FLEMINGTON - Donald Trump's corrupt worldwide thrash-around, hopeless, tongue-dangling cronies in tow, makes the noblest idea of America itself seem elusive at best, land of the dumb and home of the cowed, a wasteland of violence and ignorance helmed by the Twitter-wretched, golf cart-slouching confidant of the late Jeffrey Epstein.

So, to experience something different from that in a place still called America, in New Jersey, after all, lands like a welcome respite from hell. That's the way it felt this morning here in this sedate western town where calm, fact-based scientists and innovators and leaders of New Jersey's business community came together with Governor Mikie Sherrill and her staff in a forum not only civilized but substantive.

The horror coming out of Washington, D.C. with Trump as president is so dreadful, frankly, that one finds himself amazed to find a sliver of civilization still standing out here and America - at least away from Trump and his inner circle of brain-frozen acolytes - resembling something more than a reenactment of Idiocracy.

You can watch NJ Chamber of Commerce Prez Tom Bracken here, and view Governor Sherrill kicking off the roundtable here:

More on the overall scope of Sherrill's priorities here.

In addition, and maybe of greatest importance in the presentation of substance, Lyle Rawlings of Mid-Atlantic Solar & Storage Industries Association, made clear to all those present that New Jersey urgently needs to facilitate the deployment of battery storage.

"Deployment."

Sherrill - who's already on the case - likes words like that.

It's a military term and people at the table saw the Governor keyed in on the Lance Henriksen-like delivery of Rawlings. Battery storage policy and incentives were the first things he wanted to talk about when she gave him the floor.

"The Clean Energy Act of 2018, one of the first bills signed by [Governor Phil] Murphy required the BPU [Board of Public Utilities] to open a battery incentive program two years after the act was signed.

"It's been almost six years later, and there's no relief in sight," Rawlings added. "The BPU has been working hard... but the collaboration between the business community and the BPU needs to up its game, because deploying batteries is very important to addressing affordability. Batteries are required to solve energy crisis. ...Batteries are key to addressing energy growth. We need to get the business community and the BPU together. This is a very important benefit for the distribution system opening up the grid for more solar."

In addition, Rawlings noted, the legislative mandate for solar dies this year.

A bill reupping that commitment died last year and the legislature reintroduced it this year. "We have to get that bill done," Rawlings said.

The extension of a legislative mandate for solar would go to 2035.

Rather than ram a self-aggrandizing Fox News talking point or denounce the information about battery storage as "fake news" or wag the dog with an invocation of the personal financial benefits of Greenland or stand by federal masked men killing Americans, Sherrill serenely asked Rawlings to please provide data points so the state could cross-reference with its own fact-finding. He said he happily intended to comply.

The Governor said she knew this is just the honeymoon period of her young administration, predicting plenty of political fisticuffs to come, while acknowledging that at least people will continue to like legitimate nice guy - and small biz advocate - Lieutenant Governor Dale Caldwell.