News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


The most spectacular example is what der Führer Tusk did with the remaining 2 tenors -- Olechowski and Płażyński -- he edged them out and took over as befits a true Führer!

Life / Expats` opinion on alien immigration to Poland - for or against? [87]


People praying in a mosque is a negative picture? Shoppers on a street, a school class photo -- nothing negative about those either.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


PF's veteren PiS bashers -- this time personified by Delfy Boy without his usual Bully Brit backup -- are like the tabloid hyenas and paparazzi (sp?): constantly on the look-out for the slightest thing to attack, discredit and besmirch. The president can visit whomever he wants -- kith or kin, friend or foe -- at at any time he sees fit.

Former overt Katyń conspirator* Miller naturally had to create a sexual innuendo saying with a mischevous grin on his ugly face: "I'm a man of a bygone era, but in my day when two men got together they did so to drink vodka. Nowadays one never knows."

* Leading PZPR operative Leszek Miller brown-nosed his Soviet masters for decades by willingly participating in the Katyń conspiracy of silence.

News / Poland's Justice Minister, Z. Ziobro appeals to Kora (and won't face State Tribunal) [51]


Although, as PM, shifty-eyed Don rarely said anything intelligent, sensible, impartial or quotable, there are always exceptions to prove the rule. After the motion to prosecute Ziobro had been filed, "Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the most influential figure in the ruling party, spoke against it, saying such a step could tarnish Poland's image. Ruling parties shouldn't act using criminal law against leaders of the opposition 'even if you're 100% convinced they did bad things in the past', Mr. Tusk told reporters in Brussels."

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


The latest Millward Brown poll also includes a parliamentary-seat breakdown:

PiS 38, PO 25, lefties 9, Petru 7, Kukiz 6 and Korwin and PSL 5% each.
This breaks down into the following distribution of parliamentary mandates:
PiS 238, PO 142, Left 42, Petru 27, Kukiz 10, Kowrin 7, PSL 2. German mnority 2.

If Korwin and PSL each got 5% why do the Korwin group get 7 seats and PSL only 2?

Food / Krówki -- crumbly or chewy? [5]


Properly aged I'd call it like an old wine or ripe cheese! Whatever floats your boat. I'm sure the shopkeeper was glad to finally get rid of them. They must have been on the shelf for donkey's years to get crumbly.


Hard ot describe - not crumbly in the sense of going into crumbs, but they kind of melted in your mouth without the jaw-sticking gooeyness of some krówki. Never thought of them as being old, stale or at or near the expiry date but rather as one of two different types.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


PiS are hoping to win enough votes to go it alone. They were burnt in the past by linking up with Lepper's farm thugs and Niesiołowksi's former party, LPR.

News / Poland's Justice Minister, Z. Ziobro appeals to Kora (and won't face State Tribunal) [51]


...they won by creating a well-oiled, highly effective hate industry whose sole purpose was PiS-bashing and spreading the propaganda to voters "anybody but PiS". And it worked, for 8 years, but as Lincoln said: "You can't fool all of the people all of the time!"

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


Oh no -- another 4 years of the Platfus bribe & scam clique! That'd be pretty hard to take.
We can only bank on the wisdom of the Polish nation when they cast their ballots on 25th October.

News / Poland's Justice Minister, Z. Ziobro appeals to Kora (and won't face State Tribunal) [51]


He will surely get re-elected and not lose his immunity andthus be able to effectively continue the noble IV RP project (regardless of what it will be called!), exposing all the dirty secrets the Platfus clique had swept under the carpet.

News / Poland's Justice Minister, Z. Ziobro appeals to Kora (and won't face State Tribunal) [51]

Merged: Ziobro won't face State Tribunal

Zbginiew Ziobro, justice minister during the rule of the PiS-led coaltion, will not have to be tried by the State Tribunal, the Sejm voted on Friday. Platformer revanchists had tirelessly worked for years to harass and discredit him and villify the IV RP which sought to weed out criminals and former communist collaborators who enjoyed PO protection.

