When Facebook first came out you needed a .edu email to join. It was a great place for college students to connect. The social media giant was eventually opened up to the mass public and was a great way for friends and family to stay connected. Today, Facebook seems to be rife by hate, ignorance and copyright infringement.

At one time I had some 4,100 Facebook “friends,” but decided to cut that list down to 82. My social media life has never been better. 

Moving past the obvious racists, sex offenders and other scum of the internet, here are 10 people that seem to dominate Facebook and make it a miserable place.

1. Political partisans – These are the people who make everything political. That’s fine on your personal timeline, but it isn’t urgent that the rest of Facebook know how they feel. House fire? Obama’s fault. Lost dog? Trump’s fault. These are the people who can’t turn off the election, in fact, they are always in the election cycle. 

2. The constantly offended people – Some people wake up looking to be offended. Looking in their direction in a cafe offends them. Using the wrong pronoun can be dangerous. They even get offended for other people. If they ruled Facebook, nothing would be posted as not to offend anyone. 

3. The internet panhandlers – It’s bad enough seeing panhandlers on every corner of a city, but now they dominate every corner of Facebook. No bad luck goes to waste for these people and they are almost always asking you to bail them out from their bad choices. All while the websites that host the panhandling make millions of dollars. 

4. The internet scammers  – Facebook groups dedicated to cities and towns will provide you with some of the best discussion threads on the internet. The groups are also full scammers armed with bullshit stories and a laptop used to raise funds. One just has to follow Turtleboy Sports to see how crazy things have become. 

5. Grammar Nazis – What would Facebook be like without the folks that do nothing but scour the internet for grammar and spelling mistakes? Probably a great place. No matter how important the story is, they will make it about the typos. A story about getting fuel aid to the poor? They will make sure the conversation turns to knowing how to use ‘an’ and ‘a’ properly. Often, they make mistakes of their own while arrogantly correcting yours.

6. Virtue signalers – the internet is full of people who point out all the world’s problems through social media, but never physically do anything to fix them. They solve homelessness with a hashtags and pick internet fights with anyone that disagrees with their cause. Don’t want 6’4 men in your daughter’s locker room? They’ll let you know how you are killing babies and raping women with your view. 

7. Fake news factories– Yes, fake news is a real thing and seems to dominate Facebook, usually in the form of memes and edited videos. How many times have you seen a video where you know the back story, but the popular video sharing page decided to add their own story for views? 

8. The smug – these guys or gals think they the smartest person in the room and always let you know it. Some people are open to learning – not these people. They are only on Facebook to spread their wisdom. Spent 5 years in Korea and sharing your experiences? Wrong. They read the Wikipedia page on South Korea and let you know it. 

9. Those that use memes to argue their point – having no ability to come up with original thought leads these people to have thousands of memes in their photo galleries. When they are not overpowering you with memes, they are killing you with the crying laughing emoji’s.

10. Those who can’t string together sentences. These people decided in kindergarten to stop listening in all future English classes – a 20 word vocabulary would be enough to get through life. The only good news is they drive the grammar Nazis crazy. 

11. Those who steal all their content.  Share a video with a Beyonce song in it and Facebook will hammer you, but steal every viral video and make them your own and Facebook will reward you. The biggest asshole on the internet is SloFo who has been stealing videos for years to get a following of 11 millions fans. Go out there, work hard making a video and if it goes viral he’ll steal it and drain your YouTube revenue.

Recently, the City of New Bedford announced a $5 million dollar upgrade to the Elm Street parking garage and a new parking app to end the frustration of feeding the meters. These go a long way to making parking downtown better, but don’t address the biggest issue: people don’t feel safe parking in the Zeiterion or Elm Street garages at night. Here are five ways to make parking downtown great again.

1. Turn the Custom House Square urban park back into a 60-space, long-term parking lot. We wrote an article addressing this issue here. The closer you can park to the business you are visiting, the better. 

