News / The dossier of TW "Bolek" - Poland's IPN assisted by police enters the home of the late general Kiszczak [306]


Maybe you aren't.....


I don't care if he's gay or not (probably is, big deal). I only care that he's such a hypocrite about it.

News / The dossier of TW "Bolek" - Poland's IPN assisted by police enters the home of the late general Kiszczak [306]


I can handle historical, I just can't handle blindly ideological. Even if everything you say about the fall of the Olszewski government was true, then so what? It would be possible for a small group of post-communists to hold onto power and rob the country blind, just as you say. But if that had happened then Poland would now look much more like Venezuela or Nigeria than what it actually looks like. The basic premise: The majority of Poles have been impoverished by a small clique of anti-Polish.... whatever fails the first test of face validity.

Let's try a different version. Back in 1992 no one had the benefit of hindsight. They were still headed into new socio-political territory and there were many known and unknown dangers. Lots of mistakes were being made because.... this wasn't a video game that can be restarted but life in real time. Poland was not anywhere near ready (in terms of social stability and political maturity) for a round of wildcat unsubstantiated "lustration" which requires a kind of distance that literally no one had in 1992. That and lots of other factors made the government very unstable and destabilizing for a fragile political and economic system that was still finding its footing.

Of course there were lots of backroom meetings and nefarious talk, the only difference was that some of them were filmed in this case. I'm sure that if JK and accomplices were candidly filmed your whole world would be crushed - remember the old saying about sausage and politics... It's too bad that AM's plans to stage a military coup were not caught on camera or were they? I might watch that.

In the meantime, JK has latched onto these events to build a mythos to comfort his hardcore supporters - the 25 % or so that would never be able to adapt to or thrive in a capitalists environment. It's not their fault they've done badly, it's the system! I have it on film! You're not miserable failures, but noble people who've been betrayed!

Pass (unless, as I said, AM's coup plans happened to be caught on tape).

News / The dossier of TW "Bolek" - Poland's IPN assisted by police enters the home of the late general Kiszczak [306]


why would I want to be? special challenge: answer without using the words "coup" "roundtable" "clique" "informer/informant" "communist" "backroom" or "deal". These are all tremendously boring and cause me to want to stop reading/listening.... immediately.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]

I'm sure you Serbians would, but that would be stupid given the massive levels of Serbian corruption.

Back on topic please

News / The dossier of TW "Bolek" - Poland's IPN assisted by police enters the home of the late general Kiszczak [306]

Weren't you just hawking this yesterday How many times do they show it?

No wonder the ratings for TVP are tanking.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]


Tht would make AM a very poor player, do you really think he's a poor player? I'm sure he has some stuff in reserve.


He's unfamiliar with a lot of things that most people take for granted, that's part of why he's so touchy and paranoid.

News / Future of Polish-Ukrainian relations [669]


I'm assuming that it's the other way around, AM has incriinating information on JK (and a deadman's switch)....

History / What do Poles owe to Jews? [593]


They just knew about them and went to American anyway.... hokaaaay....

History / What do Poles owe to Jews? [593]


I cannot say I've have often heard such complaints....


from the story: "she was extremely happy to hand it back to Jewish hands because it gave her closure", how selfish!


The use of "to Jewish hands" in the link sounds like something from anti-semitic hate literature... weird.

History / Polish hero discovers Jewish roots [25]


Not in absolute terms, but there are a lot of things that correlate with (European) jewishness.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_on_Jews#Y-DNA_of_Ashkenazi_Jews

The distinction, is I believe, whether Jews who converted to Christianity were still considered Jews or not, in Russia I'm pretty sure they were which is why it was a 'nationality' separate from Russian (though most Jews in the USSR only spoke Russian). I've read that in Hungary they weren't and I'm assuming that's also the case in Poland though maybe the more Russian leaning (culturally) don't accept that.

History / Polish hero discovers Jewish roots [25]


Then why are there so many Jewish looking people running around in Poland? What is their ethnic self identification? The "X is really a Jew" propaganda only works because there's a lot of overlap.

