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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Did the democrats win the popular vote in the 2012 US congressional elections?

In a review of the year article in the UK newspaper the Independent, Rupert Cornwell argues that the Republican party is in some trouble because of the drift to the right and the resulting inflexible promises they have made about tax. It isn't the…
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Do the 3 red stars on Washington DC's flag represent 3 city states?

There seems to be an explanation of the meaning of the stars on Washington DC's flag. There are three cities (city-states) across this planet that share striking similarities and play a crucial role in the global governmental system we have long…
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Was the September 2012 jobs report manipulated for political purposes?

A few days ago, former GE CEO Jack Welch made a contreversial accusation/claim that the September 2012 jobs report was manipulated by the Obama administration in an attempt to portray the economy in a good light for the upcoming election. Here is…
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Were only half of US college graduates from 2006-2011 employed full-time in 2012?

According to an online article SmartMoney magazine titled, "The Jobless Class of 2012": Only a half of those who graduated since 2006 are now employed full time, according to a recent Rutgers University survey. Here's a link to the PDF report…
blunders
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Does Sallie Mae earn more from defaulted education loans than properly repaid ones?

I was sent an article by Catherine Austin Fitts, the author of the Solari Report, entitled William M. Diefenderfer: The Financial Hit Man of Student Loans. It contained some rather striking claims that I wanted to reproduce here. She writes this as…
Hendy
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Is the US Newborn Mortality Rate higher than 40 Countries?

There is a lot that goes into a statistic that can go wrong, between collection, data, etc. This makes me rather skeptical of claims like the following: US Newborn Mortality Rate Higher than 40 Countries which cites this paper Is the rate really…
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Did Dick Cheney run a death squad that killed Benazir Bhutto?

According to a dawn.com article: WASHINGTON, May 18. A special death squad assassinated Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on the orders of former US vice-president Dick Cheney, claims an American investigative journalist Seymour…
Christian
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Do wind farms have a significant impact on weather patterns in the US?

On my way in to work today there was a guest on the radio claiming that the "Heat Dome" was the result of the disturbance of natural wind patterns by the windfarms that have proliferated the midwestern US in the last decade. He also said that it…
Chad
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Are antipsychotic drugs vastly overused in the US?

A recent opinion piece in Al Jazeera titled "Mass psychosis in the US" claims that antipsychotic drugs are overused in the US, mostly due to the influence of "Big Pharma" which is pushing new atypical antipsychotics. Has America become a nation of…
Mad Scientist
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Has CNN lost 70% of their audience compared to the beginning of the year, mainly because Trump is no longer president?

An opinion piece in The Hill says: That's what happens when all-things-Trump are myopically put at the forefront of every offering: You take J.R. Ewing off "Dallas," and there's no more "Dallas." You take Trump off the stage, there's no more cable…
Fizz
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Is the chance of solving a murder cut in half if they don't find a lead within the first 48 hours?

For homicide detectives, the clock starts ticking the moment they are called. Their chance of solving a murder is cut in half if they don't get a lead within the first 48 hours. This was the lead in message for the "Investigation Discovery"…
user53816
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Were 70 COVID-19 testing sites destroyed during the George Floyd protests?

Dr. Deborah Birx, President Trump’s coronavirus response coordinator, warned the nation’s governors on a conference call that 70 coronavirus testing sites had been destroyed amid widespread protests in the wake of the death of George…
Sean Duggan
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Did health authorities receive a significant number of calls about the use of disinfectants (or drinking bleach) after president Trump mentioned it?

Fox News reported on one hand that public health agencies (in Los Angeles and Maryland) were "inundated" with calls about "drinking bleach" after Trump discussed disinfectants in re Covid-19, but a few seconds later they cast doubt on those reports…
Fizz
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Are Pennsylvania motorists required to hide their cars from horses?

News sources, blogs, email chains, and periodicals publish lists of "stupid laws", which are supposedly still on the books. One particularly amusing one: Any motorist who sights a team of horses coming toward him must pull well off the road, cover…
Frank
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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-off three armed home intruders using a firearm and…
John
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