2. Provide paid security at the Elm Street and Zeiterion parking lots from 9pm to 3am on Friday and Saturday nights and during major events like Summer Fest. There is no security at the two garages, just people issuing time tickets and collecting money on the way out. The workers head home around 6-7pm. Paid security walking around the garages at night would supplement the future security cameras and go a long way in making people feel safe to park there late at night and early mornings. A small increase in parking fees should allow for new security. 

3. The New Bedford Police Department should increase foot patrols downtown from 9pm to 3am on Friday and Saturday nights. Driving around isn’t enough. Having a strong police presence during peak hours will go a long way in making people feel safe, especially women walking to and from their cars late at night. 

4. People who visit downtown need to report crime. Ignoring crime when you see it is a sure way to ensure it continues. If you see something suspicious or an actual crime, report it to the police. When criminals feel they can’t get away with crime in a certain area, they move on. Minding your business shouldn’t be an option.

5. Downtown businesses should consider setting up a fund or be willing to pay a small tax increase to help pay for the security. A more secure parking garage will allow for the possibility of valet parking there. Collectively, businesses could negotiate a deal with the city. While the streets are full during peak hours, the garages are empty and only a few minutes away from most businesses downtown. 

Downtown New Bedford has added a ton of new restaurants and businesses over the past few years and the street parking has become crowded. New Bedford has plenty of parking downtown during nightlife hours, but most of it resides in the empty parking garages. If businesses step up, and the City and police department increase security, the downtown business district will thrive even more. 

One of the biggest contributors of crime in New Bedford is the ‘no snitching’ attitude that dominates the high crime areas of the city. Look I get it; if you are in a gang or the mob, and one of your crew gets arrested and sings like a songbird for a lesser sentence, he/she is a snitch. Breaking the law and then turning in your friends for a lesser sentence is cowardly. Snitches get stitches. 

Now for the rest of us NOT in a gang or mob. Fearing retaliation is a justifiable reason not to to report crime, but a misunderstanding of what snitching is or isn’t, is a bigger problem. 

Let’s break down the misconception of snitching.

It’s not snitching to report crime. If someone is breaking into your neighbor’s home or stealing a car on your street, it is NOT snitching to call the police. If you want to live on a street where people respect each other and their property, reporting crime is a necessity. Let crime go unreported and it will just be a matter of time before you are the victim. 

The New Bedford police report that crime in New Bedford is down 10% for a second year in a row. Overall, crime may be down in the city, but not in the bad neighborhoods. Read through the police logs and the same streets come up almost daily; sometimes the same addresses. Clearly, the landlords don’t care who they rent to, but that doesn’t mean you should allow crime to continue in your neighborhood. 

It’s time for New Bedford residents to take back the city from the criminals house by house and street by street. Ignoring crime because it’s “none of your business” allows crime to grow. Report crime when you see it and it will eventually go away. 

Crime in New Bedford can be reported to the New Bedford police at tips@newbedfordpd.com or anonymously at 508-992-7463.

In late February, 18-year-old Eddy Fonseca attended a high school party in Raynham where police say he was robbing a juvenile when he stabbed 19-year old Tyler Pascarelli for trying to intervene. Police report Eddy violently gashed Tyler’s throat before escaping in a Honda Civic with friends. If Massachusetts legislators get their way, 18-year olds like Eddy Fonseca will get charged as a juvenile for most of the crime that they commit. Murder would be the exception.

According to MassLive.com, Massachusetts lawmakers will consider raising the age of offenders sent to juvenile court from 18 to 21. This is a major consideration since juveniles tend to get their wrists slapped and records sealed when they become an adult. Advocates of raising the age state that the brain is not fully developed before 21. The U.S. government decides people can join the military and go off to war at 18 (17 with parental consent), but 20 year olds that commit crimes are children?

Raising the age would be a big mistake. A lot of juveniles that commit crimes know they can get away with a lot and their record is pretty much sealed once they become an adult. Adding three more years to the age of a juvenile would be great for juveniles that commit crime, but not so great for the victims of the crime. Teaching young criminals that they are less responsible for their actions because their brains aren’t fully developed is simply an excuse. 

