History / For what the Germans owe Poland one trillion U.S. dollars? [299]

This must be JK's idea. He's a bad faith bargainer (the first PiS governmnet eventually failed because he ran out of partners to break deals with).

This makes Poland look like a bad faith bargainer.

News / Russian double agents in Poland? [25]

Like the old saying, the louder he spoke of his honor the faster we counted the spoons....

A couple of years ago (before any of this stuff came out) I predicted he would try to bring Poland back under Russian domination (because that makes sense to him, the idea of Poland being an independent country whose actions can be evaluated according to criteria of good and bad terrifies him - being a victim of Russian imperialism is warm and safe).

News / The real Poland honoured Uprising at patriotic sing-song [34]


Not only does he not want to get a Polish passport (or pay taxes in Poland) but he actually hates about 50 % of the population. Sad doesn't not even begin to cover it.

History / Villas like the one Kaczynski was living in were given only to top party officials!!!! [10]


Jew and Pole aren't mutually exclusive (the way Russian and Jew are) there's a distinction but a lot of historical overlap and that's a remnant of that, as I always say at any given time half of the population of Poland is hiding its Jewish roots from the other half....

(from an American point of view "Jewish" looks and behavior are very common in modern Poland)

News / Was Kaczyński behind the presidential veto? [65]


Whatever those paying him tell him to do (harsh I know but I'm not feeling merciful at the moment....)

News / Was Kaczyński behind the presidential veto? [65]


Yes they want the kind of power the PZPR had in the days of the PRL and are pursuing that goal in a very consistent manner.

Work / Studies In Poland, is it easy to survive on part-time jobs? [259]


Who don't have to completely support themselves with them. A studenty job is for pocket or beer money, not for the rent and food.

News / 2ND MIRACLE OF THE VISTULA: youth mysteriously appear out of nowhere! [231]


Again, some specific examples would be nice. They would make it seem like you're speaking from facts and not just parroting meaningless slogans fed to you by a propaganda minister.

If you can't give specific examples.... then you're probably blowing smoke out your 4ss

News / 2ND MIRACLE OF THE VISTULA: youth mysteriously appear out of nowhere! [231]


So.... you wish that PO had proposed the exact same package that PiS has?

Work / Salary 14000 PLN gross in Krakow, Poland VS 50k EUR per year in Western Europe? [10]


There is not a tremendous amount of variation in cost of living in the largest cities in Poland.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]


With the refugee issue? No. There's too much regional opposition to Merkel's catastrophic miscalculation.

On the other hand, the judicial "reform" is impossible to defend on any grounds but blatant partisanship (and/or the idea that governments should be able to jail political opponents at will, which is one of the real goals, to convict Donald Tusk of something (anything!) so that he can't run for president (should he so desire).

I don't think any Polish allies will want to risk their own hide for PiS's legislative partial birth abortion.

News / Coup d'état taking shape in Poland with Soros in background? [59]


Why not just openly ask "Harry! Are you a Jew?" or do you not like how that looks when spelled out?

News / Coup d'état taking shape in Poland with Soros in background? [59]


Two judges, was the ruling, the other three were completely legitimate appointees. Then the president proceded to violate the constitution by not swearing them in in favor of a bunch of vvhorehouse appointments made by PiS.

Rule of law doesn't mean that a governing party doesn't make mistakes - it just means there are checks and balances to correct governmnet mistakes.

Please enlighten me on the checks and balances found in PiS's "reform".

And again, would you be comfortable with a party you don't like in power having that "reform" in place?

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]


So the _EU_ pushed Poland into having its ruling party come up with judicial "reform" that a third world banana republic would be embarassed by?

Ya gotta hand it to 'em, that EU is incredibly subtle and powerful if it can push ruling parties into trying to pass laws that fail at all international standards.

Chapeau bas!

News / 2ND MIRACLE OF THE VISTULA: youth mysteriously appear out of nowhere! [231]


I did about three minutes of research and found out that he was suspended for three months which is about as much as they probably could do given

a) there were no criminal charges (AFAICT)

b) it may not have been actionable (he was stopped - "za linią kas" which is not necessarily the same as "poza terenem sklepu" (or whatever the legal term might be). I don't know how Polish law works but in the US they can't charge you with shoplifting unless you actually leave the store with the merchandise.

Interesting example, but not tremendously relevant to the current controversy - as I don't think anything in the proposed "reform" would address this (apart from allowing the prosecutor general to fire judges on a whim... which has a lot more drawbacks than benefits imho)

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]


I'm assuming today is about getting things in place to act quickly when and if the time comes.

JK, who knows nothing of the outside world, will probably overplay his very weak hand again (as he did with Tusk's re-election).

News / Coup d'état taking shape in Poland with Soros in background? [59]


I don't think that's a good idea, but I believe in the rule of law, you're the one with a record of pooh poohing the idea...

News / Was Kaczyński behind the presidential veto? [65]


You've repeated this often so I assume you can give specific examples.

News / 2ND MIRACLE OF THE VISTULA: youth mysteriously appear out of nowhere! [231]


Yes, allowing the prosecutor to appoint judges to particular cases is a huge red flag (not the only one, but a very big one).

A person is either in favor of the rule of law or the rule by party leader. I'm in favor of rule of law, most of the supporters of this botched abortion of a reform are in favor of rule by party (leader).

The golden rule: Would you be happy if this law were in effect while a political party you hate is in power?

