News / Goodbye Sunday Shopping in Poland - Hello Electoral Reform [246]


It's still odd, though nowhere near as grim as it used to be. One interesting curiosity about the station was that because it was run by the East German Deutsches Reichbahn (they didn't change the name because it was mentioned in some treaties - and if they changed it, the Western Allies might have refused to recognise their right to operate in West Berlin) - the West German Bundesbahn had to sell tickets in an office nearby.

Germany really does take station shopping to extremes though - Berlin Hauptbahnhof is easily the size of a shopping centre, and stations like Alexanderplatz and Fredrichstrasse are rammed full of shops as well.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]


In theory, they don't have a choice. The EAW system means that the extradition is supposed to be automatic - as long as the paperwork is correct. This is why the Irish judge sending the case to the ECJ was so significant - if the ECJ says that there is indeed a threat to the rule of law in Poland, then other states will be free to refuse the EAW from Poland for anything deemed to be political. It's why Spain was careful not to issue an EAW in the case of the Catalans, because they didn't want to prejudice the EAW system for a clear political crime.

There's a good example here: fairtrials.org/jacek-jaskolski

So, in theory, let's say that you (as a dual British-Polish citizen) were to say bad things about Duda, and they prosecuted you for insulting the President. You could be arrested and deported, even though you hadn't actually committed any crime in the UK.

I think in practice, you're right though - the British government would intervene in this case.

Actually, an interesting compromise could be for the law to only be effective if it concerns statements made someone physically located in Poland at the time of making the statement.

News / Goodbye Sunday Shopping in Poland - Hello Electoral Reform [246]


Wrong. The law specifically restricts operations to those who work under their own name and who issue receipts in their own name. Effectively, it means only those with a działałność gospodarcza can operate a shop on Sundays if they don't fall under one of the various exceptions. They knew that people would try this, and so the law was framed to ensure that it can't be circumvented in that way.

Sparks - yeah, that's the one.

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [943]

In fairness, Crow is right when he talks about the Serbian victims of genocide in WW2.

News / Goodbye Sunday Shopping in Poland - Hello Electoral Reform [246]


Not a surprise in the slightest. PiS have always been known for their utter hypocrisy, and this is just yet another example of it.

News / Goodbye Sunday Shopping in Poland - Hello Electoral Reform [246]


They aren't. If they don't want to work on Sundays, get a job where you don't have to work on them.

News / Goodbye Sunday Shopping in Poland - Hello Electoral Reform [246]


Which ones? The Dutch have recorded a higher increase in real terms, despite having less than half the population of Poland. The Eurozone as a whole grew 2.3%, and the total GDP of the Eurozone is a hell of a lot higher than Poland's.

Poland is on par with other countries, nothing more. Germany grew 2.2% - or in real terms, $207,374 billion. Poland had 4.6% growth, but in real terms, only $56,724 billion. Poland has around 46.3% of the population of Germany, yet recorded only 27.4% of the GDP increase that Germany had.

So, in real terms, the Polish government has actually failed in comparison to Germany, and we are falling behind Germany, not catching up with them.

I mean, of course, Poland is doing better than some countries - but it's not a roaring success.

News / Poland in the European Union. Polexit? [559]

Remember that the Czechs and Slovaks don't want to fight with the EU. Fico and Babis are both firmly pro-EU on the vast majority of issues, especially Slovakia which relies massively on Western companies.

And well, it looks like Babis is relying on the Communists to be able to function as PM.

Work / Proofreading - What is the going rate in Warsaw? [40]


Depends on the amount of work needed, but start the bidding at around 0.10zł per word, or around 100zł an hour. Don't do it 'on the cheap' - that price is still on the low side. You're also leaving room to negotiate, but the absolute minimum should be 0.7zł a word or 70zł an hour. This is only for straightforward proofreading - if it's a legal text, or a technical text, up the price by 100% or even more.

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [656]


I know at least four divorces so far between Polish women and "southern" men, and I dare say there will be more. Most of them really struggle to integrate into Poland in the long run, and the wife obviously has no interest in being away from the family over the long term.

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


Yup. There's no doubting that, though I can say that I start to understand why Dirk feels the need to arm himself when there's such a massive amount of illegal guns out there. I guess he'll agree with me that it's a sick state of affairs for people to have to arm themselves in response to the inability of the American police/government to actually deal with the problems out there.

To the Americans here: would you support measures to take as many illegal guns off the streets as possible and for gun ownership to be subject to thorough background checks - but in return, licenced owners wouldn't face restrictions in what they own?

(I know it's unlikely to happen, but as a what-if?)

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]


Agreed. I might not agree with the Polish action/reaction, but at least it's been somewhat consistent - whereas Daniels is openly changing his tune according to the audience. Even while PiS supporters are demanding to know what he's doing here, the right wing media keeps pushing and pushing him. Meanwhile, he's telling that media what they want to hear, then he suddenly goes quiet and refuses to address the issue when the Israelis do something against Poland's interests.


