IT HAS NEVER BEEN BETTER!
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JUNE 14-6, 2019 AND BEYOND THE INFINITE) — Gone fishing.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
Have a great life. May it be full of camp fires, smores, and pan-sizzled salmon.
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“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science” — Albert Einstein.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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I am rooting for Elizabeth Warren for U.S. Prez!
I am also rooting for the lovely Linda Tyer for Mayor of Pittsfield in 2019.
– Jonathan Melle
Do you have a Liz and a Linda inflatable love doll?
Way to keep it classy!
Is Liz or Linda more distasteful? Or maybe both.
Warren is the best candidate for the working men and women.She is the protector of corporations verses families paychecks.Raise SS tomorrow by 20%, she will give us cheaper better one payer healthcare,raise min wage to 15 dollars in the states of poverty in the south.She won’t let wealthy people get wealthier on the backs of the poor.
The State of Ma. gave 7 million dollars so taxpayers in Pittsfield Ma. could get relief.Curtus and Behnke wont run a responsible budget and they are killing Pittsfield.The number 1 problem is Tyler street neighborhood is a cesspool of very ill drug addicts and crime.The children from those homes are neglected in every way.Morningside school should become a drug recovery center for the illness going on their.Why does Pittsfield pay to clean up a gas station.We are out another 200k and that’s enough for 4 police officers
Fishin,what an idea!
Liz Warren is a nightmare candidate for president. Her wild eyed rants of calling anyone a racist who questions her politics is a recipe for disaster for this country. She doesn’t want to be questioned about calling herself a Native American and receiving special favors in colleges for claiming this as her heritage. Her DNA test proved that most Americans have more Native American in their DNA than she does, but they are not using that to claim they deserve special favors due to some tiny amount of it in their DNA.
Anyone who votes for her is easily fooled.
Liz is extremely far left and believes in enslaving us all to big government.
She stripped naked and ran all around the Cherokee Indian Reservation; she still doesn’t have any Indian DNA in her.
Liz Warren is just another HRC. We don’t need a lib in the White House.
Brook trout Dan?
Salmon on the Digedigwash River.
I likened you’ve gone fishing to, The Old Man and Sea.
Hemingwayesque, baby!
I love PCB Perch from Silver Lake.
Good luck & tight lines
TB
Yup. Lines holding, fish biting, and camp fires warm and “cuddly.”
Liz Warren is a warmongering republican that claims progressive ideals now only because it suits her. We deserve better.
so Pat feels the working poor will be hurt by higher wages,interesting.
I think that everyone, including the working poor, would be badly hurt financially and in many other ways by Liz Warren as President.
Let’s raise the minimum wage to $50.00 an hour. Then everyone will be rich.
“I’ve got to admit its getting better….(It can’t get no worse)”
– The Beatles
My favorite:
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert E.
Adequately describes your typical Pittsfield voter.
If we don’t change direction soon, we’ll end up where we’re going.
“If you don’t where you’re going…. any road will take you there.”
-George Harrison
Without this great land of ours, we would all drown.k
“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
Abraham Lincoln
Perfectly describes the average Pittsfield politician
Just heard a call on the ppd scanner someone had two dogs stolen out of their car?
Dan,
Enjoy your fishing trip, for however long it lasts. Too bad Tyer didn’t take a nice long fishing trip, because the first rule of elected office is do no harm and she’s done plenty to The Kapanskis. But if ya listen to her, your headline would succinctly sum up her story of her tenure – it has never been better – that’s her take on the State of the city – a vibrant metropolis on the move. We’re one the move alright, right to the bottom.
Do no harm is a medical doctor saying, unless you are planned parenthood.
Political oath, harm the taxpayers, pad my pocket.
Keep them straight.
I’ll try and that’s a good one right there, about planned parenthood. How about premeditated murder because that’s exactly what abortion is?
For the record, I got the line about a politician doing no harm from the esteemed Howie Carr a few years back, who was speaking of our governor at the time.
Thanks J-99.
Vote for Biden. He can cure cancer.
He’s working on a cure for
Peyronie Disease too.
