-- AFTER READING THIS TEXT, YOU WILL LOOK AT EVERY PLASTIC PACKAGE YOU BUY - AGNIESZKA POMASKA FOR 300POLITYKA: Agnieszka Pomaska saw a scooter adorned with shopping bags on the author of Stan Gry's Instagram and wrote that she hoped it was at least for cleaning up after dogs. And so, a discussion ensued, the result of which is this text. The Civic Platform MP has been fascinated for years by new urban policy and promoting respect for public spaces. https://300polityka.pl/stan-gry/2018/08/10/agnieszka-pomaska-dla-300polityki-na-odwyku-od-plastiku-po-tym-tekscie-obejrzysz-dokladnie-kazde-opakowanie/

-- HEARINGS FOR SUPREME COURT CANDIDATES TO BEGIN ON AUGUST 20 - ONET (Magda Gałczyńska): "As Onet has established, the National Council of the Judiciary will begin hearing candidates for the Supreme Court on August 20. These hearings will not be made public and will take place in four teams." https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/tylko-w-onecie/wybor-kandydatow-do-sadu-najwyzszego-znamy-date-przesluchan/v9bhdpw

-- I CAN'T LISTEN ANYMORE TO THOSE WHO SIT AROUND AND TALK THAT IT'S A K... DICTATORSHIP - ZIEMOWIT SZCZEREK ON A MEETING IN THE PROVINCE AND ADMIRATION FOR THE PRESS: "I went to get a car inspection, I drove around rural centers for checks, not to overlook this and that, which they overlook in the city, but simply because the time has come. The time has come. And I'm doing it, and I see how cultured these stations are now, everything smells nice, professional, EU-funded. And somehow familiar: I drove in, sat on a bench by a plastered wall, as if on a porch, watching how life unfolds here, like at Maidan. And everyone knows each other, it's a village after all, and one person arrives, gets out, greets them, and says: – I can't, k, listen anymore to those who sit around and talk that it's a k... dictatorship, that k... Kaczor is a dictator, k, it's holy peace, finally they give some money, five hundred plus, nobody bothers anyone. And that he prays – well, let him, k, pray, does it bother anyone? Does he force anyone to pray? People nod their heads."

-- VOTERS DON'T HAVE TIME FOR OVERTHINKING - SZCZEREK CONTINUES IN GW: "Everything smells of credit, precarious employment, precariousness, but this precariousness, when asked about Razem, recites: but they put their hands in my pocket, they want 75 percent. And that's all the average voter, who has less time for overthinking than Marxist scholars have for doctorates, remembers from all this chatter. It's understood that it's only from the rich, but everyone here wants to be rich. This is New America, a country where people don't trust the state, because the state has never been efficient, but there's a myth that if you start a business, you'll get rich. And if anything arouses dislike here, it's mocking the bubble-leftist #startup." http://wyborcza.pl/magazyn/7,124059,23775227,dobry-ten-kto-daje-szczerek-robi-przeglad-techniczny.html

-- AGATA KONDZIŃSKA QUOTES PIS POLITICIANS IN GW SAYING PAD IS JOINING KUKIZ'S CAMP: "From the ruling side, one hears that in their opinion, with the decision to veto, Andrzej Duda is mentally joining Paweł Kukiz's camp. – This is another mistake of his, and he has made many already. They stem from a naive belief that if he meets with small groups, the hard base of PSL or Kukiz voters will vote for him – a PiS MP sneers." http://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,23775309,pis-zaplacze-po-wecie-dudy-do-ordynacji-to-nas-bedzie-kosztowac.html

-- DOES THE EPISCOPATE WANT A VETO? - Fakt.

-- JACEK GĄDEK ON THE EPISCOPATE'S WARNING TO PIS - writes on Gazeta.pl: "A very important communiqué, as it signals what will not even have silent consent from the bishops. And even more: there will be loud opposition from the Episcopate, which can take away a few key points from PiS in the elections. Although the communiqué directly mentions EP elections, it has a second layer. It is a warning to PiS against being tempted in the future to tailor the electoral law for the Sejm – much more important than European ones. And such aspirations are almost inevitable with full power."