Justice has finally been done. After 25th October he will hopefully be able to continue going after corrupt politicans and assorter scammers.

Polonia / BRAZILIAN POLISH PEOPLE [21]


KRASIŃSKI: root-word krasa (Old Polish for beauty, loveliness); probably toponym form Krasin, Krasna, Krasne or similar.
The inserted-vowel hypothesis cannot be ruled out only insofar as with surnames most everything is possible. Illiterate peasnats often had their names misspelt, mispronoucned and miscopied over the genrations by semi-literate parish priests and village scribes and the Russian partition ordeal certainly left its imprint.

However since Russian also uses the kras- root to mean beauty (eg krasiviy - beautiful, krasavitsa - lovely woman), there seems to be no justification for an inserted -a- except slovenly copying.

Polonia / BRAZILIAN POLISH PEOPLE [21]

KARASIŃSKI: root-word karaś (crucian aka German carp - a small panfish of the cyprinoid family). The surname may have originated to identify someone as a fancier of this species; even more likely is the toponymic option - someone was named that way because he hailed from such places as Karaś, Karaska or Karasiewo.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


Although this may be only a one-off fluke, the latest CBOS poll shows a PO-led coaliton to be a distinct possibility.
PiS got 34%, PO 30%, Kukiz 7%, Petru 6% and PSL 5%. Lefties are out of the game at 5% (need 8% as a coalition).
The Grand Coaliton idea was obliterated by PO in 2005. Whether it can be resurrected, Bóg jeden tylko wie! I haven't heard any such suggestions circulating so far.

Language / Ski Or Ska? - Polish surname endings [44]


JÓ-WIAK: pronounced YOOZHvyahk originated as a patronymic nickname to mean "son of Józef/Joseph". Its fairly popular (with some 19,000 users in Poland) but it is well below the front-runners. Poland's equivalent of the Angloworld's Smith and Jones would be Nowak (over 200,000) and Kowalski (140,000). For more information please contact polonius3@gazeta.pl

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


PM Kopacz may have scored a few brownie points with voters over the refugee buisness. She trimmed the number down form 12,000 to 5,000 and insisted on the safeguarding of the EU's external borders and the pre-screening of prospective newcomers to remove economic migrants from refugees.

All the speculations and projections so far have assumed a PiS victory. But what if the final vote came out PO 35, PiS 34, Kukiz 12 - the rest wasted by voters on under-5% also-rans.

Maybe Kaczyński would decide against teaming up with Kukiz (having been burnt by the Lepper-Giertych fiasco) and Duda might figure it'd be better to leave the refugee mess to the Platfusy.

Admittedly, not very likely, because the prospect of political power is an irresistible temptation, but - as I have repeatedly said - in love, war and politics almost nothing is impossible.

Food / Perfect Pierogi? (keen to perfect the recipe) [12]

I've eaten them the way presented above (my late mum's recipe), and they are very good, either straight from the pot or cooled and fried in butter. When warmed up by frying, the skin remains soft and pliable, not rubbery. Of course, full-fat sour cream was intended. In fact, this recipe is from back when (in the USA) there was no low-fat sour cream on the market.

Food / Perfect Pierogi? (keen to perfect the recipe) [12]

Some PolAm homemakers call this as "fool-proof" recipe:
Combine 2 c flour, 1 c commercial sour cream., 1 egg and 1/2 t salt and work into a smooth dough. Then roll out, cut into circles, fill, seal and cook in boiling salted water 5-10 min after boiling resumes, Test one for doneness.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


Spoken like a crass materialist! Only a few selfish, greedy Platfus-style egoists will jump ship - true Polish patriots who've got the good of their country at stake will carry on.

Ku chwale Ojczyzny!

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


On TVP Info Wednesday morning some poltical observer whom I don't know said there was a rift wtihin PSL over whether to go with PO or PiS. They expect 10-12% support in the election.