“Kids” like Eddy Fonseca will continue to terrorize our streets knowing that their records are untouchable once they become an adult. We don’t need to be more lenient on young criminals, we need to be tougher. Let’s stop making excuses for young people when they commit crime and fix the underlying problem as to why they commit crime; boredom, addiction, lack of parental guidance, bad influences and poverty. These issues cause young people to commit crime, not a still developing brain. 

By Bruce Ditata

Apparently, the charter school wonks remain undaunted by voters’ landslide rebuke of Ballot Question 2 and the attempt to lift the cap on charter schools because they have resorted to a version of a Tom Brady “trick play” known as the flea flicker.

Those still aspiring to the dream of privatizing public education, while avoiding the long wait and heavy lifting of another ballot referendum, hope the misdirection known as Empowerment/Innovation Zones will result in a touchdown pass over the heads of sixty- two percent of the electorate.

The ground game employing the likes of Governor Charlie Baker, Billionaires Boys Club entrepreneurs, including Eli Broad and Michael Bloomberg, tried to bulldoze the referendum with political capital and the weight of their deep pockets.

Having failed in that endeavor to sack traditional public schools, Baker and privatizers like Empower School’s Chris Gabrieli have sought and gained the support of willing legislators- Representative Alice Peisch (D) Wellesley and Senator Eric Lesser (D) Longmeadow – to sponsor legislation to expand the Empowerment/Innovation Zones currently employed in the district of Springfield, MA and its series of under performing schools.

So how is the Empowerment/ Innovation Zone of Springfield doing?

According to the estimable researcher/ educational blogger Jennifer Berkshire, who has traveled across the nation, tracking down “education reformers” like Gabrieli, the Springfield experiment is not moving the ball downfield.

Berkshire’s recent blog asked, “…Is the Empowerment Zone actually doing the thing that it was zoned to do: rapidly accelerate achievement, meaning test scores, at the EZ’s eight schools?”

And the surprising answer was “… There has been no rapid acceleration.” When Governor Baker cited “positive results” in his State of the State address he was venturing into the land of, if not alternative facts, extremely wishful thinking.

Also, as Gabrieli conceded in a letter he sent to “interested parties,”none of our schools reached our two-year goals…in both English Language Arts (ELA) and math.”

“Then there are the numbers that Gabrieli and Team EZ aren’t talking about at all: the eye-popping suspension numbers at the Empowerment Zone schools.”

Four of the eight EZ schools in Springfield- all middle schools- the John F. Kennedy (30.2%), John J. Duggan (25.7%), Van Sickle (31%), and Chestnut North (26.5%) have cracked the top ten of ALL schools in the Commonwealth, measuring the largest number of students suspended out of school.

Again, in culling through the statistics, according to the research done by Berkshire, “…it gets even worse when you dig down further and look at who is getting suspended. The Empowerment Zones schools (in Springfield) are suspending a higher percentage of students with disabilities and African American boys than virtually any other school in the state.”

Yet, Baker said in his State of the State message, “ These zones allow educators to make changes necessary to provide a better learning environment.”

Rep. Peisch,in an article published recently and written by Michael Jonas in Commonwealth Magazine, maintained that the proposed House legislation allows EZ, “to form clusters that operate independently of the district system and enjoy… flexibility…”

Her Senate colleague, Lesser, in the same article, added that EZ will, “ move the needle beyond the charter school debate.”

In the troika that comprises politicians, privatizers and media, the Boston Globe, has continued to do its part in the misdirection “trick play” represented by the Empowerment/Innovation Zone.

Columnist Scot Lehigh couldn’t resist bashing his favorite whipping post- teachers unions- in a recent op-ed, that favored, “freeing (schools) from district directives and loosening some provisions of the districts’ teachers’ contracts.”