-- GĄDEK ON THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE EPISCOPATE AND THE PRESIDENT: "The Episcopate is doing this for the umpteenth time. The first sign of an alliance being formed between the Presidential Palace and the Episcopate was a year ago, with thanks from the head of the KEP, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, for vetoing the judicial laws. The hierarch wrote at the time in a letter to the president not only about the courts. - Catholic social teaching appreciates democracy as a system that ensures citizen participation in political decisions and guarantees the governed the possibility of choosing and controlling their own governments - he emphasized. (...) With the blessing of the Episcopate, Andrzej Duda now plays the role of a providence-sent man who is curbing a stupid – even from PiS's point of view – project of a new electoral law for the EP. The tightening cooperation between the bishops and the head of state is becoming a fact." http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,161770,23772857,kosciol-narysowal-pis-owi-czerwona-linie-komunikat-episkopatu.html

-- DUDA CAN VETO THE ELECTORAL LAW BECAUSE KACZYŃSKI ACHIEVED WHAT HE WANTED - Renata Grochal: "The aim of changing the electoral law was not to strengthen Civic Platform, it was rather a side effect. The real goal of the PiS leader was to cut out or scare off the competition on the right. For some time now, there have been rumors that Father Rydzyk and Antoni Macierewicz are preparing their own party for the European elections. Kukiz '15, or the nationalists, will most likely also present their own lists. Kaczyński doesn't like having competition on the right. He has already achieved the effect, because he will probably come to an agreement with Rydzyk and give him spots on the PiS lists. That's why Andrzej Duda can veto the electoral law." http://m.newsweek.pl/opinie/andrzej-duda-moze-wetowac-ordynacje-bo-kaczynski-osiagnal-co-chcial,artykuly,431315,1.html

-- THE ENTIRE DEBATE ON THE ELECTORAL LAW IS UPSIDE DOWN - MARCIN FIJOŁEK: "And when President Andrzej Duda accepted some of these arguments and suggested a veto to the mentioned law, a commotion arose. Politicians from Civic Platform and Nowoczesna – who until recently were shouting that PiS is setting up the electoral law for itself – started outbidding each other and arguing that a possible veto is a setup and a worthless decision, because a president originating from PiS doesn't veto 'PiS laws'. If we were to apply the standards of Bronisław Komorowski, who vetoed only four minor laws in five years (on the Air Force Academy in Dęblin, on seed production, on common court districts, and on the protection of agricultural and forest land), then President Duda is indeed behaving unconventionally. No other thought crosses their minds. Another kind of spectacle was the stance on the electoral law from... the spokesman for the Polish Episcopate Conference. For God's sake, I have nothing against the Church's voice on political or social issues, but there have been and still are many matters where this voice would be useful, and yet the KEP spokesman reacted on a minor technical issue. And not during the debate in the Sejm, but after the President's suggestion of a veto. Everything in this matter is upside down." https://wpolityce.pl/m/polityka/407447-westerplatte-australia-ordynacja-upal-daje-sie-we-znaki

-- FUNERAL OF A HERO, THE AUTHORITIES DID NOT ATTEND - Fakt on Ścibor's funeral.

-- LACK OF GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES AT ŚCIBOR'S FUNERAL - HYPOCRISY: http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114884,23775215,skromna-delegacja-wladz-na-pogrzeb-gen-scibora-rylskiego-niebywala.html

-- RAFAŁ TRZASKOWSKI SAYS "THE INSURGENTS FOUGHT FOR THE SAME THING AS WE DO - FOR THE IDEALS OF AN OPEN CITY": "Warsaw is a city I love. When I talk to the insurgents, it becomes clear that they fought for exactly the same thing as we do. They had to shed blood for it. We don't have to. But we are fighting for the same ideals. For the ideals of an open, European city." https://twitter.com/platformavideo/status/1028209189196312576?s=21

-- THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW WITH TRZASKOWSKI: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=285536145507697&id=136670877060892

-- MICHAŁ WRÓBLEWSKI ON WP ANALYZES TRZASKOWSKI'S LIST OF MEETINGS: "Instead of appearing surrounded by voters, Rafał Trzaskowski is celebrating Bee Day. He's giving ground to his opponent, even though he has a substantial portfolio of activities. 'Where are they?' ask opponents and political observers. Wirtualna Polska decided to check what the Civic Platform MP has done since the beginning of the year to win the election in Warsaw."

-- TRZASKOWSKI IN THE CORNER - WP CONTINUES: "The #100imyPodBlokiem campaign has pushed Trzaskowski into a corner - at least temporarily. When Jaki went out to the people, Trzaskowski disappeared. As the PiS candidate organized more meetings in more districts, the Civic Platform politician celebrated Bee Day. As photos of Jaki surrounded by people flooded the internet, Trzaskowski put on a beekeeper suit and posed for a photo with a look that said, 'Where the hell am I?'.

-- LIST OF 158 MEETINGS INCLUDING SUMMER JAZZ DAYS, A VISIT TO A BREAKFAST MARKET, MEETINGS WITH ACTIVISTS FROM POZNAŃ, AND A DEBATE WITH VAN ROMPUY: https://wiadomosci.wp.pl/158-szans-rafala-trzaskowskiego-6283120951510657a

-- PATRYK SŁOWIK FROM DGP ON THE STRANGE LIST OF MEETINGS: The list of meetings is strange. Meetings with an expert on smog or an urban planner, as well as the MP's private activities such as attending a concert, are considered meetings with residents. https://twitter.com/patrykslowik/status/1028209189196312576?s=12

-- MICHAŁ PRETM ON TWITTER: This is a mockery. Trzaskowski went to a breakfast market with his wife, which he boasted about on FB, and counted it as a meeting with residents. He also recorded watching bees as a meeting with residents. https://twitter.com/michalpretm/status/1028216548970979328?s=12

-- SEBASTIAN KALETA'S REACTION: Trzaskowski counted his tour of #18districts in a private van with Civic Platform activists and meetings with them as 18 separate meetings with residents. https://twitter.com/sjkaleta/status/1028212484707115008?s=12

-- GRZEGORZ ŁAKOMSKI IN RZ STATES THAT TRZASKOWSKI IS THE IDEAL CANDIDATE FOR PIS: "If the opposition candidate for mayor of Warsaw were to be chosen by the PiS political committee, Rafał Trzaskowski would have a good chance. He could count on a favorable view from Jarosław Kaczyński, which guarantees a unanimous 'yes' vote within that group. For PiS, he is an ideal opponent because he possesses many characteristics that put him in a corner. He started as a Brussels technocrat who felt more comfortable in European salons than in parliamentary corridors. He entered big politics thanks to Donald Tusk. He was also the campaign manager for Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, which allows him to be linked to the reprivatization scandal." https://www.rp.pl/Plus-Minus/308099952-Jaki-kontra-Trzaskowski-Prekampania-w-Warszawie-jest-krwawa-jak-nigdy-w-historii-stolecznych-wyborow-prezydenckich.html

-- A BENCH LESS WOODEN THAN TRZASKOWSKI - Robert Górski and Mariusz Cieślik in RZ's satirical corner: "Rafał Trzaskowski's lost bench has been found. The Civic Platform's candidate for mayor of Warsaw was supposed to travel around the city with it so that Varsovians could sit down with him, but instead, he put it in his own yard. What will be its future? Perhaps it will end up like the bench from 'Ranczo' as a place for consumption? Or perhaps the bench will win the election because it is less wooden than Trzaskowski?" https://www.rp.pl/Plus-Minus/308099915-Cieslik--Gorski-Od-ucha-do-ucha-czyli-konstytucja-Misia-uszatka.html