Biden should be looking for a cure for foot in mouth disease.
Trump/Biden = same actor.
Wrong again, Kemo Sabe.
Trump Train/Shakes/Mr. G = same shill
Democratic National Committee spokesperson Michael Tyler announced Thursday that all candidates who run in the 2020 presidential election as Democrats will completely forego armed security for the entirety of their campaigns, in a clear and bold stance against gun violence in America.
We’ve talked to all possible candidates and everyone has agreed. Gun violence is a huge issue in our country, and guns are the problem. So whoever runs for president as a Democrat in 2020—be it Bernie, Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Jerry Brown, and/or whoever else throws their hat in the ring—they will steadfastly refuse to employ security teams who carry scary firearms.”
Tyler further confirmed that if a Democrat wins the White House in 2020, their first order of business will be to disarm the Secret Service. Asked how the president would then be kept safe, Tyler revealed that they plan on introducing a gun-free zone encompassing a 500-yard radius around the president at all times.
“Problem solved,” he said.
“Liberalism is a mental disorder.” – Michael Savage
Michel Savage has a menta l problem
TSC, if your IQ hits 28 you should sell.
Dump it as soon as it hits your shoe size.
Words of wisdom from Gordon Gekko.
Yes, he is brilliant. Couple of real PhD’s in sciences. Good common sense. Speaks wisdom and truth. I could see that would be a problem for you.
Sleepy Joe, what a tool!
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/06/12/pollak-joe-biden-democrats-loved-obamas-abuses-of-presidential-power/
President Bone Spurs was very upset to learn that D-Day was not a celebration for the only D that concerns him…D as in DONALD.
What did nit wit Biden do in Vietnam? Oh that’s right he had deferments for asthma. Maybe now he can cure asthma. Democrats are wonderful. They cure disease and invented the Internet.
nice pivot Herb
Why does military service matter only if a politician is a republican?
Today we must all be aware that protocol takes precedence over procedure.
Who the heck votes for Caccamo ,who the heck votes Moon,White,Rivers…..Mayor McCandless is running people out of the homes.We have the worst School System in New England and the City Council just endorsed as nother year of the failed educational system.Mccandless wants tour cash.The school mafia,vow of silence She ran is the key.Who allows school employees to be abused.
Who votes for them? Democrats, that’s who.
Prediction: Pittsfield politics will raise municipal taxes by 5 percent again next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, ….
Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski should plan on paying their hard earned savings to City Hall.
Prediction: Jonathan Melle will lower brain function 5% per year.
He will also be appointed head of Pittsfield DPW since he knows all the streets to clear.
He will also be appointed to the Massachusetts Canabis Commission. His comments demonstrate a clear and present danger of weed consumption.
Prediction: Jonathan will always use his own name so he can be ridiculed by the cowards on this blog,
I appreciate Jon’s posts. His posts are pretty well reasoned and articulate – if I don’t always agree with his opinion. He’s definitely one of the less hot headed posters.
THOMAS
Point well taken.
If that’s the case he went brain dead in 2013.
No way taxes go up 5% with the best mayor ever running the show!
How much have they gone up during her 3 years of setting them, including for the budget just voted on, aggregated. Probably over 5 percent.
Do political action committees at the city level buy votes by lavishing gifts on the larger unions such as education? And could this be why some cities find themselves in the grip of a handful of beneath the surface power brokers?
Trump,Hannity,Howie Carr,Glenn Beck,Bill ORielly, Mitch McConnell,Rush Limbaugh Mike Savage,Alex Jones the brains of America’s republican party.How do we get to great with these ahole giving you direction.All have made million giving advice to making lemmings out of the brilliant thinking angry male…..And the dumb shall lead you
Rachel Maddow is just one example of a far left liberal television host who has made millions telling people for years about guaranteed Trump collusion with Russia and so many fell for her nonsense. She lives extremely well here in Berkshire County. NBC has even invited her to be a Democratic debate moderator which is a joke since she is so partisan that it will be impossible for her to ask fair questions of the candidates. Expect few hard hitting questions and more along the lines of, “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be”.
