I’m trying to procrastinate, so I should be blogging, but all I want to talk about is Romney’s airplane window comment and the NFL scab refs. And it’s safe to say, we’ve already covered those topics here.
So maybe an open thread is in order.
Update. But I can’t resist this principled Randian reaction to the scab refs from Jimmy P.
For the first time in years, interested in the NFL. Temp ref factor is thrilling! Game day is Anything Can Happen Day!
— James Pethokoukis (@JimPethokoukis) September 25, 2012
Update. Romney was just kidding about the airplane windows. I can stop obsessing now. It’s kind of funny, I give him credit.
Culture of Truth
via Twitter via WaPo:
“These refs are in Over their heads!!! OBVIOUSLY!!!” — Samuel L. Jackson
WarMunchkin
No, we’re not done with NFL for this reason:
Fresh from TPM:
Xboxershorts
The real scabs in the NFL aren’t the replacement refs, the real scabs are the cheap shit, union busting, douchebag owners and their patsy, Roger Goodell
Violet
Scott Brown’s supporters chant Indian war whoops and do the Tomahawk chop. http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/video-scott-brown-staffers-chant-indian-war-whoop
Apparently some Brown staffers are in the crowd. Nice supporters the guy has there.
Culture of Truth
Romney: The Whole Planet Is Lazy
“The aim of a much larger share of our aid must be the promotion of work and the fostering of free enterprise,” Romney said. “Nothing we can do as a nation will change lives and nations more effectively and permanently than sharing the insight that lies at the foundation of America’s own economy and that is that free people pursuing happiness in their own ways build a strong and prosperous nation.”
the white man’s burden never ends
El Tiburon
Perhaps Bain can purchase Boeing – design convertible 747s – see company go bankrupt – Mitt makes millions!
Also from Him Whose Name Shall Not Be Mentioned!
New Stanford/NYU study documents the civilian terror from Obama’s drones
New research shows the terrorizing impact of drones in Pakistan, false statements from US officials, and how it increases the terror threat
hueyplong
Are others as worried as I am that Akin’s 3 pm press conference will be to say he’s dropping out?
Having Newt predict good things for him yesterday almost has to have been the kiss of death.
Violet
@hueyplong: Didn’t know he had a 3 pm press conference. I figure with New fundraising for him and Jim DeMint either flirting with helping or already helping (can’t remember which), he’s in it for the long haul.
Suffern ACE
@hueyplong: I’m not certain why he would drop out. You don’t drop out just because you are losing. Sure, if you find out you have a terminal disease, or are arrested for something. But just because you’ve had a few bad weeks and are out of money?
Cris (without an H)
My employer is getting ready to utilize all us salaried employees as scabs, assuming they don’t get their act together with the IBEW. Fuck them. I’m looking for other jobs.
jheartney
@hueyplong: FYI here in Missouri you can already vote absentee as of today. Votes in the Senate race are already being cast. I think we’re way too late for Akin to do anything other than “suspend” his campaign, and I have no idea why he would bother. More likely it is to announce that American Crossroads is going all in on this race after all and shortly there will be wall-to-wall McCaskill attacks on all local media.
Violet
@Suffern ACE: Plus he played with the press and held several press conferences after he said the rape stuff. Got lots of free press. Maybe he’s trying it again.
How are the polls in Missouri?
Jay C
@Culture of Truth:
Y’know, in some languages, you can shorten these concepts up to make them more concise and understandable, like, say:
Arbeit Macht Frei
Much better….
Brachiator
@hueyplong:
There’s a downside to this?
It’s not as though GOP policies toward women will get better just because this guy drops out.
@El Tiburon:
Oh, God. Oh, God. Obama is the only man in the universe with evil drones. We must eliminate them. Next, we must get rid of airplanes, missles, hell even rocks.
Drones is worster than atom bombs. Oh, the horror. Clutch some pearls.
Suffern ACE
Let me guess. James is a former XFL fan who refers to real pro football as the “No Fun League”.
WereBear
Hey, Mr. Pethokoukis, don’t stop there! The next time you go to the hospital, catch a place, or just grab lunch.
