BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY APRIL 10, 2024) — THE PLANET ended Monday’s column with an invitation for any city official to meet with us in a public forum to debate the bloated FY25 budget. No conditions, no notes. We’re sure you will be shocked to learn that […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 8, 2024) — It used to be that citizens “enjoyed” (if that is the proper term) a reasonable separation of tripartite government levels. The Feds did their thing, the states did theirs, and the locals were more or less left alone. No […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 5-7, 2024) — According to the Highway Safety Association (HSA), pedestrian traffic deaths rose from 4,600 in 2007, to 6,721 in 2020, to 7,485 in 2021. That number is expected to hit 10,000 this year. What gives? Many factors explain this […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY APRIL 3, 2024) — Unlike what so many think, the identity of THE PLANET has not been shaped by ideology. We see ideology as a straight jacket that restricts independent thought. Our guide is common sense. Our destination, truth. Simple as that. We […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 1, 2024) — Urban doom. THE PLANET wishes the phrase was an April Fool’s joke, but no. It’s an adjective-noun combination describing what Loon-Liberals, a.k.a. Democrats, have done to an increasingly number of American cities, including the city once known as Pittsfield. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 29-31, 2024) — First off, THE PLANET hopes you enjoyed a happy Easter. It’s a wonderful celebration, both in its religious and seasonal messages, of spring’s return and with it, the reemergence of new life. The opposite impulse can be […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 27, 2024) — Upcoming in The Weekend Edition, THE PLANET presents the latest folly of Bitchfield’s new Administration. It comes in the guise of the continual and continuous destruction of North Street via replacing for-profit private business with more tax-exempt social-service non-sequiturs. Folks, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 25, 2024) — Some 30 years ago, media critic Edward Herman and linguist Noam Chomsky coined the term “manufacturing consent.” It referred to the media’s ability to influence and impose “group think” (from Orwell’s 1984) on a lazy, unsuspecting, and increasingly dullard […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 22-4, 2024) — Today THE PLANET discusses the happenings in Ukraine. They affect every person in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, the East Coast, America, Europe and the world. Behind all of it, nukes. In a Wednesday speech to the Bundestag, German […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY [ED. NOTE: The resemblance of anyone depicted in this column to any living, breathing human being is strictly coincidental owing to the fact that they all are politicians] (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 20, 2024) — Welcome to the second day of spring. We made it, gang. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 18, 2024) — Last week, Boston Herald veteran columnist Peter Lucas wrote a story detailing how Gov. Maura Healey was punishing the Town of Milton (pop. 28,000) for not obeying a state directive to change its zoning to accommodate more “affordable housing.” You […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 15-7, 2024) — It always amuses when we find someone willing to speak out, insisting on anonymity, which we typically grant. It follows, usually the next day, that THE PLANET gets accused of inventing an imaginary source. The accusations, never made […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 13, 2024) — The Maypo Administration would love the Kapanskis to forget to recent fiasco over the nearly-$50,000 “missing invoice” the mayor dismissed by saying “it fell through the cracks.” The money involved one day of tree service from a March 14, 2023 […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 11, 2024) — Balance has always been the right approach in life. Without water, you’ll die of thirst. Drink too much, though, and you will die of consumption. If there’s 10 on the left, be sure you have 10 on the right and […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 8-10, 2024) — THE PLANET begins with a brief reaction to Thursday night’s State of the Union Address. “Come on, man!” This wasn’t a SOTU update. Biden gave a stump speech. How embarrassing. He attacked his predecessor, something no president […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 7, 2024) — If nuclear war breaks out, it won’t be initiated by China, Russia, or the United States. It will be by Iran or North Korea. THE PLANET‘s money is on Iran for the simple reason that the country has religion. […]
