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


Hahahaha. Polonius, you make me laugh. Even my own mother-in-law was denied access to her planned studies in Warsaw in the 70's because she wasn't from the 'right' background politically. I would love to say that it was law or medicine that she was denied entry to - but no, it was simply horticulture.

Try as you might, you'll never convince anyone here that law studies were open to any student. (ab)using the law was important for the PRL, and hence people in the legal system were an extension of the state.

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

You only need to figure out that those that obtained large apartments in Zoliborz during the huge housing crisis post-war must have had ...connections.

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

Not really. The right wing in Polish politics regards anyone that does anything against them as siding with the political opposition.

I'm all for opening up every single file that the IPN has and allowing anyone to examine them. Why doesn't the government do this?

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


So insignificant that his children were movie stars in the PRL, so insignificant that both of them were able to enter the legal profession and so insignificant that one of them even managed to enter the application process to become a public prosecutor? Pull the other one.


Never achieved much? He worked on the American Embassy for crying out loud, and he worked lecturing PZPR members at one point. He achieved a lot, and how he achieved it - we can only guess.

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

He's the former son-in-law of Lech Kaczyński, which shows you the kind of company that he kept.

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

Why would you look at foreign businessmen when the former son-in-law of Lech Kaczyński has just been held for another 3 months on fraud charges before his trial?

As for foreign experts, we need to make sure that the process is fair and without political bias, so that those that plundered Poland are punished irrespective of political affiliation.

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


A very good idea. Let's appoint foreign experts to ensure that there is no agenda - we could use someone seconded from the agency that deals with the Stasi files to lead the commission, and perhaps a Czech expert on the lustration process too.

Latest news :

natemat.pl/171793,walesa-to-tylko-maly-bolek-kolejne-tajemnice-szafy-kiszczaka-odnalazly-sie-akta-rajmunda-kaczynskiego


The story simply will not go away.

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


It seems to me as if you want one rule for some and one rule for another.


Exactly. Serious questions need to be asked - how did Lech Kaczyński get out of the internment camp quickly, despite Komorowski and others being held for months, for instance? If Polonius really wants 'the truth' to be revealed, then he should support a full and honest investigation.

I just saw this mentioned on Facebook with the commentary "brak słów". I quite agree.


wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/1,114873,8349142,Kaczynski__W_obliczu_kompromitacji_Walesy_to_Lech.html

Looks like the masterplan is clear - try to humiliate and discredit Wałęsa, then brainwash the masses into believing that Lech Kaczyński was the real hero of Solidarność. That fits in with the whole attempt to create a martyr out of Kaczyńśki, and we can soon expect choreographed chants of Santo Subito made at PiS rallies.

Just shocking.

Work / Expatriating to Poland... good career move for a young male? [50]


You don't understand it because you aren't living here. Needless to say, Poles often don't tell the truth about their salaries and sources of income. I know one guy who claims to be very poor because he only earns 3k a month netto. It's true. He just doesn't mention the fact that the German owner of the company has no clue that he's actually running a business from his dayjob, and that business provides him with a substantial income. He uses the real job's infrastructure - offices, storage, company car, etc - and as he's the CEO, no-one is questioning him locally.

News / Poland to return to Catholic tradition? [177]


Depends who you ask.

I consider all humans to be members of the Church of Delph. Doesn't mean they are.

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

Indeed. It was quite normal for Party leaders to hold an insignificant title in the government. For instance, if we look at the government of the Soviet Union - their version of the cabinet in the Westminister system was the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Only Stalin and Khrushchev were Chairmen of the Council of Ministers - no other First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU held the title.

Likewise, in the PRL - the Council of State was the highest office in the land. Only Jaruzelski from 85-89 held the title of Chairman of the Council of State. Among Prime Ministers, only Bierut and Jaruzelski held the title.

It's pretty obvious to anyone with half a clue that Kaczyński knows fine well that while it will be very easy to prosecute Duda, Ziobro and others for their leading role, he can truthfully sit back and say that he knew nothing about it and that the Council of Ministers decided things on their own.

The only surreal thing for me is just how scared that cat Duda must be, knowing that the State Tribunal is waiting for him for his blatant abuse of office.


Yep, come to think of it, I think East Germany was the only country where the leader of the Council of State was also the leader of the Party.

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


I'm all for it as long as it's equal. That means that if Wałęsa is to be investigated, then everyone else needs to be investigated, starting with the government. If you genuinely believe in the truth, then you need to know exactly how everyone benefited from connections to the PZPR and PRL. What do you say?


So why has Kaczyński been remarkably unwilling to investigate his own father's activities? Polonius, you know, I wouldn't mind knowing the truth as well, I just don't believe that PiS want the real truth - they just want to destroy their political enemies.

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


So in other words, they'll be selectively used against political enemies. Surprise, surprise.

Anyway, if there is anything genuinely explosive in those files, then you can expect the political opposition to start digging up some serious dirt on the government as well. That's why the whole thing is a scam - some people will be harassed, but any real information would never be used because there's just too much on the government as well.

