MAYOR CRAYOLA, COUNCIL PREZ JELL-O TRIED TO HIDE COVID SLUSH FUND … PLANET FIRST TO EXPOSE IT
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 13, 2020) — THE PLANET has been to “Tucson to Tucumcari, Tohachapee to Tonapah” as the song goes. Been around, in other words. We’ve never thought, though, that we had “seen it all.” Life’s surprises come like three-forked lightning. Perhaps that’s why we’ve never been bored.
That said, we have to admit mild head-shaking at the sustained reaction to COVID-19, the full-court press. Is it necessary, for example, for Price Chopper to station people six feet apart in lines 20-deep and for the beleaguered cashier to wipe down her station after every transaction? Why, it’s enough to put a young person into Maynard G. Krebs territory with respect to … w-o-r-k? Have we killed capitalism? Are we overreacting, especially as the viral numbers appear to be going down?
These are just questions, before you get too worked up, queries that leads back to the haunting concern THE PLANET addressed in The Weekend Edition. Should we have taken the world’s leading economy off-line? Will the cost outweigh the benefits? We can measure the daunting, perhaps irrecoverable costs. The benefits remain questionable.
With so much misinformation, guesswork, and politics shading the responses and decisions, are we as a democratic country even able to intelligently conduct the debate? The harlequin responses of government at various levels have made a maze into a labyrinth (they’re not the same). Take Pittsfield, for example.
Please.
Mayor Linda Crayola-19, in addition to playing hide-and-hide (no one cares about seeking her), thinks a cupola-three-minute weekly broadcast on PCTV equates in adequacy to the daily briefings of the surgeon general.
Mayor Crayola has hid behind the her Response Team plus the various pronouncements and actions of state and federal officials, which she employs as smokescreens. She’s proven true the bromide that voters never know what they’ve got in elected office until crisis descends. It’s then that Character reveals itself. Character — that complex weave of mental, emotional, psychological, spiritual, and ethical traits that define personhood. Unfortunately for Pittsfield, the pandemic has revealed an overwhelmed, frozen chief executive. Add that bowl of Jell-O masquerading as council president, and next thing you know, crisis becomes “cry, sis” and deployment becomes doom.
Hide-and-Hide? Why else would Mayor Crayola not mention in her TV update the upcoming “virtual” council meeting? Tyer also made no mention of a slush fund that has appeared out of nowhere, buried on p. 135 of the council agenda. You think the city’s CEO would tell Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski that she has already spent $142,853 on pandemic politics, including buying computers and IT equipment for city employees working from home. Such a deal! No mention of how much she has in the slush fund or what kind of accounting it receives. Oh, and a little detail Crayola and council prez P.P. Jell-O wanted you not to notice: The provisions allow for the mayor to dictate all spending without council approval. Why would Jell-O agree? Where was the fight against tyranny?
THE PLANET thanks activist Mark Tully for digging out this info and sending it our way. It is, as Tully calls it, “a nice blank check” for the mayor. Don’t tell anybody, because you, the public, aren’t supposed to know about it. You’re supposed to pay for the entire spit show then shut the heck up.
We won’t bother with the million questions.
Third Thursdays have been cancelled. It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the troupes Goosestep in line — theaters, baseball, and other cultural outposts joining the bars, restaurants, and shops going dark. What do you think that will do to a city that foolishly refused to bring in manufacturing and built a fake “recreation and resort” economy instead, a city that became the state’s COVID hot-spot, a city Boston uses as a dumping ground for homeless, addicts, welfare cheats, criminals, tax-exempt not-for-profits, group homes, and others among the “armies of the night.”
There’s only one thing worse than taxation without representation — taxation WITH representation.
Mayor, the crayon you’re looking for is the black one.
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“I am a man and think that nothing human is foreign to me” — Michel de Montaigne, from In Praise of Folly.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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…driven on the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed…
And if you give me wheels, whites, and wine and you show me a time …
It’s weed Dan, not wheels; “…weed, whites and wine.” Love that song.
Lyrics
I been warped by the rain, driven by the snow
I’m drunk and dirty don’t ya know, and I’m still, willin’
And I was out on the road late at night
I’d seen my pretty Alice in every head light
Alice, Dallas Alice
I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed
And if you give me weed, whites and wine
And you show me a sign
I’ll be willin’, to be movin’
Well I’ve been kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet
Had my head stoved in, but I’m still on my feet and I’m still, willin’
Now I smuggled some smokes and folks from Mexico
Baked by the sun, every time I go to Mexico, and I’m still
And I been from Tucson to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed
And if you give me weed, whites and wine
And you show me a sign
I’ll be willin’, to be movin’
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Lowell T George
I love that song sung by Linda Ronstadt is my favorite version.
My favorite version was done by Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen.
I saw the Commander several times. In ’77 they had Nicolette Larson singing with them. She was amazing and they did perform Willin’ when Isaw them at Cornell. Chills! This is a taste of her singing another of their classics live since I cant find a Commander Cody version with her fronting. https://youtu.be/WZrpw4lXiSY
Thanks, G!! My favorite Commander song is the studio version of “Hold tight.” Sounds like you were at Cornell while we was at Syracuse.
