The Shmups Forum Dead Pool

[MadScientist]

Cribbed from elsewhere;



maggie: "fuck the miners"
jimmy: "ooooh, don't get me excited maggie..."

[blackoak]

I fear the Thatcher whitewashing to come (the movie was bad enough), and look forward to the inevitable wsws obituary. An apt quote from my favorite book, Journey to the End of the Night:

"The biggest defeat in every department of life is to forget, especially the things that have done you in, and to die without realizing how far people can go in the way of crumminess. When the grave lies open before us, let's not try to be witty, but on the other hand, let's not forget, but make it our business to record the worst of the human viciousness we've seen without changing one word. When that's done, we can curl up our toes and sink into the pit. That's work enough for a lifetime."

[Obiwanshinobi]

maggie: "fuck the miners"

My country, in the Warsaw Pact days, helped her great deal with our cheap & cheerful coal. First batch of IKEA furniture was also manufactured here from what I read. So much for workers' international.

[Friendly]

Aside from her questionable internal politics whose ramifications are felt in Britain today, Thatcher also tried very hard to prevent the German reunification.

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that neither the United Kingdom nor Western Europe wanted the reunification of Germany. Thatcher also clarified that she wanted the Soviet leader to do what he could to stop it, telling Gorbachev "We do not want a united Germany". Although she welcomed East German democracy, Thatcher worried that a rapid reunification might weaken Gorbachev, and favoured Soviet troops staying in East Germany as long as possible to act as a counterweight to a united Germany.
Thatcher, who carried in her handbag a map of Germany's 1937 borders to show others the "German problem", feared that its "national character", size and central location in Europe would cause the nation to be a "destabilizing rather than a stabilizing force in Europe". In December 1989, she warned fellow European Community leaders at a Strasbourg summit that Kohl attended, "We defeated the Germans twice! And now they're back!" Although Thatcher had stated her support for German self-determination in 1985, she now argued that Germany's allies had only supported reunification because they had not believed it would ever happen.

(Source: Wikipedia)

What a charming person she was. Surely she will forever be remembered fondly in Germany.

[O. Van Bruce]

maggie: "fuck the miners"

My country, in the Warsaw Pact days, helped her great deal with our cheap & cheerful coal. First batch of IKEA furniture was also manufactured here from what I read. So much for workers' international.

Say hi to globalization my friend!

[O. Van Bruce]

Some highlights: Poll tax, unpopular because it made everyone pay the same amount - which apparently is deeply unfair (actually what would be fair, is the people using public services more, paying more for them). This one did suck, it didn't work, her own party and treasury recommended against it, and much money was wasted trying to take people to court over it. Now we have something different that screws people based on where they live instead, which is apparently better.

I've taken a look at the Wikipedia Articles about the Rates system, the Poll Tax system and the (current) Council Tax and even if I can't completely get the implications of every system there is something that the Poll Tax infringes when it's applied on a welfare state like the UK's, that is, redistribution of wealth.

When you tax per capita without any kind of consideration of the economic circunstancies of the poor and low-middle classes you are taking the burden of the social services to then. This may sound fair in the way you have already explained " the people using public services more, paying more for them". But that's counterproductive. If someone (or a family, taking in account that the tax levied per-capita) gets even more poorer by being taxed more they will use the social services more, making the burden of the state bigger. While this happens, millions of pounds may be left out of circulation because the very rich people may just let it sit on the banks, use then for the unproductive economy (stock exchange, speculation) or invest in other countries. In the worst case, which happens a lot, the money could end up in a tax haven, completely out of reach of the government to be taxed.

In contrast, when you redistribute the money and tax more the rich than the poor you are actually injecting liquidity to the economy and making it more dinamic by making more people to have more money. Your usual poor or middle class family doesn't evade taxes which is beneficial for the state and in turn for the whole comunity and the economy of the country. Besides, that money is used in the productive economy, creating new business, hiring new workers, buying products, etc.

In the end, the whole neo-liberal argument about "the state is bad, the individual is good" is based on common sense more than how it actually works an economy. Their defenders, which are ussually the very rich people that want to keep all their money for then, know that their arguments sound right to the majority of people because everyone, you, me, etc. don't want to earn less money. The problem is that the great majority of people aren't concerned about others or don't think about the consequences I stated above. No surprise, because we are kept ignorant.

Beating the mining strike - for decades British miners had from time to time held the whole country to ransom through strike action - despite their industry being heavily subsidised BY THE TAX PAYER, the very people who got hurt when the lights went out. Well this time, instead of being destroyed by them, a government prevailed. The end results did affect tens of thousands of people, and ruined the local economy in wide areas of Northern England and Wales. On the other hand, millions of people were no longer having their taxes thrown down a well, and it took away their ability to blackmail the entire population at will. The real disgrace here is the behaviour of some of the police and strikers, but then this is nothing new.

I actually agree with you that trade unions can be problematic for a country if they aren't cooperative with the government or the society but they are certainly neccesary and need to have a great force to enable social reform or stop counterreforms. In a country without strong trade unions, specially in a world like today's, the worker class is more vulnerable to any kind of abuse from the richer classes or the government.

Perhaps the world and its economy nowadays is like this BECAUSE there aren't or there are too few strong trade unions in our countries.

I need to expand on this a little further but I'll do it later.

[Bloodreign]

Amidst all the Thatcher fuss, a former Disney Mouseketeer member dies at 70, Annette Funicello.

