V Corps Reborn in Poland

The U.S. Army’s V Corps officially returned to Europe Friday with a ceremony at the unit's new forward headquarters in Poznan, Poland, from where it will command missions along NATO’s eastern flank.

The first soldiers attached to the Poznan headquarters began arriving last month after the Army reactivated the unit at Fort Knox, Ky. About 200 troops will eventually be assigned to the forward element in Poland while an additional 400 will work from Kentucky.

The activation of the Poznan mission came after Polish President Andrzej Duda on November 9th signed off on a security cooperation pact that paved the way for the unit to officially launch.

U.S. Army Europe said in a statement this week that they expect the new headquarters to be fully operational by November 2021.

“The mission of V Corps will include command and control of assigned and rotational units in support of U.S. Army Europe and U.S. European Command,” USAREUR said. “The Forward Headquarters will be critical to accomplishing these responsibilities.”

V Corps will play a key role in upcoming U.S. European Command exercises, including Defender-Europe 21, which will take place in the Balkan and Black Sea regions in the spring, USAREUR said.

The military announced in February that it was reforming V Corps to provide more support to an expanding Army mission in Europe. In September, the Army selected Poznan, Poland as the command post.

V Corps’ history in Europe dates to 1918 when it was activated during World War I. It was a fixture in Germany throughout the Cold War but was deactivated in 2013 as part of the Army’s gradual drawdown in Europe.

 

Deepspot in Poland

On Saturday in Mszczonow (near Warsaw) the world's deepest swimming pool at 149 feet in depth opened when it was filled with nearly 2.3 million gallons of water.

Considered a training center for divers the swimming pool, called "Deepspot" is more than twenty times the volume of a standard 25-meter-long pool and features reproductions of underwater caves and Mayan ruins, as well as a small shipwreck that can be explored.

It's really a good place to learn and train in order to dive safely," said Przemyslaw Kacprzak, a 39-year-old scuba instructor who was among those attending the swimming pool's opening.

The swimming pool is also going to be used for training by firefighters and the army.

The construction lasted two years and cost over $9Million.

 

 

Poland & Hungary veto EU Budget

Earlier this week, Poland and Hungary rejected the $2.1 trillion seven-year EU budget that was set to provide economic relief for EU countries hardest hit by the effects of the Covid-19  virus, because so-called “rule of law” and "values" provisions was attached which would allow Brussels to deprive countries of funds for not following the establishment line.

 

Then a couple of members of the European Parliament from Sweden slammed Poland and Hungary and talked about the two conservative countries leaving the European Union after vetoing the bloc’s budget this week.

Helene Fritzon, head of the delegation for the Swedish Social Democrats in the European Parliament, said that Poland and Hungary Poland were playing an “ugly game” and stated, “They put the whole of the EU in a very serious position when they now signal that they intend to use their veto.”

Tomas Tobé, another MEP who is supposedly center-right told broadcaster Sveriges Radio, “We cannot budge now. If we fold now, then this has been established, then we basically say that it is OK to continue in this direction as we have seen from Hungary and Poland.”

Tobé went on to state that it was a question whether or not Poland and Hungary belong in the European Union.

The EU only view countries which let migrants in as those governed by the rule of law. Those who protect their borders cannot qualify as countries where rule of law prevails.

If this budget harboring other conditions gets adopted, there will be no more obstacles to tying member states’ share of common funds to supporting migration and use financial means to blackmail countries which oppose migration.

Poland is Right

2019 Oscar Nominated Polish Film "Corpus Christi"

Corpus Christi (Boże Ciało) is a recently released Polish dramatic film written by Mateusz Pacewicz and directed by Jan Komasa. It is one of five movies nominated for Best Foreign Film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The film is about a 20-year-old named Daniel who experiences a spiritual transformation while serving time in a Youth Detention Center. He wants to become a priest but can't because of his criminal record. When he is sent to work at a carpenter’s workshop in a small village, on arrival he dresses up as a priest and accidentally takes over the local parish. The arrival of the young, charismatic preacher is an opportunity for the local community to begin the healing process after a tragedy that happened there.
 