Vote for T$ump. He puts kids in cages so that they don’t walk across your lawn. MAGA
No, you are talking about Obama who did the same thing while a drooling liberal media said it was all beautiful because a Democrat was putting illegal immigrants in cages.
and if she asked Trump that question he would be stumped for an answer. Duhhhh..Hillary did it….Obama did it I sure hope the Russians can help me win the next election too
You are suffering from Rachel Maddow syndrome. There was no collusion. Russia attempted to interfere, but DID NOT change election ballots at the polls. Their interference was on social media where they were mainly trying to stir up division in America. Between the far left trying to divide Americans and the Russian bots, they have succeeded brilliantly. Is the far left working in collusion with the Russian bots to destabilize our country?
Fact: Hannity is a Russian cooperative. Same for Beck and Limbaugh. Russia is compensating them on top of their republican salaries. Putin has promised them high positions in the new Putin led American government once Trump completes the takedown. They have fallen for it and will be shocked when Putin sends them to labor camps in Siberia.
Johnny Absurdo, you would be a star in the buffoon soecial olympics.
I miss Ed Shultz.
Correction TSC if your IQ hits 10 sell.
Pittsfield has a city council that has disrespected the working poor for years.In order to change this we must change the leaders of the department of schools.We must consolidate .Taconic was built small on purpose.PHS graduated 160 students and it was built to graduate 500 .Pittsfield can not afford it east street 250 square food building that is not maintained.Pittsfield spends 100s of thousands to redo St Mary church complex,500k to a Mueseum that has 60 million in cash.Pittsfield also helps maintain Hancock Shaker Village to the tune of 500k.The Eagle could sell newspaper just writing stories on where Pittsfield taxpayer cash has been funneled.Who is going to do the story on the 25 new employee positions and what they brought to the taxpayer in value.The constant reminder that all smart student leave Pittsfield and our CC and School Committee are who stayed behind.
Mccandless is quoted in the eagle today saying we must have a conversation about shared services accross the county.Why won’t he have a conversation about his budget and High School consolidation.He could pull the trigger tomorrow on school consolidation.When you have the worst School department in New England you should not be giving advice to anyone in your county where 600 kids have fled.Those 600 are the equivolent of 1 of our high schools.THS ,PHS are both former division 1 schools and now have dropped 2 levels to division 3 by population at the school building.This is very very very bad management of structures.I believe having 2 high schools is racist .What other reason does the city keep 2 buildings for 1500 kids.
I agree SC.
All the schools are circling the drain – except maybe Williamstown — because educated families are leaving in droves. No one wants to hear how great the Pitts it is when it isn’t, watch their real estate investments tank, and if you are lucky enough to have a good pension, watch that get eaten up with taxes.
Without good employers the best thing the city can do is lower is taxes to create economic incentive.
BTW, how many people does GD actually employ — 50? What is the average salary? There are almost no cars parked there so it can’t be a huge amount of people. They get kid glove treatment but I can’t figure out why. Cut the graft and lower taxes.
What? Do you live in Florida? Anyone who lives in Pittsfield can see the lot is full when you drive by.
Fair enough, I must be very in-observant as I drive by everyday. I only noticed the lot by the road, and apparently it goes back quite a ways. It’s such a grim wasteland around there and I have never had a reason to be onsite. I’m glad to hear they have a solid number of people working there.
Yup,these people only hang with each other at the country club pool or Berkshire west,they don’t realize how badly they run a dangerous for kids school system.We have lost a high school of population.Why do we spend money on a clunker school system,let’s get control of this thing…..wait never going to happen.I think we need to hire the drug dealers to get control.They would not allow teachers to be abused at work.
According to the Eagle, when they expanded to the Plastics building two years ago, employment was at 1400. I don’t think there was any layoffs since. They have alternate Fridays off so maybe you drove by then. Every time I go by the parking lot is packed, including Plastics Ave and the One Plastics parking lot. It would be good to know the number today.
They employ about 300 there. The workforce will be cut in half by the end of the year.
I will vote for Trump again as T K B has turned into an old coot.
