PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS, INVESTMENT A MIRAGE IN THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF MASSACHUSETTS
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEDNESDAY AUG. 26, 2026) — We just got back from a whirlwind visit to our home away from home away from home. THE PLANET speaks of Syracuse, NY, where had the pleasure of speaking to the incoming SU freshman, Class of 2029. They are an eager bunch, combining equal parts fear, anticipation, and that exhilarating, scary first taste of freedom, away from home. Lots of hangovers Monday morning, first day of class.
We were struck by the white-hot job market in this city, led by Micron, a global manufacturer of computer memory. The company is building a $100 billion (you read that right) plant in the Syracuse suburb of Clay. Thousands of jobs go with it.
On the other hand, you have Bitchfield, where THE PLANET recently talked to a local landscaper. He’s built a fine business over several years, but he’s hampered by the local worker market. He currently has three positions open because he can’t get reliable help.
Author Dan Valenti is published worldwide by PMB Books and distributed by Amazon.
“Young people don’t want to work. They want it handed it to them,” he said. “They come in and begin to dictate their terms. I’ve never seen anything like it. I can’t take on new customers. [Expletive], I can’t even service all of my current list. And they have no common sense and know little of the most basic math.”
In this vein, we share a jobs report you may have missed. Socialist Massachusetts is bleeding private-sector jobs and private capital investment. Yes. You’re shocked. Shocked.
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FROM THE PIONEER INSTITUTE
Boston – Data released today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirm that the Commonwealth has lost even more private sector jobs in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic than previously understood.
Pioneer Institute’s March 2025 report Massachusetts at Risk: The Alarming Decline of Private Sector Employment Growth found that the Commonwealth had 24,000 fewer private sector jobs than in January 2020 (-0.74 percent), but today’s updated figures revise the decline to 34,700 (-1.06 percent)from January 2020 to January 2026, putting Massachusetts even further behind the national average of 4.65 percent growth over that period.
“The revised data are clear: Massachusetts’ economic challenges run deeper than we thought,” said Pioneer Executive Director Jim Stergios. “Over the past six years, the Commonwealth has lost the equivalent of every private-sector job in Brookline, while business-friendly states have added jobs by the hundreds of thousands.”
Losses did not only occur during the pandemic – from January 2025 to January 2026 the state lost 11,600 jobs (-0.49 percent).
Across the country, benchmark updates to the Current Employment Statistics (CES) dataset reveal that job growth in 2025 was overstated in earlier estimates. However, the impact on Massachusetts is particularly striking. Already one of only six states and D.C. to experience negative private sector employment growth since 2020, the Commonwealth now appears to have experienced an even more prolonged and severe period of stagnation.
The implications are clear: Massachusetts is not just lagging – it is losing ground. While competitor states such as Texas (11.9 percent or 1.3 million jobs), Florida (11.3 percent or 895,000 jobs), and North Carolina (10.3 percent or 401,000 jobs)have continued to post strong private sector job growth since 2020, the revised data show that Massachusetts has failed to keep pace by an even wider margin than previously reported.
———- ooo ———-
At least THE PLANET can rest assured about this: In Bitchfield, especially with Lumpy, Voltron, and Dumpster at the helm, there will always be two jobs — a con job and a snow job.
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“Money is a unit of value to measure worth. A job is an activity that generates income for a person” — Sir Donald Turpentine, Knight of the Bath.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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When a median home costs at least one-half-of-one-million-dollars up to to $665,000, but the median home listing in Massachusetts is up to $749,000…., then I would NOT want to know basic math either.
How does the working-class and middle-class families alike plan their personal finances when they work for NEGATIVE INCOME? I hope it is not by hoping to win the BIG state lottery jackpot.
The system of economics and finance is built on INCENTIVES. If it costs one MORE to work than NOT to work, then the INCENTIVE is to NOT to work.
I, too, would rather NOT work than pay more money to work than living off of the system.