Corpus Christi premiered at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. It was also shown at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. In Venice, the film won the Europa Cinemas Label Award and the Edipo Re Inclusion Award. It was also selected as the Polish entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.

Corpus Christi will compete against:
1) Les Misérables (France)
2) Pain and Glory (Spain)
3) Parasite (South Korea) 
4) Honeyland (North Macedonia)

 The winner will be announced during the Academy Awards ceremony February 9th.

Since Roman Polanski’s first Oscars submission in 1963 with Knife in the Water, Polish movies have been nominated no less than eleven times in the Best Foreign Language Film category, winning once with Pawel Pawlikowki’s Ida in 2014. Other Polish nominees have included Andrzej Wajda’s Katyń, Man of Iron, Agnieszka Holland’s Angry Harvest, and Pawlikowski’s latest film, Cold War.

TRAILER

 
CORPUS CHRISTI Crew Q&A | TIFF 2019

When the whole world is at odds and all seems lost, what is left?

Corpus Christi is the story of 20-year-old Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia, a major talent on the rise), who, after serving a sentence in a youth detention center for a violent crime, must face his inner demons while searching for redemption. Running from the troubles that haunt him and hiding from his past by posing as a priest in a small Polish town, Daniel is, clandestinely, given the chance for spiritual transformation.

Meanwhile, the arrival of this charismatic young preacher provides an opportunity for his divided flock to begin healing after a polarizing tragedy. But not everyone is capable of forgiveness or deliverance, and following the road to salvation can also lead one astray.

As his past sins catch up to his already heavy and burdened conscience, Daniel's intentions are murky and the haven of religion may prove to be more than just a spiritual escape.

Set in a country with increasingly blurred lines between church and state, Corpus Christi calls dogma and prostrating into question as Daniel's real test of faith ultimately presents itself at a moment when he's not at the altar.

Corpus Christi is the third feature by director Jan Komasa, whose disciplined and steadfast gaze makes for a gripping moral tale with effects that ripple beyond the screen, prompting reflection and soul searching. Can all be forgiven? Does everyone deserve a new beginning? And beyond that, does forgiveness come from above, or must it be sought within?

Polish Independence Day Truth

Poles across Poland celebrated National Independence Day on October 11. This year’s celebrations were special, as they marked 100th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence. 

Polish Independence Day March

  
The key event was the Warsaw march of hundreds of thousands of Poles who honored this great national holiday with due dignity. The celebrations have clearly shown how the Poles love their homeland.

Unfortunately, however, many of the world’s media outlets did what they had done in the past: They published a distorted picture giving the impression that the march was all about a few far-right groups that participated. This is not what happened in Warsaw that day. 

Complete story at Washington Examiner 

Outbreak WWI

MIRACLE ON THE VISTULA. BATTLE OF WARSAW 1920.

6 A-ha moments in Poland's recent history

Build That Wall

Until construction of Trump's southern border wall in the U.S. is completed, the longest fence ever constructed might be a fence along almost the entire length of Poland’s eastern border to protect the country from  African Swine Fever disease-carrying wild boar.
 
Construction should begin this year. Costing more than $70 million the proposed fence will stretch close to 800 miles following Poland’s border with Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, but not Lithuania.  
 

Eastern Hog Fence Boundary

Standing six feet high, the fence will also be buried into the ground to stop industrious boar tunneling underneath it.

Although not dangerous to humans, African Swine Fever can devastate pig populations owing to a mortality rate that can hit 100 per cent. As a consequence, it poses a series risk to Poland’s lucrative and expanding pork industry. The disease is also now endemic in the Russian Federation, and there is no vaccine against it.

At least Poland has a plan for stopping undocumented wild pigs.

Fugitive Cow

A cow being led to a truck on its way to the slaughterhouse near the village of Siestrzechowice briefly escaped death by ramming a fence and swimming to an island in southern Poland.

