Showing posts with label Fact checking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fact checking. Show all posts

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Fact Check: Did the Global Seed Vault Flood Because of Global Warming?


On Friday, May 19, the Guardian and Wired ran stories claiming that melting permafrost had put the Global Seed Vault at risk. Their claims boiled down to the following:

  • Melting permafrost had flooded the facility because of record-warm winter temperatures.
  • Water in the entryway caught facility managers by surprise and endangered the seeds.

But these reports weren't quite right. Popular Science then published a piece explaining that the reported worse-than-ever flooding was actually somewhat routine. According to the article:

  • Water seeps into the entryway every year, according to Cary Fowler who spearheaded the vault's creation.
  • The front of the facility was designed to divert water runoff, and the seed storage is uphill of the tunnel entrance.
One reason the initial story caught on so quickly is that it plays into a key misconception about the Seed Vault: that it was designed and commissioned purely to combat the future effects of global warming.

In fact, the seeds in the Seed Vault preserve 881,473 different types of plants from 233 countries in order to backstop the loss or failure of local seed banks....

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

$2500 to protest? Not so fast! Tucker Carlson Gets Hoaxer To Admit Ad Offering '$2,500/Month To Protest Trump' Was Fraud







The man who called himself Dom Calypso was impressed that Tucker Carlson was the only TV anchor who knew what he was dealing with. When Dom Calypso finally admitted it was a scam, thanked Tucker for being the first host that didn’t buy the scam, hook, line, and sinker.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Davis: The Clinton Foundation "spent more on office supplies and rent than it did on charitable grants.” Fact-Check: No, the Clinton Foundation Did Not ‘Spend Ninety Percent’ of Money Donated on ‘Programs’



Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said during the third presidential debate, “We at the Clinton Foundation spend ninety percent — ninety percent — of all the money that is donated on behalf of programs of people around the world and in our own country.”
Fact-Check: FALSE

Indeed, Clinton’s “ninety percent” claim is false according to her troubled charity’s own tax filings.

Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute, Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large, and author of Clinton Cash said the Clinton Foundation has spent as little as six percent of its total income on actual charitable endeavors.

“If you actually look at the numbers of their filings and 990s, that’s what it indicates,” Schweizer said last month in an interview with SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Breitbart News Daily. “The Clinton Foundation will say, ‘We assisted or facilitated in 100,000 kids getting immunizations.’ Well, okay, what does that mean? And they don’t really tell you. ..."

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Clinton Denies Being Subpoenaed, Investigators Release Subpoena





Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Top Nine Myths About Trade Promotion Authority And The Trans-Pacific Partnership



The current debate over Trade Promotion Authority proves, once again, that the classic description of the anti-globalization movement—as “largely the well-intentioned but ill-informed being led around by the ill-intentioned and well informed”—still holds true. Despite the tireless efforts of trade policy experts to explain why TPA and the U.S. trade agreements it’s intended to facilitate are, while imperfect, not a secret corporatist plot to usurp the U.S. Constitution and install global government, myths and half-truths continue to infect traditional and social media outlets.

Because these myths—originating with the same old anti-trade bedfellows that have been with us for decades—have duped a lot of good folks who are otherwise predisposed to support liberty and free markets (including some in Congress), and because the House of Representatives is poised to vote on TPA in the coming days, here is one last debunking of the top nine myths about TPA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and U.S. free-trade agreements (FTAs) more broadly.

Myth 1: TPA and U.S. FTAs are unconstitutional and undemocratic!
Myth 2: TPA grants the president new and unlimited powers!
Myth 3: TPA sets legally binding congressional rules for U.S. trade negotiations!
Myth 4: Once TPA is approved, Congress will be powerless to stop TPP or other FTAs!
Myth 5: TPP is being negotiated via a dangerous and unprecedented level of secrecy!
Myth 6: FTAs, completed via TPA, undermine U.S. sovereignty!
Myth 7: TPP is a secret backdoor for a parade of horribles (and TPA lets that happen)!
Myth 8: FTAs (and free trade generally) benefit large corporations at the expense of working people!
Myth 9: TPA doesn’t matter!

Sunday, May 17, 2015

"I have seen the media report that a few years back I contributed $20,000 to the Clinton Global Initiative and became a member. This is false. I am neither a member nor have I contributed $20,000."

Let’s get something straight…. - Greta Van Susteren

...Although I could, I don’t give to political candidates’ campaigns because I talk about political matters and my personal judgment is that this would not be a good idea. As an aside, even if I were not in the media, I don’t know if I would contribute to a political campaign except for a close friend or family member....