Moreover, even if a worker makes at least $60 or more per hour, they are always at-risk of losing their living wage job. There is no long-term guarantee of job security. It is like living a the edge of a cliff (Nilan) *Pittsfield politics humor*.
One has to earn at least $60-per-hour or more to cut even in today’s economy. How many jobs are there that pay the average worker $60 per hour? Slim to none in the rust belt and other distressed areas of our country.
The career politicians in Pittsfield, Boston, and the Swamp are only in it for themselves. There are many more lobbyists than lawmakers in Massachusetts and the Swamp alike. It is the old “PAY to PLAY” system of corruption that leaves the working-class and middle-class families falling further and further behind since the early-to-mid-1970’s, which is over 50 years ago now.
Please note that from post WW2 to the early-to-mid-1970’s, the U.S. working-class and middle-class families alike made economic and financial gains…., but that is a long time ago in the year 2026.
Pittsfield has the 2nd highest Commercial Tax Rate in Massachusetts; Holyoke is first. Pittsfield’s Residential Tax Rate and Fees are a lot higher than Pittsfield’s peer small cities. In fact, Pittsfield always spends tens of millions of dollars per fiscal year MORE than its peer small cities such as Fitchburg and Westfield.
Boston’s state lawmakers are always under-funding state aid to local government. In fact, Massachusetts ranks 39th out of the 50 states for funding local aid. Ideally, Massachusetts would be ranked at 25th out of the 50 states for funding local aid.
The Swamp is deficit spending at multi-trillion-dollar per fiscal year levels. The U.S. National Debt is over $40 trillion in late-August 2026. U.S. inflation, mortgage rates, car loan rates, credit card rates are high. Similar to owning a home, personal finance debts are becoming a product that more and more people cannot afford to have anymore.
Put it all together. There is NO incentive to work for a NEGATIVE INCOME. It is more affordable NOT to work and live off of the system than to pay with a NEGATIVE INCOME to work. The system of INCENTIVES is only for workers who earn at least $60-per-hour or more. The career politicians and lobbyists are only in it for themselves. The system of government is a “PAY to PLAY” system of corruption.
In Pittsfield (Massachusetts), the municipal government always spends a record-breaking amount of taxpayer dollars per fiscal year. In Boston, local aid funding is close to a 20-year low when adjusted for inflation and other budgetary metrics. In the Swamp, it is RED INK up to the mostly millionaire Members of U.S. Congress’ eyeballs. The RED INK has spilled over to consumers who are dealing with high U.S. inflation, mortgage rates, car loan rates, and credit card rates.
Put a roof over people’s heads. Give workers the living-wage pay they need to meet their personal financial goals. Vote out the career politicians in Pittsfield, Boston, and the Swamp. Stop the systemic exploitation of the working-class and middle-class families in Massachusetts and beyond. Enough is enough already.
Don’t you vote democrat?
Last good thing to come out of Cuse, was Larry Czonka.
Big orange , like most colleges, are more indoctrination than education.
Unions and tenure, replaced merit and ability.
To parents of students, ask your children, “ Did your class discuss 9/11/2001?”
“What did you learn “
Union is pushing Hassan Piker’s narrative, “ America deserved it”
Only thing taught in public schools, you entitled to be offended, not free or brave.
Welcome to reality Dan , how many of your students, thrived and employ people locally?
Seeing the pattern yet?
8/26/26 5am
Tom
Csonka could not hold a candle to OJ, let alone a knife. SU journalism school is way more education than indoctrination, and certainly more education than Tom received at his unaccredited high school.
It’s not my chob.
Look at the leadership the states of FL and TX have, and then look at our “leader,” Maura Healey and her “Americans Last, Illegal Aliens First,” policies.
While the governors of those two states are attracting companies with career-type, paying jobs, Jonathan Mammelle’s communist GF, Maura Healey, is giving guidance for the parents of school aged-kids on how to avoid ICE.
