News / Coronavirus in Poland - part 2 [599]


People with compromised immune systems, or some kind of respiratory illnesses may be harmed through wearing a mask - and have to employ other methods to stay safe. For a normal, healthy person, however, I think it is sufficient to change the mask frequently.

Also, understand - I'm talking about people that have Covid. I agree the earlier blanket mandates were stupid.

I think it's a mistake to think, that when someone is coughing or sneezing, that those drops fly towards the other person's mouth like a homing missile or a torpedo.

Instead of laminar flow, think of turbulent flow.

The mask is like a chain link face, which can trap pebbles at a beach.

It's not a perfect defense, but it substantially increases your odds.

Food / What do non-Poles think about eating the following Polish foods? [1450]

Maybe there is something that Poles, Ukrainians and Russians can finally all rally around.

Do Poles like putting salt on black bread?

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News / Coronavirus in Poland - part 2 [599]


This makes no sense.

An aerosol can travel by air.

I think masks are still necessary if one has COVID.

Travel / What are the best countries to live in? [161]


If I can't be a troll for Russia, I would like to become a bodybuilder.

Travel / What are the best countries to live in? [161]

Depends on what one means by "live".

America is definitely not a good country to "live" in, but it provides potentially more opportunity than any other place.

Similarly in Russia - Russia may not be as nice a place to live as Georgia, or some place like Kyrgyzstan (I love Kyrgyzstan) - but the opportunities are simply on a different scale in Russia.

So for me, it depends on your system of moral coordinates, and where you are in your life at that point.

When I visited Hawaii, I thought I had discovered paradise on Earth. Perfect climate, stunning views, warm people, amazing food....

But after being there for two weeks I wanted to hang myself. I started to view the locals with extreme contempt, for their laidback lifestyles, and couldn't wait to get back to NY.

So for me, with no kids, no wife, and still relatively young parents - the best place to live is where I can maximize my potential.

News / Polish Parliamentary Elections 2023 [933]


Sounds like the American Democrats.

Their candidate in the 2016 elections, Hillary Clinton, was famously caught saying this:

"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. (Laughter/applause) Right? (Laughter/applause) They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic - you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice...

The racists, xenophobes, sexists, homophobes and Islamophobes did not receive this message very well.

They already felt that Hillary was a typical representative of the arrogant coastal elites, but being called "deplorable" really rubbed them the wrong way - even if few of them understood what the word meant.

Along with James Comey's reopening of the FBI investigation, this comment of hers probably cost her the presidency.

News / Polish Parliamentary Elections 2023 [933]

I wanted to write a post in the Polish Army thread, about new purchases of Krab and K9 Thunder artillery systems - worth billions of dollars - by the outgoing Minister of Defense.

Then, I decided I'd rather write about my theory of how PiS is attempting to lay the groundwork for their return into power.

So here it is:

1) PiS puppet Duda, appoints short term PiS government. Short term PiS government proceeds to stuff all state companies, and government ministries with loyalists that will be difficult to remove in speedy fashion by KO.

2) PiS takes strong protectionist approach on Ukrainian grain and truckers question. This is despite constant pressure from the EU to disperse the protests and enforce the law on EU border transit. Expectation is that Tusk will come in, and lift the grain and transit embargos. This will immediately dent his popularity, since he will be seen by those two constituencies as betraying Poland's national interests. PiS talking heads will immediately capitalize on the drama.

3) PiS contracts enormous quantities of weapons, that Polish budget cannot sustain (read articles on this subject). Tusk comes in and inevitably has to curtail these orders, or delay their implementation. PiS attacks him for being weak on defense and a Putin stooge. "When we were in power, Poland received more weapons than in its entire history of independence."

4) PiS purposefully runs relations with Germany into the ground, on a farcical premise. Tusk comes in and repairs relations with Germany - perhaps even apologizing for some past excesses of PiS government. PiS of course initiates "Operation German Agent", and Tusk is once again painted as a German lapdog.

This is what I think this past year of insanity has been. A long desperate attempt to push all the possible populist buttons in a politician's arsenal, and now that's its failed - a deliberate attempt to create a "bridgehead" from which to attack KO in the future. The central pillars of that "bridgehead", will be the above points:

1) Active sabotage through loyalists remaining in non-elected government positions. This includes both state companies like PKN Orlen, and government ministries.

2) Accusations of abandoning Polish farmers and truckers interests.

3) Accusations of being weak on defense matters

4) Accusations of being a German/Russian puppet.

Let's see if it will work for PiS.

Law / Polish Police and Their Tactics [204]

@jon357

I had the pleasure of working on two cases which appeared before the High Court in London. I'm not a lawyer, so my involvement was limited to me producing several white papers as part of my internship at a firm in NY.

It was most impressive to observe English judges and barristers in action.

Some of the most intelligent people I had ever listened to.

History / Good enough for British - Joseph Conrad? Poland-born novelist. [30]


Can't speak for the others, but can speak for Nabokov.

Nothing extraordinary here, except the size of the family fortune.

Nabokov's father was the leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party, in the last Duma before WWI. He came from an aristocratic family, tracing their lineage back to the Horde in the 14th century.

His mother was a heiress, daughter of a famously wealthy gold mine owner.

He read in English and French, before he ever learned to read in Russian.

As a Russian aristocrat, he didn't have to do anything at all - and could devote his time to whatever he wanted.

I'm sure Joseph Conrad was not the son of a plumber either.

Law / Polish Police and Their Tactics [204]


Yes...

There's a reason even a Russian company, registered in Cyprus, engaging in relations with a company from Georgia, still wants their contracts governed by English law.