Like a duck to water

The owner, Mr. Lukasz, advised workers to tranquilize the cow before transport, but they failed to do so and were overpowered by the bovine. One farm worker sustained a broken arm and bruised rib during the cow’s escape.

The cow who gained national celebrity status swam out to the nearby Polish islands of Lake Nyskie where she remained for weeks, thwarting capture. Mr. Lukasz said he tried to capture her from the island, but each time he went to retrieve her, the cow would swim off.

When firefighters came to rescue her, the cow dove underwater and swam out to a nearby peninsula on the island to escape them.

Mr. Lukasz eventually gave up on returning her to the farm and instead visited the island to leave food for the animal.

The fugitive cow has been called a “hero” by one local politician, Pawel Kukiz, who made it his mission to save her from the slaughter permanently because she fled heroically and swam to an island in the middle of the lake.

Some have suggested the cow be shot, but Kukiz and others vehemently opposed the idea. Kukiz wrote in his Facebook post that he wished to see the animal “live happily ever after” and die a “natural death.”

Though Kukiz admits he is “not a vegetarian,” he still wanted to “reward [the cow] for her attitude.”

Kukiz worked on a plan to find a sanctuary for the runaway cow, deciding to hire a vet to tranquilize the bovine and transport her safely off the island.

Unfortunately, four weeks after her jailbreak, the Limousin beef cow was captured as part of a rescue attempt and died “from stress,” according to a report.

The cow was shot with three sedatives before she was supposed to be loaded into a truck and taken to a farm, but died before she got there.

Last month, another runaway Limousin cow was spotted roaming farm fields in the company of a herd of bison in eastern Poland, three months after escaping its pen.

Żubrówka, anyone?

Wrocław voted best destination

In 2016 Wrocław was awarded European Capital of Culture. This year it has the distinct and high honor of being voted European Best Destination of 2018 in an online poll conducted by

European Best Destinations a Brussels-based tourism organization promoting culture and tourism in Europe. Out of 320,000 votes Wrocław received more than 41,000.

 20 trendy destinations competed for the prestigious title and Wrocław came ahead of cities and places located in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain including Milan and Amsterdam.

This beautiful city, called the "Polish Venice" is surrounded with canals and is dotted with more than 120 bridges that link 12 wonderful islands (among which Cathedral Island).

 

The mayor of Wrocław, Rafał Dutkiewicz, said: “Victory in such a prestigious competition is proof that Wrocław has earned a place among Europe’s most attractive tourist destinations.”

Wroclaw is dotted with 350 emblematic bronze dwarves and more are added each year.

Undeniable Truth of Life #55

Do ya think the same is true in Poland?

If you answered yes... give yourself a pat on the back... or more appropriately, a nice cold Luksusowa.

Another Right-of-Center Chick

See also: [Click Here]

Can you play a polka?

The U.K. Telegraph reports that the accordion is very popular in North Korea, well so are ICBMs and nuclear bombs.

No belly shaking?

In her book Nothing to Envy:Real Lives in North Korea Barb Demick says all teachers were once required to play the accordion.

It was often called the people's instrument, according to the author, since it was portable enough to carry along on a day of voluntary hard labor in the fields. In the classroom teachers sang, "We Have Nothing to Envy in the World, which had a sing songy tune as familiar to North Korean children as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

In 2012 a North Korean accordion band even became a YouTube hit for their version of A-ha's Take On Me.

If we could convince the NoKo nation to start playing polkas, maybe they would become friendlier towards the west.  After all, polkas are the happiest tunes in the world. And, learn how to belly shake those bellows. It's fun!

Hungarian baby killer

George Soros is funding massive pro-abortion rallies in Poland 

Poland loves her babies, but foreigners want to kill them. The black-clad, pro-abortion protests that swept through Poland last October were neither “spontaneous” nor part of a “grassroots movement” but funded from abroad.  

