April Fools’ is now a year long event

In many parts of the world, the First of April is ‘April Fools’ Day’, a day of jokes, innocent white lies, hoaxes and humorous untruths.

Many newspapers and magazines used to participate in April Fools’ Day by publishing humorous, fake articles. For example one might have said,

–‘Moon landing faked in film studio admits cloned chimpanzee’

–‘Dutch Prime Minister resigns over spontaneous wildebeest stampede’

–‘I’m not actually dead, claims Augusto Pinochet’

–‘Russian plot exposed to elect famous billionaire US President as personal Putin puppet’

–‘California radio host refuses to go off air during Pink Floyd marathon’

Wait…Wait…Wait…..

You may have noticed that one of these absurd and silly fake headlines has actually been used by many in the mainstream media on days including AND apart from April Fools’ Day.

In saner times, the idea that Russia could install a puppet President in the White House using ‘scary hacking stuff’ would be laughable and to those with a sense of humour, it still very much is.

But for the fools at CNN, Washington Post, state-owned broadcaster BBC, the failing New York Times and others, the hoax is no laughing matter, but a hoax it is, nevertheless.

When something is totally absurd, contradictory to basic logic, unsubstantiated by any evidence, it can be legitimately called a prank, a hoax or a joke.

But when the joke starts to be taken seriously by the US House of Representatives and Senate, it stops being funny. At that point it evolves into something that is pathetic, wasteful and a distraction from important issues, both domestic and international.

The worst part is that the joke is on the American people who voted for a man that they wanted to  take on the establishment. At the moment, it is as though the establishment is taking on him.

Who is fooling who?