I remember seeing Little Feat at The Music Inn.
Our favorite was seeing my brother’s band, QUARRY, at The Music Inn
show me a sign…
I’m so innocent, JP!
U R at that!
Hi Mr. Valenti,
If BSO cancels Tanglewood’s 2020 season, do you think The Berkshire Eagle can survive?
I truly hope it folds. It is worse than a bad newspaper — it’s like Fox for the local status quo – no hard questions please! I know all papers have an angle but if the Beagle is corrected — when they are factually wrong — do they ever redact? Why do they do so many puff pieces to inflate local hobnobs and ignore pointed questions? It’s only slightly less worse than the iBerkshires BS which is a PR arm of the crooked Downtown Pittsfield. Maybe you should hire some kid reporters Dan and expand out?
Although to give iBerkshires credit they have an article on Organized Crime in the Berkshires that actually names Carmen Massiamiano as being associated with the mob ridden Berkshire Downs.
Can you provide a link to this story please?
https://www.iberkshires.com/story/48674/A-History-of-Organized-Crime-in-the-Berkshires.html
Fascinating article. Don’t see too much reporting like that around here these days.
KERMIT
Sam Landa, former city solicitor, used to regale me with stories about Downs and the mob — Carmen, Peter Arlos, and a host of others were recurring characters from both sides.
I can imagine there are some great stories. The author of that piece of writing did a great job – it was so entertaining with a whiff of disreputable histories without being a particular attack piece. I would like to read more from him. Even the Eagle quotes from the time reflected a different era – maybe higher expectations. Everything now from the Eagle sounds like PR.
On the flip side, in the last DA’s race, the iBerkshires reporter was the de facto spokesman for Harrington and ended up working for her. Too many people around this county have their paws in each other’s pockets or their heads up somebody’s rear end. Incompetence rules supreme.
Completely agree truthsayer. That is why almost all reporting now is garbage.
The best commentator on TV is my opinion, is Chris Wallace on Fox. Who do you folks like?
I added on TV because I enjoy DV the most!!!!!
I respectfully disagree with you on this one Chuck. The best is Roseanne Roseannadanna.
Gilda was great, that was the heyday in my opinion of SNL. What a cast in that time period.
Tucker Carlson on Fox raises some good questions and has some interesting guests.
I agree on Tucker. Seems to be the best in looking into things that no one else is.
Best you can do for “news” is Bret Baier on Fox News at 6 pm.
I agree with Free Bird – Tucker has an outstanding show, one of the few I watch.
Wallace looks interesting. I don’t watch tv news regularly but might have a look out for him.
Al Sharpton.
Bar none, the BEST of the Sunday talk shows belongs to Maria Bartiromo who hosts ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ on Fox News Channel. Intelligent, probing, no-holds-barred questions.
The Money Honey! Men everywhere were crying in their beer when she announced she was getting married.
GMH
It will be a blow, for sure, of Tanglewood goes dark. The BB has been profitable but not by much. I would regret the loss of the county’s lone daily.
With Matt Kerwood’s creative accounting, the lovely Linda Tyer can spend any amount of Kapanski Ka$h that her heart desires. Pittsfield politics has carelessly spent millions of dollars of Kapanski Ka$h over the decades. (Sarcasm:) I want to know how I can swim in the public trough and roll in the dough! My plan to take Kufflink’s out to a business lunch and buy him a few alcoholic beverages won’t work during the coronavirus pandemic. I could use most of my stimulus check to donate a $1,000 to the lovely Linda’s campaign coffers. My new business plan is to find a cure for COVID-19 at the empty PEDA site.
Saturday, I think I saw one of the new residents, of South street’s “Homeless” Hilton.
A scruffy looking guy in his ~30s, standing on the median strip in front of the traffic light, at Price Chopper in Lenox.
He had a cardboard sign with something scribbled on it. He was still there when I finished shopping, I think he was panhandling?
Think about when they fill up all the empty motels on that Rt 7/20 strip mall. It will be an economic engine for Lenox! The state will foot the bills, and unlike the tourist economy, every hotel/motel will have full occupancy, nearly year round!
Hotels were ordered closed except for the bums and the saviors – the homeless and the health care workers, and those they care for.
How many computers purchased with my taxes? Laptop or desktop? Brand and cost? Out to bid for bulk purchase or no? Do teachers get them, to remote teach or is that not happening here? Or have teachers been laid off? What happens to computers post Corona? Laptops have a way of disappearing on the city side like iPads in the school department. Where is the inventory of all this stuff? What about city employees who can’t do job from home and aren’t essential? How many have been laid off or are they getting full pay to stay home and paint bedrooms? Home Depot mobbed with home Joe homeowner getting supplies.
Didn’t they already have computers? Can we see receipts? BTW, I don’t believe the homeless aren’t from here. Years back when I had to go to North St early every Sat it was a hobo convention. The poor librarians and what they had to deal with every day with marginalized people ranting and takin up chairs. The homeless all lived in the Berkshire Library.