And this makes the City lawyers oh so rich...

Law / Polish Police and Their Tactics [204]


Disgusting arrogance.

What's more, it's not like the English invented a totally parallel system to the Romano-Germanic codices.

Your system emerged in the decades after the Normans took over. So thank the French.

Before the Normans, most English law worked like historic Russian law, on a folk basis in the various hundreds and shires. Given that you had earlier experience of Roman law, my conjecture would be that this is something the Vikings gave you.

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [402]


Prove it.

Куйбышевский.

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [402]


That's because you are Russian.

Your grandparent came in on a Russian passport - he's Russian.

Your grandparent is Russian - you are Russian.

Enjoy.

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


Unlike you, who does not know South African history - whatsoever - they likely do know this history. That is to say, Africans know much more about European history, than Europeans do about African history (stupid term to begin with, because this continent is impossibly huge).

I have met many Africans at university and through work. Emphasis on Africans - not African-Americans. Their best is just as good as our best. They don't want to move to any New York, London, or Singapore. They want to improve the livelihood of their people.

All that educated Africans, that remained in Africa, have experienced from the West is: exploitation, lies, a grating paternalistic anttitude and finally a myriad of broken promises. The supposed window that English or French supplies onto the World, is balanced by the incredible xenophobia when arriving in those parts of the world.

I think Africans know why they support Russia.

They don't need your help in understanding your position.

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


I understood your argument as: "The 'Global South' might have more sympathy for the Western coalition against Russia, if they had a deeper historical appreciation of how Russia had oppressed its near abroad."

I laughed out loud at the idea, because back then truly everyone was doing it. Hating on Russia for being rather more successful at it than others, seems comic. That's all.

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


Ahhh....

Russia was colonizing, even before it was cool?

Really?

Would you apply this absolutely anachronistic and ahistorical lens to say, Prussia, or Austria?

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]

@Paulina

This is what the last two years of anxious articles by Western authors about losing the "Global South" has been about.

Chinese, Indians, Africans, and South Americans stubbornly refusing to see the Russians as the bad guys.

If you're so smart, you tell me what's going on?

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


70%+ of the world sees Russia as a liberator, and America as an oppressor.

Again, facts.

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


Defending small helpless countries is Russia's middle name.

Nobody, in the history of humanity, has spent as much blood, treasure, or political capital as Russia on liberating small, helpless peoples.

Sorry, just a fact.

1) Slavs from Ottomans
2) Vietnamese from Americans
3) Cubans from Americans
4) Angolans from a whole host of a$$holes
5) South Africans from racists
6) Ethiopians from wannabe colonizers
7) and everybody else, too many to list

News / Time to clean the swamp - dePiSification of Poland [324]


This guy should relax.

Russia and America spy on their citizens 24/7. I won't even mention China.

Poland is in good company now.

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


You are an idiot if you think this conflict is just that.

Sorry for calling you an idiot.

News / Poland says no to flood of Immigrants [670]


Your language... is not very Christian.

We have problems with migrants in Russia too. I judge those that argue for extreme measures. I ask them to look at our demographic profile, and then ask them if they want us to go extinct as a country.

Unless you can come up with some way to get white Americans to start making large families again - how do you propose to keep up America's competitiveness?

News / Time to clean the swamp - dePiSification of Poland [324]

Pegasus wrecked their business, when one of their Ugandan clients used it to snoop on the local US embassy employees.

This pissed off the State Department. It also pissed off Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


I think he was under the illusion Russia had 330M people like in the United States, but that they are simply too idiotic and corrupt to make it as rich as the US. Other explanations don't make much sense.

Yes, Miloslaw. Your bloc of a billion people is attacking 150M strong Russia, with just 73M labor force, and the fight still looks... close?

Also, your combined economies are about 25 times larger than Russia's.

Given how you usually like beating on liliputians like Gaza and Afghanistan - this must truly be a heroic battle on epic scale. I understand.

News / Time to clean the swamp - dePiSification of Poland [324]


Good Israeli tech.

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


You have no proof either. I gave a wide ranging estimate that I scooped from reading a lot of academic literature on the subject of Russian demographics.

Bottom line - Miloslaw asked a retarded question.

I don't even accept the premise that 73M is something to be ashamed of. We have more working people than there are people in general in France or the UK.

France had the largest population in Europe for ages. Russia only caught up with it recently (in historical terms).

Why is it that through our enormous territory we are also expected to populate it like mice?

Why doesn't anyone come up to a Canadian or Australian, and ask him if he's ever looked at himself in the mirror and thought about why they have such tiny populations despite a continent-sized landmass?

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


I'm glad.

As I told you it's not a competition.

30M is used as shorthand for when discussing WW2 losses for the USSR. The actual number is more like 26M.

As Velund argued, there's many ways you can slice that data. To many of those 6.8M Ukrainian dead it would be a surprise to learn that they were written down as Ukrainian in the afterlife. They very well could have been Russians, living in what was then known as the UkrSSR.

The same story you can tell about Belarus. Even countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan sent many thousands of Russians - surprise!

That's why I LOLed. Your nitpicking over the dead is stupid.

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


LOL.

Ok. Russia lost 14M people, Ukraine lost 6.8M. The other 13 republics make up the remainder.

Feel better?

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


It's not a competition, or at least a competition anyone wants to participate in.

The gentleman asked me a bewildering question regarding why Russia's labor force only amounted to 73M.

I tried my best to answer it, without being too snarky.

History / Recommended Poland's history books [257]


The current Thai King appears to be a not so moral person.

Germany has not affected him well.

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