Any day can be that way.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hueyplong: Yup, but fucker’s crazy. It could just as easily be his nyah-nyah-nyah moment.
@Violet: Brown really is Romney’s mini-me, so angry about being challenged he doesn’t know where to turn. It seems to me that even with all the caveats about resentful mooks, this kind of vulgar frat-boy racism has to turn off the sort of Volvo-driving tote-baggers (not to engage in cultural stereotypes or anything) who are looking for an excuse to vote for tax cuts while telling themselves they’re thoughtful independents.
Michele
The Onion weighs in on Seahawks/Packers…
Elizabelle
@hueyplong:
Yeah.
Makes me nervous too.
Of course, that’s every time Akin opens his mouth. Or thinking he could be elected to our august Senate body.
But not good.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ
Indeed! Outright cheating, maiming, more blood and gore and maybe if we’re lucky, even death! /snark obviously
This Pethokoukis guy actually wants to see bad decisions and players getting hurt because he thinks it adds “spice” to the game. See it’s all about him and his entertainment. The players can just fend for themselves. Perhaps the NFL is the perfect metaphor for what would happen in society at large if the “free market” were to take over. No fairness, no recourse for injuries, caveat emptor, more injury and death, and the rich get richer. Anyone with a scintilla of empathy and intelligence should understand that this is a very bad idea for everyone except those who are lucky enough and/or mercenary enough to end up on top. I think we should suit Ptehokoukis up and put him into one of these games. Then when he’s getting the crap beat out of him ask, “Are you not entertained?!”
Anya
@Violet: How is that not offensive? These stupid assholes are relying on the Hollywood images of half-clothed Indian savages, screaming war cries. What makes this even worse is that some of those racist assholes are staff members of a US Senator. Stay classy, Scott Brown.
Zifnab
I’m a little surprised because NASCAR fans have actually broken for Obama on the aggregate, and Pethokoukis strikes me as the kind of guy more interested in watching pile-up wrecks than actual sports.
Villago Delenda Est
@WarMunchkin:
The stupid. It BURNS!
Paul Ryan. Fan of the Communist controlled Green Bay Packers.
Let’s heighten the contradictions, again!
Forum Transmitted Disease
It’s all awesome until a specific kind of quarterback – has to be some square-jawed, All-American type, like Brady – gets a cervical vertebrae shattered by the next helmet to helmet play and winds up in a tongue-controlled wheelchair for the rest of his short and hellish life.
Then and only then will this bullshit stop.
ETA: It’s not obvious from my post, but I pray this ends long before we get to the point of someone needing to be maimed/die.
Eric U.
I don’t know how the players can take it. It’s like playing a game where there is an 8 y.o. making up the rules after each play is over.
Ash Can
Poor Scott Walker pines for unionized NFL refs.
japa21
So Romney was joking. One would have to assume he was, yet the story has already spread like wildfire. The “Romney is a dumbass” meme is too far gone to be pulled back now.
Jay C
@Violet: @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Well, Sen. Brown’s state is known for the prevalence of what most other New Englanders term “Massholes”; but one really has to wonder if relying heavily on this demographic is the way to victory. It was bad enough when he was sneering about it in the debate, but I think J,FL has it right: Elizabeth Warren is running a campaign founded on policy, and what she’ll do for the people of Massachusetts as Senator; Scott Brown seems to trying to rely on “Indian” mockery: not a good sign for his chances.
Chyron HR
@Eric U.:
Can’t we have one thread where we don’t talk about the Romney campaign?
El Tiburon
Has the thought ever emerged that the NFL Players threaten to strike to show solidarity?
Dork
The game looked fixed. So many phantom/fake flags thrown.
Violet
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s kind of what I’m hoping. It’s one thing to vote for Walker when he seems like a nice, reasonable guy. It’s another when he beats up on Elizabeth Warren with stupid stuff like her personal family stories and then his supporters acts like intolerant thugs.
yam
@Ms. D. Ranged in AZ:
Sounds like he watches NASCAR for the crashes and hockey for the fights, too.
