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


you really need to turn your shtick into a nightclub stand up routine, it's hilarious!

Life / Boże Ciało (Corpus Christi) - a beautiful celebration in Catholic Poland [22]


I think it was more that trying to disallow Church activity would have been a way to make them very active and that trying to cancel a free day (or communize it) would have created more opposition than it was worth. Remember that the official line of communism in this part of the world was that religion would whither away and the communist government shouldn't try to reverse that but the government shouldn't try to hasten the process along either.. of course no government actually followed that policy, but that was policy.

I think it's interesting how the 'same' holidays play out in different countries this year I was in Malta for easter and the TV had a short news item on the Polish community there bringng świeconki to church on Saturday (the Maltese don't do that). On the other hand, I was at a good Friday service that was genuinely moving (despite me being non-religious and not understanding the service which was in Maltese).

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


Freudian error! Veeeeeerrrrrrry illuminating...

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


I'll take that as confirmation that you don't pay taxes in Poland, which together with your lack of Polish citizenship makes you about as Polish as Betty White.

The funny think in the envelope video is the way Błaszczak tries to let Szyszko know that they're being filmed.... (if this were completely innnocent why would he say anything?)

wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/szyszko-memy-reakcja-internautow-na-list-corki-lesniczego/xzy7plf

"I've been set up by PO, that envelope was manufactured during the PO government!"

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


who pays taxes in Poland? I pay taxes here, do you? If not, then why not?

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

Perhaps the government should shut them down? Or maybe assign someone to read everything before it's published so as to not displease the government?

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

The good change government continues this time dong their influence peddling and promotion of unqualified people on camera!

The minister of the environment was filmed handing an envelope to the minister of the interior with the explanation "there's this ranger's daughter..."

wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/mariusz-blaszczak-zwrocil-janowi-szyszce-list-od-corki-lesniczego/zgc9c3h

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


Tusk didn't allow the heads of the military on the flight, LK (or his office) did - an inexcusable act of neglect. If he had really taken the event seriously he would have gone by train or flown into a more reasonable airport and been driven to the sight. But he wanted to swoop in and out in hurry in a ill-conceived attempt to one up the PM.


To the incompetence of LK's chancellery and the shameless hubris of his surviving brother who wants to blame everyone else rather than acknowledge the truth.

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


Then why did he permit the unforgiveable sin of allowing ALL THE HEADS OF THE MILITARY ON THE SAME PLANE AS HE WAS??!??

The stars of ABBA used to travel on separate planes to avoid orphaning their children in the case of a crash, but this "greatest president" was fine with a situation that could put the entire country in grave danger! Greatest schmeatest, he was a bungler and all the PiS deathcult mumgo jumbo in the world won't change that.

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


BFD, that is not an accomplishment. An accomplishment would be financially contributing to the welfare of the country by holding down an honest job and paying taxes. Does either apply to you?

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


Name one European country where this model has ever worked... It's not a viable socio-economic model it's a video game fantasy, appealing for some, but unworkable in the real world.

No single link in the chain is bad, but trying to create a self-sealed Polish only universe won't work.

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


You clearly have not read any of this thread....

Life / Comparing Poland and Romania [108]


Actually the general consensus is that the Lech derives from Lęda, an old Polish word meaning something like 'field' (just as the modern name is related to 'pole' with the same meaning). The modern reflex of lęda is ląd (land, in some contexts).

Lithuanian Lenkije and Hungarian Lengyel preserve the nasal element never present in the word for ice (AFAIK)

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


Actually... "For example, there is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned Hitler has automatically lost whatever debate was in progress"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law


I'm pragmatic and interested in truth, and overblown claims about Polish poverty sound.. neither truthful nor are the proposed solutions (wrecking the rule of law and appointing incompetent boobs to key positions) going to be effective for long.

I just don't see the evidence of massive looting of the Polish economy by ex-commies (of course there has been corruption on various sides). So I don't buy the fairytales about how such a state came to be.... because it didn't. It's all feelgood just so stories for the feckless.

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


you've just manifested Godwin's law - you lose

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


If it makes you feel better to believe that. Just remember that not everybody here believes in the bandersnatch of the post RT clique. Competent people (which includes those sensitive to changing realities) tend to do well in any system. Disproportionae advantages quickly go to nothing in the hands of the incompetent so you're basically arguing for the competence of post 1989 governments....


If I were an economic illiterate (like many supporters of the PiS losers support club), I would assume that a government could turn around an economy in ruins (per PiS campaign boilerplate) to booming in two years. Since I'm not an economic illiterate I recognize that PiS is largely taking the credit for years of hard work by their enemies including PO and the EU) to build the country up.

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


You've convinced me! Poland is a country of the biggest losers on the planet, who can't even get rid of the communists with no communist government around and who take, what? 25 years to elect a non-communist government (tricked into voting for communists for 20 years, what losers!) and despite all the cultural and economic advantages of being in Europe the average loser Pole still lives in poverty? Like a loser?

What a loser country!

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


The truth: I'm glad communism ended. There were many mistakes made in the transition (partly because no one had tried anything of the sort before) but nothing like the organized exploitation ring that the post communist losers' club likes to blame their unhappy lot on.

Dwelling incessantly on a single, incompetent government failing a no-confidence vote is the sure sign of loserdom. But PiS's base is all about making losers feel better (though even their narrative: 20 some odd years to win an election, is pretty loserish).

Stay back with the losers mired in the past if you want, I'm more interested in building a better tomorrow.

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? [598]


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

History / What do Poles owe to Jews? [598]


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.