Now, if it had been Thatcher...

[Rev]

...  I'd be celebrating.  There's something so levelling and humanising about Alzheimer's, though, that it's difficult to feel much hatred towards someone suffering from the condition.  The person he was died ten years ago, it's just the shell that has expired.

[Ambient Sheep]

For anyone else as confused about this post as I was, it turns out that Ronald Reagan's just died.

[Rev]

Hehe, yeah, I always slip up on the details.

[weekender]

From here

Reagan has suffered from the brain-wasting Alzheimer's disease since 1994 and his condition is believed to have worsened in the past week.

I'd say it's a fairly safe belief that his condition has worsened in the past week, given that he's died.

[Ambient Sheep]

When I first heard Blue Jam, I always assumed that the doctor was CM.  In my defence I know that (a) I'm not the only one by a long way, and (b) it was a hissy copy on some ultra-crappy C120 that a mate had lent me.

[weekender]

You uncaring bastard, Reagan's died and all you can do is talk about Blue Jam.

[Ambient Sheep]

You uncaring bastard, Reagan's died and all you can do is talk about Blue Jam.

:-)  Oops, wrong thread!  I'd just realised myself (when I noticed that it wasn't on the right thread), and having just checked my recent posts lists was hoping to sneak back in here and remove it before anybody noticed.

I might as well leave it in now for sheer comedy value.  I honestly don't think I've ever done that before.  I blame still being dizzy from watching the BB roundabout task.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Well he did seem to be suffering from alzheimers for most of his political career.  My favourite quote from him was his assessment of the cold war when he first came to power.  "This is how I wanna play it.  We win, they lose."  

Not as if they were in a situation of mutually-assured distruction or anything.  Still, at least we've got good old junior carrying his political torch.

[jutl]

The Reagan Doctrine was state-funding of terrorism in other countries for ideological reasons - the kind of behaviour which these days is used as a pretext to invade by Reagan's VP's little boy. He used the excuse that he was promoting democracy by funding the right-wing Contra insurgents. When Congress tried to stop him funding terrorism in Nicaragua, with the Boland Amendment which specifically forbade fucking with Nicaraguan politics, Reagan ignored the democratic will of his own people. To raise cash without asking Congress, he sold missiles to Iran, a state his own government designated as terroristic. He then used $18 million of the proceeds to secretly continue funding terrorism in Nicaragua. 40,000 people died as a result of the Contra insurgency. When Reagan was caught, he at first denied the whole thing, then retracted his denial when it became clear it was untrue. His new story was that he was having trouble remembering exactly what he did and didn't know about this sordid little scheme. He left his underlings at the Pentagon - Poindexter and North - to twist in the wind. He was a corrupt figurehead for a criminal regime. He pioneered the tactic of appearing too stupid to be dangerous. I'm sorry he had a shitty disease, but I'm sorrier he ever entered politics.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/peopleevents/pande08.html

[Auntie Ovipositor]

And he died within minutes of my band starting to record our first record. Things are always awkward at the beginning of recording; everyone's uncomfortable and overly self-conscious about their playing, not listening well, thinking more about the playback than getting through the song... When we got the news things lightened up considerably and it all went much smoother.

Over here in thee US there's been nothing but wall-to-wall fond tributes to the man, in spite of him being a blight on the world. There'll be a huge push now to put him on some currency, or if the republicans have their way on ALL of our currency (just to make it harder to tell the denominations apart). I think he'd do well on the million dollar bill, since only rich people would ever see one.

He's been functionally dead for a long, but it's nice to see he's finally made good on that. The only sad thing about it is that I wasn't there to hold a pillow over his face.

His son seems like a good guy, though.

[fbb bastard]

deadtime for bozo then.............the relationship with him and the grantham hosebeast was such a huge defining symbol of the 1980''s.... a crucially important figure for all the wrong reasons......hiding behind his "aww shucks silly old me" was some scary and depressing outright lies and subterfuge....let pushing the world into almost dr strangelove times again and his spitting image puppet be his lasting legacy (land of confusion indeed)

wouldnt wish that disease on anyone but honestly if there was any justice hinckley should have got him or mark chapman should have raised his sights a bit higher...........

[king mob]

Without him Thatcher would probably not have had the balls to carry out the wrecking of this country & lets not forget the fiasco of the Falklands war.
I'm sorry for his family but lets not dress up his life as one of cheery but benign incompentance, as Jutl said the man was responsable for a lot of hurt and that should be remembered along with his role in ending the Cold war.

[Munday's Chylde]

He may not have been universally loved but the news of the worlds main headline "Deadtime for bonzo" seemed a bit much.

[Some Herbert]

The Reagan Doctrine was state-funding of terrorism in other countries for ideological reasons [snip]

Excellent summary jutl. Let's not forget some of his other 'adventures' though:

▪ Invading a small impoverished Caribbean nation (Grenada) because they were ruled by socialists: 500 casualties
▪ Funding a $10 million counter-insurgency campaign in the Phillipines
▪ Bombing Libya in 1986
▪ Funding the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, giving invaluable training to Islamic militants including Osama bin Laden
▪ Authorising the CIA to plot the overthrow of the government of Suriname (1982-84)
▪ Funding a paramilitary army to overthrow the Chadian government in 1982. (The US-supported replacement leader, Hissen Habré, ruled for 8 years, killed tens of thousands of people and tortured up to 200,000.)
▪ Countless military escapades in South America.

I could go on. If only John Hinckley had done the job properly.

Now we just need Thatcher to die and the party can begin in earnest. I'm off to play "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes To Bitburg)" by The Ramones in celebration.