News / 60% of Poles say Szydło's government should resign [238]


None of those links addressed the issues I mentioned and past a certain point in time public debate on immigration ceased to have any perceptable effect on policy...


i'm saying both have their (very distinct) problems. I mostly agree with you about the diversionary nature of public discourse in Poland, but it's very hard for me to see the UK as much (if any) better...

News / 60% of Poles say Szydło's government should resign [238]


First, do the name "Hajnal line" ring a bell? The wikipedia article is a little tame, but it corresponds with a bunch of political stuff too (controlling for changing borders of course). Essentially, the foundations of western civilization are rooted within the hajnal line - in the US a similar concept is "Affordable family formation" where those who want a stable situation before starting a family tend to vote Republican while those who do not reproduce and/or do not make the connection between fertility and economy tend to vote Democrat.

Most of (historic) Poland is on the 'wrong' side with maybe just part of historic wielkopolska being part of the western group (historically it's the most economically.... prudent within Poland)

Second, is it possible to concentrate on important issues like Pakistani inbreeding burdening the NHS?

What about grooming gangs targeting young women?

For that matter, is it possible to openly discuss the benefits and drawbacks of immigration from different places (way eastern europe vs sub-saharan africa)?

Get back to me when those and related issues are freely debated in the public space....

News / Was Kaczyński behind the presidential veto? [65]

Yeah! He actually thinks like that which is just plain nutzo!!!! He's nutzo!!!!!

News / 60% of Poles say Szydło's government should resign [238]


The Party Chairman is the leader of PiS, which in its current incarnation is a replay of the old communist system where the power was held by the party leader.

A peculiarity of the Polish system is the presence of both a PM and a relatively strong President, usually in countries with both one or the other is mostly a figurehead ceremonial figure. I think it's probably American influence - the US always tries to impose presidential systems because it likes the idea of just dealing with a single leader...

News / 60% of Poles say Szydło's government should resign [238]


Maybe the English got it from Ireland? or more likely it's a general areal feature (NW Europe) that survived the advent of RCatholicism...

News / Was Kaczyński behind the presidential veto? [65]


A very quick skim of the piece seems like it's reaching. Occam's razor suggests tha JK simply underestimated how strongly the public felt about this (like his jihad against Donald Tusk earlier this year), it's not like he's ever had his finger on the public's pulse.... he has nothing remotely in common with most people in the country.

Also the idea that PiS doesn't lose anything from public protests is kind of ludicrous....

I do think that protest burnout is a real possibility so I think big public manifestations after today won't be needed for the time being.

News / 60% of Poles say Szydło's government should resign [238]


Okay "not that helpful in understanding the concept".... better?


it tends to correlate with high degrees of uncertainty avoidance (and secondarily to xenophobia mild or strong) In Europe the trend (yes, there are some exceptions) are that the major historical religions influence social trust

orthodox - lowest
catholic - medium
protestant - highest

correlation isn't causation of course (though it does suggest where to look for causation). My guess would be the degree of ritual and the importance of formal compliance in a religion can influence social trust, orthodox have the most complex rituals and protestants the least. It's also possible that social trust helps determine which religion becomes dominant....


sociall developed is not the same as social trust - The Ottoman empire was highly socially developed but did not leave a legacy of social trust

News / 60% of Poles say Szydło's government should resign [238]


a bunch of meaningless claptrap.... gangs can assist each other in "all sorts of ways" but hardly contribute to any society

I think my idea is closer to what wikipedia calls human capital but that's only about economics (an important variable but not the only one)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capital

Since the definitions of social capital are useless at predicting anything and human capital is only about economics, I propose a new term

Civil capital

The civil capital of an individual is the sum total of those characteristics that, all else being equal, allow them to contribute to a civil society (and make the society better by increasing the quality of life within it).

The civil capital of a society is the percentage of those with positive social capital versus negative civil capital.

This is going to include things like education and life skills and values (more variable since values that might increase a person's civil capital in one society might have no effect or might actually descrease a person's civil capital in another.


Well I said 'tend' not 'absolutely predict' and Ireland is helped geographically (culturally) by being part of NW Europe (along with parts of NE Asia) one of the parts of the world with the highest levels of social trust. My working assumption would be that social trust was introduced /strengthened in Ireland by the English (hard to jibe with history but.....)

News / 60% of Poles say Szydło's government should resign [238]


Oooh that's bad. A bunch of vague undefined terms that could mean anything.

Me slightly refined version would be individual and collective.

The social capital of an individual is the sum total of those characteristics that, all else being equal, allow them to contribute to a civil society (make the society better).

The social capital of a society is the percentage of those with positive social capital versus negative social capital.

This is going to include things like education and life skills and values.


Both Catholicism and communism tend to correlate with lower levels of social trust in Europe (which is still higher than anywhere in the middle east or africa). Social trust is a weird thing in that it's a necessary pre-condition for prosperity and prosperity tends to increase social trust.

Low social trust tends to reinforce poverty and low trust societies that become more prosperous through the effects of resource extraction still tend to be pretty crappy places to live (Russia, Saudi Arabia...)

Work / Poland - gift for my boss and coworkers first day in the new job [9]

A lot also depends on the institutional culture (which largely depends on the person running things). In some workplaces (like mine) Polish employees don't really resent foreign employees and are willing to overlook lots of minor faux pas from not knowing the culture (yet). In others.....

Work / Poland - gift for my boss and coworkers first day in the new job [9]


Well you give the present to the boss after they've delivered you from the airport to where you're staying (or later one on one) you just don't give it to the boss in front of everyone else.