That is a healthy staff number if it’s accurate. I think I missed the second parking lot too. A friend who worked there left doing and moved back to VA. He said GD built a bunch of projects that never got implemented so it was depressing. I bet that are several years out on projects given it’s all Military stuff.
I met some Reid kids the other day. They were extremely polite when they asked for a WiFi password. I was expecting shirtless delinquents based on the news reports.
Tensions escalating with Iran….
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9284293/explosions-oil-tankers-gulf-of-oman-iran/
The only people who want war are Trump, Bolton and Pompeo.
ask yourself, why would Iran try to damage oil tankers when they are in the business of selling oil. Also, one of the ships was Japanese and the Japanese leader was at the time visiting Iran. That would be beyond stupid. Iran has nothing to gain by war and knows the US is watching their every move.
It very much looks like the US in conjunction with Israel and the Arabs are setting up the Iranians because all three want to bomb the shit out of them. It is much more likely that these three countries, who all hate Iran, are pulling a major con job.
Bolton would like to try this one more time.Read about John Bolton.Remember Trump is funneling tax breaks of 1.7 trillion out of our economy again this year and into corporate share buybacks to keep the share price fake high.
I’m pretty sure Biden and Warren would happily vote for war again, just like their records show they have in the past.
Nifty pivot Shakes.
SHAKES
They would. ANY president or presidential hopeful, whether expressly or implicitly, HAS to be in favor of war. The U.S. has had a war-military-national-security-state economy since the end of WWII. That’s why, in a true sense, it makes no difference who wins the presidency. “Republican” or “Democrat” — same difference.
Dan, you and Shakes absolutely nailed this one!
MR G
Thank you. A deep study of history, applying as dispassionate an analysis as possible, shows us THEE fatal flaw in the American Republic. It came in the post-WWII years when, for the first time in our history, we did not return to a peacetime economy. The “problem” since then has been for the military-industrial complex to keep justifying (excuses, rationale) war and war footings. The Cold War served fine from 1945 through to 1990. Then came the War on Terrorism, which operates to the present day. This topic deserves a much lengthier exploration.
Dan
Have a great vacation! Food for the soul. Happy Fathers Day to all.
Thanks, Joyce. Chillin’ works best when you’re willin’ and not spillin’.
If you want to know the status of our city just look at our school system.We are bankrupting our War veterans so that our educators can be verbally abused by 12 year olds.Mr McCandless needs to have a conversation with War veterans why he allows administrators to look the other way when children abuse Pittsfield School teachers.Also allowing abuse of employees are Yon,Curtus,Behnke,Tyer and number 1 is Marchetti.
What makes you think any of these people give a dripping shit about bankrupting veterans, the elderly or hard working blue collar folk?
they do not.
Aren’t seniors and veterans already eligible for property tax breaks?
Yes, but under very narrow circumstances.
Good luck Sara Sanders,
Fantasize about you.
Mmmmmm….that smoky eye!
Tyer and Marchetti give School what they want to keep secrets about what goes on there.Average teacher pay in Pittsfield is 67k and they will all be drunk tonight
The BB is pumping DA Harrington hosting another PR event, this time highlighting a program that the state has come up with using the name RESPECT. Over a decade ago, DA Capeless and his community outreach and education program (which btw Harringon killed) established bullying prevention training and programs for all of the county’s school systems to allow them to be in compliance with what ended up being a state mandate. It was called RESPECT – give it, get it.
And now bar owner Yuki Cohen enters the council at large race. Tyer gobsig plant?
The bar owner and financial adviser is going big for her first council run, setting her sights on an at-large seat to focus on education and small-business development in Pittsfield.
Cohen, who also sits on the board at Jacob’s Pillow, said Pittsfield’s artistic caliber and breathtaking landscape position it well for growth.
“I am running for council because I would love an opportunity to participate in further unfolding the great potential of this bright city,” she said in a release.
This bullshit from Cohen sounds like it was written by Tyeruberto.
They’been peddling this bulshit for years. All that’s missing is vibrant, dynamic and economic engine.
And Lothrop. What can we say. He was a complete failure as a councilor before and all he’ll do is further the slide of this once thriving city. Maybe he should go back to PCTV and cohost a show with no klew lew again.
