The Jaffe Briefing - December 3, 2019
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – All Sen. Cory Booker needs is love (and 270 electoral votes) to become President. The theme of the junior senator’s first media buy, costing an unspecified six figures, is “Love.” It features grainy black and white footage of civil right marchers, a torched Freedom Rider bus, and burly sheriffs scaring off peaceful protesters. Those images are contrasted with full-color video of a torchlight parade of white nationalists and other hatemongers. Booker’s message: love has triumphed over hate; it can do so again. This isn’t just about pitting the senator against President Donald Trump, who makes a convenient cameo in the ad. The immediate goal is bumping up Booker’s poll numbers so he will be invited to the December 19 debate with the other Democratic presidential candidates, NJ Spotlight reports. Let’s see if a little love can keep his struggling campaign alive.
NEW BRUNSWICK – Finally, there’s been something positive from former Gov. Chris Christie shooting off his mouth. It seems, according to NJ.com, that Christie throwing some unsolicited opinions into the Rutgers coaching saga forced the university and Greg Schiano to come back together. Christie’s latest gem: “When a coach is demanding an eight-year guarantee from a public institution and 34 million dollars, and then says on top of it ‘I want private air travel for me and my family for the entire eight years’ ... I’m sorry. He’s not Bear Bryant, he’s not Urban Meyer. He’s an unemployed football coach who now wants the taxpayers of the state of New Jersey to pay for his private air travel.” Then, Christie claimed Schiano was intentionally pricing himself out of the job. Somehow, Christie’s ill-informed, pompous rant prompted Schiano’s desire to want to return to Rutgers even more, helping cement the deal. Thank you, Gov. Christie. (Now, please go away.)
FRANKLIN TWP– Giant Chinese mussels are no longer attacking the Delaware River’s delicate ecology or its commercial fishing industries. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service experts say they're fairly sure they’ve won a three-year fight to eradicate these Godzilla-like Asian mollusks hiding in the muddy bottom of nine ponds at a former Hunterdon County fish farm. TAPinto says the invasive mussels – that grow to football-size – are their first known U.S. infestation and got here years ago as larvae in the gills of imported Chinese carp. Owners of the former 50-acre fishery, now a nature preserve, raised rare imported fish for sale as edible delicacies to restaurants and Asian markets, creating an environmental mess in the process. Bon appétit.
NEWARK – Keep your homeless in NYC. That’s the message from Mayor Ras Baraka, who seems clearly ticked that Mayor Bill de Blasio considers Newark the ideal new home for 1,200 or so homeless people. Newark has sued New York in federal court for accusations of deliberately unloading its homeless problem on surrounding cities, NJ.com reports. Newark lawyers complain of “ill-conceived, surreptitious efforts to shift the burdens associated with the homeless to other communities in this nation, by forcing [homeless people] to accept the proverbial 'offer they can't refuse.'” Consider it government “in action:” passing an unsolvable problem to someone else and declaring victory.
IN THE MEDIA
SEATTLE – Got a knack to write catchy newspaper headlines? Well, the Seattle Times is challenging its readers to take their best shot. They’ve got until mid-December to come up with two punchy headlines for news they’d like see happen in 2020. This is one editor’s clever idea to engage that paper’s dwindling readership. Winners get Times-themed prizes while the winning submissions will get printed on New Year’s Day. But, boiling down articles to a few eye-popping words – like “Headless Body in Topless Bar” or “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD” – takes ingenuity, wit and a bit of a twisted mind. And that’s what makes it such damn fun.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota officials are still somehow high on their controversial “Meth. I’m On It” campaign, hopeful it’s the miraculous antidote to their state’s methamphetamine epidemic. A Minnesota marketing firm cooked up the quirky slogan as part of a $1.4 million media campaign. A TV commercial showing people of different ages and races saying: “Meth. I’m on it,” is getting rolls of laughter on social media as Twitter users offer spoofs like: “Heroin. We’re Up in Arms,” “Pot. A Natural High,” and “Cocaine: We Nose What’s Up.” Gov. Kristi Noem tells the Argus Leader the backlash simply “means people are talking … so our campaign is working.” (Even with all the chuckles.)
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 2016 that officials at the University of Texas used their brainpower to figure out what happened to 100 jars of missing brains that had been stored in a basement. One psychology professor tells the Austin American-Statesman the case was a real head-scratcher, suggesting some undergrads may have used the brains for some killer Halloween pranks. University officials vowed to scour the campus for the missing brains, not authorized as standard dorm decor.
WORD OF THE DAY
WIT OF THE DAY
TODAY'S TRUMPISM
WEATHER IN A WORD
Clearing
THE NEW 60
A Jaffe Briefing Exclusive
by Andy Landorf & John Colquhoun