Released on October 3, Poland’s Ordo Iuris Institute presented its evidence that the country’s marginal feminist movement has received “enormous funding from abroad.” It traced most of the money to organizations funded directly or indirectly by Hungarian-American financier George Soros. Poland’s pro-abortion groups received about one million Polish zloty to block the Polish government’s 2016 attempt to completely ban abortion.

Soros & friend (past tense)

 
Ordo Iuris says Poland’s public universities, which were supposed to be neutral, were also actively involved in the pro-abortion protests.

The Global Fund for Women (GFW) is a partner and legatee of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations. The organization, which promotes access to abortion worldwide, boasts on its official website that it funded Poland’s so-called “black protests”

Soros funded Black Protest

 

Police raid offices of feminist activists after abortion protests

The day after thousands of activists marched against Poland’s restrictive abortion law, police raids at their offices seized documents and computers.

Offices of The Women’s Rights Center and Baba, which helps domestic violence victims,  in the cities of Warsaw, Lodz, Gdansk, and Zielona Gora were targeted by police.

Well Armed Polish Police conducting Raid

 
Both organizations took part in anti-government protests marking the anniversary of the historic “Black Protest”. The aforementioned demonstration took place a year ago and saw people dressed in black come together to stop a plan in parliament for an almost total ban on abortion.

The activists have accused Polish authorities of attempting to intimidate them and said losing the files will obstruct the work they do.


According to Krystyna Kacpura, the Executive Director at Poland Fed for Women & Family Planning, “They want us to be afraid of possible repression from the government's side. It started with women's NGOs working on violence against women and funded by the government in previous years.”

Krystyna Kacpura

According to the Independent: The organizations claim police informed them prosecutors were hunting for evidence in an investigation into suspected wrongdoing in the Justice Ministry which took place under the former government. The ministry was feeding funding to the women’s groups at the time.

“They reassured us that the investigation concerned Ministry of Justice officers. We don't believe in this information because the raids occurred one day after women protested across Poland,” Kacpura said. 

“We were shocked about the raids. Women's NGOs have nothing to hide but this operation stopped their work. They are not able to continue everyday important work for violated women and children.”

She said women marched in front of the office of the Center for Women's Rights to show that other NGOs are standing in solidarity with them.

Marta Lempart

Marta Lempart, the head of the Polish Women’s Strike, which organized the protests, echoed the views of Kacpura. She told Associated Press: “This is an abuse of power because, even if there is any suspicion of wrongdoing, an inquiry could be done in a way that doesn’t affect the organizations’ work”.
 
Kate Allen, Director of Amnesty International UK, said: “These heavy-handed police tactics amount to harassment of women’s rights organizations. Coming a day after the protests against restrictive abortions laws, they risk silencing the discussion on abortion rights in Poland."

Prosecutors hit back at the accusations levied against them, claiming the fact the raids took place a day after the protests was merely coincidental.

The ruling Law and Justice party is founded on a socially conservative, Catholic ideology and has pursued a restrictive agenda with regards to female reproductive rights. 

For instance, the morning after pill is no longer prescription-free because the minister of health, Konstanty Radziwiłł, raised concerns teenage girls would use it on a daily basis. The same minister also claimed that as a doctor he would not even prescribe the pill to a woman who had been raped, citing the conscience clause in defense.

In Poland abortion is illegal except in cases of rape or when a female’s life is at risk or if the fetus is irreparably damaged. As such, women’s rights activists took to the street to express their frustration at the fact abortion was still illegal in most cases and demand a radical overhaul of the country’s laws.

In October 2016, legislation was proposed to completely outlaw abortion overall. The plans prompted around 30,000 people to assemble in Warsaw’s Castle Square, chanting “We want doctors, not missionaries!”. 

The far-reaching protests were successful and triggered lawmakers to vote against the restrictive new law just three days afterwards. The eastern European country is one of the few countries in the world to outlaw abortion following decades of total legalization.


Now, on the other hand Poland is no longer suffering from one of the EU's lowest birth rates.  