History / Polish hero discovers Jewish roots [25]


Actually in Russian there's no real difference (also in Polish). In English 'nationality' is mostly about citizenship while in Polish/Russian it's ethnic group.

History / Polish hero discovers Jewish roots [25]


Well I have the idea that Pole and Jew were never completely discrete categories (unlike Russia and the USSR where Russian and Jewish were separate 'nationalities') I'd say a very large portion of the population has some Jewish roots that they mostly don't know about (conversions and intermarriage, in some order, generations ago).

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


You need to keep up with modern usage...

anime-traps.wikia.com/wiki/Anime_traps_Wik

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Under what (non-retroactive) laws?


Known victims.... provable how?

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Not my case at all. I even spent several years working with a very disadvantaged social group. They had a very rough couple of years in the early 90s but they're doing a lot better now. I've only had very passing contact with anyone in any government.


Again, prove crimes by people and I'm all for putting them in jail. But the only remedy that you'll except requires legal obscenities like retro-active legislation (probably where PiS is headed).

I think a good index is "Sprawa dla reportera". I remember when they had real stories about real hardships and victims of official (and private) misdeeds. On the last one I kind of accidentally saw it was reduced to trying to dramatize clearly very dysfunctional families (for example a village where two families were feuding over a fence).

Bring up real, concrete cases of heroes of Solidarity living on starvation pensions and we'll talk.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


It should be noted again and again and again and again that KACZYŃSKI PLAYED NO ROLE IN THE ELECTION!!!!! He was kept well out of sight for the duration. Gullible voters thought that maybe PiS was turning into a more normal Christian dEmocrat party and many felt cheated by the cynicism involved of him taking over (and appointing MAcierewicz after promises he would play no role in a PiS government).


Every party in power for long enough sees voters turn against them, that's pretty normal (in developed countries established ruling parties sometimes lose on purpose to trim the party fat and get back into fighting trim). And note that PiS's numbers go downhill whenever they pursue their weird jihad against Donald Tusk. The question is will they learn from this or double down on stupid (I'm betting the latter).

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


I've spent most of my time since 1991 here.... and I simply haven't seen the scenario you describe play out. Overall, it's close to a mirror image. I've seen a Poland where a large majority are far better off now than they were in the early 90s (when there were a couple of really dicey years). Of course the process hasn't been easy or smooth and the rewards haven't been evenly distributed (which is impossible) but mostly the people who really haven't thrived.... would not thrive in any system because of a lack of education and initiative and social capital (ability to adapt to new situations).

Joining the EU helped a lot both in terms of infrastructural aid and in letting Poland export its employable unemployed though Poland may be approaching peak EU (and might need to disengage). The biggest problem in cities now is not a lack of jobs but a lack of applicants (and the problems of wages taking time to catch up with demand, a perennial problem in a developing economy).

This is all pretty much the mirror image of the Poland that PiS describes (with a small minority in luxury and everyone else in misery) so I can't support them or believe that they have answers since their answers are all aimed at a reality I don't live in where more people are doing better than the opposite.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


How does believing in this fairytale help you get through the day? There must be some benefit to imagining that everything that goes wrong can be traced to a small group of people.... but what?

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


And a good thing too because the country would have plunged into a major depression (about 10 times worse than what really happened)


Does this include Rosiewicz? Mr PiS sing-a-long? How did he escape?


Why is the current government so pathologically incapable of admitting mistakes? Or does being a patriot mean never having to say you're sorry?

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Which is why you're not a PiS supporter! (rim shot)

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Huh what do they hope to accomplish besides rallying their base of losers? What are the suing them for? Reporting the truth?

