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June 28, 2010

Tangled Rhode Island Webs

Justin Katz

I hadn't had time to explore the new news site, but apparently, Go Local Prov (which is affiliated with WPRO) has been featuring regular commentary by RI Future founder Matt Jerzyk, including a Rhode Island "who's hot and who's not" column. The list typically has the slant that one would expect from Matt, but one example is of a particularly Rhode Islandish flavor. On the "not" list:

Jim Hummel -> Many in the media have done so much to expose the corruption of those in power. However, the "gotcha" stories targeting hard-working Rhode Islanders is really old. Perhaps its Hummel's corporate connection to right-wing groups like OSPRI, but his recent report that attacks a laid-off manufacturing worker in his 50s for trying to retrain himself in the computer sector is really outrageous. Instead of trying to nickel and dime the working class, it would be great if Hummel would go after those who are really fleecing the taxpayers.

As one can see in the current Hummel Report (also affiliated with WPRO), that "working class" fellow whom Hummel is "nickel and diming" is David Arruda, who was laid off from his job as a general manager of an electronics manufacturer last fall and has since been collecting the maximum unemployment from the state (over $500 per week). Mr. Arruda's "retraining in the computer sector" entails being the lone employee of D.A. Computers, presumably "David Arruda Computers."

Mr. Arruda asserts that he's doing nothing inappropriate because he doesn't draw a salary from his "job," and although his LinkedIn page calls him the owner, the company is actually in his wife's name. His wife, as it happens, is employed as a Legal Nurse Consultant with the law firm DeLuca & Weizenbaum, whose Web site header reads, "A Law Firm for the People." Also employed at this people's law firm? Matthew Jerzyk, who might consider putting himself on his next "not hot" list.

Comments

Really??? Are you kidding? Matt did something like that? I can't believe it!

BTW, The Secretary of State filing of the LLC's Articles of Organization is incomplete. The form requires that a "Manager" be listed on page 2 if the box is checked at 7(b). The information is missing. WHY?

And the incorporation seems to have occurred (July 24, 2009) right around the time Mr. Arruda became unemployed.

http://ucc.state.ri.us/CorpSearch/CorpSearchFormList.asp?SearchType=E&FEIN=000508680

Posted by: John at June 28, 2010 10:20 AM

This commentary by Jerzyk fits perfectly in the perverted world these nutbag liberals reside. Those who play by the rules, owns companies, pays taxes, employ people are the bad guys. Those who suck off the system, come into the country illegally, they are the good guys.

Liberalism is indeed a disease of utter stupidity.

Posted by: Mike Cappelli at June 28, 2010 10:37 AM

Why the surprise at Matt?He was a protege of the odious Jack McConnell,bankroller of the RI leftists.
Matt wants to channel the guy.
Matt likes to sound all proletarian revolutionary and all that,but like Crowley he also likes that "scarole".
I'm not suggesting Jerzyk take an oath of poverty,but at least be up front.
He should take an oath to stop calling people "racist" at the drop of a hat for a year or so.
He's never done that to me,but he has to some people who really didn't deserve it.
Jerzyk and a guy named Charles Drago were a regular Punch and Judy show on RIF until Hull dropped the hammer on Drago.

Posted by: joe bernstein at June 28, 2010 10:58 AM

Say what you want about Jerzyk's ethics flap, but a post from here several months ago comes back to haunt:
At a Tea Party conference, when Colleen Conley was going on about who's in the Tea Party's corner, she mentioned Hummel as one of the party's friends (along with AR).
I kept waiting for Hummel to put out a statement disavowing the comment and declaring he is not in the pocket of the Tea Party. He never did (or if he was, at least he should've told Conley not to go public with it).
Hummel spent years building a good rep in this town. I want badly to believe he didn't sell out.

Posted by: rhody at June 28, 2010 11:28 AM

I get it-here is a perfect example of demented thinking.Jim Hummel isn't allowed to support the Tea Party?
That impugns his journalistic credentials?No complaints from the above poster about Karen Lee Ziner getting all hot and bothered over every illegal alien"pobrecito".
Or that lamebrain Scott McKay?Or Charles Bakst?Or Bob Kerr?They can suck up to every leftist turd in creation and that's no problem.
Hummel's stories tend to stand up -that's what matters.
He's not in the KKK you know.
Although to people like Rhody there's no difference.
And I'm NOT a Tea Party member.I just don't think Hummel's creds should be questioned on that basis.
If there is an inaccuracy in the story THAT is a legitimate ground for complaint.
Most investigative reporters around here tend to do their homework.