I have been invited to attend the CGI event (like others in the media.) I paid nothing. I was invited. Just as other events where I might meet people who are good sources or guests for ON THE RECORD, I took full advantage of going. I was hoping I could get interviews for OTR and, in fact, I did....

My recollection of attending the CGI events is not perfect since these events are work for me, but I think I went 2 years and I think I interviewed President Clinton each time. I don’t know who else I interviewed but I oddly do remember it was also one of the two times in the 13 years at Fox News Channel that I have ever met Rupert Murdoch. I shook his hand and gave him my name – that was it. (The second time was years later when I saw Rupert Murdoch at a lupus charity event and we talked for the first time. We discussed North Korea as I had just returned from a trip there.)

The idea or suggestion that I am or was a member of Clinton Global Initiative is just silly – I think it is just a word the Clinton Global Inititive used in their event program to describe those who were invited and attended. It is never a word I would have used. This was work for me....

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

‘Shocked’: Just Watch the Faces of Hillary Supporters When They Learn Inconvenient Fact About Their 2016 Candidate



Hillary Clinton supporters in Washington, D.C., weren’t exactly pleased to learn about recent analysis that suggests the Democratic presidential candidate paid women 72 cents for each dollar paid to men. - The Blaze

Given Clinton’s position on the so-called “wage gap,” several of her supporters appeared to be visibly stunned when Caleb Bonham, editor-in-chief of Campus Reform, informed them of the analysis on the National Mall.



Wednesday, April 15, 2015

There is little, if any, evidence for widespread discrimination in wages and employment based on gender in the U.S.



  1. Is there a wage gap between men and women?
  2. Which factors explain the wage gap?
  3. Should the federal government do something to correct the wage gap?


Thursday, February 5, 2015

Watch the media game in action: CNN's Chris Cuomo pushes the latest liberal attack on conservatives/Republicans



CNN's Cuomo: GOP is 'Always Pushing Back Against Science'; Hounds Ben Carson on Vaccines - Newsbusters

CUOMO: Understood. I'm not saying that Republicans are getting sick more. I'm saying that they're talking about the sickness more in ways that may not be productive. For example, what you say about, well, maybe people being introduced. That sounds like code for illegal immigration to me. Is that a point you're trying to make? Are you trying to make the measles situation into an immigration argument?

CARSON: It's not code, and I'm not trying to make it into any particular argument. I'm stating what the facts are. The facts are there are people in our country-

CUOMO: Right-

CARSON: Who have been lax, in terms of their vigilance of getting their kids immunized; and we have people coming in who are not necessarily being properly screened. That's not making any issue. That's stating facts.

CUOMO: Well, do we know that it's a fact? Do we know that any of the cases are from people who came into the country illegally and didn't have their kids vaccinated?

CARSON: Let me put it this way: if I found you somebody who came in from another country who had not been vaccinated and caused a problem, would that convince you?

CUOMO: Yes, as much as you would want to value-

CARSON: No, it would not.

CUOMO: No, of course. You want the – you want the supposition to have something behind it other than something that can – you know, just prejudice people against immigrants. So, of course, it would give some validity to it. That's why I'm surprised you'd say that without that in your pocket.

CARSON: It's not to prejudice anybody. But we have to deal with reality. And if you have people coming into your country who have not been properly screened; who have not had the same kind of care as the people in this country; I don't think you have to be a genius to figure out that that could introduce some communicable problems.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Obama's Justice Department won't charge Officer Darren Wilson.

What the DNA and the bruises on Wilson showed: - Star Parker/BlackCommunityNews.com

After all the “Black lives matter,” “Hands up, don’t shoot” protests, which included burning down businesses, blocking streets, and generally being a public nuisance, President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice, with Eric Holder still sitting at the top of it, will not charge Officer Darren Wilson with violating the late Michael Brown’s civil rights when he shot and killed him.

U.S. Not Expected to Fault Officer in Ferguson Case - New York Times

Justice Department lawyers will recommend that no civil rights charges be brought against the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Mo., after an F.B.I. investigation found no evidence to support charges, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and his civil rights chief, Vanita Gupta, will have the final say on whether the Justice Department will close the case against the officer, Darren Wilson. But it would be unusual for them to overrule the prosecutors on the case, who are still working on a legal memo explaining their recommendation.

A decision by the Justice Department would bring an end to the politically charged investigation of Mr. Wilson in the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The Missouri authorities concluded their investigation into Mr. Brown’s death in November and also recommended against charges.

FACT: The Obama administration has suppressed energy production on federal lands, while Republicans have consistently pressed for a true all-of-the-above energy policy to help create jobs and address costs for working families.