LanceThruster
So Jimmy P. wants the excitement of the unexpected as in BASEketball (or maybe Blernsball)?
Zifnab
@Eric U.: Can we rename the sport to Calvinball, yet?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jay C: @Violet: ABL has the video upstairs, and I can’t imagine the local news isn’t gonna be all over it, and Brown is gonna spend the next week apologizing, and it’s gonna be hard for him to distance himself from the asshole in the beige hat when Brown himself has made “fauxcohontas” the main plank in his platform.
DPS
Of course he was kidding; this was totally obvious from the video. That was really strange to me when everybody went all “OMG he doesn’t know how planes work!!!”; this is the kind of humorless cluelessness that you see all the time with wingnuts, and it was just really, really weird to see people on the left doing it.
Jewish Steel
If you need inspiration, DougJ, Bobo has written a mash note to his beautiful conservative mind over @ NYT.
Take away: Conservatives forgot to do it for the kids, man.
LanceThruster
@Zifnab:
xD
Brachiator
I guess some people are mad at this Roger Goodell guy, whoever he is.
Something about football, I don’t know.
Villago Delenda Est
@DPS:
Is he kidding, though, about cold fusion?
amused
@DPS: Don’t you get it? Romney’s been Rick Perryed. That’s a good thing.
Punchy
@El Tiburon: Players are not allowed to strike, per their latest CBA.
SatanicPanic
This Pethatoukis guy is psycho. Rooting for injuries is not cool, unless we’re talking about conversations between Gail Collins and David Brooks.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator:
Goodell is doing exactly what the Jerry Jones faction of the NFL owners wants him to do.
To get to the true rot, storm the skyboxes and toss assholes like Jones over the edge, into the cheap seats.
schrodinger's cat
@DPS: Did not see the video, just read about it, his performance over the past couple weeks, is responsible for most of us believing the worst, i.e. Romney is not on the money these days.
Villago Delenda Est
@SatanicPanic:
He’s a libertarian. Of course he’s psycho.
Zifnab
@DPS: Something you think the GOP would have learned from Bush and Perry – if the mushy middle thinks you might be an idiot, maybe don’t act like an idiot?
Even if it was an attempt at humor, he’s got all the comic timing of Bill O’Reilly. I agree it sounds about the same as Republicans screaming about teleprompters and “57 States!” but all the same its the sort of unforced error we’ve kinda grown to expect from the Romney campaign.
low-tech cyclist
Maybe Pethokoukis would like it even better if, after each play, we just flipped a bunch of coins to decide whether the play stood or not, and what penalties, if any, would be called.
That is, after all, the direction the NFL has moved in by locking out the regular refs and putting a bunch of incompetents in there. So if that’s good, going all the way to totally random ‘officiating’ decisions in place of actual officiating would be even better, right?
Jay C
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Before I take my comments “upstairs” to ABL’s thread, I might point out that Sen. Brown’s “apology” so far has been, pretty much, nothing of the sort: to wit:
Classy, dude: classy…..
Violet
@DPS: I watched the video. Didn’t think he seemed to be joking. Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9j0brl9ZSA
SatanicPanic
@Villago Delenda Est: Can we schedule a charity game between prominent libertarians and an NFL team, say, The Raiders? I would find that thrilling.
scav
@DPS: Boy doesn’t actually mean a single thing that’s coming out of his mouth, he’s kidding about the whole campaign platform. Works retroactively too. All statements of ‘fact’ can be explained away with contracts, powerpoint and sheer ignoring internal contradictions.
LanceThruster
@DPS:
So with OvenMitt, it’s easy to tell when he serious about a dumb idea versus when he’s only joking about a dumb idea?
What do you have your decoder ring set at?
Tractarian
Of course Mitt was joking! I mean, who among us doesn’t love a good fiery-airplane-death joke?
Besides, my sources within the flying world tell me that Mitt is not a happy or comfortable flyer. The poor guy has no choice but to fly, white-knuckled and red in the face from laughter, from one stop to the next.
Someone with this outlook would naturally be all the more likely to make a joke about an emergency landing. So cut him all the more slack.
