News / Poland's geopolitical problems [34]

This doesn't alter the fact that the erstwhile Soviet Union was struggling,
grappling, with an entirely foreign system of government and economics,
for which she was most ill-equipped.

Reminds me a little of Weimar Germany before the rise of Hitler. German democracy??
What a joke and as of '33, the joke was on the German people.

News / Poland's geopolitical problems [34]

Moreover, capitalism was still a new frame of mind for those "former" Soviets!
It is primarily for this reason that corruption, bribery and so forth was so rampant
during the '90's, since the Russian people on the whole had little to no experience
with Western-style Free Market economy.

To put it bluntly, people went crazy trying to make up for what was now believed to be
nearly half-a-century of lost time, taking only the scummy parts of capitalism with none
of the quality incentive necessary to manufacture American, certainly German, products,
particularly in the automotive sector.

History / Anniversary of Soviet Invasion [86]

@Rich,
Ck. out the history of US-GIs who either raped or gang raped German women
during the American Occupation of Berlin in '45! The Russians weren't the only
guilty ones here.

To my knowledge, none of those GIs were prosecuted and to this day, attempting the pry
the truth out from the Pentagon remains a Herculean task.
.

History / Anniversary of Soviet Invasion [86]

Most Polish place names had German "Beinamen"
at one time, long before WWII, e.g. Stettin/Szczecin,
Hellberg/Jasna Gora, Pommern/Pomorze etc.

Work / Are Poles workaholics? [164]

...and thankfully, would in all likelihood be ousted from the premises,
if necessary, by force!

Off-Topic / USA News and Poland - part 16 [1017]

Au contraire, Pierre!

I know PRECISELY what I'm driving at, admit it.

Off-Topic / USA News and Poland - part 16 [1017]

@Przelotnyptak,

The influence, rather, interference of your first language hurts my eyes!
Fess up and simply admit you didn't understand what I'm driving at.

Off-Topic / USA News and Poland - part 16 [1017]

No need to dignify with a comment

History / Anniversary of Soviet Invasion [86]

Re-read your history, pal!

History / Anniversary of Soviet Invasion [86]

Read Telford Taylor's commentary sometime on the trial transcripts at Nueremberg. It's
an eye opener, Hartley Shawcross' rellections as well, from the British perspective.

While we're all too familiar with the by now almost jaded "Judgement at Nueremberg" vs. "Justice at Nueremberg",
it's a fact that the trials were conducted solely by the Allies rather than the Axis.

The reasons are all too apparent; since the Germans started the entire conflict, surely
only the Americans, the French, and the Brits, could possibly be to some degree objective
about what occurred.

Of course, no one can be impartial when it comes to mass murder. Herein lies the eternal irony.

Off-Topic / USA News and Poland - part 16 [1017]

@Przelotnyptak,

Would you mind translating that last post back into Polish?
LOL

@Rich,
Trump doesn't have the "right", Constitutional or otherwise, to do lots
of stuff he's been doing of late, yet, thanks to a craven Congress, he
keeps doin' 'em anyway and with breakneck speed!

Trump simply doesn't realize that it his policies are bad for some people,
they're bad for ALL PEOPLE. America's not nor was it ever a nation of
only the rich, well-born or criminally clever.

Sooner or later, he'll get his comeupance and tragically it might resemble
what just happened in New York several days ago.

Ya can't just keep pushin' average folks out there without them pushin' back!!

Off-Topic / USA News and Poland - part 16 [1017]

If Trump gets rid of Powell, heaven forbid,
interest rates will plummet and the US, perhaps
the world, economy will tank aka, prices will rise
beyond the point of no return!!

Simple economics. Nobel laureate Paul Krugman
and Jerome Powell don't know as much as Trump???!!

The Republicans are shooting themselves in the foot...AGAIN.

History / 81st Anniversary of Warsaw Uprising [72]

Hear, hear all!

The more memory dims, the more their deeds will be forgotten.

Food / Where would you take foreign guests for Polish food dinner in Krakow? [15]

At least in my experience, as with other nationalities,
Polish food in Poland tastes far different from in the US!

Once sampled what passed for chlodnik and bigos at some generic
Greenpoint eatery a few years back.

It was practically inedible. The only decent part of the meal
was the Warta mocna. Ya can't mess up beerLOL

Can only say that it must have been the regular cook's
day off:-)

History / Anniversary of Soviet Invasion [86]

Under Trump, you're dead right, Rich.
First completely correct statement you've made thus far today:-)

News / How will Polish-American relations change if Trump is elected president again? [694]

Correct! It's call delayed action Puritanism, the fear that someplace in this world
some people might actually be happy.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland - part 2 [383]

Apples and oranges, Iron.!
You're comparing two completely separate issues,
namely, the cold-blooded murder of innocent human beings
vs. the life of an unborn, probably for medical reasons such
as rape.

