USA, Canada / Sending money to Poland from the USA? [48]


Indentity card (dowód osobisty). Personally I prefer MoneyGram - in Poland you collect the cash at any post office and there are far more of those than Western Union offices.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]


A close showing by PiS and PO in autmn means nothing more than a continuation of the murderous, self-defeating Polish-Polish war. Just imagine the time, energy, money, air times and newsprint that has been wasted on this fallacious project over the past decade! The onyl thing that will change that is a clear setback to the Platformers -- a vote of 20% or less, amid 35-40% for PiS and 20-25% for Kukiz should do the trick. The Platfusy will still rant and rave but the noise they generate will be largely harmless.

Secondly,let's not idealise or deify the markets and business community which have a tendency to stray into unethical practices in their unbridled pursuit of greed. According to the constitution Poland has a social market economy, and that means close tabs should be kept on the corproate sector with a view to preventing and prosecuting fradulent and monopolistic practices, misleading adverts and other abuses harmful to society.

News / Kopacz wants PO to hire more professional PiS-bashing haters [66]


The framers of that law were probably the soft-on-Soviets propagandists of certain ethno-religious origin who somehow can't see that Stalin was by far the worse monster of the two.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]


Why is that? I thought he was one of the more even-keeled Platformers?

News / Kopacz wants PO to hire more professional PiS-bashing haters [66]


Venom and vitriol are modern campaigning methods? Your clever rhetoric is reminiscent of the "Endlösung" (final solution) and "workers paradise" of two previous masters of euphemism.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]


Every party has got its dingbats - Pawłowicz in PiS, Niesiołowski and Palikot (formerly) in PO.
It wouldn't be a bad idea if someone other than Kaczyński were PM. He is tired, exhausted, politically spent and still traumatised by his family tragedy. MP Beata Szydło has been tipped for PM but she herself says she prefers to remain an MP. At least for now, Anything can happen in the months ahead.

News / 23 Shale Wells Drilled This Year Alone in Poland - 41 More to Go... [50]

Since you seem to be such an energy expert, what about the gasificaton and/or liqueficaiton of coal? There was talk about that a while back, Has anything come of it? If Poland could find a way to de-toxify coal emissions, that would be a great breakthrough considering the country's vast deposits.

News / 23 Shale Wells Drilled This Year Alone in Poland - 41 More to Go... [50]


I'm no shale expert and am aware of the environmental concerns, but the biggest bust of all is remaining on Putin's energy-blackmail list.

News / Kopacz wants PO to hire more professional PiS-bashing haters [66]


What does Marcinkiewcz have ot do with PO's unkept promises? Are you saying chemcial castration is actually being practiced in Poland and that the Gasport has ac'tually been built, but the PO who are known for their extreme modesty are keeping the news under wraps?.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]

You seem to forget that the Platformers are slipping fast and the Kukiz in recent polls outstripped them.
You'd better believe the bloodsuckers and gougers of big business are shaking in their boots at the prospect of the scam-friendly Platfusy losing the election, so you're probably right that they'll bankroll the hate campaign to stop the sinking PO ship going under.

All these figures are highly speculative at this point, but just for the sake of analysis, let's assume that my prediction is correct (65% for PiS/Kukiz). What in your view would be the result? BTW why should the major coalition partner give up the Interior Ministry. That is the main weapon against lawbreakers including PO-style white-collar crime -- juggling books, kickbacks, under the counter deals, fixed tenders, backroom payoffs, etc.

News / Kopacz wants PO to hire more professional PiS-bashing haters [66]


Yes, the Platformers are known for their extreme mean-spirited vindictiveness, that's why their claim to fame is their hate industry. The hired haters are par for the course in that gang. Maybe they do it to hide their unkept promises. We all remember the unfinished motorways ahead of Euro 2012. The Gasport was to have been completed last year, and paedphiles were to be chemcially castrated - the great Tusk himself said so. And what has come of it? He hightailed it off the Brussels when the getting was good.

News / 23 Shale Wells Drilled This Year Alone in Poland - 41 More to Go... [50]

Merged: Last US shale seeker pulls out of Poland

ConocoPhillips have become the last Ameircan energy concern to pull out of shale prospecting in Poland after investing $220 million in the project since 2009. Despite numerous test drillings, no economically extractable deposits could be found. Poland launched the shale project in the belief that her own energy source would lessen the country's dependence on Russian imports. The PO government's criminal neglect has also stalled the construction of a liquid gas port on the Baltic.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]


PiS 40%, Kukiz 25% is more like it, but that's what coalitons are all aboiut. Auntie Angie scored a real coup by teaming her upright Christian Democrats with a motley collection of greenies and other leftist loonies, and somehow Germany has not fallen apart.

The PiS-led govenrment will have to reach a modus vivendi with Kukiz, who must realise that his group is in power (if it does come to a government coalition and not just a voting agreement) only thanks to PiS. That should encourage both sides to exercise restraint and display a spirit of compromise.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]

Przepraszam - I forgot about Petru & Co. As things now stand, his grouping seem the most likely of the small also-rans to make it through. That would give some backing to PO, because the Platformers' liberal-capitalist wing is quite significant. Petru would have fit in there quite well but apparnetly he doesn't want old Lady Kopacz cracking the whip over him.