Healey-Driscoll Administration Releases New Guidance to Implement PROTECT Act in Schools and Child Care Programs | Mass.gov
You read that correctly.
Our Communist Gov. is teaching children how to break the law and also indoctrinating them that the communist ideology trumps (no pun) common sense and the rule of law.
If you ran a business and read this and added the punishing taxes levied on non-POC taxpayer funded businesses, you’d keep on moving yourself.
To counter Marxist Mammelle’s tried and true repeated response of, “Trump’s ICE age, supporting Maura’s HERO Act, and his support for her policies,” I ran her expenditures towards illegal aliens and US Veterans, since 2020.
Here you go Mammelle, how do you explain this? It’s certainly not a “Hero Act,” by her:
Since 2020, Maura Mammelle-Healey, has spent $1,870,000,000 (almost $2 Billion dollars) on illegal aliens.
By that same token, Maura Mammelle-Healey, has spent between $700-800,000,000 on US Veterans.
***Almost $2,000,000,000 ($2B) less on US Veterans, than on parasites who shouldn’t even be in this country.
August 26, 2026
Hello Governor Maura Healey,
I hope that you will be re-elected in 2026. I hope that you would run for U.S. President in 2028.
We both support Veterans. I was proud of you when you signed the HERO Act into Massachusetts state law. I agreed with the op-ed that you co-wrote that was published in The Boston Globe about housing at-risk homeless Veterans in Massachusetts.
Once again, a poster on the blog named PlanetValenti.com wrote that you are my – Jon Melle’s – “communist GF”. The false statement is in protest that I support it when you stand up to Trump and his authoritarian-like policies that target minorities – Trump’s “ICE Age” of persecution of immigrants – and women.
I agree with you that you are protecting women and children in Massachusetts. I support it when you state that women are safe in Massachusetts. We should all be treated both fairly and safely in our lives as U.S. Citizens and Citizens of the World.
As you and many others know all too well, the “Jon Melle” avatar whose native hometown is Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was NOT and still is NOT treated both fairly and safely in “the Pitts”, despite that I have lived in southern New Hampshire for the past over 22 years.
I am Bob Melle’s son in Pittsfield. I have been a persecuted person in Pittsfield due to LUCIFORO since the Spring 1996 when I was still 20 years old; I am 51 in late-August 2026. My dad, Bob, was a politician and a community activist in Pittsfield many years ago. I was a victim of circumstance in Pittsfield because LUCIFORO hated my dad, Bob, and Nuciforo and his conspiratorial network of abusive bullies took it out on me, Jon.
It never ends, Maura. I could live on the Moon or even on Mars, and it goes on and on and on for the “Jon Melle” avatar. The IRONY here is that I am a have-NOT who is a disabled Veteran. I am NOT going anywhere when it comes to upwards social mobility. My dad, Bob, was the politician, NOT me.
I believe that the career politicians are doing DISSERVICES to the common people, who are struggling to survive like never before in recent history. I have even written to you when I have disagreed with your leadership in Massachusetts. It was out of respect because I am NOT one of your state government bureaucrats or local wanna-be’s who affirms you in hopes of sinecures and promotions and pay raises.
Just like you have every right to stand up to Trump, I have every right to write my political letters. It is called FREE SPEECH. Of course, career politicians such as Tricia Country Buffet block all of my political emails because they only serve their political masters instead of the people the government is supposed to serve.
Best wishes,
Jon Melle
You are living proof that you can’t buy intelligence with
an EBT card.
MA,
get ready for JM’s Marxist Mammelle’s verbal chef non response to your post with his honey’s $ spending on illegals vs veterans.
It will be a doozy.
August 26, 2026
Why is the focus on me, or even Governor Maura Healey?
I am a Veteran who support Veterans. Governor Maura Healey’s public record and public writings support Veterans, too.
It is NOT rational to post otherwise.
