Skeptics Stack Exchange
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Questions tagged [united-states]

Use this tag for questions about claims based in the United States, or limited to the United States.

The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, the States, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district.

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Will the Republican tax plan cost Donald Trump "a fortune"?

In this video (Donald Trump in St. Charles, MO - Youtube), Donald Trump says the Republican tax plan is going to "cost him a fortune, believe me" (1:30). This is going to cost me a fortune, this thing. Believe me. Believe. This is not good for me.…
Coomie
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Is the US tax code only 2,600 pages long?

Andrew L. Grossman wrote in the Slate article Is the Tax Code Really 70,000 Pages Long? : American Public Media’s Marketplace Morning Report has reported that the tax code is 70,000 pages long.* The New York Times thinks so too. A Google search…
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Is 90% of media in the USA controlled by six companies?

(source: wordpress.com) Are the claims made in this graphic accurate? the source cited was a book (The Media Monopoly by Ben H. Bagdikian), but I have no convenient way of obtaining it legally at the moment. The 90% figure was also mentioned in an…
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Was the supreme court Executive Order 13780 injunction stay unanimous?

On June 26, 2017, the US Supreme Court granted a stay on the preliminary injunctions on the Trump administration's Executive Order 13780. The Office of the Press Secretary issued a statement on behalf of President Trump saying the decision was…
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Does Trump spend $10m/month travelling compared to Obama's $1m/month?

The following graphic has been making the rounds in Reddit and other locations: The graphic cites The Washington Post as its source. Essentially, it is a infographic based on two figures: That Trump's estimated travel expenses during his first…
dsollen
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Does PETA euthanize unwanted pets at its Virginia headquarters?

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are an animal rights non-profit organization based in the United States. The Center for Organizational Research and Education lobbies against PETA, and runs the PETA Kills Animals site. They…
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Did CIA fund abstract artists to take attention from Social Realism?

(Source: cracked.com) In the 50s and 60s, the CIA secretly funded abstract artists such as Jackson Pollock, in part to draw attention away from Social Realism, a style which focused on societal issues and societal ills. There are two parts to the…
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Was this image used in an anti-rape advertising campaign?

I saw an "advertisement" make the rounds on Facebook, which reads: Jake was drunk. Josie was drunk. Jake and Josie hooked up. Josie could NOT consent. The next day Jake was charged with RAPE. A woman who is intoxicated cannot give her legal…
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Are annual female rape and male "made to penetrate" rates similar in the US?

In the 2010 Summary Report of the CDC's National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, there are two figures that are surprisingly similar: In Table 2.1, they claim the 12-month weighted rate of a US woman being raped is 1.1%. In Table 2.2,…
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Are Earthquakes on the rise?

This came across my social media feed: U.S. Geological Earthquakes Survey 1973 - 4,539 Earthquakes 1974 — 4,528 Earthquakes 2000 — 19,131 Earthquakes 2010 — 23,040 Earthquakes 2011 — 22,392 Earthquakes 2013 — 89,622 Earthquakes 2014…
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Has anyone noteworthy given up their US citizenship to escape taxation?

I've heard it said that a US citizen can escape paying US income taxes by giving up their citizenship and living in a foreign country (presumably, somewhere that has lower taxes or perhaps where a deal has been made). Is this true? If it is true,…
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Did Lyndon Johnson have an amphibious car?

I came across an info graphic that says that former U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson had an amphibious car and would drive guests into the lake while screaming about the brakes. Is this true?
user11643
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Is the U.S. Tea Party astroturf or a genuine grassroots movement?

According to The Wikipedia article on the United States Tea Party movement (emphasis mine), TeaParty.org defines the Tea Party as "a grassroots movement that calls awareness to any issue which challenges the security, sovereignty, or domestic…
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Was the 16th Amendment (income tax) improperly ratified?

Bill Benson released The Law that Never Was in 1985, which "claims that the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, commonly known as the income tax amendment, was never properly ratified."1 At least several have gone to jail for…
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Did Facebook claim its fact-checks are legally "just opinions"?

Multiple websites and media say: Facebook claims its 'fact-check' are just protected opinions, according to Facebook's legal team. However, I have not found any official Facebook sources for this claim. Has Facebook's legal team said something…
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