BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 3-5, 2026) — They will be receiving at least $4 million more this year than last year. They’ll calling it a cut. THE PLANET welcomes you to the Bitchfield Public School Department. Where up is down, more is less, and […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY APRIL 1, 2026) — Do you ever get the feeling that the 2026 version of Bitchfield is a giant April Fool’s joke? THE PLANET recently fielded a query from someone who wondered about the origin of the term “Bitchfield,” our loving moniker for […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 30, 2026) — THE PLANET prematurely pressed the PUBLISH button for this column when it was in ROUGH draft form, but we have attended to the matter. This was intended for Monday publication, with our column on Iran meant for The Weekend […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 27-9, 2026) — I ran. Might that be what Uncle Sam will say with respect to the tarpit of Iran? That’s one outcome, that President Trump gets the heck out and declares “victory,” the way Nixon claimed in Vietnam. Tarpits […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 23, 2026) — Shifting war = shifting assessment. THE PLANET supported the Trump Administration’s first strike in Iran in June. Certainly, we knew when we issued that determination that this story had legs, as we say in the business, and that things […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MoNDAY MARCH 22, 2026) — An enlightening sequence of communication in the Comments section here shed the Kleig lights on the fundamental problem with downtown Bitchfield. THE PLANET, of course, has been faithful in documenting verse-and-chapter the demise of center city as a shopping, business, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 20-22, 2026) — As THE PLANET celebrates the Rites of String, we bring attention to this week’s mystery, “The Strange Case of Brooklyn’s Best.” As a Holmesian classic, it may not rate, but as an exemplification of Pittsfield politics, it […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ED NOTE: THERE HAS BEEN SOME DEBUGGING WORK GOING ON AT THE PLANET, DEALING WITH FIREWALLS, SECURITY, AND RELATED. THIS HAS INADVERTENTLY PREVENTED CERTAIN COMMENTS FROM BEINRG POSTED. PLEASE KNOW THAT THE ISSUE IS NOW RESOLVED. THANKS. AND KEEP READING. (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEDNESDAY MARCH 18, 2026) […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE MONDAY MARCH 16, 2026) — With THE PLANET‘s brackets filled and not a drop of bubble spilled on our voodoo volume of Bracketology, we can bring you the Reader’s Digest version of the recent budget talks conducted by the conspirators in the Bitchfield Sochol […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 13-5, 2026) — Recently, THE PLANET brought up one of the many the third-rail issues in the city. We refer to the PILOT program. Payment In Lieu of Taxes is a tax-avoidance strategy used in 82 of the Commonwealth’s 351 […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE MONDAY MARCH 9, 2026) — MOM, the Matriarchy of Massachusetts, loves to evade the truth. This aversion to honesty, has, another other wreckage, shows up in the disaster of failing public school systems, when MOM resorts to euphemism. Failing districts aren’t failing; they’re “turnaround” […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 6-8, 2026) — In THE PLANET‘s columns earlier this week, we raised concerns and questions on the joint America-Israel attack on Iran. We see this action not in black and white but in shades of gray, and way more than […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEDNESDAY MARCH 4, 2026) — In 1973, with the Vietnam War reaching Act IV given the Paris Peace Accords and another two years left until the disastrous exit from Saigon (remember those helicopters being thrown overboard?), Congress passed the War Powers Act in a […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE MONDAY MARCH 2, 2026) — Wouldn’t it be nice, THE PLANET fantasizes, to have a giant chain saw, one big enough to cut away the Middle East. We’d start hacking at Yemen, work out way up the peninsula to Saudi Arabia, Oman, U.A.E, Qatar, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE THE WEEKEND EDITION FEB. 27-MARCH 1, 2026) — Ah, March, harbinger of spring. In like a lying and out like a lamp. THE PLANET loves it. It was One Big Beautiful Speech. The State of the Union address, that is. President Trump even got […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEDNESDAY FEB. 25, 2026) — Potholes and snow removal: The bane of every mayor. Some towns and cities (Dalton, MA; Syracuse, NY) have it down pat. Others (Bitchfield, MA; New York, NY) haven’t a clue. No matter how clean a job a city does, […]