Law and Justice introduced the so called “500+” program. For every second and next child under eighteen years of age a family receives 500 PLN per month. That's about $125 per month. While the Ukrainian migrants totaling around a million helped fill jobs and continued Poland's stellar economic expansion, it was a short stop gap measure. To continue on the path of increasing prosperity for the nation - Poland's fertility rate needs to rise significantly. 

Killing babies in the womb except for the exceptions noted above isn't a particular help to the continued growth of living standards. We don't want Poland to end up like Japan.

Because Poles saved Britain

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."*

When the RAF Museum decided to launch a public vote deciding the greatest Spitfire Mark V pilot in history, they might have presumed the winner would be found somewhere close to home. After all the expected target of the poll hosted on the Telegraph newspaper's website, was the British public, whom the RAF have protected for 99 years.

But after being hijacked by a massive groundswell of public support from the Polish community, Franciszek Kornicki, the last surviving Polish World War Two squadron commander, is leading the poll by a landslide - more than 250,000 votes and counting. 

Kornicki Now & Then

Polish weekly news magazine Newsweek Polska and national newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza have both supported the campaign to have Kornicki voted number one in the poll, which was set up to celebrate 100 years of the RAF in 2018. 

The Eastern Europe campaign has also been waged in the UK, with the Polish Embassy and ˜Polish Radio London" urging the UK's 813,000-strong Polish population to back Kornicki, who turned 100 last year.

Quite possibly the Battle of Britain in 1940 would have been lost without the heroic efforts of Polish pilots flying in the RAF. The planned German invasion was thwarted.

Battle of Britain 303 Squadron - "Repeat please!" 

Dywizjon 303 "Ci cholerni cudzoziemcy" 

 * Winston Churchill

Population Explosion

Over the last couple of decades Poland had one of the lowest birth rates in Europe where only Czech, Lithuanian and Romanian women had a lower fertility rate. With an aging population prospects of continuing growth looked dim especially in the workforce being large enough to fulfill the demands of employers. 

Polish couples got to work making more babies partially due to a government program giving 500 zloty per month to families with children. Nearly PLN 19 billion ($5 billion) has been paid out for nearly four million children under the government's flagship 500+ family benefit program, according to the Polish family minister.  
 
Under the scheme, the government gives parents PLN 500 a month for each child in low-income families, and for second and subsequent children in all other families. About 4 million children under the age of 18 have benefited from the government program since it was implemented last April

Poland had an 11% year to year hike in number of births in July.  Dziennik Gazeta Prawna (DGP) reports 35,000 new born babies citing the latest data by stats office GUS.

January-July year to year births increased 9% to 235,000. By the end of the year births are expected to exceed 400,000 if the trend is maintained .

Factors that seem to improved the birthrate include a better economic situation, shrinking unemployment, rising wages, a high number of women aged 29-34 and the positive impact of the government's family support scheme 500+.

Per-capita disposable income of Polish households rose at a moderate pace in the case of 500+ beneficiaries and wealth gap narrowing. 

Polish beautiful women

I often hear from people in the "know" that the most beautiful women in the world are Polish. It seems like some YouTubers decided to supply proof. So, here are some Polish beauties for your enlightenment. .



And, here's a tribute to the most beautiful female military personnel in the world.



Another person posts this: Sexy and beautiful Women in polish army



Just as beautiful is Poland's new PL-01. Sorry, no video posts of female tank commanders... yet!

Right, right - Left, wrong

When conservative PiS was elected to the first majority since free elections in 1989, most folks on the left side of the political spectrum forecast a sputtering economic climate for Poland. However, quite the opposite is the case.

The rating agency Moody's has recently adjusted upwards the economic forecast for Poland as domestic demand and overall fiscal performance outpace most other EU countries.

The Polish economy grew at 3.9 per cent in the second quarter, which outperformed previous expectations. Now, there is a good chance full year growth may post a 4.3% increase making Poland the envy of other countries around the world.
 