She gathered signatures illegally already she’ll win by a landslide
Does this person now or expect in the future, to get tax breaks on her business? The list of beneficiaries is top secret and no candidates or councilors want to discuss it. Sure would be a great way to control council votes wouldn’t it?
Everyday I scan the public service section of the local papers for this list of elites who get huge tax breaks from Mayor Tyer. But either she or the newspaper itself seem to want to keep the information under wraps. If she will not release the list could she at least tell the taxpayers why not?
Problem in Pittsfield is the Tyler street neighborhood where the landlords to over the streets to rend to the gangs to keep the adults addicted to the drugs.Their children have taken over the schools because they dont respect adults nor should they because no one’s in charge.So they are.
Tyler street will be the next Social Services alley. A great place to spend lots of money and pay back political donors though affiliated contracts. There is a reason shit like this happens and road fixing does not. Your city is going to cut your garbage pickup in half but Tyler street will be turned into a taxpayer money sponge.
I thought the city wanted to limit to 64 gallons? Who puts out 128 gallons of trash a week?
Very clearly said TSC.
Looks like TSC is hitting the brewskis early today.
Reid and Herberg students were so poorly behaved at a friend trip to Bousquet last week they are now banned from ever going there as a class again.
The chaperones were off drinking and playing cards allegedly as the Reid students peppered other schools children with N words and beat of up a few 3rd and 4th graders from another school.
If this is true I am sure the Eagle will have full coverage with photos. If not this will be the last we hear of it. What I do hear is that they are mostly all honor students who donate spare time chatting with lonely elder folk in nursing homes. And some of them aspire to be future school committee members who will not accept pay or health insurance.
Dale Eason for Mayor. Anyone who gets full pay and benefits for not working for 3 years, intimidates and manipulates civil service and the judicial system, and ends up with a six figure payoff with full city pension and benefits can easily be the next con man politician capable of defeating the Pittsfield political cult and land spurious state and federal grants.
Facts:
$175,437,453 operating budget
$10,700,000 million capital budget
The budget overall is increasing by just short of $7,000,000 million, which is about a 3.9 percent increase over fiscal year 2019’s budget. The schools are seeing an increase of $2,900,000 million in the budget.
Opinion:
While I fully support the lovely Linda Tyer, who I believe is the best Mayor of Pittsfield EVER, I disagree with her fiscal year 2020 budget. The reason I dissent is that no one’s pay goes up by 3.9 percent in one year. I believe a realistic budget would increase by no more than 2 percent.
I have followed Pittsfield politics for decades, and it is always the same outcomes. Municipal taxes always go up by around 5 percent per fiscal year. Pittsfield has an excessively high debt load, too. The tax base always shrinks due to chronic and recurring losses in population and jobs. Pittsfield is one of the most economically unequal communities in the state and nation. There are many people who live in or near poverty. Pittsfield is a distressed economy ran by political hacks!
– Jonathan Melle
Who was the last non Italian to represent ward 3 on the council?
One is not really “representing” anything if one is a rubber stamp vote. Although the argument could be made that ones rubber stamp vote, as an ingratiating act, will in a roundabout manner, benefit said voter and thusly does represent something though not what one would want the public to figure out
But can anyone answer my question?
Gerry Doyle
or perhaps Caccamo who I think is an American
Tom Hickey? Doesn’t sound Italian!
Caccamo going down in History as the least interested city councilor ever . Would Dom pease ask constituents if they need new sidewalks.Also could Dom put in a petition that CC is required to pass a remedial math class to do the budget.Recycle everything that isn’t food or food related.
Actually his predecessor in the ward was low energy as well. These people are there for one reason and one reason only. To rubber stamp the mayors every wish. Why do you think Lothrop is coming back? He was not there for his ward before and there Is no reason to believe that would change. Rubber stamper emeritus.
Recycling is expensive. More costly that incinerating. But thanks for recycling your beer cans and bottles. They have used your beer cans to make a dozen 747’s.
XLAX offered a thought about suds. Now exhausted he will nap.
X has shared a thought about beer cans.