News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]


They are, and there's no real logic to it. They've told people that it's not safe to loan out library books for 2 weeks after they're returned, but they're happy for people to handle ballot papers 24-48 hours after being packed. It's illogical.

I suspect that they simply don't know what to do. Kaczyński knows that Duda's support will start to slip in the coming months as the economic damage comes clear, especially if large amounts of younger people no longer have summer jobs. Yet, they could have proposed to change the regulations so that the election could be held up until 21 days before the end of the President's term, giving them some time to reopen society.

Update: The Senate rejected postal voting by 50 votes to 36. Now the law returns to the Sejm. As a reminder, elections are supposed to be held on Sunday, and there's no provisions in place for them to take place.

On an unrelated piece of news, the Acting First President of the Supreme Court, a puppet appointed by Duda, has declared that the disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court is now functioning again, despite the clear order from the European Court of Justice for it to be suspended. I fully expect that a new puppet First President (probably the same as this one) will be appointed as a result, and democracy is one step closer to ending in Poland.

(awaiting comments from Ironside, who will tell us how great it is that the government controls the judiciary, just like it was before 1989).

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]


In fairness, I thought this was more proof of just how great she is. She's doing such a tremendous job of bashing on the government's door as soon as there's any threat whatsoever to American interests, while she seems to have been heavily involved in convincing PiS to shell out for American weaponry over domestically produced weapons. Regardless of your political view, she's doing a truly tremendous job of representing American interests abroad.

Anyway, something interesting: the polls are showing a definitive shift towards Hołowina. It seems that he's picking up serious momentum among supporters of the opposition, but he's also picking up some support from Konfederacja too. If the election is delayed by 2 weeks and ends up being held conventionally, then there are serious questions about whether Duda can actually beat Hołowina head to head, especially given that the economic problems are only getting worse.

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]

Business likes stability after all.

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]


A lot depends on PiS continuing to tolerate them as well. If Gowin breaks their majority, it's very conceivable that some people from Konfederacja will jump. Winnicki, Korwin-Mikke and Braun won't, but it's easy to imagine how Bosak would be convinced to jump in exchange for a very fat salary for his wife.

The interesting thing about Bosak for me is that he's actually at his strongest when he ignores the anti-EU, anti-gay rhetoric and focuses on business/people's issues. He got flattened by Sikorski because his arguments simply didn't stand up to any examination, but that was on a topic where he could never win against a vastly superior opponent. If he stuck to core issues such as the diabolical delays in paying out support from ZUS/other institutions, he would be on a winner.

Po polsku / Mała "wpadka" Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung :) [25]

alamy.com/stock-photo-polish-and-soviet-tankmen-in-berlin-23247375.html - to jest oryginalne zdjęcie. Może redaktor odpowiedzialny za tekst po prostu nie sprawdził?

Samo zdjęcie musi mieć ciekawą historię.

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]


He was made to look like a fool by Sikorski, and his popularity is sitting at 7% despite actively campaigning.

About the only good thing we can say about Konfederacja is that they've publicly pledged not to sell out to PiS regarding the upcoming vote in the Sejm. We'll see if they really hold, or if they'll give PiS the four votes they need.

News / Is NORD STREAM dangerous for Poland's natural enviroment? [516]

Amazing how naive you are if you think Russia will pay that.

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]


Tell us Ironside, with Polish agriculture suffering because of the drought and rural communities lacking work, where are they getting money from?

News / Is NORD STREAM dangerous for Poland's natural enviroment? [516]


Poland is also proving unable to deal with them, as per usual.

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]


Ah, typical Polonia, completely out of touch with what's actually happening in Poland.


Is everyone in a rural area a farmer? If they are, do they all have crops that can actually be sold? Here's a clue: drought is destroying Polish crops. If they have nothing to sell, higher prices are hardly going to help them.

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]

Interesting piece of gossip emerging: the bishops appear to have taken Gowin's side in this.

