 2014, XPO Logistics acquired DeJoy's company, and he served on the company's executive team or board of directors until May 2018. According to internal documents, which we obtained using the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) database of company filings, XPO Logistics considered its competitors to include DHL, FedEx, UPS, and J.B. Hunt Transport Services. XPO Logistics DHL FedEx UPS J.B. Hunt Transport Services Aside from that evidence, which proved DeJoy's former company competed for business with organizations that also competed with the Postal Service, Snopes uncovered a letter from his wife, Wos, to a White House legal advisor on January 3, 2020, that listed her family's financial assets, known as "Attachment A." According to that list, the family had stock in companies including UPS, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc., and XPO Logistics, Inc. letter She wrote the letter in response to a nomination by the Trump administration to serve as U.S. ambassador to Canada, and she said she would divest from all holdings in the document within 90 days of her confirmation. However, as of this writing, Wos had not been sworn into the position. The letter, which was available via the Office of Government Ethics, read: nomination Office of Government Ethics As of June 15, 2020, the day DeJoy assumed his role as postmaster general, The Washington Post reported the couple had between $30.1 million and $75.3 million in assets in Postal Service competitors or contractors. XPO Logistics represented the vast majority of those investments, and the couple's combined stake in UPS and trucking company J.B. Hunt, for examples, was roughly $265,000. The Washington Post reported On DeJoy's first day, the Senate's top Democrat, Charles Schumer of New York, said in letter to the Postal Service's board of governors' chairman: "[DeJoy's] financial interests in companies that have business ties with the Postal Services, as well as his extensive campaign fundraising efforts, raise questions" over his ethical conflicts of interest and partisan interests. letter By that point, a spokeswoman for DeJoy told journalists he had resigned as finance chair for the Republican National Convention, and would "comply with any financial divestitures that are required" for the new leadership position. told journalists In sum, reports proved the DeJoy family at one point had millions of dollars in assets in companies that compete or contract with the Postal Service, which lend credibility to the viral assertion. But the exact amount of such investments was unclear, and as of this writing, it was unknown if or to what extent the couple had divested any of the financial holdings. Not exactly but there is some truth to the claim. Upon our analysis, the rumor seems to have stemmed from a series of directives DeJoy gave Postal Service employees since he took over the agency. On his first day, for example, he addressed the agency in a video that alluded to impending changes under his leadership that aimed to create a "viable operating model," though he did not go into specifics. video Then, in mid-July, he issued several memos to employees, including a "New [Postmaster General's] expectations and plan." Those messages to all managers, clerks, and carriers nationwide appeared to be the source of the claim, and detailed changes to how and when the Postal Agency would deliver mail. A July 10, 2020, internal document to managers, which Snopes received from the American Postal Workers Union and refers to an "operational pivot" for the agency, said the following, for example: American Postal Workers Union The initial step in our pivot is targeted on transportation and the soaring costs we incur due to late trips and extra trips, which costs the organization somewhere around $200 million in added expenses. $200 million in added expenses The shifts are simple, but they will be challenging, as we seek to change our culture and move away from past practices previously used. But perhaps most relevant to the claim, the DeJoy-sponsored directives included instructions for employees to leave letters or packages at distribution centers if they delayed carriers from their routes contradicting previous rules for deliveries and said the Postal Service would no longer pay employees overtime to complete all mail deliveries. The July 10, 2020 memo said: contradicting One aspect of these changes that may be difficult for employees is that temporarily we may see mail left behind or mail on the workroom floor or docks [in Processing and Distribution Centers], which is not typical. We will address root causes of these delays and adjust the very next day. Any mail left behind must be properly reported, and employees should ensure this action is taken with integrity and accuracy. As we adjust to the ongoing pivot, which will have a number of phases, we know that operations will begin to run more efficiently and that delayed mail volumes will soon shrink significantly. We also considered a separate message to employees in July 2020 that said, under a new initiative, carriers in certain regions would not sort any mail during the morning and instead clock in, retrieve sorted mail from the previous day and limit time in the office as much as possible. Then, when they returned from the streets, they would sort all available mail for the next day. July 2020 The agency said the extra spending on employees' overtime or delivery trips had not improved "our performance scores," without going into detail on what that meant, and framed the changes as necessary steps to improve its financial position. A July 27, 2020, public statement from DeJoy said: said public statement Given our current situation, it is critical that the Postal Service take a fresh look at our operations and make necessary adjustments. We are highly focused on our public service mission to provide prompt, reliable, and efficient service to every person and business in this country, and to remain a part of the nations critical infrastructure. David Partenheimer, manager of media relations for the Postal Service, told Snopes that the postmaster general was not doing any media interviews regarding the initiatives, nor about the underlying claims of this report. In a roughly 760-word email to us, however, Partenheimer reemphasized what the agency viewed as the need for