Again, the structure of PiS mostly prevents the hiring or appointment of qualified people so they get a menagerie of party hacks and boobs and conmen

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


PiS is essentially PRL with catholicism and nationalism in place of communism they systematically repeat PRL ways of doing things
- making the party leader the most powerful person in the country
- appointing loyal but incompetent people who predictably make a shambles of things
- trying to turn institutions like schools and media into their PRL incarnations

What I want in a political party
- rule of law over 'the ends justify the means'
- economic reality rather than free cookies for votes
- social capital over connections
- social cohesion over ideological warfare
- international realism rather than making enemies for no reason
- personal and national responsibility instead of looking for scapegoats

No party in Poland comes close to this, so please stop saying I support PO (beyond being very slightly less horrible on those issues than PiS).

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


It looks like PiS has decided to shut down the Opole racket (less money for the city but more ideological purity!)


I'm sure you don't. I can live with that.


I don't support PO except as being very nominally not as terrible as PiS (and PO is far less rooted in PRL organizational culture than is PiS).

I'm fiscally moderate and socially liberal but I believe in concepts like social capital and the importance of civil society, transparency and the rule of law so there's pretty much no political home for me in Poland (or much of anywhere else).

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


In other words, performers were being difficult and tempremental.... like all performers everywhre are at times. The head of TVP is supposed to be able to deal with that. If he can't then.... wrong person in the job.


people skills - PiS ain't got 'em


JK cannot pick good people and so his bad choices at the top roll down throughout the whole rotten structure...

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


The fiasco began when the head of TVP decided to "live in the past" and act like a rotten PRL boss trying to de-platform an artist who wasn't sufficiently obsequious toward the neo-PRL government.

The director has now also resigned.

A full-scaled disaster that has to be laid at the door of the intiator - Kurski and PiS. In true PiS fashion, they will blame everyone but their own incompetence.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Since when are artists supposed to suck up to the government? Oh yeah IN THE PRL! Everything old is new again....


Kurski was hoping to save things with a concern in honor of Wojciech Młynarski who died in March... but his family wanted nothing to do with it.

The absoltue latest is that the mayor says that TVP is in no position to honor its contract and wants to take over the concert which will (this year) be delayed until the Fall.

The whole fiasco really crystalizes JK's biggest flaw - he can't pick people to run things (which means he's a bad leader), like the commies he prizes loyalty above all and so he's always appointed incompetent and/or mentally disturbed people to important positions.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Yes, Kurski and PiS certainly are responsible for sabotagind that! Making an exception to their terrible policy of blackballing governmnet unapproved artists does not right the wrong - which is why Kayah (and many others) have withdrawn.


That was entirely due to PiS wanting to distract attention from the brave Poznanian struggle against the communists and make it about his Smolensk death porn obsession.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Meanwhile back in reality, Kayah decided not to perform because she couldn't in good conscience when TVP is still blackballing those who are not sufficiently enthusiastic about the current government... (inc Natalia Przybysz and Artur Andrus)

Then the resignations began rolling in and now count Kasia Nosowska,Kasia Kowalska, Michał Szpak, Andrzej Orzech (announcer) and two artists who were set to be honored for the 25 and 50 anniversaries of their careers (Andrzej Piaseczny and Maryla Rodowicz respectively).

The mayor of the city is in panic mode as Kurski's cack-handed mismanagement is turning one of his city's major trademarks into a symbol of artistic censorship.

After the fiasco of last year's Pride of Poland (an international trademark all but ruined do to political appointments) a Polish trademark is set to be downgraded because the PRL style of the current government cannot separate art and politics.

I suppose they could get a bunch of pro PiS performers instead, but who wants to see that?

youtube.com/watch?v=wJfZ9OsKb8E

youtube.com/watch?v=AwlkasMQ5a0
How do you say "trainwreck" (in the sense of artistic disaster) in Polish?

Food / What Polish foods do foreigners generally not take to? [139]


I knew headcheese form the states (along with souse, headcheese made with vinegar, and pickeld pigs feet) so those weren't too unusual.

Does anywhere in Poland make anything like utopenec (pl utopenci) which are pickled bratwurst? Quite tasty when done well but I've never seen anything like it in Poland.... (pyzy from wielkopolska are very similar to Czech knedliky).