Every time I drive by General Dynamics with a full parking lot I think the same thing! Wow! How is this a safe environment?
They have UV decontamination
Maybe you should start doing your own research just a thought. Why not bring the solution and the answer instead of always the problem. Things that make ya go hmmmm
Wow. We have to deal with the virus, being sick and losing loved ones. And then, almost as if the devil has come amongst us, people are being let out of jails and homeless folk are being bussed in to walk among us. This is becoming more and more like that TV show THE WALKING DEAD. Really.
What are all these people supposed to with themselves all day? Who will be feeding them? Who will be keeping them away from our homes, our food and our children? To what lengths will they go to get drugs? How long are they supposed to be here and do they go back where they came from when this is over or do they just blend in with Pittsfield and its open arms to the down trodden policies?
I guess if you live in a gated community you might be OK with this but it is scary to me. Perhaps the mayor should dig into her bottomless money pit and purchase pistols for the defenseless elderly population who may soon find themselves helpless in their own homes.
Wuhan-Based Company Can Now Produce The Same 128-Layer Chip Samsung Does
Wuhan based Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd. (YMTC), announced on Sunday that its 128-layer 1.33 Tb QLC 3D NAND flash memory chip — X2-6070 had passed a sample verification carried out by its partners. The company plans to introduce these chips to the market this year.
Similar chips will also be manufactured by rivals Samsung, Micron, SK Hynix, and Kioxia. At the moment, these companies make the 96-layer 3D NAND flash memory chips. Yangtze Memory makes a 64-layer version, which it introduced in the second half of 2019, reports the Nikkei Asian Review.
In a statement, Yangtze’s Senior Vice President of marketing and sales said, “As a new entrant in the flash memory industry, YMTC has reached to new heights by launching the 1.33 Tb QLC product.” She lauded the company’s employees and partners by saying, “We are able to achieve these results today because of the incredible synergy created through seamless collaboration with our global industry partners, as well as remarkable contributions from our employees.”
Why It Matters
According to the Review, YMTC is an affiliate of China-backed Tsinghua Unigroup and has been trying to catch up with foreign rivals to create a fully domestic semiconductor industry.
Memory chips are important components of many electronic devices such as smartphones, computers, and the like. Chips with more layers are difficult to manufacture, but it is more cost-efficient as they can be accommodated on a single chip wafer.
Even though the company is based in Wuhan – the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has managed to stay open throughout the strict lockdown. Full production was started on April 10.
A research company analyst told Nikkei YMTC would still have to overcome some technical problems before being able to smoothly mass produce the chip, but “It’s so far the most promising player in China’s hope to build a viable semiconductor industry and reduce its dependence on foreign chipmakers,” the analyst observed.
He expects YMTC’s rivals could see some competition from the Chinese firm by the end of 2021.
Price Action
On Monday, Samsung shares traded 1.12% lower at $39.91 at press time in Seoul.
Smithfield Foods, Inc., is a meat-processing company based in Smithfield, Virginia, in the United States, and a wholly owned subsidiary of WH Group of China.
WH Group (Chinese: 万洲国际; pinyin: Wànzhōu Guójì), formerly known as Shuanghui Group (Chinese: 双汇集团; pinyin: Shuānghuì Jítuán),[4] is a publicly traded Chinese meat and food processing company headquartered in Luohe, Henan, China.[5] Sometimes also known as Shineway Group in English-speaking countries, the company’s businesses include hog raising, consumer meat products, flavoring products, and logistics.[6] It is the largest pork producer in the world,[5] and the largest meat producer in China.
New York (CNN Business)One of the country’s largest pork processing facilities is closing until further notice as employees fall ill with Covid-19. The closure puts the country’s meat supply at risk, said the CEO of Smithfield, which operates the plant.
“The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply,” the meat processor’s chief executive, Kenneth Sullivan, said in a statement Sunday.
“It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running,” he said. “These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain.”
The Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The Sioux Falls, South Dakota, facility accounts for 4% to 5% of the country’s pork production and employs about 3,700 people, according to Smithfield.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said during a Saturday news briefing that Smithfield employees accounted for more than half of the active coronavirus cases in the state. About 240 employees are sick, she said, out of roughly 430 active cases in the state. Because of that, she and the mayor of Sioux Falls recommended that Smithfield suspend operations for at least two weeks.
The problem extends beyond South Dakota. Meat processors in Iowa and Pennsylvania have also shut their doors because of sick employees.
Smithfield will maintain some activity in the plant on Tuesday to process its inventory, the company said, as it prepares to fully shut down, adding that it will compensate employees for the next two weeks.
And this is one more reason NOT to open up the economy right now. If a critical number of workers in any given business become sick or die it may need to shut down. And because the arm bone is indirectly connected to the leg bone we could effectively blow a fuse on the whole country and make things much worse than they are now.
So glad I brought the information about the virtual CC meeting and the asking of $300,000 to yours and Mark’s attention several days ago.