Posted by: joe bernstein at June 28, 2010 11:47 AM

Matilda Jerzyk comes from wealth, her mentor in Let's Make Our Money By Shaking Down Companies For Theirs lawyering is Jack I thank God every single day they don't require psych exams for judgeships McConnell and this is who is mouthing concern for the plight of the working people?? lol
Many months ago I politely asked Matilda to produce the numbers on minority membership/leadership of those lilly white unions she champions as she weeps those faux tears for people of color. We're still waiting....
(btw Don is still waiting for Bob Walsh to respond to his polite request for facts - Walshie also ran away)
Nothing scares off libs like simple requests for facts.
This is why the saying "Liberalism is a mental disorder" rings so true
Never been to Go Local Prov. It's pretty obvious I'm not missing anything except outbursts of laughter that frauds like Matilda engender.

Posted by: Tim at June 28, 2010 11:54 AM

I may be missing something. How can someone be attempting to look for full time work while "working" for free? I understand some people while unemployment do charity or volunteer work, since looking for work does not take a full day. This guy admits his wife doesn't work there, unsure of any other employees, but even still he seems to open the store and spend a long amount of time doing repair work. Even if you tried to spin this as the limo liberal Jerzyk does, it still doesn't pass the sniff test. The guy clearly is working, yet not "taking" a salary. He instead takes the unemployment while violating clearly the rules put in place. Hummel should continue such work and the DLT should up their fraud department. Its a sad day when people come out to support a clown like this, taking money from taxpayers while "working for free" at his wives company. This guy takes up the time and energy of DLT employees, clogs the already burdened phone system, and cheats the taxpayers out of money. Defending him ,especially for someone who claims to cares about the poor and disadvantage, shows how hypocritical and fake many like Jerzyk are. Its easy to talk about the poor and downtrodden when you go to Brown and make a lawyers salary, but when you defend those who rob the system how can you even look in the mirror in the morning?

Posted by: steadman at June 28, 2010 12:27 PM

Jerzyk likes to think of himself as a modern day William Jennings Bryan, but in reality he comes off as a lesser known Reverend Wright. I've never seen him practice law, but I would imagine that the judges are not amused when they read his way too long briefs full of outrageous superfluous adjectives undermining the credibility of his own case. I attended two of the Drinking Liberally events and each time, during the candidate questions segment, Jerzyk got up with a big prepared oration that you could just tell he spent the whole night working on and revising. The bloviation that followed in his 5-minute-long rambling statement in the form of a question was a practically unbearable sermon. People looked at each other uncomfortably as if to ask "who the hell is this guy"? The candidate who was supposed to be the focus of the evening just stood there, shifting back and forth, waiting for him to finish. If he had any credibility before he accused people who opposed the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations name change as racists who "don't care" about black people, then he certainly has none now. What an utter joker.

Posted by: Dan at June 28, 2010 12:44 PM

I got double teamed by Jerzyk and Juan Pichardo in a discussion about immigration at one of those events.It was pitiful.They couldn't shake what I said because I only told the truth.
Who the f**k are they that I should lie to them?They're noisy flies.
I don't think the state name change will pass.I will vote against it for one reason:Matt Jerzyk and Joe Almeida are for it.'Nuff said.

Posted by: joe bernstein at June 28, 2010 3:23 PM

Is Jerzyk's daddy Timothy still the number 3 man at the union-busting sweatshop labor Yum Corporation-Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC?
Heard he made over $8 million in 2007 alone.
Most of the lunactic left are sons of the overclass.

Posted by: Tommy Cranston at June 28, 2010 7:07 PM

Tommy-you're correct.Historically most radicals,particularly those who spend a lot of time around academia,are children of privilege.
Many of them,having been raised in total comfort with no fear of being evicted,without waking uo in the middle of winter without heat or hot water,without the specter of unemployment(David Segal never had to worry about employment at all)are all full of the answers us great unwashed need.
Many of these elitist brats become enamored of another type of radical-the ex-con gone "straight",the "former"gangbanger,ex-junkie.etc who're in it to mulct these young fools.
They are also under the sway of the radical anti-American(or whatever country we're discussing)professors and "intellectuals"who are past master of biting the hand that feeds them.
I'm not just blowing smoke-check out this pattern in the SLA,the BLA armored car robbery gang,and other "liberation"groups.
Useful idiots Lenin called them.