Mo' money, Mo' money, Mo' money

Predictions of economic growth seem to be continually readjusted upward by significant gains even though many economists warned that the right-wing Law and Justice party’s 2015 election victory would damage Poland’s economy.

Unlike debt redden America, Poland is on pace to limit their deficit to 2.5% of GDP down from an earlier forecast of 2.7%.

Poland continues to attract foreign companies to relocate there and there is no signs of a slowdown. 

Old man and the sea - Doba

"Old Man and the Sea" is likely to bring Ernest Hemingway to mind.  But, in the non-fiction section it might be an old Polish man.

The old Pole,  Aleksander Doba, who is 70 years old paddled his way across the Atlantic Ocean in a kayak from New Jersey and came ashore in Le Conquet, Brittany, which is on the coast of north-west France. The 100 day journey was his third trans-Atlantic kayak adventure.

Doba in his kayak

He was the first person to paddle across the Atlantic in a kayak on muscle-power alone in 2010 from Senegal to Brazil.

In 2013 he repeated this feat when he kayaked from Lisbon to Florida at 67 years old.

Old man and the sea Doba

 

Aleksander Doba's voyages were the longest open-water kayak voyages ever made. He was born: September 9, 1946 in Swarzędz, Poland a small town situated in the Poznań metropolitan area. Now Doba lives in Police near Szczecin, Poland. He was named 2014 Adventurer of the Year by National Geographic.

 

Doba has also jumped 14 times with a parachute, piloted gliders and practiced cycling. He also holds a marine yacht steersman license.

Topple the statues?

 Since the fall of communism, Poland's economic and social fortunes have skyrocketed.   Life was miserable under the boot heels of Soviet socialism.

As in America, Poland wants to totally erase history presented in the form of statuary.

Rush to erase bad memories of Soviet domination

An amendment to a bill on prohibition of propagation of communism has been approved unanimously by the Senate. 79 senators voted in its favor and one abstained from voting. The bill regulates issues regarding demolition of unusable construction structures, including statues glorifying communism. Also, it will be prohibited to name institutions, such as schools, in ways that promote totalitarianism.


The 2016 version of the bill was not precise about demolishing unusable construction works, but this situation will change with the amendment, as soon as it is signed by the President.


The amendment does not include statues such as those in cemeteries.


Regional governors will be authorized to order the demolition of such statues upon receiving a consent from the Institute of National Remembrance.

Wonder if this Lenin statue is on the list to come down

You have to remember history in order not to repeat it.

Patriotic Students to help defend Poland

With Russian territorial aggression on the rise Poland’s Ministry of Defense is starting a new program to give university students military training as part of a volunteer-based “Academic Legion,” which upon completion will see the students enlisted into the country’s reserve forces. 

It is not a new idea.  The Academic Legion (German: Akademische Legion) was a military organization formed by university students in Vienna during the Revolutions of 1848.

The new Polish initiative, which begins this Fall, is a joint venture between the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. 

Patriotic Students in Poland

There will be 10,000 openings for the training of privates and non-commissioned officers. Starting in November universities will start classroom training . During the holidays students will undergo practical field training.

The students will be given 30 hours of lectures and theoretical studies followed by a 22-day boot camp. The volunteers will then be sworn into the Polish military reserve.

Females training in Poland

A recent survey conducted of university students showed 45 percent would enlist “without needing to be persuaded.” The most eager to enlist were students from eastern and central Poland, according to the MoD’s survey.

Under communist rule, each university in Poland gave its students mandatory week-long military training. Then the Polish People's Republic was an ally of the Soviet Union, the current Polish government sees Russia as a threat.

Nat Gas Coming liquified

The first liquefied natural gas shipment from the United States arrived at Poland's newly constructed LNG terminal in Świnoujście. Prior to this, a delivery was made from Qatar. The shipments of natural gas are a landmark of sorts in Europe’s continuing drive to diversify the sources of its energy imports.

Poland's first LNG Terminal at Świnoujście

For Poland, imports from the U.S. and Middle East countries are fruit of new energy infrastructure that allows it to reduce near total dependence on Russian imports.