Thank you M&B. I checked for an agenda Thursday and nothing was posted so I assumed there wasn’t a meeting. Had it not been for your comment, I would not have looked again.
MERRY
Our thanks certainly must go to you.
“That said”??!!
Tavis Smiley, call your office, if you still have one.
Doctors who are saying that hydroxychloroquine doesn’t work for some patients may be having these results because either the patients are very old and/or the virus has deteriorated their condition too much. Michigan Rep. Karen Whitsett credits hydroxychloroquine with saving her life as she was going downhill very fast. She had a hard time getting the medicine and several of her relatives died because they had no access to the medicine or to testing because the governor of that state was doing a bad job of understanding the federal rules about allowing the drug in his state and getting the proper tests. She is very angry about playing partisan politics right now and says we need to rise about the whole Republican and Democrat fighting and let’s save lives. I totally agree with her. She will be meeting with VP Mike Pence soon and possibly even President Trump to tell them what is happening in her state. She credits President Trump for letting her know about this medicine and saving her life.
If Donald Trump said four Ritz crackers and a dill pickle would cure the virus some people would be running out to buy as much as they could.
And if it happened to cure the virus some would still find a reason to bitch about it. There is enough blame to go around for many who have contributed to the What’s,Why’s & When nonsense. Politicians and the media haven’t truly been that great doing their part in helping in the accuracy of this virus reporting. The media is now conveniently not talking about some politicians, CDC. and WHO and themselves playing down this virus at the beginning of it and now going full bull about how bad it was from the beginning.
True. Many on CNN and MSNBC were making fun of President Trump for the China ban. They said what is all the fuss since it’s just a normal flu.
Well Pat, Trump’s “ban” still allowed more than 40,000 people from China into the U.S. according to flight records provided by the major airlines. In fact, I know two locals who have been in and out of China more than you can shake a stick at since January.
As to the deadliness of this virus, it’s a particularly sticky bug that rapidly takes over your lung cells with its RNA. It’s fatality rate in relation to number infected is higher than the norm. If you think it’s just the flu, go volunteer in a COVID-19 ward somewhere and don’t use protective gear because you got a flu shot this year. We’ll all go to your funeral.
No we wouldn’t. We believe his first statement on it….it’ll blow over in a couple weeks.
The difference is that President Trump learned quickly how dangerous the virus is (since China never told anyone), but CNN and MSNBC never did care to learn even on January 31st, the day of the China ban.
The media never let Trump off the hook.Thank god for journalist reporting their questions even if he wont answer.Trump is in charge and is very powerful .Also Trump said there were no bullets we he arrived.
Again Pat, 40,000+ people came in from China under the “ban.” Check it out on your own.
Hannity and Limbaugh regularly tell their disciples NOT to listen to other news sources. I have heard them say that myself. Last thing they want is independent thinkers getting infected with common sense.
450,000
This is revisionist history.Fox News back every statemdnt Trump made about the virus was a hoax by democrats….what is wrong with your thinking?
“…we need to rise about the whole Republican and Democrat fighting and let’s save lives. I totally agree with her. …”
So do I. All any of us want is the truth.
The risks of Trump’s drug combo outweigh the benefits at this point. Trump needs to follow this simple school rule: “Keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut.” Let the experts do their job and let them take the fall or the glory.
The Eagle still hasn’t reported on the homeless Hilton hospital
Probably have not gotten permission from the mayor yet. She may be an unofficial CEO
Am I hearing this correctly – that out-of-town homeless & sick people are being housed in the Hilton Garden hotel? Why? Hotels are pretty much closed everywhere in the state. Why truck people in from out-of-town? I thought the local homeless were being taken care of at St. Joe’s? Why wasn’t St Joe’s opened before winter? Why this concern now for the homeless? Seems to me that herding healthy homeless into a shared facility will cause more of them to contract the Chinese Flu, as they are in closer contact with each other. What the hell is going on up there?
What in the hell is going on up there indeed. It kinda looks like someone created a huge slush fund and connected folk are getting creative about how to get their paws on it. Have you ever watched the parents at a children’s Easter egg hunt?
No?
Well now you can.
St Joe was a nasty bastard h s ,lots of bullies. Even the coaches were assholes. Glad that dump closed. Even Squiggy didn’t help save his alma mata,what’s that tell you about him? Guys like a Ruberto,Perachi,Belanger and that phony Procopio sat on the sidelines. And all four of those had something taken from them. Karma.
Interesting.
I left St. Joe after freshman year because of the attitude and atmosphere of the place–hazing on the sports bus, for one thing. Get out of a senior’s way at the water fountain, for another.
I was also lectured by a senior on the school bus because I was still wearing my tie–don’t be an idiot; leave it in the locker at school.
I never saw anything that bad, but perhaps there was worse?
Well there was the guy that got mad one day and flushed a toilet twice wasting about three gallons of water. WTF was he thinking?