Posted by: joe bernstein at June 29, 2010 5:14 AM

Justin -

I stand by my post - regardless of your attempt to create fire where there is even no smoke.

Question.

1. If X gets laidoff - like tens of thousands of other RI'ers - in the manufacturing sector and

2. X tries to do what many of those laid off have not done and that is to retrain himself in the tech economy and

3. in working for this new business, the company brings in less than the costs of operating the business and

4. thus, he has no income, but is working hard to get back on his feet....

5. Would you expect a CONSERVATIVE website and a GOTCHA internet report to go after this guy?

or the people who are sitting at home doing nothing?

-Matt

PS. As has been discussed repeatedly on this blog, my dad works for Yum Brands (but he certainly doesn't make $7 million!). I'm glad to see the right-wing knows how to google. Can you find my famous uncle too?

Posted by: Matt Jerzyk at June 29, 2010 9:04 AM

PS. As has been discussed repeatedly on this blog, my dad works for Yum Brands (but he certainly doesn't make $7 million!). I'm glad to see the right-wing knows how to google. Can you find my famous uncle too?


He only made 6 million? He is the Vice-President of Yum, am I right?
I assume you won't be leading any organizing efforts at KFC, Taco Bell or Pizza Hut?

You are a disgrace to your ancestors. Adopting the "progressive" filth that crucified Poland (Katyn anybody) for half a century. The 2 party system in Poland today is 1. Center-Right and 2. Far-Right-so discredited is the "progressive" philosophy.
[step to far snipped-JK]
You truly "forgot where you came from".

Posted by: Tommy Cranston at June 29, 2010 9:32 AM

Against my better judgment, I just read the steaming pile of excrement that is Jerzyk's column.

Surprise, surprise. Everyone "hot" is a Democratic Party insider or a Union/Progressive ally. Senator Whitehouse managed to make his "hot" list despite a 33% favorability rating. Similarly, everyone "not hot" is a Republican or a conservative Democrat whom he considers traitorous to the cause e.g. Mayor Allan Fung.

All that was missing was for Jerzyk to put himself and Crowley on the "hot" list, but his editors probably nixed that.

Posted by: Dan at June 29, 2010 4:00 PM

I get a kick out of jerzyk braying about what "we" need in Providence(Taveres)when,as I recall he moved to Cranston a few years ago.
I've been in Providence 26 years and the only place we need Taveras is stranded in the "old tunnel"under College Hill.

Posted by: joe bernstein at June 29, 2010 9:12 PM

Joe -

Here I thought that you and I had a cordial relationship.

What's up with the vitriol?

We can't have a debate without resorting to attacks?

As they say on ESPN: C'mon, man!

-Matt

Posted by: Matt Jerzyk at June 30, 2010 3:38 PM

Matt-I have not piled on with the personal stuff against you-admit that at least.
It's some of the things you say.
The "r" word,for instance.
I do resent your stance on the Providence mayoral election-I am a Providence resident-you have mentioned a while back that you live in Cranston.I will never say"we" need Alan Fung in Cranston.Why are you pushing Taveras on us?
You can come back hard at me.No problem.As long as it's issue oriented.
You,me and Pichardo DID have that debate in the corner among ourselves,and you guys couldn't shake what I said.The "noisy flies" remark was crappy on my part.But the rest of what I said was on the level.
There are a few racist nitwits in the immigration debate,but some of the people you accused are in no way deserving of it.
I think I have been accurate in not claiming you've ever done anything wrong to me.
My observation about radicals was quite general in scope and really aimed at my own generation more than yours because that's hwne I was growing up,like your parents were.
I really don't know enough about what Hummel alleged to have a strong opinion,but he's generally on the money and doesn't seem to play favorites-at least not like some "journalists"do.
I mean,"c'mon man"with McKay saying aliens don't smuggle drugs.Is he serious?Of course most aliens don't,but most drugs are smugled by aliens.It's like most rectangles aren't squares,but all squares are rectangles.
Fly the flag on the 4th.
At least you are up front all the time with no aliases.

Posted by: joe bernstein at June 30, 2010 4:56 PM