Amir Khalid
American football is not my sport. I became certain of this after the one and only Super Bowl game I watched while in America. But I have to sympathise with the people affected by the poor scab refereeing in NFL games. Match results are being called into question. Fans come away feeling their team was robbed. Surely worst of all, players’ safety and health are being endangered by referees’ failure to police dangerous play. And all because competent referees have been locked out by the team owners over a sum amounting, if I understand it right, to one four-thousandth of the NFL’s annual revenues.
At least, the NFL Players Association should be preparing for a walkout over player safety, whether they sympathise with the referees or not. And are there no supporters’ associations in the gridiron sport, such as association football has had for many decades? If there are, these groups should also be kicking up a big fuss. Maybe they should sue for refunds on their season tickets if the incompetent, and literally dangerous, scab refereeing persists.
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
It’s just football, and fans are easily mollified. Ultimately, the owners will toss a few bucks at the refs and the problem will go away.
In the long run, nobody is going to storm the boxes of the people who bring them the circus portion of bread and circuses.
Comrade Mary
Meh. I’ve now seen the “Mitt jokes about fiery death” video. It was intended as a joke — he’s slightly smiling all the way through it, and he tries to punch the rhythm of the punchline — but despite the Blaze saying that “everyone” laughed, it got a mild titter at best, so really, a bad, ham-handed joke, as I said last night. Boy has no sense of timing.
catclub
@japa21: and did you know that Al Gore claimed to have invented the internet.
This is what happens when the press does not like you.
Enhanced Mooching Techniques
So he was joking, but wow, it didn’t come across that way.
More of Mitt of the uncanny valley.
penpen
DougJ, your favorite “Vichy Democrat” Kevin Drum just jumped aboard Fallows’ “Leave Plane-ophobic Mitt Alone” wagon, though he adds the additional fail of posting after it has been revealed Mitt was joking. I look forward to your shit-stirring post explaining why Drum is History’s Greatest Monster.
Seriously though, while Drum does have this irritating tendency towards flimsy high-mindedness once in a while, I read his blog daily and he does good work tearing down right wing BS in his wonky way. You blow his dumb little tics way out of proportion, he’s far from Broder territory. He’s not even as bad as Yglesias or Joe Klein.
catclub
@Tractarian: Someone else has already pointed out that if he does not like flying, maybe being president is a job he should avoid trying to get.
Given his current status, he has options to avoid flying.
JGabriel
__
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DougJ @ Top:
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Speaking of the funny, via K-thug: Econotrolls! @ Noah Smith’s site.
Maude
@penpen:
The problem is that no one knew Romney was kidding. That’s a tell as we say here at BJ.
Go tell Kevin what you think.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ
@yam: I can’t stand sports fans like that. And I use the term “sports fan” very loosely since the fouls aren’t part of the sport, they’re violations of it. But that’s a little too intellectual for idjits who like fist fights and injuries, I suppose.
Tractarian
@catclub: I was trying to paraphrase James Fallows.
Comrade Mary
@Maude: I don’t know: I think any reasonable person who had been in the room would have seen that it was intended as a joke. (Did you see the video I linked above?)
It sounds as if a pool report got blown up by reporters who weren’t in the room. We can ding Mitt for all kinds of things, but I think he’s figured out pressurized cabins by now.
Bill in Section 147
Romney joke treated as serious idiocy on his part? Too bad. It is not the first time something was misconstrued to make a candidate look bad.
It wouldn’t have taken off if it were not so believable.
On the refs, not only should they reinstate the refs they should totally revamp the whole thing. Refs should be a full time job, they should be treated like the athletes, maybe even get the league minimum and have to make the team every year.