April 13, 2020
Hello Pat[rick Fennell],
I agree with your letter about Congressman Richie Neal, State Senator Adam Hinds, and State Representative Smitty Pignatelli. All of them are doing a great disservice to the people. It is so wrong that U.S. Congress is on a 3 week recess while tens of thousands of U.S. residents are dying and hundreds of thousands of people have coronavirus. The U.S. economy is on the brink of collapse. The national debt passed $24 trillion last week (on April 9th, 2020). Adam Hinds and Smitty Pignatelli always vote for tax hikes and legislative pay raises and other taxpayer funded benefits they love to receive. The people who Hinds and Pignatelli are supposedly representing on Beacon Hill are hurting, while Hinds and Pignatelli are living the good life. Neal, Hinds, and Pignatelli are all career politicians.
As a 100% service connected disabled Veteran, I am sad about the dozens of Veterans who have died in Holyoke’s Soldier Home. I read that Gov. Charlie Baker filled it with unqualified patronage hires. Nursing Homes have turned into death camps during this COVID-19 pandemic. Minorities and the poor are dying at a larger rate than middle class white people. I can no longer visit my senior citizen parents’ home anymore. But, I can talk to them over the phone and go for outside walks with them. Life has changed for us. We would think our politicians would do a better job helping the people they are supposed to be representing!
Best wishes,
Jonathan [Melle]
It’s Crayola Crush to you Mr. Valenti, because at her heinesses’ “press conference” on Friday, she declared that under her leadership, the curve would be crushed in PIttsfield.
The curve is crushed only because they are lying about the number of cases.
Only 3 city dead and 50 active cases as of this afternoon, according to Tyers Covid chart
Yah, has not changed in two weeks. We got some miracle workers here in Pittsfield. Everywhere else numbers are going up as the disease spreads. Only in Pittsfield are they saying the same.
So Linda Tripp has died. She won’t be missed.
She secretly recorded a teenager telling about her affair. Pretty rotten to do that. And although it’s perhaps unbecoming of Clinton to have had a Monica a time or two I can’t say as I blame him. Everybody knows the bjs stop after marriage. Kennedy did way worse in the White House.
Bill Clinton turned the Oval Office into the Oral Orifice. Monica Lewinsky became famous for the Prez putting a cigar down there and a his sex organs everywhere. After she blew it, she became a multi-millionaire with regrets and resentments. Linda Tripp recently died at 70, and everyone knows she didn’t care about all of the people she hurt to make Bill Clinton’s ill reputed second and (not so) secret life a living Hell. In the end, we all dislike backstabbing and mean-spirited people like the late Linda Tripp. She lost more respect more than Bill or Monica. To commit a crime of passion is never right, but to commit a crime of premeditation is both wrong and evil. The difference between the two is that the former is love and the latter is hate. In closing, Linda Tripp could have handled her concerns with kindness, compassion, and justice instead of being mean-spirited, vindictive, and hurtful.
So I’m guessing you don’t have any daughters.
Listen to the Slow Burn podcast about the Clinton/Lewinsky affair. You might think differently.
We will look back at this pandemic with the view of, “It was bad, but it wasn’t as bad as they predicted.”
New cases are declining everywhere. ICU admissions are declining. We are finally turning the corner.
Governor Cuomo today: “We can control the spread. Feel good about that. The worst is over, if we continue to be smart going forward.”
The worst is over.
Except for especially high numbers of new cases reported on Sunday, Massachusetts new positive tests have been declining. The “surge” has been postponed, but probably it didn’t happen. But it probably actually won’t.
The cases in MA are declining because they are telling people with symptoms to stay home and not get tested unless the meet 4 of the criteria:
102 fever for 4 or more days
Cough for 5 or more days
Diarrhea for 2 or more days
Sore throat for 5 or more days
Pre existing condition
COPD, emphysema, asthma, other respiratory disease
Heart disease or high blood pressure
Trouble breathing or blue lips
The thought is now that anyone that isn’t high risk should not get tested because they have a post infection test kit they can use later. Only if you are in imminent need of medical attention should you get tested.
So the numbers are now going down.
In BHS’s case they’ve all but stopped testing as they’ve run out of the cartridges to do the testing.
There’s a backlog of tests. If you look at the backlog and look at the numbers you’ll see they are doing backlog testing. A bout twelve people that were refused by BHS for testing recently. Thursday/Friday came back positive from other hospitals but are being counted as “unknown” location
I am honestly trying to understand your point. Apparently you believe there is a conspiracy to under-report COVID cases in Berkshire County. The numbers they have reported amounts to about about 3 cases per 1000 residents in the county. You believe the real number is actually something like 3.5 cases per 1000 residents. Wow what a difference. And what is to be gained by these dark people who are manipulating these death figures in such a way? You make no sense. You sound like a disgruntled employee to me. And you have also spread a bunch of bad medical information on this board. Are you really a nurse?
I too have been trying to figure RN’s statements out they are strange to say the least. Why would any Healthcare Organization under report? The reimbursements are going to be diminished if they are not reported correctly. Watch in the aftermath of this once reimbursements are decided across the country numbers might become overinflated.