the adjustments, and said: "We acknowledge that temporary service impacts can occur as we redouble our efforts to conform to the current operating plans, but any such impacts will be monitored and temporary ... and corrected as appropriate." Soon after the directives, American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein told us in a phone interview that employees and customers across the country were noticing mail delays. In the Philadelphia region, for instance, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported situations where residents were going upwards of three weeks without receiving packages and letters, and postal union leaders and carriers said mail was piling up at offices, unscanned and unsorted. Mark Dimondstein employees Philadelphia Inquirer "When you ... say this is what you have to do as workers, then that's what we have to do [the change] runs counter to everything that the Postal Service is about, which is we treat the mail as our own; we get it to the customer as quickly as we can," Dimondstein said. "They've never seen mail backed up like this it's not being moved." That meant, while DeJoy had not told carriers to "slow the mail down" verbatim, he initiated changes to how and when carriers go about doing their job that the Postal Agency said would cause temporary mail delays. However, it would be inaccurate to assume all slow deliveries under DeJoy's leadership were a result of the July 2020 directives specifically, when they could also be linked to reduced hours for some post offices or other circumstances. Roughly three months before the 2020 presidential election, voting rights groups and outspoken critics to the president believed the new directives by DeJoy occurred at a convenient time for Trump: when a record number of Americans were preparing to vote by mail and avoid potential exposure to the COVID-19 coronavirus by casting ballots at in-person polling places. Specifically, they worried the new requirements for post office carriers and clerks would lead to backlogs of mail-in ballots and thus create challenges for elections officials who, in the majority of states, must invalidate ballots that reach them after Election Day even if they were postmarked before that date. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, for example, led colleagues in writing a letter to DeJoy on July 20, 2020, that said: Rep. Carolyn Maloney "While these changes [to mail service] in a normal year would be drastic, in a presidential election year when many states are relying heavily on absentee mail-in ballots, increases in mail delivery timing would impair the ability of ballots to be received and counted in a timely manner an unacceptable outcome for a free and fair election." We asked Dimondstein, APWU president, whether he believed the July directives by Postal Service leadership were somehow linked to a plan to cause mail service chaos before the November election and help Trump win reelection. He said: What we do know for truth is this administration is, in written record, proposing and planning to sell the post office to private corporations, i.e. privatizing...That was June 2018. We also know as a fact that ...that [there are] calls for reduced service, increased prices, and less workers' rights and benefits. So if you take those two things together, certainly if they're implemented, then they're going to cause delays in mail; they're going to cause service being undermined... written record This is a fact: [DeJoy is] what's considered a mega-donor of the Trump administration and the Republican party... Anything that undermines the Postal Service' [service to customers] ... has us concerned that it could be linked back to those who have an agenda to eliminate [the Postal Service]. But I can't sit here and tell you that that's a fact. Partenheimer said any notion that DeJoy made decisions for the Postal Service under directions from Trump (which include claims that he issued the July 2020 changes that resulted in delays to help Trump's re-election campaign) were "wholly misplaced and off-base." He said the Postal Service, typically an apolitical agency, remains committed to "fulfilling our role in the electoral process" in places where politicians allow voters to cast ballots by mail and "to delivering Election Mail in a timely manner consistent with our operational standards." He elaborated: "[Despite] any assertions to the contrary, we are not slowing down Election Mail or any other mail. Instead, we continue to employ a robust and proven process to ensure proper handling of all Election Mail consistent with our standards." Days later, he said in a statement to news media that certain deadlines concerning mail-in ballots, may be incompatible with the Postal Services delivery standards, especially if election officials dont pay more for first-class postage. To the extent that states choose to use the mail as part of their elections, they should do so in a manner that realistically reflects how the mail works, he said. news media Then, on Aug. 18, 2020, DeJoy issued a statement in which he said he would temporarily suspend initiatives "that have been raised as areas of concern as the nation prepares to hold an election in the midst of a devastating pandemic," including the controversial July 2020 directives that eliminated overtime and some delivery trips. The statement read: statement To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded. I want to assure all Americans of the following: In addition, effective Oct. 1, we will engage standby resources in all areas of our operations, including transportation, to satisfy any unforeseen demand. In sum, it was accurate to state that DeJoy, a political ally to Trump, ordered Postal Service workers to leave late-arriving mail at distribution centers for delivery the following day and eliminate extra trips in July 2020 a change the Postal Service was expecting to cause temporary mail delays although no verifiable evidence proved those directives were part of a deliberate scheme to disenfranchise voters in the November 2020 election. Additionally, there was no proof to show the changes aimed to help Trump win reelection. For those reasons, we rate this claim "Unproven." Ye Hee Lee, Michelle and Bogage, Jacob. "Postal Service Backlog Sparks Worries That Ballot Delivery Could Be Delayed In November".