So far the replacement refs have one thing going in their favor. Teams like New England do not get all the calls. The refs are biased and so is the league. “It is not as bad as the NBA,” shouldn’t be the first excuse.
pete
Mittbot joke script not great but not too bad. Mittbot human interface needs seriously redesign. Note to programmers: just adding “joke!” after comment is insufficient to engage laugh mode in sentient humans.
different-church-lady
Romney was later quoted as saying, “I was attempting this ‘humor’ thing that I have been told your species sometimes engages in.”
penpen
@Maude: @Comrade Mary: Maude, you have a bit of a point, but I’m more with Mary (and DougJ in the OP) on this one. It was a misunderstanding, and clinging to it makes us look petty and inane in the way right wingers look whenever they talk about Obama saying “57 states.” If anything give Romney credit for successfully provoking laughter in humans.
different-church-lady
@Comrade Mary:
Ahh, so at the Libyan consulate press conference he was also just making joke.
suzanne
@Brachiator:
Truth.
These are people that knowingly employ rapists, FFS, and the viewers didn’t care. It’s disappointing to me that these seemed to be no widespread talk of a viewer boycott of the NFL until the outcome of a game was affected. Those of us who suggested it after a player got injured were derided as “soy-eating Nader-voting douchebags” on this very site. I have a feeling that if I’d suggested a boycott merely to show solidarity against union-busting, everyone would have treated me as if I’d suggested punching a kitten.
So, as far as I can tell, to a football fan, employing a rapist is less of a problem than union-busting or not punishing a dirty player, all of which are far less severe crimes than calling a play wrong and costing the winner the game.
amused
He was “just kidding.”
The Other Chuck
Ahhh so Mitt was joking, I see. Because normally, even with deadpan comics, people know they’re actually telling a joke.
I’d tell you to not quit your day job, Mitt, but you don’t really have one, do you?
LanceThruster
@different-church-lady:
OvenMitt is like the last of the Brunnen-G.
The dead do not joke.
scav
If I’m noticeing things about the NFL ref situation, things be bad for owners. Also, they seem to have even been pure enough to refuse to train their scabs when they got push-back. from ChiTrib
different-church-lady
@LanceThruster: This is cool: I have literally no idea what show that wiki is talking about. I am now officially my parents.
Lojasmo
@DPS:
It is not at all “obvious” that he was kidding. He was being his usual jackass self, but I don’t see any evidence that he was joking.
ericblair
@The Other Chuck:
I think he should totally continue joshing and japing with the general run of humanity. He made a joke here, and has a good percentage of the press wondering if he’s really that big an idiot or what. He kids about the quality of homemade cookies, and ends up looking like a huge asshole and probably left the poor baker in tears.
Unless you are trying to be insulting and offensive (hey, Mitt, give that a try just for grins), it takes a pretty good reading of your audience to see how far you can go and what will click with them. Mitt ain’t got the gift here, and most of his “humor” is the schoolyard bully taunting variety that your asshole boss can get away with, but somebody who actually wants something from you can’t.
blingee
Ahhh and the thing about cold fusion? He wasn’t kidding about that.
Bobby Thomson
The only “evidence” cited by the reporter that he was joking is that it was so stupid he couldn’t possibly be serious and that everyone laughed at him.
Sorry, that just doesn’t cut it. Romney has otherwise shown that he really is incredibly fucking stupid. I don’t think he was joking and I’m not going to replace my own judgment with that of someone with a vested interest in maintaining access.
Bill Arnold
I’ve been wondering if Fallows’ tongue was in cheek, that he was quietly suggesting that somebody afraid to fly is less qualified to be president that somebody otherwise equally qualified who is not afraid to fly. Fallows can be subtle.
Calouste
People also didn’t think he was joking because just before this comment he was talking about how concerned he was about his wife.
He is either stupid because he doesn’t understand pressurized cabins, or he is stupid because he doesn’t understand that he doesn’t have the timing, presentation and the image to pull off jokes like that. Obama can do self-depreciating jokes, Romney can’t.
Gwiwer
So, Romney claims he was joking about the airplane window thing, but meh. In a lot of ways that’s actually worse than if he was serious. I mean, supposedly the guy has a pretty serious phobia about air travel so it’s vaguely sympathetic and understandable if he’s clueless about airplanes because they scare the hell out of him. “Planes scare the hell out of me so I’m not very interested in learning about the mechanics of air travel” is a little more normal than, “HA! My wife almost died on a plane so now I’m going to make a joke about it except I’m such a sociopath that most people can’t even tell when I’m joking because I have no idea how this whole humor thing works anyway.” Either way you slice it, it just ends up underscoring the fact that Romney is weird and clueless. He really has to be one of the worst candidates in modern history.