RN in prior posts when asked either will not or cannot explain or defend the position taken. I too am in the Healthcare industry and have been extremely busy, however many of the issues/policies being griped about are being issued from the CDC (return to work policy for example) I would expect that during a PANDEMIC numbers might fluctuate from source to source there was no method of coding this disease 6 weeks ago. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/icd/ICD-10-CM-Official-Coding-Gudance-Interim-Advice-coronavirus-feb-20-2020.pdf Not to mention a zillion changes amendments bulletins etc. have been issued for the testing alone. See the link to the AMA guidance https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/cpt/covid-19-coding-and-guidance notice the dates they are fresh.
It would appear from their own comments that RN has time to manage and understand the BHS supply chain, to include ensuring proper stores for an upcoming pandemic. Has the Medical charting and cost accounting / coding system figured out and is also in command of the Regulatory Compliance with reporting methodologies. To mention but a few of RN’s responsibilities. Now I understand why my questions from prior posts went unanswered. Today is the first day I have had off in a long time thankfully the sun is going to shine at least its supposed to RN care to tell me how BHS screwed me out of the sunshine?
When will are state reps step in on the berkshires not being tested.
Never. They are all in the same pocket.
They will show up when they can somehow turn it into a fundraiser for themselves.
Big decision tomorrow night Pittsfield folks. You have your choice of watching Pee Pee Jello Petie run his version of Pittsfield’s “Hollywood Squares while Crayola Linda finds new ways to waste our tax paying monies or listen to story hour by Chief Mikey Winn. Really tough choice. Meanwhile every social media site in Pittsfield is showing our City’s children spending their days picking up the garbage on the Pittsfield streets. I thank these children and I am proud of them, but I am totally ashamed that our large budgeted school department is not finding a way to teach/occupy these kids. Crayola Linda should be ashamed of herself that her vibrant, dynamic City is so filthy dirty that little children feel they need to clean it up.
When I was a teenager growing up in Pittsfield, my brother and me volunteered to cleanup the streets, parks, and river banks in Pittsfield (Mass.) I am nearly 45 years old now, but back in my youth, we took a lot of pride in Pittsfield. I saw a newly painted house this past weekend while walking with my family in our new town of Amherst, NH, that was painted purple with white trim. I said to my brother it was the colors from Pittsfield High School. My mom said to us that when we were teenagers, we took a lot of pride in our home under the dome. My brother graduated from PHS in 1992 with an incredible class that includes Hollywood movie star Elizabeth (Mitchell) Banks, Washington Post journalist Alec MacGillis, and Kim Cobb, who is a paleoclimatologist and oceanographer who testified Gov. Charlie Baker at a U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources hearing on climate change in early-February of 2019. Alec MacGillis and Kim Cobb both graduated from Yale University. I graduated from PHS the next year in 1993, but I tell my brother that I am in awe of the achievements of his incredible PHS class.
I thought Banks went to Taconic.
Banks is now a pro-abortion activist. Such a shame.
Taxes through the roof and Pittsfield has children picking up garbage during a pandemic. Is this the new economic engine? Could they please fill in some potholes when they are done?
What responsible mother would let her children pick up garbage in this infected city when Mikey is reading The Cat in the Hat and Where The Wild Things Are.and Lindy is Crayola 19 and coloring with “the children”. A clear display of no leadership. Maybe they need to have one child to know what it is to be an example to our next generation and an effective leader. Their lack of leadership skills is frightening especially in this time of crisis. But wait they both have significant salaries and a city credit card. Money is of no concern. This city is in its worst economic crisis and we have no strong leadership.
Let me guess you are watching all this from the car? Get a bag and get busy stop always complaining!
I would never consider giving a covid-19 vaccine to any of my loved ones, knowing that globalist Bill Gates had a hand in it. “The CDC has a large financial interest in pushing untested vaccines on the public and WHO is even more under the control of Big Pharma. The organization is corrupt beyond the meaning of the word.” – ZH
https://www.zerohedge.com/health/robert-f-kennedy-jr-exposes-bill-gates-vaccine-agenda-scathing-report
Some of the governors are overstepping their authority….
https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/13/the-coronavirus-is-exposing-little-tyrants-all-over-the-country/
So true, Gigi.
Top four tyrants;
– Gov. Whitmer
– Gov. Northrum
– Gov. Cuomo
– Gov. Baker
At first, I thought Cuomo was performing well, and he was. Then, he got hooked on the publicity and the attention. All of a sudden, he was nationally relevant. He then descended into a “Look at Me, Look What I’m Doing” politician. I’m not sure what’s worse: That, or the “I Got Mine Ta Hell Wit Everbody Else” we got in MAYOR CRAYOLA.
Cuomo is an idiot like his brother Chris.
Cuomo whines about the rich leaving his state in droves, and does nothing about reducing the tax rates which are driving them away.
He whines about being a broke state ( 10 billion in debt) yet continues to spend wildly, offering all sorts of “freebies” to his illegals in his sanctuary state.
He whines about not having ventilators, masks & hospital beds, when in the past (2015) he was urged to replenish supplies & did not do so.