Trump’s “ICE Age” of persecuting minorities who are immigrants in the U.S.A. is being compared to Hitler’s Holocaust due to similar tactics and treatment of detainees.
The comparison is pre-early-1940’s prior to the large scale mass killings of innocent Peoples by Nazi Germany. Thousands of innocent Peoples were killed in the pre-early-1940’s Holocaust in Nazi Germany, while hundreds of innocent Peoples have died in ICE detention centers in the U.S.A.
Then after the early-1940’s until mid-1945 when WW2 ended, it is estimated that 17 million innocent Peoples were tragically killed in Hitler’s Holocaust. We all hope that Trump’s “ICE Age” won’t lead to thousands or millions of Peoples being killed in ICE detention centers.
Governor Maura Healey’s public record on abortion is to protect the healthcare needs of the pregnant mothers and their babies. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned close to 50 years of law overnight. Some U.S. state government’s followed suit.
Most of you reside in Western Massachusetts, which is a mostly rural region that has acute healthcare needs, including for pregnant mothers and their babies. You should be writing to the Governor, State Senator Paul Marxism the Rubber Stamp, and State Representatives John Barrett III the 50-year career politician, Tricia Country Buffet the Puppet, and Leigh Davis the Newbie, to support healthcare in the beautiful Berkshires.
The largest cuts in government funding to Massachusetts is from the Trump-era Republicans in the Swamp. It is NOT Jon Melle. It is NOT the Governor. It is NOT the Berkshire state legislative delegation to Boston.
Please focus on what is happening in our country. Federal dollars for an endless war against Iran. Federal dollars for Trump’s “ICE Age”. Federal tax cuts for the billionaires. Multi-trillion-dollar federal budget deficits per fiscal year, the U.S. National debt is over $40 trillion in late-August 2026.
I am liking the Governor of Massachusetts’ politics more and more everyday. I hope that Maura Healey may run for U.S. President in 2028.
Jon Melle
You’re an excellent masterdebater only when you are in the PP hut?!!k!!
Jonny has been known to possess the oral skills that’ll curl a man’s toes and leave him a babbling mess.
Jonny stop fighting these MAGA jerks. Gov Healey knows you support her under the rainbow flag. Are you and your cousin mayor Pete gonna bury the hatchet and spark back up gay white guys 4 Healey fundraisers like you did for VP Harris. GWG4H
Marcus
It’s managed decline, so residents, who didn’t flee, will accept Data Centers , without objection.
Come on Marcus
You’re smart enough to see , the pattern….
Vietnam
Why did Elitist College kids , get a deferment?
Because, mommy and daddy, could afford to bribe politicians!
Seeing the pattern yet?
Demonrats , are terrified, the muscular class( who Trump loves) now have a voice.
Demonrats aren’t after Trump, he and Charlie Kirk, are just in the way , of the working class.
Seeing the pattern Yet?
8/27/26@1pm
Tom
In tattered old Bitchfield, the streets are cracked and bent,
The residents stay home because the government pays the rent.
Mayor Lumpy shrugs, says, “Working? That’s a phase.”
While Whimpy White and Dumpster Earl keep raising taxes every day.Job force development? They tossed it in the trash.
Why bother building progress when the tax hikes bring in cash?
So Bitchfield keeps on wobbling, a city in decline—tattered old Bitchfield, the streets are cracked and bent,
The residents stay home because the government pays the rent.
Mayor Lumpy shrugs, says, “Working? That’s a phase.”
While Whimpy White and Dumpster Earl keep raising taxes every day.Job force development? They tossed it in the trash.
Why bother building progress when the tax hikes bring in cash?
So Bitchfield keeps on wobbling, a city in decline—
Where staying home is profitable, and leadership is a crime.
…….And it’s all on the taxpayer dime………
HEY!! the mayor is building a ballpark during an economic spiral when borrowing costs are going through the roof and building materials are also through the roof due to tariffs. And it will be managed by an outside firm even though the taxpayers still are going to be allowed to fund the whole Goddamn thing from beginning to end and all the maintenance going forward.
