The Jaffe Briefing - October 14, 2021
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – Election Day is quickly coming to New Jersey and how do we know? Beyond all the TV ads, news articles and lawn signs, there’s now the steady stream of national Democrats hitting our shores. Tomorrow, there’s First Lady Jill Biden doing an event in Edison for Gov. Phil Murphy, we already had Vice President Kamala Harris in Newark last week and then we reach Democratic royalty on Oct. 23, when former President Barack Obama comes to Newark for a rally, kicking off the first day of in-person early voting. It all shows, again, the power of glorious incumbency among Democrats. Curious, of course, if Joe Biden has Jersey on his schedule. Even more curious about Donald Trump. Will he be coming to New Jersey to stump for GOP challenger Jack Ciattarelli or – better yet – was he even invited?
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – And how about more “news” about Trump, who has nothing to do with the upcoming election? Rep. Jeff Van Drew, New Jersey’s infamous Democrat-turned-Republican turncoat, has doubled down in the past in his blind support for Trump, despite all logic. And he is double downing, yet again, not acknowledging the legitimacy of Biden's election as president and still claims Trump is blameless in the Capitol insurrection. Yeah, tired, old news here. Yet Van Drew is still on CNN talking about it, recognizing the sad fact that Trump is still the GOP frontrunner in 2024.
SCOTCH PLAINS – Some people might get back their stuff. There’s been drama unfolding this week at a Route 22 storage facility, where workers have been throwing away items damaged during Hurricane Ida. One problem: People want their things back, no matter what, creating a bit of a kerfuffle in the parking lot, as the storage facility flatly refused access and referred people to a ringing phone line in California. Some momentum yesterday, TAPInto reports, with a local woman hiring a lawyer and getting a court order to prevent Public Storage from chucking any more of her belongings. She is now free to hire her own remediation company to comb through her 35 years of memories and see what’s salvageable. It remains unclear about everyone else still banging down the door.
BRIEFING BREATHER
A group of owls is called a parliament.
DOWN THE SHORE – Time to head back to the beach? Dig back out those flip-flops, and forgo that pumpkin latte, as the October weather just seems to be getting warmer and warmer. Records are being watched at NJ.com, reporting that temperatures are expected to soar into the 80s on Friday and Saturday as this could become the hottest October on record. Thank you, greenhouse gases, as we put back up that beach umbrella and see if there is any suntan lotion remaining in that tube from Labor Day weekend. Temperatures over the next few days will be about 15 degrees warmer than average this month, one of the awesome fringe benefits in systematically destroying the planet. Ice cold beer, anyone?
ELIZABETH – We all spend lots of time piling on the MVC and its historically crappy service to frustrated drivers statewide. So, let’s take a moment to celebrate something positive: A long-awaited agency opened in Elizabeth to replace a facility that closed 11 years earlier. So, now the MVC is up to 40 offices across the state, to serve the hungry masses, in a state where we take our driving privilege extremely seriously. The new office can serve up to 1,000 transactions a month, to offset at least part of the demand in and around New Jersey’s fourth-largest city.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
PYONGYANG, North Korea – He’s known as the weird blue guy. And that says a lot in a photo of nearly 30 blank soldiers posing for a photo leader with Kim Jong Un during one of his exhibitions of all his fancy weapons. This one North Korean soldier is wearing this super-tight, shiny blue outfit and a pointy helmet in a state media photo, posing with other soldiers in the typical drab green uniforms. Weird blue guy – posing ram-rod straight – has lots of nicknames on social media, like “superhero,” “Captain DPRK,” and “Rocket Man.” South Korean social media was particularly tickled, calling the weird blue guy a “human cannonball” and the sole member of the non-existent North Korean space forces. One North Korean expert surmises that weird blue guy seems to be the official state parachutist. No comment, of course, from North Korea.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1988 that the New Jersey Devils raise their first pennant in the Meadowlands, after winning the Patrick Division on April 30, 1988.
WORD OF THE DAY
Odious – [OH-dee-us] – adjective
Definition: Causing strong hatred or dislike
Example: Nothing in New Jersey is more odious than property taxes.
WIT OF THE DAY
“Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.”
-James Thurber
BIDEN BLURB
“For without unity, there's no peace, only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only state of chaos.”
– Joe Biden
WEATHER IN A WORD
Kooky