“It’s very important, it’s a milestone,” one Polish diplomat told Foreign Policy. The diplomat said energy diversification is a top priority for eastern Europe countries in Russia’s shadow, a safety net if Moscow ever decides to cut supplies in geopolitical ploys against its neighbors — something it has repeatedly done in the past.
 
Eastern European countries like Poland and the Baltic states have already suffered past episodes of Russian energy bullying. Now, they are increasingly unnerved by Russia’s tense showdown with NATO over Ukraine, Syria, and a slew of other geopolitical minefields. But they also remain heavily reliant on Russian energy. 

Russia, for its part, is just as reliant on cash from its energy exports to Europe to shore up its anemic economy. (Europe is by far the biggest market for Gazprom, the big natural gas firm, grandiose plans to expand to China notwithstanding.) As Europe diversifies its gas supplies — from the United States, Norway, and other gas exporters like Qatar, Russia will face a choice between losing its big share of the market — and the political clout that comes with it — or lowering prices to stay competitive.

Poland took 1 million Uke refugees already

President Andrzej Duda might call for a vote on whether the country should adhere to the European Union’s decision to shelter Muslim refugees The EU recently chastised neighboring Czech Republic for not adhering to its quotas for relocating troublesome migrants.

Great PR for Muslim Refugees

 The vote could coincide with 2019 general elections and could help prevent a future Polish administration from reversing the current government’s policy of rejecting the EU’s quota system. Prime Minister Beata Szydlo’s cabinet, led by the ruling Law & Justice Party, has said it won’t accept any of the refugees who have come to Europe from the Middle East and Africa in the continent’s worst migrant crisis since World War II.

Poland has accepted over 1 million from war torn Ukraine.

There have been no terror attacks in Poland. Over 40,000 Tatar Muslims have been living in peace and contributing to Polish society for nearly 500 years. They assimilate and do not advocate Sharia Law.  

Trump to Poland

President Donald J. Trump accepted the invitation of the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, to visit Poland in advance of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany.
 

Trump to Poland July 6, 2017

The visit will reaffirm America’s steadfast commitment to one of our closest European allies and emphasize the Administration’s priority of strengthening NATO’s collective defense. The leaders will discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues, deepening an alliance based on shared values and common interests. While in Poland, President Trump will deliver a major speech, and he will attend the Three Seas Initiative Summit to demonstrate our strong ties to Central Europe.

Above from White House dispatch

Let's see how many protests there will be!

Legal, but disrespectful

91 people charged for obstructing a memorial observance for the late President Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash in Russia seven years ago. 

Wladyslaw Frasyniuk leading disrespectful protest

 

The crash occurred April 10, 2010, and on the 10th of every month Kaczynski's surviving twin brother Jaroslaw Kaczynski, chairman of the conservative ruling party, leads a memorial observance in Warsaw in honor of his brother and the 95 others who died with him.

Protesters tried to block the observance Saturday evening, with some chaining themselves together on a street, and were removed by police.

Warsaw police said they were charging Wladyslaw Frasyniuk, a prominent member of Solidarity in the 1980s, with battery against a police officer, a crime that carries a sentence of up to three years. 

"Wladyslaw Frasyniuk used his physical strength against a policeman and blocked a legal gathering," the Interior Ministry said. "He was responsible for the violation of the integrity of an officer on the job. In Poland, everyone is equal before the law."

Frasyniuk disputed the ministry's claim, saying he never attacked an officer and only tried to defend himself.

Barbora Cernusakova, one of about a dozen Amnesty International monitors present Saturday evening, told The Associated Press that she witnessed police issuing a warning before removing the protesters and holding dozens of them for about an hour on two sites near the assembly of protestors saying the police didn't use excessive force.

Protest all you want but not at a memorial. Have some respect for the dead you Westboro Baptist like freaks.

More agree with Poland

According to government spokesman Rafał Bochenek, the European Union is increasingly adopting Poland's wary stance on refugees.