By the way, mods : Wałęsa has never been proven to be Bolek. Might be wise to remember that, Polonius.

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


I think one other difference is that Szydło knows not to try and become too popular domestically. If you notice, she isn't the 'face' of PiS - that remains Kaczyński, and all the important meetings are conducted with him meeting foreign leaders, not her. Marcinkiewicz on the other hand was genuinely popular, and would almost certainly have become leader of PiS had Kaczyński not dealt with him in time.


The big question is how long those in the Morawiecki camp will last. He's already made it clear that the 500+ programme is irresponsible and wreckless, and the government passing the law regardless of what the Ministry of Finance said shows that PiS are simply taking on extra debt to try and pay for the electoral sausage.

Genealogy / Are Sorbs Polish? Does anyone know about Sorbish enthnicity? [62]

Doesn't bother me in the slightest. I speak Scots (like many others) and I can codeswitch without thinking, but I've never thought that speaking English somehow made us 'less' of a nation. We have a comparable situation to Austria and no-one thinks of them of being anything other than Austrians, so it's the same with us.

Learning Gaelic - no real need. The Irish example shows that 12 years of compulsory education results in people not being able to speak the language anyway, so unless you deliver everything in Irish in school, there's no point in doing it.

Speaking of Lower Sorbian - I watched something online about it, and it was remarkably easy to understand.

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


Only in your world. In the real world, people take note of the harassment of an ex-President and someone widely considered to be a hero - and respond accordingly.

Work / Expatriating to Poland... good career move for a young male? [50]


Not that unrealistic. It's only the average wage in Denmark, and companies will pay well to show their Danish clients that they employ real Danes. It's still cheap for them compared to the cost of hiring someone in a Danish city.

Genealogy / Are Sorbs Polish? Does anyone know about Sorbish enthnicity? [62]

Sure. Sorbs are not Poles or Czechs, although they're close to them genetically. If Poland had succeeded in keeping control of Lusatia for a longer time, probably the Sorbs would have been integrated into the Poles - but because they spent most of the time under German rule, their separate identity was assured.

Either way, don't worry, you're not Polish ;) Budyšin is a very nice place, though, I've been :)

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

It's all about revenge. The good side is that the West doesn't care about these smears and regards them as a political witch hunt, which means that PiS can only do further damage to their reputation there.

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

The attempts to smear Wałęsa continue.

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


It's normal for PiS to use the security agencies against perceived enemies. They're much easier to control and manipulate.


It's not me that they should worry about, it's how it will be reported abroad that they should worry about. It certainly won't convince any decision makers that Poland can be trusted with a NATO base.

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

Which means that it's a purely political move.

Still, we all know how America will react to an assault on an independent source of news. PiS are digging their own grave, just as we all predicted.

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

Notice how Polonius completely fails to condemn attacks on the independent media.

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

Aha. All is clear. Jarosław was conveniently taken to hospital on the same day as this -

wyborcza.pl/1,75478,19633193,agencji-cbs-weszli-do-siedziby-faktow-i-mitow-redaktor-naczelny.html?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=SM&utm_campaign=FB_Gazeta_Wyborcza


So the harassment of non-PiS media has already started.


Utterly shocking.

Obviously PiS wanted to cover up the harassment of journalists, hence in their crude world, releasing a story about Jarosław being hospitalised would divert attention away from the real crimes being carried out.

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

se.pl/wiadomosci/polityka/jaroslaw-kaczynski-w-szpitalu_779189.html - Jarosław Kaczyński in hospital - what's up with the Chairman of PiS?

Looks like he had an "allergic reaction", but the more cynical might suggest that he wanted to pull off another trick to maintain the cult.

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

What a strange coincidence.


There was one article by that chap where he claimed that the KOD demonstrations were tiny and insignificant, but that was about it. Probably he didn't get the job with the government that he was expecting.

News / Poland to return to Catholic tradition? [177]


You are not a practicing Catholic if you don't even meet the minimum expectations of being one.


Poland is not really religious at all. Most people pay lip service - I know one chap who provides a healthy yearly donation to the local church so that the priest can enjoy some nice things. In return, the priest turns a blind eye to him using immigrant slave labour. Is he religious, despite his nice large donations? Of course not.

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


I read something about that guy somewhere, about how he was effectively Moscow and Warsaw's man in the US press and was paid to present a favourable view of both countries, back in the day when the printed media was the only real source of information for the Polonia.

He's not the only one though. Notice a common trend online is for the biographies of PiS members to omit information about what their parents did?

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

Furthermore, the nomeklatura links between PiS and the PZPR weren't mentioned.

I wonder how long it will be before some research is done into those links.

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


You're not very politically astute, are you? PiS lost in a town that they should have easily won - no amount of stupid mocking will change that.


The entire point is to impoverish everyone except people that benefit from Jarosław's political patronage. The PZPR operated on identical lines, really.