BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

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(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 11-13, 2022) — Cleaning out the mailbag and other debris that clutters a writer’s desk:

SIX FIGURES — This quote from Jamie Gass, education and research director of the Boston-based Pioneer Institute, came across THE PLANET‘s desk: “The problem is that when teachers have excessively high salaries and gold-plated pensions, while [districts are] defined by chronic underperformance, [public education] looks more like a massive employment system designed to benefit adults than an organization focused on the education of schoolchildren.” Boston has 2,905 teachers with salaries topping $100,000-plus-bennies. Wonder how many Pittsfield has? Care to comment, Jumpin’ Joe Curtis? Nah, didn’t think so. Neither did the Boston teachers union. Pittsfield’s Level 5 schools, combined with overcompensated teachers and admin, remains the third rail NO politician has  the stones to touch. The fix is in … as if you didn’t know.

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GRAVY TRAIN ROLLS ON –A recent audit found that nearly 60% of people who filed for pandemic unemployment benefits or payroll protection relief in Massachusetts hauled in $2.3 billion more than they should have received. The Feds want it back. The “gimme-groups” want to keep it. The giveaway of “free” Kapanski Kash, they think, is their entitlement. THE PLANET is sure the deadbeats in Pittsfield would agree. Don’t think the Kapanskis are cool with it, but who gives two squirts for what hardworking, taxpayers feel?

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ARPA? ARF, ARF — And what’s all this about Mayor Tyer’s hoarding of tens of millions in ARPA money for God knows what to benefit Gollum knows who? Ward 2 city councilor Charles Kronick dared to ask why some of the money won’t be allocated to moderate the outrageous hikes in Pittsfield water and sewer. At the most recent city council meeting, in a series of identical, rubber-stamped 6-4 votes, the council stuck it to the Kapanskis. We should say Sherman, Conant, Lampiasi, Marchetti, White, and Persip plunged the knife into the Little Guy’s heart, good little soldiers following Tyer’s orders.  Maffuccio, Warren, and  Kalinowski joined Kronick in trying to help taxpayers. And we got the story behind Kavey’s non-attendance at this key meeting. When we spill, you’re going to be shocked.  THE PLANET has our Z-agents investigating. Stay tuned.

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WAR IS OVER IF YOU WANT IT — Nobody cares to mention it, but Russia’s attack on Ukraine would stop in 10 seconds if the latter would agree to the former’s demands: (1) declare itself a neutral country (2) stay out of NATO and (3) and accept Russian-speaking, Russian cultured Crimea and the two most eastern provinces independent (actually, part of Russia). Just a question: Isn’t agreeing to those terms better than risking World War III?

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WHO CAN YOU TRUST? — We refer to the (un)reliability of the wildly disparate media accounts of the Russia-Ukraine war by East and West. In the West, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky wears the white hat and flosses twice a day, while Vladimir Putin is the new Adolph Hitler who chews Red Man.  One’s a saint, the other’s a sinner. One’s Christ, the other’s Lucifer. But what accounts are accurate? The U.S.-led Western coalition and the Russian government are both producing voluminous propaganda. Be careful who and what you trust.

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VLAD THE INHALER — Speaking of Vlad the Inhaler, did you ever attempt to see things through Russian eyes? Start by looking at a map. Up and down its eastern border, it sees threats. Now add a history lesson. Enduring many invasions over the centuries, leaving it to suffer inconceivable losses, has carved a deep paranoia into its national soul. Putin, an empirical ruler who typically doesn’t act out of emotion, attacked Ukraine as a preemptive strike. He called Biden’s bluff. Food for thought. Where have you gone, Mikhail Gorbachev? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

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BIDEN DELIVERS; SO DOES SHELL — Speaking of Syracuse Joe, Biden reluctantly issued a ban on Russian oil imports. This will add to the pain at the pump, but, as the president put it, “We will not be part of subsidizing Putin’s war.” Shell Oil Co. followed suit, saying it will stop the purchase of Russian natural gas and oil. The economic squeeze has caused the ruble to fell to .07 cents to the U.S. dollar — less than a penny.

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THE ONLY ‘JUST’ WAR? — Lest we forget, Putin’s onslaught in Ukraine has forced two million innocent elderly, women, and children to flee from their homeland. Each of these persons impacts countless others in the most direct, human manner, at whose core we find the depths of numbing grief, sadness, and heartache. All for what? For the idiocy of geopolitics, that always-fatal mixture of money + power. No matter what level of government, as the current state of Pittsfield politics illustrates, when you combine these two elements, almost no humans remain immune. They fall for it, abandoning conscience, principle, ethics, morality, justifying it by an inner circle of “yes” people. Maybe the only way to end the human experiment is for the Russian-Ukraine situation to jump the rails, leading to all-out nuclear war. Might that be the only “just” war in human history? The one we inflict upon ourselves?

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IF AT FIRST … — THE PLANET has queries into Pittsfield attorney Tim Shugrue regarding his plan to run for district attorney. So far, no reply. Shugrue will join attorney Bob Sullivan and, presumably, the incumbent D.A., in the race. You may recall that much earlier, Shugrue ran against David Capeless and lost. This time around, he would be up against an incumbent who has, on the merits, failed not just the office but the cause of public safety in the Berkshires.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

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“Without optimism, we have already failed” — George Takei.

LOVE TO ALL.

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