-- ADAM LESZCZYŃSKI ON HOW TRZASKOWSKI'S DEFEAT WOULD BE A CATASTROPHE FOR CIVIC PLATFORM BUT PERHAPS SERVE INTERNAL STRUGGLES - writes on Gazeta.pl: "Why, however, would the national authorities of the party wish for the defeat of their candidate? A defeat in Warsaw, a bastion of the liberal opposition, would be a catastrophe for the entire Civic Platform. We can only speculate here. Rafał Trzaskowski was mentioned - before he started his disastrous campaign - as a potential candidate to take over the baton from Grzegorz Schetyna. Schetyna, in turn, has a reputation as an intelligent, effective, and ruthless party player. If Trzaskowski loses in Warsaw, the current leader of Civic Platform would lose a potential competitor, as it would most likely mean the end of the young politician's career. If Trzaskowski, starting as a favorite, loses in the same way as Bronisław Komorowski, he will be finished as a leader. If he wins, he will be the natural candidate for leadership in Civic Platform, which has been waiting for a generational change at the helm for years."

-- WILL TRZASKOWSKI BE SENT BACK TO A STUDY FULL OF BOOKS? - LESZCZYŃSKI CONTINUES: "What about candidate Trzaskowski in all this? For now, he has mainly complained in 'Wyborcza' about the liberal media. He is still the favorite in the polls. However, he has an incredibly ambitious and hardworking opponent who promises water fountains to runners, parking lots to drivers, and four metro lines to everyone. He is being ruthlessly attacked by government and pro-government media. His party colleagues may not be stabbing him in the back, but they might trip him, and they won't cry if he falls on the Warsaw pavement. If he loses, they will gladly write Trzaskowski off and send him to a study full of books - which he likes to talk about in interviews - for an early retirement. Well, no one promised it would be easy and pleasant." http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,161770,23769466,leszczynski-sabotowanie-rafala-t-oto-jak-koledzy-z-platformy.html

-- MAREK MARKOWSKI IN WEEKENDOWE GW ON CLASS DIFFERENCES IN WARSAW: "And we have traffic jams from dawn till dusk, because our streets are entry and exit points from the suburban ring. (...) You have the city with all its conveniences served on a platter, so you demand more. It's easy to 'sell the car and switch to public transport', 'buy a Vespa and zip to the law firm' when a modest tenement house 'twelve units' away from an office in a glass skyscraper, from a law firm on Aleja Róż covered in (fresh) patina, is five blocks away. And on the way, you have three kindergartens and two schools. It's a bit harder when you have to travel 20 kilometers from a housing estate in the middle of nowhere to Mordor, stopping at a paid kindergarten on the other side of a five-hectare estate. And it's even tougher when you commute daily from Otwock to a warehouse near Czosnów. Your fight for your own comfort is not much different from the narrative about '500 plus users shitting on the dunes', which so outrages you." http://wyborcza.pl/magazyn/7,124059,23775423,kto-elita-kto-lud-sprawdz-kto-jezdzi-po-prosecco-samochodem.html

-- MICHAŁ SUTOWSKI ON THE KOD PEOPLE: "among them, the attitudes of 'they've got too much good living' will be encountered most often, and they are, or will be, the problem. The 'coder' people have demographic and attendance power, as well as stable employment with regulated working hours, often savings, and various capital. They are the ones who, in polls, give Civic Platform and Nowoczesna between 20 and 30 percent, they are the ones who, brought up on Trójka, where today only Mann and Kaczkowski remain for them, spread SokzBuraka and call Szkło kontaktowe, they are the ones who generate attendance at opposition marches and shout that 'Kaczor into the sack!'. They brought children to KOD marches, but the children shied away; at the Black Protest, they joined the children, although they probably don't know that the whole movement was conceived by a female member of Razem, whom they dislike."