The rumour now is that if Gowin becomes the Marshal of the Sejm, then when Duda's term ends in August, Gowin becomes the new President according to the Constitution.

As the sitting President, Gowin would also have a significant advantage in the election, but Duda would be gone.

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]

Even the church is weighing in now, which makes me wonder if they're not getting cold feet now that they realise who they're in bed with.


Don't worry, Ironside will be along soon to tell us that it's perfectly acceptable for PiS to organise their own people to count the votes.

News / Hundreds Protest Against Lockdown at Polish-German Border [8]

I studied with one Polish girl who lives in Frankfurt (Oder) and who is really deep in Polish-German projects. She's nothing short of furious, because she can't go freely to Słubice for meetings (even an appeal to the wojewoda to give her special permission on account of her work was denied!) anymore, and she says that they're completely ignoring the plight of people in Słubice. People are getting sacked from their jobs in Frankfurt as they can't get to work, as well.


I've read an article about how people on both sides of the Olza are in shock, because they've never known this level of restriction. Even during the PRL, they could still relatively freely go to/from Czechoslovakia, so this is destroying communities there.

Law / Poland's citizenship by descent question. Polish great-great grandfather arrived in the USA as a kid. [76]


Which is exactly what his poster wants,hebce his strange and wonderful theories about who is entitled to citizenship.

Personally, I think Poland has it right - you can get permanent residency easily as long as you prove that you have at least two Polish great grandparents. They're happy to accept even documents showing that they have Polish names - so the criteria isn't tough.

However, undocumented migrants are correctly stopped from claiming citizenship to a country that they have no connection to.

Law / Poland's citizenship by descent question. Polish great-great grandfather arrived in the USA as a kid. [76]


Because you've repeated spammed your blog, which is full of misleading and false information. That's why it gets deleted on sight, and why you have to use countless guest accounts.

Eric, please don't listen to this poster. He has delusional ideas about Polish citizenship and who is entitled to it, with particularly strange ideas about how Polish law works. Its worth noting that he's been on this crusade for over a decade without success, as his claim has no merit whatsoever.

The same poster believes that Poland "hides documents" which simply isn't the case - mamy documents were destroyed during WW2. However, it's convenient for his narrative of being cheated by the country.

If you want to spend a lot of money with little chance of success, I can guide you towards an experienced lawyer who specialises in residency and citizenship issues. However, I must stress - based on the facts you've provided, you'll only have the possibility of receiving permanent residency, not citizenship.

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]

They know they've got no choice. The gossip today is that they've lost their majority, and that Gowin is looking like he'll seize the Marshal's job in the Sejm.

News / Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates [2222]

Bread is up by 20% this week, and PiS are refusing to do anything about creating a strategic wheat reserve. It seems that demand from wealthier CEE countries is resulting in significant price increases, something that will very much hurt the rural classes.

We'll see what their electorate thinks when they don't get paid this month.

Law / Poland's citizenship by descent question. Polish great-great grandfather arrived in the USA as a kid. [76]


No, the 1920 law doesn't say that. The law says that it applies to those currently settled on the territory of the Polish State, which your great-grandmother wasn't. As she had left Poland, she had no claim to Polish citizenship.


If you can find evidence of her being issued a document by the independent Polish state after the introduction of the 1920 Citizenship Act, then you might have a small chance. However, it's unlikely - in the US in those days, it was enough to have documents issued at Ellis Island or otherwise.

The odds are that she was never recognised as a Polish citizen. You can try to prove that she was a Polish citizen, but it will cost you a considerable amount of money to put together an application that has a chance of succeeding.

However, there is some good news for you. If you can prove that two great-grandparents spoke Polish and were of Polish ethnicity, Poland will grant you permanent residency, which allows you to live and work in Poland freely. You can't use it for anything other than tourist/business travel to other EU countries, but it's a good option if you want to relocate to Poland.

Law / Poland's citizenship by descent question. Polish great-great grandfather arrived in the USA as a kid. [76]


Roggers does seem to have some rather outlandish ideas about Polish citizenship law, doesn't he?

