The Jaffe Briefing - November 5, 2020
The Jaffe Briefing requires an obvious “mental health day” tomorrow, returning Monday, November 9.
STATEWIDE – The perception of many is that pot smoking is legal now in New Jersey, following the successful ballot question, so light up. But hold off there: The law still needs to be written. NJ.com reports it could take months, if not an entire year, before New Jerseyans can meander into a store to buy their bud, as dispensaries would still need to be licensed and the state sets a system for establishing a tax. Meanwhile, though, things can be done. Assemblyman Jamel Holley, for example, is calling for police to stop arresting people for being caught with a joint and to clear the courts of all cases of minor marijuana offenses. That makes plenty of sense, while the government churns out all the rules and regs, beginning with a bill expected to be introduced today.
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – Donald Trump’s tax returns may soon no longer be newsworthy, so media needs any angle to note the fact that he reportedly has paid next-to-zero in recent years. There’s a great, new angle in focusing on Gov. Phil Murphy’s tax returns, which note the governor and his wife earned $2.7 million last year and paid about $1 million in taxes. One would assume such an overwhelmingly successful real estate tycoon like Trump must certainly have earned so much more than Murphy last year, but, apparently, we’ve learned over the past four years that only “suckers” and “losers” pay taxes. Consider all of us to be both.
BRIEFING BREATHER
72% of Americans sign their pets’ names on greeting cards.
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – A softer Chris Christie has been showing slight space between him and Donald Trump lately, calling out the president for his ongoing claims of “major fraud” in the election. While Trump believes he is the winner (obviously), and likely thinks it was a landslide (obviously), our former governor is a wee bit skeptical. Christie says: “There’s just no basis to make that argument tonight. It just isn’t.” And then he adds: “There comes a point when you have to let the process play itself out before you judge it to have been flawed,” adding the president undercuts his own credibility and “it’s a bad political decision.” While we never understood Christie’s blind affection for the president, we appreciate when he rightfully calls “BS.”
STATEWIDE – Crazed inmates running amok in our streets? Not exactly, but more than 2,200 inmates were let free yesterday from state prisons in an effort to reduce the prison population in this era of COVID-19. It is considered the largest, state-approved jail break in recent years. Prison officials say all these inmates were going to be let free in the next few months or so and something had to be done to relieve a prison system with the highest coronavirus death rate in the country. Not to worry, prison officials say, they aren’t releasing any of the murderers, rapists or sex offenders. That’s nice. But what about the prisoners carrying COVID? Let’s grandly assume there was pre-testing and follow-up.
STATEWIDE – Not only is our state blue, it is also green. Gov. Phil Murphy has signed a stringent law, banning all those single-use plastic and paper bags from stores. Environmentalists and business groups have also come together to laud the state for no longer allowing those polystyrene food containers, which have ensured the remainder of your Chinese food lunch stays in a landfill for the next few generations or so. Also, say good-bye to plastic straws, thoroughly unnecessary and always ending up in our waterways. Likely the smartest part of this legislation is that it is a universal law, replacing the hodge-podge patchwork of local bans and restrictions across New Jersey. Good to be all on the same page, yes?
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – Maybe, for the 2024 election, the pollsters can take that election off. It just seems like poll after poll is so far off these days, rendering them useless. Not to pick on FiveThirtyEight, but let’s do exactly that. Its pollsters proudly proclaimed that Joe Biden would win the Electoral College by 348-190. Yet, in every single swing state but Arizona, Donald Trump outperformed the polling average, making the tabulations misleading at best. How can this be? Other pundits explain that Democrats seem more likely to respond to polls, while these polls also can’t forecast voter turnout or burrow into the minds of those undecided voters. Until this stuff gets hashed out, maybe it’s time for break – for the sake of our sanity.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1988 that France performs its first successful nuclear test. A little late to the party, but ok.
WORD OF THE DAY
Perseverate – [per-SEV-uh-rayt] – verb
Definition: To go back over previously covered ground
Example: If CNN keeps perseverating on the same voting tallies in Nevada, I’m throwing another shoe at the TV.
WIT OF THE DAY
"Vote: the instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country."
- Ambrose Bierce
TODAY'S TRUMPISM
“Our lawyers have asked for 'meaningful access', but what good does that do? The damage has already been done to the integrity of our system, and to the Presidential Election itself. This is what should be discussed!”
-Donald J. Trump
WEATHER IN A WORD
Warming
THE NEW 60
A Jaffe Briefing Exclusive
by Andy Landorf & John Colquhoun
TheNew60Comic.Com