[Acid King]

Don't know much about Thatcher, but the confusion on twitter over the hashtag #nowthatcherisdead is hilarious.

[Friendly]

Don't know much about Thatcher, but the confusion on twitter over the hashtag #nowthatcherisdead is hilarious.

Ah, funny. "Now that Cher is dead".

[Vyxx]

Apparently some street parties are breaking out in the UK over Thatchers death.

http://www.tntmagazine.com/news/london/ ... f-thatcher

[O. Van Bruce]

Apparently some street parties are breaking out in the UK over Thatchers death.

http://www.tntmagazine.com/news/london/ ... f-thatcher

PARTY!

[system11]

Apparently some street parties are breaking out in the UK over Thatchers death.

http://www.tntmagazine.com/news/london/ ... f-thatcher

What charming people. By charming I do mean pitiful scum, never seen something so disgraceful. Anyone who agrees with them should go and read an article containing the good and bad, rather than sucking up the shit they're being sold. The photos of the parties suggest the average age of people attending them is too young for them to have been in any way affected. A lot of students in fact, they do have short memories...

[blackoak]

Two good links on Thatcher:

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/dispelling- ... her-myths/
This one deals with the coarser fawning going around the media atm. Sources at the bottom.

http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2 ... ternative/
More importantly though, here is a good argument that the Thatcher government, as far as the interests of Capital were concerned, had no other choice but to pursue the policies it did. system11 will be pleased to see it written that, yes, Labour too pursued much of the same course both before and prior to Thatcher's administration. It serves as a reminder that the policies of the ruling class aren't the results of one demonic individual's personality or genius.

[blackoak]

Annndddd one more for good measure, in honor of the tropes vs women thread: http://angrywomen.wordpress.com/2013/04 ... rs-demise/

You don’t get to claim any feminist kudos for breaking glass ceilings when you rain down shattered glass on the women below in the process.

[drauch]

Amidst all the Thatcher fuss, a former Disney Mouseketeer member dies at 70, Annette Funicello.

Damn, that's a shame. Never liked much of her solo albums, but I'm certainly a fan of the Beach Party movies with her and Frankie Avalon.

[SharkSkin-Man]

What charming people. By charming I do mean pitiful scum, never seen something so disgraceful. Anyone who agrees with them should go and read an article containing the good and bad, rather than sucking up the shit they're being sold. The photos of the parties suggest the average age of people attending them is too young for them to have been in any way affected. A lot of students in fact, they do have short memories...

If they are alive today, they are plenty old enough to feel the effects. Especially if they have roots in ravaged areas like Liverpool, South Wales etc.

[ancestral-knowledge]

Apparently some street parties are breaking out in the UK over Thatchers death.

http://www.tntmagazine.com/news/london/ ... f-thatcher

What charming people. By charming I do mean pitiful scum, never seen something so disgraceful. Anyone who agrees with them should go and read an article containing the good and bad, rather than sucking up the shit they're being sold. The photos of the parties suggest the average age of people attending them is too young for them to have been in any way affected. A lot of students in fact, they do have short memories...

All the shit she did does not make me wonder that some of them are happy. Let them party. The witch is dead now. I hope she goes to hell. That woman was like pure evil and a prime example that women can be as cruel as men.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Not sure I understand the reason for all the partying. Thatcher may have died, but she died undefeated, aged 87, in the comfort of the Ritz Hotel, having secured a mid-term victory of the capital over the labor movement. Is that really a cause for celebration? Reverse the effects of her anti-social policies first, then start celebrating.

[DEL]

Mrs Thatcher may have sold all our manufacturing and doomed us financially, but still...I'm going to say Rest in Peace.

In other brighter news, Lady Gaga turned 27 the other day , so she's eligible. I can now add her to my very short list:
Emile Sande & Lady Gaga.

[NTSC-J]

Sportscaster Pat Summerall



Actor Richard Leparmentier

[EllertMichael]

Richard "Philadelphia" Collins of Trailer Park Boys fame passed away on April 15, 2013

Some highlights of his work on TPB: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evCj25UtfLM

[Pyongyang]

One half of Kriss Kross has popped his clogs.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 00278.html

[BIL]

Booting up my Mega CD for some Dennin Aleste right now in his honour. ;_;7

edit: whoa, what the fuck? Spoony's Kriss Kross video is no longer on YT! Well fuck that shit then.

[Vyxx]

Jeff Hanneman (guitarist of Slayer) dead at 49'from liver failure.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/ ... dead-at-49

[evil_ash_xero]

Jeff Hanneman (guitarist of Slayer) dead at 49'from liver failure.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/ ... dead-at-49

I was just listening to Reign In Blood and Seasons In The Abyss the other day.

I can't believe that Kriss Kross kid is dead.

[Mortificator]

Yeah, I remember hearing about their reunion performance earlier this year. Adios, Mac Daddy.

[drauch]

Ray Harryhausen died today at 92. One of my heroes through childhood, well into adulthood. Definitely a huge impact on my imagination and the things I love today.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

^very sad to hear. Kind of amazing that he outlived Stan Winston and Gerry Anderson.

[Jon]

^^^I have fond memories of watching Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans with my dad when I was a wee one. Sad news.

[O. Van Bruce]

They've dedicated a whole hour to talk about his work and life in a radio station here... Didn't know about his paramount importance for the cinema industry until now.

Indeed, rest in peace.