For someone so desperate to belong to Poland, he seems to have no will to pay those huge ZUS debts that he has.

Law / Poland's citizenship by descent question. Polish great-great grandfather arrived in the USA as a kid. [76]

Never rely on guest posters, as they tend to post complete nonsense based on obscure interpretations of the law with no basis on reality.

In particular, his blog is filled with fantasies based on his imagination.

You won't be getting citizenship with those huge unpaid ZUS bills.

Law / Poland's citizenship by descent question. Polish great-great grandfather arrived in the USA as a kid. [76]


No, they weren't.


She never had Polish citizenship.

Life / What is Poland going to be like in the 2050s? [72]


Predictions of 10% by the end of the year, combined with widespread use of fake self employment contracts and junk contracts.

Law / How to get custody of my children? I am a foreigner on a Poland's karta pobytu (temporary residence card) [29]


As long as the first judgement was in a Hague Convention signatory, other countries following the convention will go by the principle that the first judgement is what matters.

What's disgusting about Poland's attitude in this case is that they turn a blind eye to kidnapping where the kidnapper is a Polish citizen.

Law / How to get custody of my children? I am a foreigner on a Poland's karta pobytu (temporary residence card) [29]

With one exception - if a ruling regarding custody/location of the children was made in another Hague Convention signatory country first, then if you can get them out of Poland, other countries will respect the first ruling. Remember that recent case with the guy who 'kidnapped' the kid? It all went quiet once the Polish authorities realised that the child was abducted in the first place.

It's a major failing of the EU that child kidnappings by family members aren't taken more seriously.

Po polsku / Płonie Biebrzański Park Narodowy [5]


To straszna sytuacja. Poszedłem na spacer godzinę temu, a wszystko jest bardzo suche.

Czytałem, że rolnicy są winni za tych pożarów. Czy to prawda?

Off-Topic / Stock Market and Trading Talk [1011]


There's not much choice here in terms of blue chip stocks - PKNOrlen, PGNiG and that's it. The other companies, like the big 4 energy companies or the mining companies are a mess, because they often have to support unprofitable political projects. I'd possibly consider PZU (an insurance company with significant interests abroad), but their funds are often misused.

The problem is that most of the big companies on the stock exchange are either government-controlled (which is good for dividends, but bad in terms of actual management) or heavily reliant on government contracts.

In short, we can only be jealous of how the US markets operate in comparison.


This is a seriously strange situation, isn't it?

Nice intervention by Trump though - we know it's only rhetoric, but threatening to bring down Iranian ships was exactly what the market needed.

Real Estate / Bank repossessed properties database in Poland? [15]

Because it's an obvious scam.

Off-Topic / Stock Market and Trading Talk [1011]


It's an interesting and difficult question. They're blue chip stocks that are also de-facto monopolies, so they'll be reliable for many years to come. On the other hand, do I really want to hold onto them and keep track of what they're doing? For what it's worth, PKNOrlen will take over one of the biggest energy companies in Poland, so it could be a very reliable stock for years to come.


Sure, I get access to...5? daily through my banking brokerage, but I don't really use them - I prefer to use bankier.pl to get an idea of what's going on. In general, I'm much more of a 'hold for the long term' type if the stock remains at a higher price than I paid. I understand what you're doing with the selling short and so on, but it's rather not for me.

Genealogy / Looking for a person living in Warsaw - any online phone book in Poland? [33]


What's quite surreal is that I've just looked at a copy of some Rough Guide from 2002 on Google and international phone calls to EU countries were charged at about 6zł a minute. Nowadays, I've got unlimited phone calls/text messages to the EU for 50zł a month, including 250 minutes to the USA/Canada on top.

News / RUSSIA TO MAKE PUBLIC THE KATYN FILES... [274]


The two are pretty much identical in this, and in all fairness, you see it in Poles as well, just not to such extremes.