Questions tagged [united-states]
Use this tag for questions about claims based in the United States, or limited to the United States.
-2
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0answers
90 views
Did the McCarthy Hearings violate the First amendment rights of its subjects? [on hold]
In the book Einstein and Oppenheimer: The Meaning of Genius, it explains:
in December 1953, Einstein talked at length with Al Shadowitz [...] who had been subpoenaed by Senator McCarthy to appear ...
-1
votes
0answers
126 views
Micro-master to PhD? [on hold]
There is an increasing number websites that offer online modules that are part of actual on-campus curriculum, under the name of micro-masters.
Some of them offer you the chance to do your second ...
14
votes
1answer
486 views
Is the penalty for a woman having an abortion more severe than the penalty for rape?
On social media there are a lot of posts fuelled by the recent restrictions on abortion in Alabama and Missouri.
Some of these (the first is from Instagram and the second is from Twitter, although I ...
12
votes
4answers
724 views
Is food becoming less nutritious because of depletion of soil minerals and nutrients?
Over and over, I have heard and read claims that the soil growing much of the planet's crops is "depleted" and thus our foods do not have sufficient minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients.
Five ...
12
votes
1answer
774 views
Is America “seeing a spike in celibacy fuelled by economics, technology and female empowerment?”
From The Economist:
America is seeing a spike in celibacy fuelled by economics, technology and female empowerment.
Also from The Economist (emphasis added):
Who could have predicted a little ...
2
votes
0answers
112 views
Is the US constitution based on the religious principles? [closed]
This site makes the claim: https://donotlink.it/N72k
Indeed, our second president and co-author of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams, issued a fervent warning to future generations that “...
34
votes
3answers
9k views
Was the Highlands Ranch shooting the 115th mass shooting in the US in 2019
I was reading an article from the BBC about the Highlands Ranch School shooting and they made the following claim
This is believed to be the 115th mass shooting in the US in 2019.
This was on the ...
8
votes
1answer
731 views
Were 51,000 Pennsylvania jobs lost under the Obama administration?
The GOP tweeted this:
...During Obama/Biden Admin, the Keystone State LOST 51,000 jobs.
Under the leadership of
[Trump], the Keystone State has ADDED 5,000 manufacturing jobs & its ...
8
votes
1answer
337 views
Is there a better-supported explanation than economic hegemony, why “70% of firms targeted for anti-bribery by the DOJ are overseas”?
This BBC article quotes GE's former lawyer as saying that:
Pierre Laporte, a former GE lawyer who now works as Pierucci's partner, notes that 70% of firms targeted for US anti-bribery action are ...
3
votes
0answers
189 views
Does a citizenship question on the US census affect participation?
There is currently a legal battle over changing the US census to include a citizenship question.
The plaintiffs argued that participation in the census will be depressed by the addition of the new ...
25
votes
2answers
2k views
Is the comeback of measles in the US “largely due to anti-vaxers?”
From CNN:
In some recent years, there have been fewer than 100 cases nationwide. But the [measles] virus has made a comeback in other years, including 2019 -- largely due to anti-vaxers, experts ...
5
votes
1answer
763 views
Is Texas, a relatively warm state, one of the leading states in hypothermia deaths?
This April 11, 2019 article on National Geographic about lost hikers and survival rates states (emphasis added):
In Herrington’s wilderness survival courses, he teaches day hikers to pack a puffy ...
2
votes
1answer
385 views
Does illegal immigration in the usa strain social services?
A New York Post opinion piece reported on a survey regarding Republican thoughts and feelings on illegal immigration:
Respondents were asked: “What do you think is the biggest challenge illegal ...
4
votes
0answers
432 views
Did the Taliban shoot down a US B-52 Bomber on or around April 10th, 2019? [closed]
Sputnik News is reporting that an American B-52 Bomber was shot down by Taliban militants shortly after taking off from "Shawrab Airbase" in Afghanistan in the early morning hours of April 10th, 2019.
...
3
votes
1answer
375 views
Are US workers highly taxed if you count health premiums? [closed]
According to "US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums" (2019-04-08):
Finally, we can go back to the OECD NTCP data and compare the US to other developed countries. When we do that, we ...
9
votes
2answers
881 views
Does USA imprison people of color at a higher rate than whites for the same crime convictions?
The Ben & Jerry's website says:
America locks people up at a higher rate than any other country, and bias is baked right in. If you’re a person of color or struggling to make ends meet, you’re ...
40
votes
1answer
10k views
Are white and non-white police officers equally likely to kill black suspects?