As usual, you're arguing with your butt instead of your brain which
in your case is one and the sameLOL

News / How will Polish-American relations change if Trump is elected president again? [694]

The miracle that the EU chief might actually talk some sense into Trump's head!

News / How will Polish-American relations change if Trump is elected president again? [694]

Our president met today with Ursula von der Leyen. Hoping for a miracle.
Macron can't be far behind:-)

Off-Topic / AfD Party is growing ever more powerful throughout country [187]

Apparently though the Far-Right aka AfD is trying to soften her message while
not her policies!

See Alice Weidel and Tino Churwalla are getting desperate.

News / How will Polish-American relations change if Trump is elected president again? [694]

Trump's childish revenge tactics hurt everyone, consumer and seller!
Higher tariffs make needed import goods, primarily from China, all that more
expensive, often downright unaffordable except for the mega rich.

Nothing fair about that.

Typically short sighted that those in this country who claim "Life's not fair
so deal with it and shut up!!" are the ones who benefit from high tariffs or
runaway inflation.

If they had to pay their fair share, they wouldn't be so glib or talk so big.

Furthermore, who in the US on the whole either admits to having received
help (usually from the Church) or to giving it?? Horatio Alger's "I pulled myself
up by my own bootstraps" philosophy's quaint and perhaps applicable during
a more innocent time in our country's distant past. However to espouse such
nowadays is nothing more than sheer indifference.

In many cases as concerns the above, somebody gave 'em the boots and the
straps!! Fairy tales are alive and well in the US, commonly referred to as PR.

Off-Topic / USA News and Poland - part 16 [1017]

Well heck, Joker, we didn't even have a symphony orchestra until
Henry Lee Higginson founded the Boston Symphony orchestra forwards
the end of the 19th century.

@PolAmKrakow,

You missed the point I was making about Columbia's checkered past!

Genealogy / English versions of Polish given names [35]

Had a Polish neighbor named Wladyslaw aka Wladek, and he preferred
to be called by his American name Wally!!

Always figured it was short or familiar for Wallace, not Walter.

Off-Topic / God and Religion Talk [277]

Let's separate Sunni from Shiite Islam.

Off-Topic / USA News and Poland - part 16 [1017]

Pseudo-intellectual = "Dr." Timothy Leary, propagator of the dangerous myth back in the '60's that mind/mood altering non-prescription drugs
were ok for the youth of America.

I trust you see the difference, PolAmKrakow.

@Rich, merely to clarify my statement in #395. Although I graduated with an MA from GSAS,
their track record has been shameful in regard to faculty diversity, thinking in particular of arch-Nazi advocate
and longest serving president, Nicholas Murray Butler, not only who denied Dr. Franz Boas tenure because Boas
was Jewish, but who openly courted Nazi-leaning German visitors during the 1930's on Columbia Campus.

Then of course there was Grayson Kirk, who insisted on calling in the riot squad when Mark Rudd and others
staged a vocal demonstration. Later there was Lee Bollinger during the early '00's who openly defied requests
not to invite Achmoudsinishad to Columbia. Allegedly, President Bollinger simply wanted to be "fair" to both sides
by allowing a known anti-Semite to spew his filth to students. He never once apologized.
Last but not least, there was Prof. Edward Said, well-known author and Palestinian activist who was photographed
throwing rocks at Israeli troops. No comment from Said.

Not a pretty track record.

News / Why should Poland consider pursuing a strategic alliance with Russia? [392]

Them's the breaks, Bobko!

Life / Polish adventure Bible from the 90s by zonderkidz/zondervan? [4]

Still opens the same way. "Na poczatku........." = In the beginning.....

History / How much Poles trust to France? [130]

Surely no worse than "Brexit".

Off-Topic / USA News and Poland - part 16 [1017]

Not that I'm a fan of my alma mater, but Trump's anti-education posture
only mirrors the deep-seated anti-intellectualism rooted of course in nativism
dating back to the 19th century.
Until maybe the mid-20th century, "culture" was still considered a dirty word
throughout much of the US. Sadly, it still is for a broad swath of America.

The more things change, the more they stay the same!

History / How much Poles trust to France? [130]

Too odd, you meant, B.B.?
Any merkwuerdiger than "Polexit"??