Just for a change, how about one less for the sodding Gipper?

Is it me or is a dead President who couldn't remember his own name getting just a little too much credit for the fall of the Soviet Union? Is it all becoming just a bit vomit-inducing?  I'd strongly suggest a statue of Mikhail Gorbachev would be more appropriate. At least he had something to do with the whole affair, unlike the Gipper, a man who struggled to recall which hole his food went in. The old Spitting Image puppet of Reagan with the top of his head hinged up to reveal an empty space turned out to be so prophetic.

Under Ronnie, US debt spiralled almost out of control, with ridiculous projects like SDI (or Star Wars as the old fart liked to call it), a gigantic waste of taxpayers' money based on nothing more than boffins bullshitting politicians, who so badly wanted to believe what they were being told that they just ignored all the warning voices from those who could see what a laughing stock the US government would become. Nicaraguans died in their thousands thanks to the filthy deals done between the USA, Iran and the Contras in Nicaragua. Funds from arms sales to Iran were channeled to the Contras, specifically forbidden by Congress under the Boland Agreement. Remember all that? No? Neither could Ronnie. Then there was the invasion of Grenada, whereby Reagan's mob engineered for the Organisation of Eastern Carribean States to appeal for US intervention, an action which they'd already decide to take. It was a sham in that it once more reflected the USA's policy of simply ignoring international law and its own treaties when it saw self interest looming.

Who could have failed to feel the bile rising in the throat at the regular sight of Ron kissing Thatcher on the cheek (sorry if you're eating dinner and had tried to shake that image out of your head forever)? He was a slimy, despicable, domineering bully who deserved to be tried and imprisoned for crimes against humanity, not feted as being on of the great Presidents. They'll be making room for him on Mount Rushmore next.

Perestroika! Glasnost! These are phrases redolent of the real changes being made in Eastern Europe in the 1980s. "One more for the Gipper" isn't.