I don't understand it at all. He's turning into a major figure (and as I found out, he's been working for LOT recently) - but what does he offer Poland? It's possible that he offers access to powerful American interests, but you'd think that Poland is big and powerful enough these days to deal directly with those interests.


It's possible, but why would PiS embrace him while keeping Matthew Tyrmand at a distance, even though Tyrmand is almost constantly sucking up to the government and hasn't said anything contrary to their line, unlike Daniels?

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]


It's worth doing, I don't believe he's who he says he is. What's curious about him is that his parents don't seem to exist - which is strange, given that he claims that his father was 'in business' and his mother was a party planner - which would show up *somewhere* online. The nationalists in Poland hate his guts, and they (I think rightfully) want to know who he is, where he came from and what he's really doing here.

WP - another link for you - what's your opinion of this?

facebook.com/jonny.daniels/posts/10214189377041051?comment_id=10214197805091747&reply_comment_id=10214197847372804&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D&pnref=story

I actually think it would be an interesting idea to put them under UN administration.

His Facebook wall is fascinating by the way, it seems to attract a huge amount of retards. I've just noticed one dick saying that there were "hundreds of Jedwabnes all over Poland" - I wonder why Jonny hasn't deleted such posts.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]


I'm surprised the Karnowski brothers went there, given that he's pissed off so many people over the last few weeks. Could be crazy, but I wonder if they weren't asked to try and rehabilitate his image, especially as he was so blatantly sitting on the Israeli side and people were picking up on it.

I was hoping that this would be the end of him in Poland, but clearly he's valuable to PiS in some way.


Wouldn't shock me. He's almost certainly representing some powerful American-Israeli interests in Poland, and the more I dig up on him, the more it's becoming obvious that his foundation is a front for something else. He hasn't even bothered to submit the legally required accounts for the foundation, which rather says it all about him.

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

Is it fair to say that America has so many guns now that it's impossible to regulate things to a European level?

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]


Yet he was totally fine with taking a Torah scroll to Israel and treating it like a museum piece rather than burying it in the cemetery like they're supposed to. He also didn't see any problem with illegally exporting a historical relic despite not having permission from the relevant ministry to do so.

The guy is clearly here to push American-Israeli interests, I just wonder if he's a showman or a spy.

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


And you're proud of the fact that your cops can't even enforce the law while gorging themselves on donuts and coffee?

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


Don't worry, we have every intention of letting you kill your future generations.

Four armed officers and not a single one of them could stop or even attempted to stop the shooter, LOL!

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]


Welcome to the world of having prosecution services under the control of government. Laws can be easily enforced or not enforced depending on the situation.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]


The rumours floating around suggested that they would simply not prosecute anyone for the crime, but what I don't understand is why the law comes into force despite it being referred to the Constitutional Tribunal. I mean - at this point - it's obvious that PiS and the Israeli government are looking for a mutually acceptable solution, but it's tough to see what PiS can do without opening themselves up for attack domestically. Declaring it as unconstitutional would be one way out, but would PiS supporters really buy that when they know that the TK is in their hands.

Apparently Ziobro told PAP that the law wouldn't be enforced, but what next? If someone comes here and openly accuses Poland of operating Auschwitz for the sole purpose of murdering Jews, will they really not prosecute someone despite it being on the books?


Totally, and I hope no-one's bought it. It's becoming painfully obvious that he was at least partially responsible for this whole mess, and his attempts at damage limitation were pathetic to say the least.

Found this, BTW - i24news.tv/en/news/international/europe/167818-180216-meet-jonny-daniels-the-man-behind-the-polish-holocaust-law-media-frenzy - but I think it's worth stressing that I don't want him here, regardless of which political faction he sides with. There's more here - wpolityce.pl/polityka/383132-kim-pan-jest-panie-daniels-w-nowym-numerze-sieci-prezes-fundacji-from-the-depths-mowi-co-robi-w-polsce-i-o-co-chodzi-w-sporze-z-izraelem - but I notice how he's saying one thing to the right wing media and then a completely different story online / internationally.

And - of course - twitter.com/MrJonnyDaniels/status/967485955669151744 - he's spreading the news about the law being 'frozen'. He doesn't seem to be taking into account that there's a clear demand for this law to be enacted and enforced, only celebrating because the Israelis have seemingly won this round.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]

WP - I've dug something up about our old friend - new.jewish.org.pl/aktualnosci/izraelski-nikodem-dyzma-6764

But much more interestingly - the post links to a second article. The link doesn't work, but this does - new.jewish.org.pl/aktualnosci/pr-na-macewach-6697

And this one thing immediately jumped out at me:


My translation (others can improve it!) - "If the Israeli media was to find out, that the Polish Minister of Culture treats the remains of Jewish people like a historical monument, an international scandal would happen".