The Washington Post. 30 July 2020. Naylor, Brian. "Pending Postal Service Changes Could Delay Mail And Deliveries, Advocates War".
NPR. 29 July 2020. Naylor, Brian. "Pending Postal Service Changes Could Delay Mail And Deliveries, Advocates War".
NPR. 29 July 2020. USPS Contributor. "What Is The History Behind The Unofficial USPS Motto?"
Postal Posts. 11 September 2015. USPS. "Postmaster General Statement On Operational Excellence And Financial Stability".
27 July 2020. Office of Inspector General. "U.S. Postal Service's Processing Network Optimization And Service Impacts".
USPS. 16 June 2020. Dawsey, Josh, et. al. "Top Republican Fundraiser And Trump Ally Named Postmaster General, Giving President New Influence Over Postal Service".
The Washington Post. 6 May 2020. Bogage, Jacob. "Postal Service Memos Detail 'Difficult' Changes, Including Slower Mail Delivery".
The Washington Post. 14 July 2020. Naylor, Brian. "New Postmaster General Is Top GOP Fundraiser".
NPR. 7 May 2020. Hummel, Marta. "New Breed CEO No One's 'Apprentice' Louis DeJoy Is A Big Supporter Of George W. Bush But Says The Clinton Era Was His Most Profitable".
News & Record. 7 January 2005. Heckman, Jory. "USPS Board Names Logistics Executive As New Postmaster General".
Federal News Network. 6 May 2020. Gordon, Aaron. "USPS Plans To Slash Hours At Many Post Offices, Hoping To Save A Buck".
Vice. 29 July 2020. Cohen, Rachel. "USPS Workers Concerned New Policies Will Pave The Way To Privatization".
The Intercept. 29 July 2020. Derysh, Igor. "With Trump Donor In Charge, Postal Service May Shut Locations And Cut Service Before Election Day".
Salon. 31 July 2020. Rushing, Ellie. "Mail Delays Are Frustrating Philly Residents, And A Short-Staffed Postal Service Is Struggling To Keep Up".
The Philadelphia Inquirer. 2 August 2020. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney. "Maloney, King Lead Bipartisan NY Delegation Call For Immediate Help For The Postal Service".
28 April 2020. House Committee On Oversight And Reform. "Senior Democrats Request Information On Postal Service's Operational Changes".
20 July 2020. Bogage, Jacob. "Trump Ally Takes Over Crisis-Ridden Postal Service As Top Senate Democrat Demands Inquiry On Hiring".
The Washington Post. 15 June 2020. Murphy, Brian. "NC Businessman, A Big-Time GOP Donor, Is Tapped To Lead US Postal Service".
The News & Observer. 7 May 2020. Shear, Michael. "Mail Delays Fuel Concern Trump Is Undercutting Postal Service Ahead Of Voting".
The New York Times. 1 August 2020. Sargent, Greg. "Trump Just Told Us How Mail Delays Could Help Him Corrupt The Election".
The Washington Post. 31 July 2020. Reichmann, Deb, and Izaguirre, Anthony. "Trump Admits He's Blocking Postal Cash To Stop Mail-In Votes."
Associated Press. 14 August 2020. USPS. "Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Statement."
18 August 2020. This report was updated to include an interview by Trump with Fox Business Network on Aug. 13, 2020, where he acknowledged that he was intentionally blocking Postal Service funding in an attempt to make it harder for the agency to process mail-in ballots in the November presidential election. This report was updated to include a statement by DeJoy on Aug. 18, 2020, in which he announced the suspension of certain initiatives "to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail." | 2 | [
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