He whines for federal bailouts, but turns on Trump when his authority is challenged (reopening of NY).
Useless Dem political hack!
April 13, 2020
Re: Open letter to Glenn M. Heller
Hello Glenn Heller,
Berkshire County residents have paid tens of millions of their hard earned tax dollars on the arts and cultural projects over the past 20 years. I found this to be an interesting story to follow because the state and local politicians know that thousands of living wage jobs were lost, which caused thousands of people to move away, which further meant that the tax base diminished year after year after year. The politicians took their turns in the spotlight with their success stories about bringing tourists from NYC and Boston to the Berkshires to spend their vacation money on the Berkshire’s arts and cultural venues. But now with the coronavirus pandemic, the Berkshires’ decades long investment in arts and cultural is a losing proposition. To be clear, Berkshire County’s tax base has considerably shrank with decades of population and job loss, while state and local politicians have raised taxes to invest in the area’s arts and cultural institutions, and now tourists will stay away this Spring and Summer of 2020. What does that say to the remaining Berkshire County taxpayers? The sad answer is that the politicians sold out the taxpayers on a broken promise.
I have a Master of Public Administration, which means I have studied state and local government. The one main thing state and local politicians are supposed to do is “Invest in People”. That is because the people are the community’s most valuable resource. The people live, work, and invest in their properties and community, such as paying taxes and shopping at local businesses.
Public Policy and Administration is so simple! Politicians are supposed to work with the people who live in their community. When people have a nice quality of life, then they have the opportunity to work in living wage jobs, which gives them the means to invest in their properties and their community. Sadly, in Berkshire County politics, the people have to move away to not be shaken down and live in fear of the state and local politicians whose decades long bet on the arts and cultural institution backfired this year of 2020. But what do these career politicians care? After all, they always win with their lucrative taxpayer-funded pay and compensation.
In Berkshire County, the local people live in fear of their state and local politicians. In Berkshire County, the state and local politicians are shakedown artists to feed their selfish ambitions as career politicians while “Rome burns” around them.
(edited per blogger Dan Valenti’s rules)
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/arts-were-the-catalyst-for-economic-renewal-in-the-berkshires-what-now-with-a-summer-of-closures-and-cancellations/ar-BB12zggJ
—–
JONATHAN
Thanks for posting the GLOBE article. In it, you can tell the reporter took the press releases and the self-justifying spiel from the vested interests to present a skewed view. That said, the article focused on Mass MOCA, with other such as the BSO-Tanglewood providing secondary and tertiary examples of the financial hit the Berkshires will suffer because of shut downs. Pittsfield was left largely out of it. Telling. 1Berkshire claims the “recreation and resort” economy brought in more than manufacturing locally. To our view, that’s an indictment of do-nothing politicians, who failed to bring in an authentic mpg-product-based economy. It could have been done. Now it comes home to roost. Perhaps the silver lining is the “wake-up” call so many smug pols and artsy-types will receive for pricing Pittsfield citizens out of their own markets.
Can you imagine if this virus had hit right in the middle of tourist season here? The virus would have been completely out of control in this area especially with our limited hospital resources. Thank God that didn’t happen.
Pittsfield does not rely on tourism the way everyone in the county does.We have hundreds of small businesses.
What am I missing. The governor is reporting over 2500 new cases per day in Mass. yet Pittsfield only has 111 total confirmed cases? And Pittsfield has only tested 800 people since the pandemic started? If these numbers are accurate we here in Pittsfield are running totally blind not knowing what the hell is going on. The state is reporting 2500 new cases per day and very very few are from Pittsfield? Are we some kind of oasis in the middle of the highly contagious pandemic and if so how did that happen? Perhaps the Eagle could explain why we are so lucky.
Absurdo,
As they say, figures lie and liars figure. Cases go up with more testing. They are doing more testing on the eastern side of the state. Down here in Springfield, they have set up drive thru testing ONLY for health care workers, and now grocery workers.
Death figures now include anyone who died with covid, whether or not covid actually caused the death, per Dr. Birx directives. Therefore even the death figures are inflated. We have approx. 23,000 deaths in the U.S. “attributed” to covid – as the death toll projections by Fauci have been reduced to 60,000 nationally (originally 2.2 million projected from “models”). Normal flu season death numbers.
Now RINO Gov. Baker has joined with Dem Guvs from NY, CT etc who have formed an alliance in regards to lifting the draconian stay-at-home orders. When will the orders be lifted, as hospitals are only 50% full and the curve has been flattened?
My theory is that the Dems will prolong the pandemic in order to 1)try as hard as possible to bring down the economy and crash the stock market and 2) push for mail- in voting which has been proven to be corrupt and easy to tinker with. All this to get Trump out of office!
A very narrow way to say the numbers are fake on the upside and RN is saying they are fake on the low side.
Even on January 14th, WHO was denying that there was any person to person spread of the COVID-19.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/taiwan-releases-december-email-showing-unheeded-warning-to-who-about-coronavirus
If its good,Trump did it.If its bad it was someone else.Life under Trump means going back to normal in a few weeks and if it works he did it if its a disaster it will be the states fault.