Echoing Lehigh’s vitriol in its Globe editorial, the EZ, “should prove less controversial than an increase in the number of charter schools, which have drawn the implacable opposition of the teachers unions, an influential Democratic constituency group.”

So much for the will of the people who sacked the November 8 Ballot Question, burying the pro charter group 62-38%.

All the billionaires money and all the billionaires men failed to put the referendum question together again.

But these charter types continue to show a remarkable resilience and there’s always a new version of the flea flicker.

Sincerely yours:
Bruce C. Ditata

Massachusetts has twice the drug overdoses than the national average. A new report states that Fentanyl is now responsible for 75% of the overdose deaths in Massachusetts. In a state where we ban assault riffles because of their firepower, why is Fentanyl treated as a less dangerous drug than heroin?

According to the New Bedford police department, heroin is considered a class A drug and Fentanyl is considered class B. Class A drugs carry stiffer penalties than class B ones. Per the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Fentanyl 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, so it is far more deadly than heroin. It seems that scientists, drug dealers, police and everyone else on the planet knows the dangers of Fentanyl except Massachusetts legislators.

Legislators did increase the penalty for trafficking more than 10 grams of Fentanyl in 2015, but penalties for heroin are stiffer. For example, heroin carries a minimum mandatory sentence of 3.5 years for over 18 grams and not more than 30 years in jail. Fentanyl has no minimum mandatory sentence and not more than 20 years for 10 grams or more. It’s still safer under the law to be a Fentanyl dealer than a heroin dealer, even though Fentanyl dealers are killing 300% more people than heroin dealers. 

While legislators haven’t pushed to make Fentanyl equal or worse than heroin, our judges seem to be taking it easy on Fentanyl dealers as well. Just last Thursday a Fairhaven man wanted by the police on a warrant for selling Fentanyl was arrested in a Dartmouth hotel with 18 grams of Fentanyl, a digital scale, packaging material, as well as Suboxone strips and Alprazolam. It’s common for judges to give $500 bails to dealer with lots of cash and oddly enough these dealers don’t turn a new leaf to become responsibly citizens. 

To make things even worse, Massachusetts legislators are pushing for lower bails and pushing down the age that someone is considered a juvenile from 18 to 21. Talk to any prosecutor or police officer and they’ll tell you that low bails increase crime. Defense lawyers are great at continuing cases for month if not years while their clients go back to sell drugs and intimidating any witnesses against them.  

New Bedford had a 75% increase in overdoses in 2016 and the crisis is worsening. Fentanyl has made the heroin crisis much worse, killing people at a 3-1 rate compared to heroin. It’s time our legislators act to punish Fentanyl dealers equally if not more severe than heroin dealers. If they can ban tasers and assault rifles because of their fire power, then they should do the same with Fentanyl dealers. It’s also time for our judges to keep Fentanyl dealers in jail until their court case by adding higher bails. Let’s increase the bail and get them a court date as fast as possible. 

As of this writing, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has made 115 posts to Facebook in 2017; 101 of them directed at Donald Trump (or one of his nominees), but not a single one dedicated to the heroin epidemic ravaging Massachusetts. 

In Massachusetts we have real issues to deal with; a heroin epidemic, increasing homelessness, high property taxes, legislators getting 50% pay raises and a host of other issues. If you live in New Bedford, heroin, panhandlers, crime, high property taxes, low wages and a decaying fishing industry are real concerns; not Trump. You might hate what he says on Twitter, but he’s not keeping bread off your table or getting your teenager hooked on heroin. 

New Bedford saw a 75% increase in heroin overdoses in 2016, yet Trump seems to be the only thing Massachusetts politicians are focusing on. Last week, New Bedford saw 10 overdoses over a 3 day period – 5 on Sunday alone, yet the only thing politicians locally were talking about was how two UMass Dartmouth professors had a 3-hour delay at Logan Airport because of Trump’s ban on immigration from seven countries. Can we start having press conferences every time we have 5 overdoses in a 12-hour period?