In a press conference, Bochenek said that the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party “will never agree to the European Commission imposing any quotas" on member states obliging them to accept refugees.

He added: “Finally, the EU has taken Poland’s stance. Our position is becoming an EU position”.

Why not flee to other Muslim counties? Language and customs would be similar.

Bochenek was speaking after the leader of the opposition Civic Platform (PO) party, Grzegorz Schetyna, said – announcing an apparent shift in policy – that his party is “against accepting illegal immigrants to Poland.”

When the PO party led the governing coalition up to the 2015 general elections, then-party leader and PM Ewa Kopacz said Poland could take several thousand refugees as part of an EU program. But so far Poland has not taken in a single asylum seeker from Italy and Greece as part of the plan.

Various members of the PiS government, including Prime Minister Beata Szydło, have said that Poland will not accept refugee quotas imposed by the EU.

“Prime Minister Beata Szydło was one of the first EU prime ministers to raise the matter [of resolving the migration crisis outside the EU] on the European stage,” Bochenek said.

Bochenek said, “From week to week, from month to month, the arguments of Prime Minister Beata Szydło have been accepted by more and more EU member states, which is reflected in numerous conclusions adopted in European Councils.”

In April the UK’s The Times daily reported that Poland could face political and financial consequences because of its government’s decision not to accept refugees.

But Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said at the time: “I do not see how it will be possible to punish Poland for anything because the migration problem … is not connected to structural funds.”

Meanwhile, Poland is supporting Hungary and Slovakia in a case against the EU refugee quotas scheme in the EU’s top court.

At a hearing which started last week, the two countries are disputing the EU’s decision to distribute migrants across the bloc.

A lawyer representing Poland told European Court of Justice judges that the EU quota framework lacks instruments to protect host countries against terrorist attacks.

Power switch

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have agreed to link their power systems to other EU member member nations through Poland as they look to reduce their dependence on Russia.

The power grids in Baltic countries were formerly part of the Soviet Union and are still integrated with those in Belarus and Russia.


The three tiny countries say dependence on Russia is a threat, because of a lack of transparency on upkeep of the network in Russia, which they say makes it hard to rely on its stability.

"We would want to desynchronize the Baltic States from Russia. And first priority is desyncronization which will be done through Poland," Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas told reporters in Tallinn after meeting his counterparts from Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

"All four of us agreed that we will try to get clarity on division of [duties] between all four countries by the end of the year," Ratas said.

Russia has never cut power flows to the Baltic states or threatened to do so, but Lithuania lists its power system's synchronization with Russia as one of the top national security risks.

The countries will still need to find a way to accommodate Russia, whose Kaliningrad enclave power network is currently synchronized with mainland Russia through the Baltic states.

Controversial monument

Lviv regional authorities have appealed to the Polish government to rebuild a controversial monument to the former Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in the southeast of Poland. 

 The appeal, by the Lviv Oblast Council is addressed to Poland’s central government as well as the authorities of Podkarpackie province in which the monument resided.

There was a monument in the Polish village of Hruszowice which honored members of the UPA who fought Poles during and in the aftermath of World War II and who were killed during clashes with Polish soldiers in 1946.

Without the consent of Polish authorities the monument was illegally erected in 1994 and was dismantled at the end of April this year by members of Polish right-wing organizations with the consent of the local authorities.

The illegally built monument in Hruszwice

Councilors in the Lviv region have termed the dismantling of the monument an anti-Ukrainian provocation. They have adopted a resolution in which they suggest that Poland should rebuild the Hruszowice monument just as the Ukrainians have rebuilt a monument honoring Polish victims of Ukrainian soldiers that was destroyed by unknown perpetrators earlier this year in the no-longer-existing village of Huta Pieniacka in what was once eastern Poland and is now western Ukraine.

The councilors express their support for the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, which, after the dismantling of the Hruszowice monument, declared that it would halt the legalization of Polish memorial sites in Ukraine.
According to the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, there are more than 100 such sites in Ukraine.