LanceThruster
@different-church-lady:
Not to worry.
There’s a lot of product out there. In the final season, the crew of the LEXX was transported to the Dark Universe (which was ours actually) and everything operated in the fashion of Upright Citizens Brigade (i.e. ridiculous events being part of a master plan).
LanceThruster
@Calouste:
Yeah. I’m wary of the whole —
“Ermahgerd, ermahgerd! My wife might have died a horrible fiery death on an airplane. But if she was burned beyond recognition, I’d be definitely changing my views on divorce [big grin]…amirite? And why do they call it ‘burned beyond all recognition’? Have you ever seen a burn victim? They’re the most recognizable people on the planet.” (ba-da-BUMP!)
h/t Jim Jefferies
JustRuss
@Comrade Mary: I agree. Say what you will about McCain, the man knew how to tell a joke. Mittens doesn’t.
Derp
You guys need to watch the video.
Romney’s not joking. There’s no pause to wait for the audience reaction. Ann isn’t laughing at his joke. The only laughter you hear is the audience– they laughed because they -thought- it was a joke, because how stupid can he be?
flukebucket
@JustRuss:
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran! (snort, chortle)
I can’t help but wonder if 100 years from now Iran will be threatening to close the Straits of Hormuz and be only a year or two away from having a nuclear weapon.
xian
@japa21: this happened to Quayle, too. Once the narrative was set, even innocent errors got wrapped in.
Bobby Thomson
@Derp: This.
Tonal Crow
Bullmitt says that teachers’ unions should be banned from speaking out in elections because “It’s an extraordinary conflict of interest.” Shockingly, he said nothing whatsoever about banning corporations from similar activities.
Another day, another pile of bullshit from Romney.
—
Romney: like Sarah Palin, but more dishonest.
DFH no.6
@Derp:
Watched the video a couple times.
IMAO, Romney was trying to be humorous about a situation that just didn’t lend itself to humor.
Sorry, but DougJ is wrong here – it’s not even “kind of” funny, and the only credit I would give Romney is for being a clueless asshole.
It was incredibly poor judgment on his part to even attempt to find humor in that situation. What he said was lame and not remotely funny (that’s why what laughter there was from the audience was faint and strained), and he came across as a wooden doofus who was maybe trying to be self-effacing, but instead simply fell flat on his face.
It’s easy to see why some would think he was displaying actual ignorance regarding something as basic to modern life as why airliner windows don’t open. Because if this was a joke attempt (and I think it was) then that’s the part he was trying to play – an ignoramus who doesn’t know why airline windows don’t open. And, because of his stiff delivery, and the seriousness of the situation he was talking about, it wasn’t immediately obvious that he was kidding.
Does Mitt Romney know that airliner windows don’t open because of cabin pressurization? Yeah, most likely.
But so what? It was still an amazingly crass and – because the motherfucker is running for president, with his campaign currently cracking up all around him mostly due to stupid shit he himself has said – head-scratchingly foolish thing to say.
So, people can make all the excuses they want for him, but: Romney FAIL.
I’ve flown hundreds of times in my life (mostly business) and have therefore experienced my share of scary turbulence (worst probably was flying through a massive thunderstorm at night over Texas where some passengers were screaming in fear as the airliner lurched up and down and lightning burst all around) and hard landings and so on, but never a fire on an airplane.
That’s some truly serious, dangerous shit. Unless you’re a professional stand-up comic it’s not something you joke about, especially in the immediate aftermath with your loved one who had been in the truly serious, dangerous fire situation fucking standing right there on stage with you before an audience.
Really, what kind of prick does that?
Mitt Romney, that’s who.
Bobby Thomson
@DFH no.6:
Based on what? You’re begging the question.
Older
@different-church-lady: Actually, your parents probably watched that show. I know we did.