He was effectively threatening the Polish government in 2014 with massive bad PR if they didn't do what they wanted, even though what he wanted was completely at odds with the Jewish authorities in Poland. The article also mentions that he's been receiving financial support from mysterious "sponsors" that he doesn't want to disclose.

Another site worth a read: codziennik24.pl/2018/02/15/kneset-tora-ojciec-dyrektor-fox-news-i-sierzant-daniels-czyli-sila-opowiesci

I have no idea what the political leanings of the site are, I've just read the article. Either way, the "fake name" and "Mossad" allegation is repeated here.

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


Indeed. If armed professionals weren't able to catch him and take him out on the scene, what hope would the average teacher have?

Law / Polish EU Drivers Licence - can I get one the easy way (by paying for it)? [185]

A lot of signs are just common sense though, I can only think of one that is genuinely odd - the one indicating restrictions on parking during odd/even days of the week. The rest are fine, I think. Maybe also the snowflake one that indicates a risk of ice, not snow?

The pedestrian crossings are easy - you stop if someone is next to / on the crossing, and you can proceed when the crossing is clear. If it's during the exam and the person isn't making an attempt to cross, you verbally ask for permission based on the situation - and the examiner directs you accordingly. It's actually the correct thing to do in the exam - because it's an ambiguous situation that needs to be clarified.

The cone test is testing more than just reversing skills though - you also need to have a great ability to judge distance and the width of the car, while checking all the mirrors simultaneously and being aware of the car's position. Try it sometime, it's actually quite a fascinating thing to practice when you realise how many skills you need to have to complete it successfully. I thought the same as you before starting the driving course, but when I realised just how much it forced you to be able to control the car in a very confined space, I started to respect it much more.

There are hill starts on the test - it's the second part of the test in the test center. My instructor also pointed out to me that the drive from the cone test to the hill start was being assessed, so you had to use your indicators within the centre and be aware of your surroundings from the very beginning.


It's pretty predictable - they only have 45 minutes (I think) for the test, so they have certain features that will always come up. For instance, in Poznań, there's a roundabout that almost everyone gets, and you're expected to either turn left or turn back on it. But there's plenty more things near the test centre that can catch you out, like a road with a 70km/h limit where you're expected (if safe) to get up to at least 60km/h.

What really made the difference for me was the time spent looking at road markings. A common thing they use is "turn left when you can" - often when there's a no entry at the first left turn. Endless amounts of idiots will take the first left, and automatically fail in the process.

Just to stress: my examiner was a grumpy old man ;)

Law / Polish EU Drivers Licence - can I get one the easy way (by paying for it)? [185]


It actually makes a lot of sense when you get an instructor that explains it to you. It's not a real world test, it's rather a test of car control. The idea is that it weeds out those that can't drive before the test, while it also gives the examiner a chance to see what you do when you get in the car. My examiner taught me to check everything and make visible adjustments to everything to show the examiner that I was competent and knew how to operate a car correctly.

I'm sorry to disagree with you here, but the driving test these days is fair. They've all got cameras in the cars and microphones, and the test environment is monitored at almost every step. I passed first time, but that was partially due to spending hour after hour doing recce's on every single potential route - I would take the bus, and then get out and observe major junctions, potentially tricky side roads, everything. When the test came, the examiner tried to get me with two tricky turns at the very beginning - but because I'd scouted them in advance, they were a doddle. After I nailed those two without the slightest hint of stress, he settled down and let me drive for most of it with only a couple of easy parking moves.

Many people don't even bother to scout out the general area around the test centres, which seems like madness.

The theory test is also fair - you need to know the kodeks drogowy, but...well...shouldn't you?

There were major problems in the 1990's with bribery and so on, but it's almost unheard of today.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]


I don't get it, what good job? If you support the government, then he's done an awful job at communicating the thoughts of the Polish government (including going completely silent when the **** was hitting the fan). If you don't support the government, then he either comes across as an Israeli/American stooge or simply incompetent and way out of his depth.

The reaction he received is entirely his own fault for pretending to be Polish and all the rest of it. He was quick to defend the government's POV on everything else, but now that they're fighting with Israel, he's suddenly incapable of supporting Poland. It's disgusting and shows what an opportunist he is.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]

It's interesting that even Kukiz has joined in with questioning what that clown Daniels is doing. He's (Daniels) blocking everyone that's questioning him on Twitter, and yet he still can't bring himself to explain exactly what Morawiecki meant by his comments.

What an absolute clown. He's been well and truly exposed by this whole affair, and I reckon he'll be gone from Poland soon now that his credibility has been torn to pieces.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]

WP - what's this about? Any idea?

twitter.com/pkukiz/status/965665804850262016

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]


Really? That's why he signed a budget that will increase the size of the government even more?

News / Poland Sports News [1079]


Loser.


Loser.

Food / Fermented Oatmeal Soup from Poland - Recipe? [67]


Yeah, but...why would you pour soup over it? It sounds disgusting, don't you think? But I'd like to hear it from his mouth, because Polly's always had an interesting twist on food.