Merged: Latest TNS poll: PiS-led coalition - 52%, PO 24%

This survey was taken before the Stonoga affair broke out and before the government shake-up it has percipitated, but it's a good sign as is: PiS - 32%, PO - 24%, Kukiz - 20% and all the others out of the running. The next post-Stonoga poll should be quite itneresting.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


That adds up to 85%. The rest will be squandered on below-threshold groupings.
SLD made a fool of themselves with Miss Cucumber, and much of the PSL electroate has transfefrred their support to PiS. The big questonb in the equation is Kukiz. He is anti-systemic but but he glowers with paricular contempt and disdain for the oldboy, scam & kickback Platformers. Will PiS be able to go it alone (the exact number of seats depends on how the other parties fare)? If they cannot, then some type of coalition arrangement with Kukiz seems inevitable. It could be a formal coalition with a share-out of cabinet posts, or a voting coalition -- a pledge to support measures proposed by the PiS government. In the latter case PiS would have to stick to measure that Kukiz MPs could support.

The best thing that in either case PO would be an insignifcant opposition urinating in the wind. And it serves them right after their years of hate-industry bullying.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]

Merged: Duda-Szydło tandem likely to rule Poland

President-elect Andrzej Duda was reported by GW as saying he felt his campaign chief Beata Szydło would make a fine PM. When PiS win the autumn election, that seems his likey choice.

At present it appears the voting will go as follows: PiS 36%-40%, Kukiz 20% - 25% and PO 15% - 20%. No other paries are likely to cross the 5% threshold, but it they do it would probably be SLD, PSL and possibly (but very unlikely) KORWIN.

NOTE: For the benefit of non-Polish PF-ers, szydło means crocheting needle (something with which to puncture and let the hot air out of the Platformer balloon if they start acting up again).

News / Kopacz wants PO to hire more professional PiS-bashing haters [66]


To some Piłsudski was an unpopular figure. Lech Kaczyński's tragically ended presidency would have restrained some of PO's hare-brained schemes thanks to his veto power. Many Poles regard him as post-PRL Poland's best president.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]


Because the latest surveys show PSL, SLD, and whackos like Korwin and Palikot to be out of the running. Of course that may change by autumn. I was surprised that Korwin fared as well as he did in some earlier surveys. And Palikot at one point had a decent score for a new party. I guess there are always enough nutters to supports any off-the-wall thing that comes along. Poland once had a Beer Lovers' Party, after all. Current lunatic fringe groups inlcude nationalists and greens but their support in Poland is even below the margin of error level.

News / Pro-Israel lobby to be formed in Polish parliament [29]

The Other: Polish Parliamentary Israel Allies Caucus

It shows one thing -- the Israelis are on the ball. Every nation, global corporation and other interest group has lobbies strategically positioned where they can influence lawmakers. I wonder where Poland has such lobbyists. Again, I repeat for the zillionth time -- Poles should follow the Jewish example in terms of intra-ethnic moral and practical solidarity rather than tearing each other down, of which the Polish-Polish war has been a prime example.

From a purely ethical standpoint, this is legalised corruption. A lawmaker is lavishly wined and dined, may get various gifts and gratuities on the side, the least toxic of which would be generous donations to his favourite charity, with maybe a free holiday in Tahiti for himself and his family thrown into the bargain -- in the hope that he will vote the way the lobbyist wants. But the world is not guided all that much by ethical considerations.

News / Kopacz wants PO to hire more professional PiS-bashing haters [66]


Sorry. Shades of wikileaks was simply meant as a cutesy metaphor. I should have wirtten shades of Snowden - it was the leak factor I wanted to highlight but obviosuly chose the wrong metaphor. The source was a PO informant talkng to Rzeczpospolita.

Work / Typical rate for 1-on-1 English lessons in Poland (Krakow)? [37]


That's a fair price. I charge 60zł for 60 minutes. I always empathise with the learner and don't want to impinge too much on his/her usually meagre student budget.

News / Kopacz wants PO to hire more professional PiS-bashing haters [66]

Here's the link. You can translate it if you like.
rp.pl/artykul/738665,1206171-PO-zatrudnila-internetowych-hejterow.html

News / Kopacz wants PO to hire more professional PiS-bashing haters [66]


It wasn't openly said, it was said at a closed meeting of PO's inner sanctum. But someone informed, as is often the case. Shades of Wikileaks!

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


Mod: This refers to the parliamentary elections and analyses the impact of the past, present and future politcal scene on the economy.

You did not hear me say Poland should have marketed the Syrenka. The Daewoo line was not bad for that period, on par with Hyundai and Kia which are now big sellers. Had Poland acquired Daewoo's Polish operaiton it would already have had a decent product to market. Poland's cheaper manpower would have served Poland for a change, not forieng capital. World-class cars could be sold more cheaply and price is always a selling point. The profits from sales could be re-invested in Poland's motor industry to upgrade and modernise.

News / Presidential elections and debates 2015 Poland [472]


That is only the skewed view of rabid Kaczyński haters. No-one else upheld Poland's majesty and dignity both ta home and abroad as well as President Lech did. Spiteful Platformers, who were already promising Poland a president from Kashubia and a PM form Kraków, were do shocked and dismayed by their defeat that they reacted by setting up an anti-PiS hate industry which you so admire and support. So start packing your bags, a golden age of PiS supremacy beckons.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


Well the Dacia folks somehow made it. The former east bloc would be a logical market as well as the Third World. Polish Nysa vans in PRL were successfully sold to Egypt and other Third World countries. Poles could undercut Western prices before EU introduced its anti-dumping laws. Besides, not everybody wanted or needed a super-ultra-mega-hi-tech self-parking car stuffed with electronics. There were and continue to be markets where simplicity, easy maintenace and do-it-yourself repairs are a selling point. What was lacking was a good conceptualist/troubleshooter who would have done the necessary marketing research, created a business plan and launched production.