The Jaffe Briefing - January 16, 2019
TRENTON - Gov. Phil Murphy's first-ever "State of the State address" was so liberal that attendees slid to the left off their seats, tumbled out of the Statehouse and made a sharp left on West State Street. OK, maybe that's a wee bit overwritten. But Murphy did present one of the most liberal agendas in the past 50 years or so. He slammed corporate tax breaks, especially following an alarming audit that showed widespread unaccountability of $11 billion or so. Our progressive leader did tout the signing of an equal-pay law, further tightening gun policies, the new earned sick leave law, more access to medically-needed pot, addressing climate change and a pilot plan for free community college tuition. Thankfully, he also addressed to woes of NJ Transit, vowing to improve reliability. Property taxes and state pensions? Still an unsolved mess. So count ourselves lucky if the governor can just get the trains to run on time.
TRENTON - Sitting right behind the governor, State Senate President Steve Sweeney was about as animated as an Easter Island head for much of yesterday's speech, NJ Spotlight says. That's probably because Gov. Phil Murphy devoted a chunk of his speech to ripping New Jersey's multibillion-dollar business tax-incentive programs. The programs, much beloved by former Gov. Chris Christie and by Sweeney himself, greatly benefited the latter's South Jersey backyard. But Murphy said the incentives were "rigged to work for a favored few." In the first year of Murphy's governorship, the two have worked together like a rasp on sunburn. NJ Spotlight breaks down the speech that ossified the Senate President.
LINDEN - Plenty of drama on the local school bus, as an aide is canned for throwing some colorful language at a misbehaving nine-year-old boy. Of course, in this era, there's plenty of smartphone video showing the profanity-filled argument between the employee and the child, News 12 New Jersey reports. "You must act like that to your parents. I bet they beat your [expletive] every night. I know your father does," the unidentified aide is heard saying. Then, apparently, the boy curses at her and she appears to grab him, while saying: "Say it again. Call me a [expletive] again," the aide is heard saying. "I'll put your [expletive] head through the window if you say it again." Sheesh. No one can argue with this firing, although there seems to be little fun working as a school bus aide. See the video here; sorry for the annoying ad.
IN PRINT - Now we know what Chris Christie has been doing in that private Morristown office - writing a tell-all book! British tabloid, The Guardian, got a sneak peak at Christie's tome, "Let Me Finish," saying it unleashes "a blistering attack" on President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner; trashes former Attorney General Jeff Sessions; and slams ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn. Christie's book, to be released Jan. 29 by Hachette Books (aptly named, huh?), also says Trump suggested Christie to lose weight to "get ahead in politics" and wear longer neckties to appear thinner. The most scathing of Christie's accusations that Jared Kushner did a political "hit job" on him as revenge for prosecuting his dad, Charlie Kushner, a decade ago. Christie also writes that he rejected Trump's offers to be labor secretary, homeland security secretary, and U.S. ambassador to Rome or the Vatican. Why write all this? Make a few extra bucks? A cry for relevance? Or, gulp, the start of Christie 2020?
IN THE MEDIA
STATEWIDE - First came the Internet, and the newspaper industry was decimated. Then came Gannett, and it set fire to the smoldering shell, buying newspapers on the cheap, laying off as many reporters as possible, producing a subpar product and squeezing nickels from the final droplets of profitability. And now comes Digital First Media, a hedge fund known for buying gasping newspapers and gutting them like mackerel, making a hostile, $1.4 billion bid for Gannett and hoping to vacuum up the fine ash that serves as the remnants of a once glorious newspaper industry. Digital First Media vows to lay off even more staff, if that could be possible, leaving many New Jersey newspapers with perhaps one or two lonely, overworked, underpaid junior reporters, cutting and pasting their way through the day to somehow cover everything and nothing via Wikipedia searches. Who wins? Digital First Media shareholders. Who loses? Everyone else.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
SAN JOSE, Calif. - With an ongoing housing shortage in one of the most desirable zip codes on the planet, some are voicing plenty of cat-itude over the guy who rented a $1,500-a-month studio for his two felines. (No, we are not kitten.) The Mercury News reports that the pair - Tina and Louise - are living in a kitchen-less studio so the man can keep his daughter's beloved cats while she is at college. Apparently, it was a great deal, as the average rent for these studios is nearly $2,000 a month. Hope these two cats aren't caught littering.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 2013 that shrinking revenue forced Canada's Cirque du Soleil to cut loose 400 employees. Hope they weren't hanging too high.
WORD OF THE DAY
Methuselah - [muh-THOO-zuh-luh] - noun
Definition: An ancestor of Noah held to have lived 969 years OR an oversize wine bottle holding about six liters
Example: If "Fox & Friends" has the lifespan of Methuselah, will I be spending the rest of my days guzzling methuselahs?
WIT OF THE DAY
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"Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until they speak."
- Steven Wright
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WEATHER IN A WORD
Forty