◼ Speaker Boehner's Press Office: CLAIM: “Today, America is number one in oil and gas. ... And thanks to lower gas prices and higher fuel standards, the typical family this year should save $750 at the pump.” (President Obama, State of the Union Address, January 20, 2015)

FACT: The Obama administration has suppressed energy production on federal lands, while Republicans have consistently pressed for a true all-of-the-above energy policy to help create jobs and address costs for working families.

  • Republicans have consistently supported increasing American energy production as a way to lower gas prices, while President Obama is on record supporting increasing gas prices in order to reduce Americans’ dependence on oil. And when the foundations for today’s lower prices were being laid a few years ago by the private sector in states like North Dakota and Texas, President Obama was insisting that increased production would never result in lower prices.
  • President Obama’s pick for Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, said, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” At the time, that meant $7-9 per gallon.
  • From 2009 to 2013, oil production on non-federal lands increased 61 percent while falling six percent on federal lands. Similarly, natural gas production has seen a 33 percent increase on non-federal lands, but a 28 percent drop on federal lands, according to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service.
  • According to the Institute for Energy Research, “In 2013, even though the federal government is the largest landowner in the country, federal lands produced 25 percent of the fossil fuels produced in America, down from 36 percent a decade ago.”
  • Factcheck.org challenged a similar claim made by the president in last year’s State of the Union Address, determining that “the remarkable boom in U.S. oil production is chiefly the result of new drilling technology…and not of any government policy.”
  • President Obama’s five-year leasing plan bans energy development on 85 percent of America’s offshore areas and provides for the fewest number of new lease sales ever offered in a plan since the process began in 1980, says the House Natural Resources Committee. The committee also notes that “onshore, the Obama Administration has had the four lowest years of federal acres leased for energy production – going back to 1988.”
  • Speaker Boehner’s five-point vision for resetting America’s economic foundation calls for a true-all-of-the-above energy policy, as Republicans have advocated for for years. As Boehner notes, America’s energy boom is “driving real growth” in areas that have embraced increased oil and gas production, like Youngstown, Ohio, resulting in lower unemployment rates and higher wages for middle-class workers.
While the United States is the world's biggest producer of oil and gas, the American people have accomplished this feat despite Obama's policies, not because of them. - Conn Carroll/Washington Examiner

Only because Republicans stayed unified, and rejected Obama's cap and trade carbon tax, was the shale oil and natural gas boom able to produce the astounding results we are all enjoying today.

President Obama was not shy about taking credit for low gasoline prices, touting the booming oil and natural gas production that has occurred under his administration. - Daily Caller

Since 2009, domestic oil production has gone from only 5 million barrels a day to more than 9 million barrels per day thanks to fracking and horizontal drilling. The U.S. is now set to overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer — the country has already beaten out Russia as the world’s top natural gas producer.

But virtually all of the increased oil and natural gas production has come from private and state lands, where Obama has no jurisdiction over approving drilling permits. Meanwhile, oil production on federal lands has floundered under Obama. From 2009 to 2013 oil production on federal lands fell by 11 percent and natural gas production fell by 28 percent.

Monday, December 15, 2014

The biggest Pinocchios of 2014

It’s time for our annual round-up of the biggest Pinocchios of the year. - Glenn Kessler/Washington Post

In compiling this list, which has no particular order, we primarily focused on claims that had earned four Pinocchios during the year. We also tried to focus on issues of broad interest, such as terrorism, health care and the size of government. To keep it simple, we have shortened the quotes in the headlines. To read the full column, click on the link embedded in the quote.

“I didn’t call the Islamic State a ‘JV’ team”
“Republicans have filibustered 500 pieces of legislation”

(Before anyone asks, Obama’s “if you want to keep your plan” was on last year’s list.)

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Deep Ignorance in Ferguson



Megyn Kelly explodes about Al Sharpton stoking the fires of Ferguson violence - Rare

According to Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, many in the media have failed to portray both sides of the argument that Officer Darren Wilson was wrong when he shot and killed Michael Brown.

After Wilson was exonerated of any wrongdoing by a grand jury on Monday, Kelly took to the airwaves to criticize those that haven’t given the public all the facts, specifically the Rev. Al Sharpton of MSNBC....