Well, that's the conclusion of a 2018 US study, as reported in the press:
"White officers do not kill black suspects at a higher rate compared with nonwhite officers," concludes a research team led ...
50
votes
1answer
13k views
Does Germany produce more waste than the US?
According to the German Environment Agency, Germany produced 411 million tons of waste in 2016. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US produced about 260 million US tons (236 ...
12
votes
2answers
1k views
Did a homeowner fend-off three armed intruders with a high capacity magazine?
A recent NBC News article,
Judge blocks California's ban on high-capacity magazines over 2nd Amendment concerns claims the judge wrote an 86 page decision that included a story that a woman fended-...
13
votes
1answer
756 views
Does the USDA burn food every week?
In this recent Big Think video, The colossal problem with universal basic income, the presenter, Douglas Rushkoff, made a claim, at about the 40 second mark, that the U.S. Department of Agriculture ...
15
votes
1answer
1k views
Has the US killed close to half a million since 9/11?
The Brookings Register reports a half a million people have been killed by the US since 9/11. From A different path: Let’s try nonviolence:
According to the Watson Institute at Brown University, ...
5
votes
0answers
304 views
Did India shoot down any Pakistani F-16 on 27th February 2019? [closed]
According to DG ISPR of the Military of Pakistan, Gen. Asif Gafoor, on 27th February 2019, Pakistan Air Force's jets engaged IAF's jets and "shot down two IAF jets".
On the same day, India claimed ...
15
votes
2answers
846 views
Is the rate of food poisoning in the USA much worse than the rate in the UK?
One part of the interminable debate in the UK about leaving the EU has been a debate about what the UK would have to agree to if they do trade deals with other countries. In an interview with BBC ...
14
votes
1answer
763 views
Have textbook prices in the US more than doubled in the last 15 years?
The above chart was recently published on Reddit.
( Source: r/dataisbeautiful )
The author of the reddit thread cites the following data sources:
Consumer Price Index for All Urban ...
132
votes
1answer
28k views
Did Amazon pay $0 in taxes last year?
Background
I saw this article saying that Amazon paid $0 in corporate income tax last year. Is this true or just phrased to sound like they are getting away with paying nothing?
Here's the article: ...
9
votes
2answers
711 views
Could Michael Cohen reduce his sentence by cooperating with, or lying to, Congress?
This Trump tweet said
Michael Cohen was one of many lawyers who represented me (unfortunately). He had other clients also. He was just disbarred by the State Supreme Court for lying & fraud. He ...
2
votes
0answers
172 views
Did the Trump admin. hire an Israeli private security firm to spy on Obama aides?
According to Ynetnews.com:
Black Cube, notorious for its work for disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, reportedly hired by Trump administration officials to spy on 2 Obama aides involved ...
3
votes
0answers
319 views
How many middle class families' tax burden was less in 2018 because of Trump's tax cuts?
In the news lately (early 2019) are many stories of regular people complaining that they have drastically lower tax refunds than the previous year, and some even owing instead. This is in the wake of ...
9
votes
0answers
659 views
Would the Green New Deal cost 600k per household?
A recent Fox News report uses numbers provided by a self-proclaimed "center-right" American organization which details the predicted costs of the Green New Deal, totaling up to 93 trillion dollars, or ...
5
votes
0answers
837 views
Do 100,000 foreign spies reside in the US?
CNN Declassified, "Spies among us: Get a peek at their playbook" by Thom Patterson, Updated July 18, 2017, reports of an expert estimate of 100,000 foreign agents:
(CNN)Spies are living among us.
...
4
votes
2answers
474 views
Do US sanctions against Venezuela outweigh the aid being sent?
President Trump recently imposed sanctions against Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA.
However, the US has also sent aid, primarily food, to the Colombian border, with the aim of getting it to ...
20
votes
2answers
9k views
Were there no “white” people in Virginia between 1619 and 1679?
The back cover of historian and scholar Theodore W. Allen's The Invention of the White Race, Volume 1: Racial Oppression and Social Control quotes the late Mr. Allen
When the first Africans arrived ...
50
votes
1answer
12k views
Did a Tesla car collide with a Russian robot?
This story made the rounds in the news: a Tesla car "killed" an autonomous robot in Las Vegas in January 2019.
There is some controversy about whether the incident was a real accident or a ...
4
votes
1answer
733 views
Is this an authentic US army pamphlet about Red Army, issued to soldiers in 1945?