The latest survey shows not only PSL but also the lefties, Petru and Korwin out of the running. Only three groupings will be in the Sejm according to pollster GfK Polonia:

PiS 42%
PO 30%
Kukiz 9.8%.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


And if PSL are the only little guy to make it, do you entirely rule out the possibltiy of them refusing a coaliton with PiS if offered one. PiS hopes to go it alone, so if they win a comfortable edge over the combined PO and PSL vote, they'll probably eschew the coalition option. For good reason PiS are coaliton-wary (think Lepper and Giertych)

so they'll probably prefer an ad hoc voting coalition with PSL on issues where they and PSL share similar views.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]

I know this is a recurring conviction of yours about the PSL. I disgaree. The power-hungry bumpkins of PSL will go with anyone that ensures giving them at least a fingerhold of power. It all depends how the other also-rans do. If only PIS, PO and PSL got in, the PSL would be tempted to join in a coaliton with PiS regardless of past grudges and animosities.

If, say, Petru and Lewica made it and PSL's input would give them a majority over PiS, then of course PSL would eagerly join such a PO-led coalition.


A mere technicality it seems? I presume they get their two seats no matter how poorly they fare.

Personally I doubt if Korwin can make it. Kukiz maybe. With the lefties it's also a toss-up.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


PiS would have to have their head examined if they hooked up with Korwin. Kukiz too would probably be more of a liability than an asset.

The best option would be for none of the little also-rans ot make it. This would then be Poland's first ever nearly bi-partisan Sejm (nearly because hte Krauts get two automatic seatrs).The lefties need 8% as a coalition, so they may well fall short.


Which pollster did this poll? It has one of the highest predictions for the also-rans, fairly high for PO and lower than some for PiS.

Polonia / BRAZILIAN POLISH PEOPLE [21]

Hi Thomas!
My maternal grandmother's brother emigrated to Brazil in the early 20th century and set up a reportedly flourishing sawn-timber business in the Rio de Janeiro area. His surname was Ciosmak (quite a rare one). Round about World War Two contact with him was broken and we never did find out if he had died or what happened. Supposedly he had only 2 or 3 daughters so the name may have been lost. But I did find some Brazilian Ciosmaks on Facebook but none of them have responded. Any suggestions about how to track somebody down?

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


And it's entirely his own fault -- no sense of tactics or strategy, no programme except JOW, unwillignness or inabiltiy to garner support and the alienation of the power base he intially did have. He may still just squeak in, but he'll be an asset to no-one and a stumbling block to all.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


I wasn't referring to the whole rigamore but only to presidnet's right of nomination. Specifically, if PiS won 39 and PO + 3 won 41, would Duda be able to nominate Szydło for PM? Or does some clausre obligate him to nominate someone from the PO + 3 camp?

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


PO may get in through the backdoor if 3 of the small also-rans clear the threshold. The latest IBRIS poll showed: PiS - 39%, PO - 22, United Left - 8, Petru - 6 and PSL - 5.

If PO enters a coaliton with the three, they will have 22+19 or 41%, more than PiS' 39%. We must therefore all hope and pray that that at least one of the also-rans doesn't get in.

Is there anything in the election laws categorically obliging the president to call on the largest coalition to form a govenrment even though the difference is quite small, or is it at his discretion? If the worst-case scenatio (PO + 3) occurred, hopefully Duda could say that a motley collection of 4 parties cannot ensure a viable cabinet and stable governance in Poland.?

News / Russia threatens Poland over monument [33]


I read recently (sorry don't recall where) that the Piniężno folks had for years suggested moving the memorial to a Russian war cemetery in Braniewo but the answer was always NYET, so they finally got fed up adn dismantled the monument. I wonder if Russians would appreciated a statue to a Nazi war criminal on Russian soil.

News / Pole-basher Gross up to old tricks [284]


The only thing Gross ever spread were lies nad distortions. Since you always land smack dab on the non-Polish side of any Polish-Jewish and are the first to passionately lunge into action at the slightest whiff of anything Jewish, why not, fess up: R U 1 2! There's nothing to be ashamed of!