Head over to MA Attorney General Maura Healey’s Facebook page or our other U.S. Senator Ed Markey’s page and you’ll also see way too much time dedicated to Trump. There is no wonder Massachusetts has twice the overdose deaths as the national average; we have politicians that care more about stopping President Trump (or running against him in 2020) than stopping the heroin crisis ravaging our state.

In a few short years, overdose deaths in America will kill more people than cars and guns combined. That’s a real issue facing all Americans. In Massachusetts, particularly places like New Bedford, the problem is twice as bad and accelerating.

Senator Warren needs to stop running for President. It’s 2017, not 2020. The heroin problem is growing out of control and we need our elected leaders to focus on what really matters. Stand up to President Trump when he does something you feel is wrong, but remember your job is to care for the people of Massachusetts, and as a community we are in trouble. 

The hot topic of the week is President Trump’s travel ban stopping citizens from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Sudan from entering the United States for 90 days. Large protests are popping up around the United States and world leaders are outraged. The mainstream media is whipping people up into a frenzy, but really not reporting the entire story – just the part where Trump is the evil dictator for banning Muslim-majority countries. 

Do a little research and you’ll find something interesting; sixteen countries, all Muslim majority, forbid admission to Israeli passport holders. They are Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi, Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Of those, eight (Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen) do not allow re-entry to people with evidence of travel to Israel. Go to Israel for business or vacation? Sorry, you are not welcome back. 

A quick look at this map shows you that every Muslim country in the Middle East except Jordan, Turkey and Egypt ban Israel citizens from entering. I’ll bet you lunch it’s because the U.S. and Israel basically bribe them with aid money and military equipment. Have you seen how awesome and western the Turkish and Jordan Air Forces are? 

Every country on Trump’s list besides Somalia forbids an entire people, almost all Jewish, from ever entering the country. Not 90 days, but a lifetime ban. I’m sure if Somalia had a government they would ban Jews too. There were no protests on the streets of those countries. In fact, you likely saw celebrations when these laws were enacted. 

Locally, two UMass Dartmouth professors were detained at the airport for a few hours and in response 100’s of articles were written and the university held a press conference where dozens of media outlets attended. I don’t recall this same attention when the entire Middle East banned all Jews from their countries, but I digress. 

Let’s forget for a moment that Presidents and legislators from sixteen majority-Muslim countries banned all people of the majority Jewish country from ever entering their country. Let’s forget that they did it with no protest or outrage from the mainstream media around the world. Let’s focus on Trump’s “Muslim ban.” 

The common theme, and lie, that is going around the world is that Trump banned Muslims from entering the United States. But once emotion and politics are pushed aside, you realize it’s not true. There are roughly 50 Muslim dominated countries in the world and Trump temporarily banned citizens from 7 of them. Quick math tells you 43 Muslim countries were not added to the ban list. Out of the top 10 countries with Muslim populations only Iran is on the list. 

In fact, the top 5 countries with the largest Muslim population, Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Egypt are not on Trump’s list. That’s about 700 million Muslims, or more than twice the population of the United States, are not affected by Trump’s temporary ban. Add the other 38 countries not on the list and well over a billion Muslims are not effected. So, let’s stop calling this a Muslim ban. 

You can disagree with Trump’s 90-day ban on citizens from from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Sudan, but make sure you know all the available information. Not only do these countries already ban entire people from entering their country, they are dangerous places.

ISIS dominates much of Syria and Iraq and the governments in these countries are as corrupt as they come. Iran’s leadership despises America, do you think they will cooperate with U.S. immigration laws? Somalia has no government to speak of – it’s a lawless land. Yemen has been going through a civil war since 2015 and did you know that Al-Qaeda set up their new base of operations there? Libya is the place where President Obama help overthrow a dictator and then we had Ambassador Stevens and other Americans killed not to mention ISIS has a strong foothold now. Sudan? Slavery and terrorism are major problems there.