Archive.org contains a scan of an 84-page pamphlet, called "Our Red Army Ally" that purports to be a document published by the United States War Department in 1945, for the purposes of training ...
6
votes
0answers
818 views
Did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or her office write and publish this FAQ concerning her Green New Deal? [closed]
There is a PDF circulating online that is purported to be an FAQ released by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (hereinafter referred to as AOC).
Here is a link to the PDF
Examples of high-...
81
votes
4answers
19k views
As of February 2019, were US wages rising at the “fastest pace in decades”?
The President of the USA, Donald Trump, told during his "State of the Union address" speech on 5th February 2019, that
[...] wages in America are rising at the fastest pace in decades
Source: at ...
23
votes
1answer
9k views
Did Neomi Rao defend dwarf-tossing?
A recent article about Neomi Rao's nomination to replace Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals claims that Rao has a record of defending dwarf-tossing.
Conservatives are discouraging ...
10
votes
1answer
1k views
Did the Houston Police Department intentionally target the house on Harding Street?
In this video by News Now Houston an investigative reporter suggests that the Houston Police may have raided the wrong location and killed two innocent homeowners (Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas) ...
35
votes
1answer
10k views
Did John Bolton hold a notepad with the text “5000 troops to Colombia” written on it when he announced new sanctions against Venezuela?
A lot of news outlets across the entire political spectrum had a major news item about John Bolton today. An example from the CBS News Twitter account:
https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/...
41
votes
3answers
12k views
Can a US President's declaration of emergency be overridden by simple majorities of both chambers of Congress?
Jennifer Rubin writes in the Washington Post that:
[the US President's] declaration of an emergency can be overridden by a simple majority of both houses
Is it true that a presidential declaration ...
-8
votes
1answer
919 views
“We do not need 2000 miles of concrete wall from sea to shiny sea. We never did. We never proposed that” Has Trump ever proposed a ~2K mi border wall?
On January 25, 2019 U.S. President Donald J. Trump stated
"We do not need 2,000 miles of concrete wall from sea to shiny sea. We
never did. We never proposed that."
CNN could not ...
5
votes
2answers
798 views
Did Hillary Clinton support legalising such late-term abortions of fetuses as claimed by Ben Shapiro?
Please note that this question contains some graphic language that some people will find distressing. Ben Shapiro makes two statements about Hillary Clinton's views on allowing abortion of a fetus. ...
35
votes
1answer
5k views
Did Hillary Clinton pay Russian officials 30 million dollars, through her campaign to get dirt on Trump?
In tonight's episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Ann Coulter said:
I mean, Hillary Clinton paid, through her campaign, 30 million dollars to Russian officials to get dirt on Trump
The full ...
3
votes
1answer
516 views
Was the quantity of Fentanyl imported in 2018 enough to kill every American?
ABC reporter Meridith McGraw, who covers the White House, recently tweeted:
Inbox: For a payment of $20.20, the Trump campaign says they will send a “faux brick” to Pelosi and Schumer’s offices “...
0
votes
0answers
155 views
Chocolate milk drink and brown cows [duplicate]
At at TV quiz game they claimed that about 16 millions adult Americans believe that chocolate or cocoa milk drinks are milked from brown cows.
As it is unbelievable I've quickly searched for it and ...
62
votes
3answers
15k views
Did college students clamor for cyanide pills in student health clinics in the 1980's in America?
According to the article Media Throw Everything at the Wall to See What Sticks:
Witless college students demanded cyanide pills be stocked in campus health care clinics, on the grounds that Reagan ...
23
votes
1answer
5k views
Have Democrats attacked Trump's proposed wall as “medieval”?
In this video President Trump says "They say a wall is medieval, well so is a wheel".
The official transcript says:
Democrats have refused to listen to the border agents, and they say this is a ...
53
votes
3answers
10k views
Is only 4% of original forest left in the US?
The 2009 video The Story of Stuff makes several rather incredible claims. For example:
Where I live, in the United States, we have less than 4% of our original forests left.
My gut feeling tells ...
6
votes
1answer
1k views
Do illegal immigrants commit more murders than mass shooters?
Notable claim
The claim I wish to examine is from dcwhispers.com,
Case in point—the number of deaths, assaults, and sex crimes,
including human trafficking, taking place on America’s southern ...
5
votes
2answers
402 views
Do Low-skill workers earn one cent in extra income for every 19 cents the government spends on walling off Mexico
From Quartz - The ROI on border walls is terrible, the following claim was made::
Low-skill workers earn one cent in extra income for every 19 cents the government spends on walling off Mexico
It ...