[gazzyk1ns]

Hehe, yeah, I always slip up on the details.

Like someone with Alzheimer's.

[jutl]

He may not have been universally loved but the news of the worlds main headline "Deadtime for bonzo" seemed a bit much.

Typically bad research too. Bonzo was the chimp (real name Cheetah), who is still alive, although the guy who did his voice for the movie died in 1992.

[phes]

If he did one good thing for America, it was developing the disease itself. Hopefully it will give all those 'right wing' fucks a kick in the teeth and make them think twice about campaigning against stuff like stem cell research again. Not such a nice feeling when it happens to one of your own is it, not such a nice feeling when something powerful that we dont fully understand and can't cure gets hold of you and retards you. Money might help you bring up little babies you dont want, because you've campaigned against abortion. But it cant buy your mind back, not yet. R.I.P Mr Raygun - No dis-respect.

[mayer]

I'm off to play "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes To Bitburg)" by The Ramones in celebration.

y'know Johnny was a staunch Republican, a quote from him "I thought Ronald Reagan was the best President of our lifetime"..... thus the renaming of Bonzo for the Animal Boy LP.

(info yoinked from the Anthology Booklet)

Ramones - Bonzo Goes To Bitburg

[the hum]

Ah, so he finally pressed his own personal button.

[Some Herbert]

y'know Johnny was a staunch Republican, a quote from him "I thought Ronald Reagan was the best Presifent of our lifetime"..... thus the renaming of Bonzo for the Animal Boy LP.

Ah well, it's a good song anyway. If Johnny was such a fan, why the line "there's one thing that makes me sick, is when someone tries to hide behind politics"?

[mr rou-rou]

I always like to read the 'have your say' comments left by BBC readers when something like this happens.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3295043.stm

I can only think of the dithering spitting image puppet and none of the politics,

horrible disease though and I feel sorry for his family, my Gran went out at 56 with Alzheimers, imagine getting to 93 with it, living torture.

[mayer]

Ah well, it's a good song anyway. If Johnny was such a fan, why the line "there's one thing that makes me sick, is when someone tries to hide behind politics"?

well, Dee Dee (who was born and grew up in Germany) wrote the words. i don't think that Johnny was the smartest kid in music. the rest of the band probably threatened to cut down his alcohol ration if he made a fuss.

[mayer]

He deserves to be on Mount Rushmore!

that's gotta be from a Hicks fan, yes?

[Ambient Sheep]

...the relationship with him and the grantham hosebeast was such a huge defining symbol of the 1980''s...

What does Dirty Den have to do with it?

Sorry.  Great summation of the Iran-Contra affair by Jutl there, plus more great stuff from Some Herbert.

[Bill Oddie]

I had Regan in a Death-List sweepstake type think at work, along with the Pope and Micheal Foot (and Pablo Montoya as an outsider).

At the moment I stand to win 50p, wish me luck folks.

[GoochDogHigh5s]

Excellent summary jutl. Let's not forget some of his other 'adventures' though:

▪ Invading a small impoverished Caribbean nation (Grenada) because they were ruled by socialists: 500 casualties
▪ Funding a $10 million counter-insurgency campaign in the Phillipines
▪ Bombing Libya in 1986
▪ Funding the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, giving invaluable training to Islamic militants including Osama bin Laden
▪ Authorising the CIA to plot the overthrow of the government of Suriname (1982-84)
▪ Funding a paramilitary army to overthrow the Chadian government in 1982. (The US-supported replacement leader, Hissen Habré, ruled for 8 years, killed tens of thousands of people and tortured up to 200,000.)
▪ Countless military escapades in South America.

I could go on. If only John Hinckley had done the job properly.

Now we just need Thatcher to die and the party can begin in earnest. I'm off to play "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes To Bitburg)" by The Ramones in celebration.

Good call.
Lets not forget that he grassed up other actors in the Macarthy witchhunt and order the national Guard to kill students at an anti Vietnam demo when he was the guvnor of California(uber allies)

I think Bonzo goes to Bitburg is one of the greatest tracks da brudders ever did

[Pinball]

It's an interesting demonstration of "actions speak louder than words". By his actions, Ray Gun was a mass murdering fascistic disaster area. By his words, he was a jovial, lovable, bumbling friend. Sadly, people seem to be largely judging him by the latter and not the former. Perhaps this is why the US has a propensity to be run by international terrorists...

Do the US ruling elite deliberately choose bumbling oafs to be Republican Presidents for this reason (i.e. to be a good frontman)????? Maybe Mickey Mouse will be the next one? Yes, he's killed 3 million people, but look everyone, what a cute mouse!!

[jutl]

He may not have been universally loved but the news of the worlds main headline "Deadtime for bonzo" seemed a bit much.

Typically bad research too. Bonzo was the chimp (real name Cheetah), who is still alive, although the guy who did his voice for the movie died in 1992.

In a terrifically embarrassing turnaround, I now find that Bonzo may in fact be dead:

http://www.namethatmovie.net/Archives02/NTM12902.html

...and after I accuse someone else of poor research. I have emailed Cheeta's handlers to discover the truth.

[Almost Yearly]

Ronald Wilson Reagan = 6 6 6

That briefly gave me the right willies when I was sixteen. My fault for enjoying Iron Maiden.

(Note for conspiracy fans: another W middle name there. 23rd letter, isn't it? Jumpers for goalpoasts? Enduring image.)

[Purple Tentacle]

Isn't Nancy Reagan a vocal campaigner for stem cell research, one of MonkeyBush's more repellent moral crusades?

Possibly "The Gipper"'s death will raise the profile of this vital campaign, some good may come of it.