Pat Trump was right all along.Nobody has seen anything like it.
It is somebody elses’ fault. It may even be everybody elses’ fault. But Donald, bless his heart, has done nuttin wrong and never has or never will cuz he be incapable of errors or misdeeds and stuff.
The local tourist economy relies on the Berkshires “crushing the curve” sooner than everybody else.
The way they prove that the curve is crushed is by having the data show our cases are declining more rapidly than the rest of the area and State.
How do you do that? You have the local health system slow testing and complain about lack of kits. If they have no kits it’s their own fault, just like they had no PPE. The president and federal government isn’t responsible for BHSs ordering policies.
You also have the city put up a dashboard that starts of as unreadable then have them not up date it. They can blame “new technology” if they are ever questioned.
So the Berkshires now, while it previously was one of the leaders in infections per population, looks like an oasis of curve crushing competence. It’s simply not true and it’s being done for two main reasons, to hide the incompetence of BHS who’s planning got us into this mess. They planned months out and still fucked up royally and you have the city of Pittsfield and Mayor Crayons-19 desperate to look like she’s done something besides sit in a gated community stuffing her fat fucking face and using adult coloring books to destress from her calorie intake.
Figures may lie, but probably sooner rather than later things may explode and the wack a mole fact hiding may be impossible. It only takes a few to infect many and if the social distancing at Walmart and PC are any example the ICUs may be running out of space before it is over.
I disagree Johnny. Hospitals have many open beds and field hospitals are being closed due to lack of patients.
Fear-mongering by the left.
Open the state Gov. Baker!
Talking about local. How many ICUs at BMC?
BMC has 60-70 empty beds.
Maybe they should do some testing then.
The longer the shutdown goes, the more suspicions it will arouse.
The Towns of Lenox and Lee have stated that monies have been saved during this pandemic. Mayor of North Adams is in the process of creating his upcoming budget, looking at ways to cut the budget due to the future lack of revenues because of the virus. Williamstown is taking advantage of low traffic and paving one of their main drags. Meanwhile, Pittsfield roads are pot holed ridden, streets are filthy dirty, traffic enforcement is non-existent, Mayor Crayola is asking for $300,000 out of our free cash account. She has been absent from her job, only speaking once a week with information that is always a few days late. Just wait folks, remember this when she goes to set the next tax rate. I am sure she will be crying poor because of the costs during this pandemic. Since she is the one and only Mayor that seems to have “crushed” the virus, why does she need all this taxpayers monies? Do you think she might be able to use a little of that money for a Resource Officer at Reid?
M&B
Yup. Other places will use this as an opportunity to reduce costs. Pittsfield will keep the current spending then add to it. Time must come quickly for Regime Change if the city is to have any chance at survival. The C-19 virus has exposed the crooks.
Get some fresh air! geez
Good advice for all of us, AW!
The far left climate change fanatics are also very happy because with everyone trapped inside, the pollution rates are lower than ever before or so they say. They are rhapsodizing on the weather channel and in the media over just how clear the water is and how you can see for miles. Never mind that it’s a deadly virus that has kept us all housebound.
So Tyer used a baseball analogy the other week. Is she the Splendid Spender?
Is Kerwood the Sultan of Snot?
Who’s on First? Barry on his way to Cumby’s at 3am.
Best time, cuz it’s the safest spot and time in the city. It should be marketed as a new tourist destination for this HON hoity-toitys who are worried about getting mugged, stabbed, shot, accosted, or “hit up” on North Street.
Yes, she’s The Splendid Spender (good one!). He’s the The Scambino.
We haven’t seen anything yet, here. Wait until the jobless start acting like the current day after day flubs. Domestics should Skyrocket. Then road rage. Harri gton and crew can’t handle it and the Mayor will b thrown to the wolves. I’m not paying my water bill this or next quarter.
For sure, and once again we are going to be scammed tonight by the Splendid Spender.
The Beacon should be turned into a soup kitchen. Carl was laying on the sidewalk tonight. Please Mayor can’t you get people like this some help?
DAIL
Great idea.
I thought a former couple Mayors would be hard to beat. Poor Miranda could have walloped into a fortune as there are many satellites business eminnating from the global health crisis.
Trump blames WH O. Well maybe be if you hadn’t told them about the two week blow over?
LOL
“Abuse of Public Office”
It is a new Crayola color.
What can be done ? Bureaucratic Pigeonhole, there’s your sign. There’s money in there but there’s no resolve.
Apply for United Way Covid Fund – “theres already enough help in Berkshire County”…. yet the soliciting continues. Wheres the f* money ? Show me the money.
Ambulance, Newspapers, PotHoles, PPE, Lead in the water, chaos at schools…… whats the money go toward ? I’m not seeing it.
Does anyone know anyone who is suffering from COVID-19 ?
I ask everyone & not one person has actual knowledge of a real person down with the sickness !
Cannabis Smoke & It’s done with Mirrors.
Bamboozled – what a rip off !
Again, how to we get new leaders ? For real.