In its coverage of events in Ferguson, Mo., the liberal press has ranged from irresponsible to downright ridiculous. - National Review
The latter was on display at last night’s press conference with St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch, who, after announcing that a grand jury had refused to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the August death of Michael Brown, took several questions from the gathered paragons of journalistic virtue. A sampling, with commentary:
You’ve been accused by some of passing the buck, by simply standing back and putting all this evidence in front of the grand jury rather than taking a stand. Isn’t that what you were elected to do? Shouldn’t you have taken a stand in this case?
It is no surprise that it did not occur to the journalist in question that by taking the case to the grand jury, McCulloch did in fact “take a stand” — namely, a stand against the summary judgment that so many protesters were willing to make (“What do we want?” “Darren Wilson!” “How do we want him?” “Dead!”), and a stand in favor of community oversight through the mechanism of the grand jury. KEEP READING
The New York Times and Other Members of the Ferguson Hall of Shame - Roger L. Simon/PJMedia
That the photograph of Walter Duranty — the New York Times Moscow correspondent who deliberately whitewashed Stalin’s 1930s forced starvation of millions of Ukrainians and won the Pulitzer for it — still is on the newspaper’s wall of fame with their other prize winners is apparently no aberration. The New York Times has no moral center. In fact, it’s despicable. On November 24, they published the home address of Officer Darren Wilson....

So much for that newspaper. They’re cancer.

Not quite cancer but pretty bad is Jay Nixon, the governor of Missouri. Not only did he attempt to prejudge the case, calling for Wilson’s head like some minor league Robespierre months before there was any evidence, but then, on the night of the grand jury announcement, after having brought in the National Guard, he goes completely AWOL and doesn’t use the Guards at all, leaving the poor store owners of Ferguson to fend for themselves, not to mention the police. Everyone got to watch the results on TV.

Peter Kinder, the vice governor of Missouri, wants to know what happened. Why no Guards, when they were all set to go? Did the word come down from the White House or the Department of Justice to keep the Guards out? Nixon didn’t answer, just accused Kinder of playing politics....

But the real top of the Ferguson Hall of Shame goes to the people who brought us Ferguson from the beginning. I mean the real beginning. I mean… what happened to black America in the post-civil rights era? Why has such a wonderful group of people who fought so hard against a racist society and won, who brought so much to American (and world) culture had the guts torn out of their community? Why is what was once one of our most family-oriented groups now virtually without family, seventy percent of their babies born out of wedlock? That was unheard of when I was a young civil rights worker in the sixties. And the endless black on black crime? Where did that come from? What caused that? Forget Brown. Forget Wilson. They’re trivial by comparison. Those are the real questions. KEEP READING
Politicians and Media Incite Violence in Ferguson - NEW ZEAL

CNN analyst reads CRUCIAL EVIDENCE that destroys the lies about Michael Brown shooting - The Right Scoop



WATCH: Report The News? Not A Chance! Instead Brian Williams Whined About Ferguson Jury's Decision - Newsbusters

On Monday night, a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri found no probable cause to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown. Following the grand jury’s ruling, the “big three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) all broke from their regular prime time programming to announce the decision. Unlike ABC and CBS, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams failed to mention any of the actual facts of the case or legal rationale for the grand jury’s decision when he expressed his dissatisfaction with the case’s outcome.

Williams opened his broadcast by declaring "The grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri has failed to come up with an indictment for the police officer in the shooting of the unarmed black teenager Michael Brown." While NBC ignored all of the actual facts behind the grand jury’s decision, ABC and CBS were much more reserved in their analysis. CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley provided a detailed explanation for the grand jury’s decision, and even included a statement from Officer Wilson’s attorneys...

Monday, September 1, 2014

PAPER: 'Myth of arctic meltdown'...


Myth of arctic meltdown: Stunning satellite images show summer ice cap is thicker and covers 1.7million square kilometres MORE than 2 years ago...despite Al Gore's prediction it would be ICE-FREE by now - Daily Mail [UK]

The speech by former US Vice-President Al Gore was apocalyptic. ‘The North Polar ice cap is falling off a cliff,’ he said. ‘It could be completely gone in summer in as little as seven years. Seven years from now.’

Those comments came in 2007 as Mr Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaigning on climate change.
But seven years after his warning, The Mail on Sunday can reveal that, far from vanishing, the Arctic ice cap has expanded for the second year in succession – with a surge, depending on how you measure it, of between 43 and 63 per cent since 2012....

Does Antarctic Sea Ice Growth Negate Global Warming Theory? LA Times making frantic excuses,,, - Watts Up With That?

Eric Worrall writes: The LA Times has published an article which asks whether the faithful should worry about the rapid growth of Antarctic sea ice, an observation which sharply contradicts model predictions that the ice should all be melting away.

Naturally the article concludes that their readers should not be worried.

The prevailing theory amongst researchers interviewed by the Times, seems to be that global warming is strengthening circumpolar winds. They also suggest global warming is causing increased snowfall on the ice covered ocean....