Normally only an idiot would do that but our mayor has stepped forward and is volunteering to be that idiot. So cut him some slack will ya?
Mean
Odds it’s repurposed for dickle ball and Cricket?
Indians ( Hindu) aren’t into, men’s sports…
ICYMI.
You’re about to be replaced, by H1B visa , government subsidized immigrants , at PCB GE data center complex.
Seeing the pattern yet?
Managed decline, then exploit , the crisis.
Demonrat 101…
8/27/26@1pm
Tom
And ask yourselves. Does Pittsfield majority want scrub team or baseball? Lumpty is in in for the free beer. Al he’ll get is blinded by the light.
Puff….Another gem. Can you do another Buffett. She deserves it. And a lumpy is in order.
AI, stay tuned. I haven’t even begun with Buffet and Lumpy as of yet. My second targets are Dumpster and Porkchop Pete. Unfortunately, I know all these so-called leaders extremely well.
Your the best L L P
Leap
Snapshots and sound bites, less is more.
How about a ditty , on upcoming data center, which Moron Healey will be using for campaign fodder?
8/27/26@1:15 pm
Tom
You can thank most of the education system,
teachers, politicians and school officials for they are more interested in radicalizing students for their causes than they are on educating them and giving them guidance for a good work ethic and career outlook. Parents are also at fault for they’re not involved enough in their children’s lives on many decisions leaving them a lot of time to play video games and be a
failure..
This is what 50 years of progressive indoctrination does. Could you imagine these kids storming the beaches of Normandy?
https://www.masslive.com/news/2026/08/whats-really-keeping-young-men-out-of-the-workforce.html
On Sunday, August 30th, 2026, from 10 am to 5 pm, It is FREE [Admissions] DAY at The Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield.
https://berkshiremuseum.org/events-exhibits/august-30th-free-day/
You going?
I won’t be attending, but it sounds like a fun free event in Pittsfield.
You know there will be a “donation in lieu of fee” box right inside the door.
Yeah but Lucy might be there?
Who was moved to downvote this? How unhappy are you?
Does anyone know if Kerwood is going. I want to talk to him about running for mayor and dumping mayor beer belly. We need real leadership like Kerwood brings not hot air from beer belly.
Thank you for your attention to the matter.
With all the taxpayer money that goes into that place it should be free ALL the time
I think Tim should run.
August 27, 2026
A former gambling addict who produces YouTube videos about the dangers of gambling is being sued by a gambling influencer, content creator, and product line marketer who is known as “Vegas Matt”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH3NOHOsw1A
The gambling industry, which includes the billion-dollar-plus one in Massachusetts that greedy lobbyists in Boston love because it is really regressive taxation that gives their BIG business clients BIG state tax breaks, does NOT want online consumer advocates to cut into their BIG profits.
The common people are hooked on betting their limited financial resources on gambling products, but many of us do NOT understand that its exploiting us on many levels for the benefits of BIG business and government’s special interests.
I, myself, like to gamble, but I am also financially literate and studied financial management policies for many years of my middle-aged adult life of 51-years in late-August 2026. I understand that common people like “Jon Melle the have-NOT” really lose to the rich and powerful elites when I spend a few hundred dollars per month of my monthly income trying and hoping to beat the odds for double my money.
All BIG business cares about is BIG profits. All greedy lobbyists care about is their BIG business clients who pay them BIG dollars. All career politicians care about in MONEY and POWER for life. None of them really care about the common people, especially those who have not studied financial management policy and financial literacy.
Lastly, the worst part of it all is that there are many people, families, communities, and others out there who have been hurt by gambling addiction. While there are websites, telephone numbers, mental health services, gambling anonymous groups, and the like, the social problems of gambling addiction seems to be getting worse with the proliferation of gambling businesses and products.
Jon Melle