Free Republic

Out in Phoenix, Arizona, Paul Horner still can't wrap his mind around it. One day he's just a 38-year-old Bernie Sanders fan making up fake news and spreading it far and wide on the Internet, hauling in up to $10,000 a month in ad revenue from phony click-bait stories about gang-rape parties in India and the mascot for a Christian anti-masturbation group being arrested at Sea World for getting it on with itself, along with a bunch of political smoke and mirrors. But then, two weeks ago, the Washington Post reported that his particular line of bull, as promulgated mainly...

What do the Amish lobby, gay wedding vans and the ban of the national anthem have in common? For starters, they’re all make-believe — and invented by the same man. Paul Horner, the 38-year-old impresario of a Facebook fake-news empire, has made his living off viral news hoaxes for several years. He has twice convinced the Internet that he’s British graffiti artist Banksy; he also published the very viral, very fake news of a Yelp vs. “South Park” lawsuit last year. But in recent months, Horner has found the fake-news ecosystem growing more crowded, more political and vastly more influential:...

full title..........Obama warns that fake news stories could threaten democracy as author of hoaxes acknowledges he may have put Trump in the White House.............................President Barack Obama on Thursday addressed the issue of fake news stories going viral on Facebook and its role in galvanizing support for Donald Trump's successful run for the presidency. Speaking on Thursday during a joint press conference in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Obama said that the proliferation of fake news and its viral popularity on Facebook and Twitter poses a threat to American democracy, BuzzFeed reported.

Congress has voted to remove the child tax credit, the earned income tax credit and the mortgage interest deduction from the tax code starting with the 2014 fiscal year. The move is almost assured to solidify the perception of the 113rd Congress of the United States as deeply disconnected from the struggles and desires of the populace it is supposed to serve. The move, long championed by entitlement reform advocates like congressman Paul Ryan R-Wisconsin and Ted Cruz R-Texas, will cut entitlement payouts by a staggering 177 billion dollars. 54.33 billion dollars in savings will be realized from discontinuing the...