These seven countries are on a temporary travel ban from entering the U.S. because they are dangerous places to live with a large number of people that want to do harm to Americans. To protest this travel ban, while ignoring the ban on Jews shows ignorance and political bias. To make this about Trump is not only silly, but dangerous. 

Editor’s note: This article as written Michael Silvia who served 20 years as an intelligence officer in the Air Force. The opinions are his alone. 

Photo by “Photo Impressions By Victor”
By Nicole Nelson

There’s this thing that happens when you talk to people from the SouthCoast or New England who are not from New Bedford, Massachusetts. Usually it’s a smile and a quick compliment about the city like “Oh, I love the Whaling Museum”, or “I drove by there on my way to the Ferry”. Sometimes the comment is a little more specific: “The downtown area is really nice, I love the restaurants there.”

While the Downtown area is nice, and the restaurants there are great, and it is close to the Ferry, and the Whaling Museum is a civic treasure, there is more to New Bedford than the juxtaposition of burgeoning potential and the elephant in the room: Crime. I know this because I live here. I’ve lived here for a long time. Before I realized the whole crime thing I thought New Bedford was the best! Partly because I was very, very young, but also because it was home.

As an adult who has returned to New Bedford, I’m often conflicted. I’m still in love with the cobblestones and the food and the water and the history (don’t even get me started on the history!!). But then there’s the cynical adult part, right? The part that notices the shifty glances and the raised eyebrows when you proudly blurt out “Oh, I live in New Bedford!”

Because, let’s be honest, it’s getting better all the time but it’s not there yet. It’s sprouting, and the sprouts are starting to get stronger and a bloom is on the way but there are so many other factors that threaten this fragile growth. There’s the crime, yes. But there’s also the taxes! Oh my God, the taxes! The insurance hikes, the property values, the parking!

So what can you do?

What can you do when you’re not in public service and you don’t want to be mayor? What do you do when you don’t have the capital to start a new business to contribute to the revitalization of downtown? What do you do when you get emotional about how beautiful those Victorian homes are and you just want so badly for things to get better, but you’re just a guy? You’re just some person who is trying to make it work on an individual level and you’re fixing up your house but other than better landscaping there isn’t much else you can do to make a change others can actually see?

There’s this thing in marketing that claims “perception is reality.” It means that if something looks better most people will believe it’s better even if it’s not. It’s obviously not real, but super effective nonetheless. We see this all the time with the latest iPhone and the new packaging for organic, natural, locally-grown celery. It’s the same but it’s dressed up, it’s nicer. And we want it.

So what? We take two negatives and turn them into a positive. Because positive is always better. It’s practically science. And to just really take this article to the next level with cliches: We fake it till we make it.

What I’m proposing is that we understand what the reality is but we choose to make it better. We focus on the good bits in order to crowd out the bad ones. We become a city of glowing positivity until we aren’t pretending anymore, we are just that. Because frankly, I’m tired of having those eyebrows pop up at the mention of my home in disapproval. I want those eyebrows popping up in envy, because I live in the up-and-coming city that has it all: The food, the history, the growth, the art, the views, and the citizens who refused to let it be less than it should be.

Make it up the way you want it to be. Design your future city. Highlight what makes it spectacular and pretty soon all of it will be. Join me in changing the perception of the city by doing what you already do all the time. Take photos of your cat, but your cat in your great apartment that is in New Bedford. Your martini from your favorite bar in New Bedford. The sunset over the water at the Fort in New Bedford. Tag it, be proud of it and share it. Get your followers that you’ve never met in real life and that live in New York or LA to google “New Bedford’ because damn, that city looks amazing.

Your input, our outcome. My View, #MyNewBedford.

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#MyNewBedford is a personal project started by Niki Nelson who is a graphic designer living in (you guessed it!) New Bedford, Massachusetts. To help Niki generate content for a new outlet that focuses on the beauty of the city following @mynewbedford on Instagram and share your photos with the hashtag #MyNewBedford and let’s see where this thing goes.

You can see more about Niki’s project here.