National Geographic’s Warming Warning – 10 Years Later - Watts Up With That?

Geoff Sherrington writes: National Geographic Magazine had a Global Warming issue in September 2004. New instruments have given new data. By planning now, NatGeo can make a revised issue 10 years later, in September 2014.

The 2014 edition should aim to correct what is now known to be wrong or questionable in the 2004 edition.

...To the Editor of National Geographic, we are a third of that way to that very different world and many can’t pick the difference yet. Given the possibility that NatGeo 2004 was an enthusiastic issue, we think it would be a good idea to bring out a more measured NatGeo 2014.

Our blog readers are a skilled and diverse. They will prepare and distribute the actuality of the NatGeo 2004 claims as understood in 2012. Please feel free to use these in the re-write, a step which would gain you prestige because scientifically, it is the ethical move.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

This Nationwide Study Challenges Everything Liberals Have Told You About Raising Taxes



Do states do better economically in a higher or lower tax environment? - Michael Hausam/IJReview

Everyone has a gut reaction to this question, as does every governor - especially those with relatively high and low taxes.

Governors in low-tax states use that as a means to attract businesses. For example, Governor Rick Perry (R-Texas) famously ran ads in California last year, attempting to woo companies to relocate their operations there due to a lower cost of doing business.

Governors of states with higher taxes inevitably deny their effect on their state, or justify them based upon essential services, fairness, or necessity for sustaining revenue.

But what are the actual facts?

Monday, March 31, 2014

"Let's not pretend that this new policy is the affordable health care savior that many of us were hoping for," Wee concludes. "For us, our new plan is a big financial hit for a product that does not make it any easier to get basic health care."

Plenty of ammo for anti-Obamacare ads in New York Times - Byron York/Washington Examiner @ByronYork

Some conservative political groups have run into trouble making ads that criticize Obamacare. The ads were intended to showcase "horror stories" from the Democrats' national health care overhaul, but instead attracted zealous fact-checking and ferocious pushback from media outlets and liberal activists....

So here is a suggestion, free of charge, for Americans for Prosperity: Make a few anti-Obamacare ads with factual claims taken entirely from the pages of The New York Times.

The Kochs could start with a recent op-ed by a man named Eric Wee, who just happens to be a former Washington Post reporter. Wee supported Obamacare when it was passed, he explained, but said: "What I didn't count on was that it would make things harder for me and my wife."...

It's a perfect Koch Obamacare ad: Concise, meaningful and vetted by the New York Times.

There are others. There was the piece about New York City's "professional and cultural elite" who were dismayed to find their coverage canceled. The woman who rued the adverse social effects of "daring to complain about Obamacare." Other individuals facing higher costs and narrower choices. And more.

In making ads, some conservatives have tried to swing for the fences, searching for cases of spectacular suffering to illustrate Obamacare's damage. But what about focusing on the heavy, if ordinary, burdens the new system is placing on people like Eric Wee and millions of other Americans?

Of course, there will still be pushback from the Left. Critics and fact-checkers will undoubtedly complain that the ads, although accurate, lack "context." But who cares? The material is there for the Kochs to use — right in the pages of the New York Times.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

No, House Republicans haven't voted 50 times to repeal Obamacare. (via Byron York)

Here's the real story - Byron York/Washington Examiner @ByronYork

It has become a truism that House Republicans have voted dozens and dozens of times -- at least 50 in all -- to repeal Obamacare. "They have been obsessed with repealing the Affordable Care Act," President Obama told a Democratic National Committee meeting in Washington last month. "You know what they say: 50th time is the charm. Maybe when you hit your 50th repeal vote, you will win a prize. Maybe if you buy 50 repeal votes, you get one free. We get it."

For more than a year, Democrats and their advocates in the press have been ridiculing the GOP's anti-Obamacare efforts. "The House Republicans have voted more than 30 times to repeal Obamacare," White House press secretary Jay Carney said in March 2013. "The House has wasted weeks voting more than 40 times to repeal Obamacare," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in October of last year. "If at first you don't succeed, try 50 times -- Republicans [are] holding a 50th vote to repeal Obamacare," MSNBC's Al Sharpton said last week. Many others have said similar things.

The only problem is, the truism isn't true. The House has actually voted to repeal Obamacare in its entirety six times. Certainly Democrats think that is six too many. But it is not 50, or even close to 50. The rest of the votes -- there have actually been 54 so far -- were votes that ranged from defunding measures that would have crippled Obamacare to delaying measures that would have put off some of the very same provisions in the law that President Obama has delayed unilaterally, to measures fixing portions of the law that passed both houses of Congress with bipartisan support and were signed by the president.