The Jaffe Briefing - May 17, 2022
STATEWIDE – Imagine it’s a typical weekend of sports. NFL, MLB, NBA; you name it. And that means you are faithfully situated in front of the high-def. But state officials are concerned about what happens during the commercial breaks, when you are slammed with ads for online sports betting companies. And they seem to sponsor everything, from the game breaks, to the score recaps to virtually every sellable space not consumed by ads for beer and hair restoration. Assemblyman Ralph Caputo, of Essex County, is fed up. ‘This over marketing and advertising is obnoxious,’ Caputo tells NJ.com. 'It’s obscene… There are a lot of young people who are being influenced by these ads. It’s very upsetting to see.” Yes, Caputo was a leader in bringing sports betting here, netting more than $100 million to state coffers last year. But he is seeing the cost: a generation of sports bettors who are getting hopelessly hooked from the convenience of their smartphones. The question, Caputo ponders: can the ad blitz really be regulated? We wouldn’t bet on it.
STATEWIDE – You order a toothbrush online. It arrives in a box that can fit a Studebaker. There’s now a bill working through the Assembly that would force online retailers to fit the box with the product being shipped, as a way to greatly reduce the volume of cardboard used. Specifically, the legislation would ban large retailers from shipping products in boxes more than twice the volume of the product. Of course, some people have a problem with this, Politico reports, with some Republicans saying that virtually all shipping, after all, is done using easy-to-recycle cardboard boxes – and this would just be another unfair mandate on business. Colorful comments from Assemblyman Brian Bergen (R-Denville), who claimed “this is a horrendous piece of legislation. It’s obviously not well-thought out; there are just an unimaginable amount of examples for ways in which this can’t possibly work.” Business groups, lobbyists and others also chimed in, calling out a number of unintended consequences by simply requiring business to use correctly-sized boxes. Meanwhile, it remains unclear if we will ever find the car magnet buried somewhere in this Amazon box. Hope rings eternal.
BRIEFING BREATHER
Pope John Paul II was an honorary Harlem Globetrotter.
STATEWIDE – It’s likely you already know someone currently dealing with COVID, that stupid, lingering infection that’s just soooo 2019. And now NJ Spotlight is reporting that the number of cases is expected to jump again this fall, as they did in past years, and will be another part of the seasonal flu cycles that we deal with. But the big focus is now. And models show New Jersey will be whacked over the next two weeks with more and more infections, before trending downward this summer. Hospitals are already preparing for an uptick, with double the patients, between now and June 1. Meanwhile, cases are up in this state 74% over the past two weeks. Look to your right; look to your left: yeah, someone has COVID.
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – Tom Kean, Jr: not a crazy, fringe Republican. And that is prompting some concern among that faction, throwing their own candidate into the Congressional race for the 7th district. Introducing Fredon Mayor John Flora, who believes he is the perfect, card-carrying conservative alternative to Kean, who is ginning up for another bruising battle against Rep. Tom Malinowski. InsiderNJ was at a Flora campaign stop in Readington, where the message was that Kean will go to Congress to get along; Flora will go to fight for all the ultra-conservative views held by a relatively small faction of the 7th district. Flora takes issues with universities, public schools and the media – all apparently anti-family, anti-religious and anti-capitalist. Interesting to see Flora’s crowd reaction when his whistle stop tour performs before moderate Republicans.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
SYDNEY – A local resident acted like, well, a crazy North Korean dictator, impersonating Kim Jong Un on Friday, bursting into an event attended by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and lawmaker Gladys Liu. The pseudo-dictator then began holding an impromptu press conference with the gathered media. “Thank you very much. Gladys Liu is the communist candidate for Australia,” he said, before he was interrupted by an aide to Morrison. “Excuse me, you are going to have to leave. This is the most offensive thing I have ever seen in a campaign,” said the aide. This brave impersonator replied: “Excuse me, you don’t tell the supreme leader what to do. I support Gladys Liu.” He was then promptly escorted to the door. North Korean dictators get no respect.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 2011 that the Oprah Winfrey Show goes off the air, prompting many to wonder if they will ever see Oprah again, anywhere.
WORD OF THE DAY
Cherubic – [chuh-roo-bik] – adjective
Definition: Of or having the nature of a cherub, or an angel represented as a rosy-cheeked child with wings; angelic.
Example: It has often been said that I have a cherubic smile.
WIT OF THE DAY
“I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy: ''Dear Jack, Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.’”
- John F. Kennedy
BIDEN BLURB
“But I'm not worried about the midterms. I'm not worried about them. We may end up with more partisan gridlock, but I'm confident we can work it out during my remaining six years in the presidency.”
-Joe Biden
WEATHER IN A WORD
Lovely