-- SUTOWSKI ON HOW THE RADICALS DETERMINE THE LANGUAGE OF THE OPPOSITION: "Unfortunately, they are also the ones who most strongly mobilize the PiS electorate with their memes about fouling the beaches in Władysławowo, they are the ones who most often teach that ZOMO used to beat people and vinegar was on the shelves, so let the youngsters get off their butts to defend democracy; it is they, finally, who compare Morawiecki to Gierek. And it is they who determine the language of today's opposition. Because the slogans that 'people want anti-PiS, not a program,' Siemoniak and Schetyna did not invent over vodka, but their research showed it. Research on precisely this electorate, which is, of course, too small to defeat PiS, but without which PiS will also rule for years. Which alienates from politics with its pathos and contempt for the problems of the younger generation and evokes hatred – after appropriate image processing on TVP Info – not only among Kaczyński's hard core electorate."

-- SUTOWSKI ON ATTRACTING PEOPLE TO THE LEFT TO MORE EFFECTIVELY FIGHT PIS: "To people with such a mentality, one can appeal from progressive positions, without abandoning one's own values: freedom also means the right of women to decide about their own lives, and infrastructure that offers real choices of lifestyle and place; the middle class needs high-quality public services to fully develop its potential; the European Union requires a solidarity reform to survive; strong local government and a network of civic organizations, etc., provide the best protection against power. In this way, one can draw a significant and diverse social group to the 'left', while also making them a better ally in the fight against PiS."

-- THE PROGRESSIVE WING OF THE OPPOSITION WILL BREAK AGAINST THE GLASS CEILING, THE CONSERVATIVE WING AGAINST IDEOLOGICAL FIXATION - Sutowski's conclusion: "If, on the other hand, we place the 'old liberals' (participants of KOD marches, current voters of Civic Platform and Nowoczesna, older readers of 'Polityka' or 'GW'...) in the role of beneficiaries of the transformation who despise 'the people', urging them to atone for the PGRs, and we make ourselves self-proclaimed tribunes of the people in this arrangement ('the people are right to be angry, and that PiS is ruling is your fault'), we are putting ourselves in the framework of Kaczyński's political narrative. In this way, we will only strengthen the discourse of the opponent (because the war of the people against the elites is the core of PiS's message), while as the left side, we condemn ourselves to defeat – because we will neither attract people of the 'June elections' generation to the leftist project, nor will we convince those who remain with Civic Platform/Nowoczesna to abandon their anti-social views. The progressive wing of the opposition will break against the glass ceiling of demographics, and the more conservative wing – against the counter-effectiveness of its ideological fixation. One opposition or two, we all lose." http://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/anty-pis-kod-liberalowie-lewica-dialog/

-- JAN ROKITA WRITES THAT TUSK IS NOT MERKEL'S TRUSTED CONFIDANT - fragment from Sieci: "Juncker's visit to Washington was prepared in secret. There were no intergovernmental meetings of EU bodies, which usually democratically make decisions on much more trivial matters. Donald Tusk, as the President of the Council (i.e., an intergovernmental body), was therefore excluded from the entire operation, as he would have had to conduct at least some consultations with leaders of states before deciding on substantial concessions to America. Just a few days earlier, Tusk (along with Juncker) solemnly concluded a free trade agreement with the Prime Minister of Japan. This time, excluding the President of the Council from analogous negotiations with the US President may be explained to some extent by a purely technical consideration (i.e., the need to negotiate fluently with Trump in English), but this fact also contradicts the rather widespread view in Poland that Tusk is a trusted man of the Chancellor in Brussels." https://wpolityce.pl/m/polityka/407511-rokita-w-najnowszym-sieci-kapitulacja-junckera

-- A GUST OF LAUGHTER BUT PIS WAS FRIGHTENED - LUDWIK DORN:"The act of civil disobedience ended in tactical success; its participants committed prohibited acts, and the attempt to criminally repress them was suspended and will likely end in failure. Instead of dread, there was a gust of laughter." https://www.tvn24.pl/magazyn-tvn24/misiem-uszatkiem-we-wladze-powialo-smiechem-pis-sie-przestraszyl,168,2894

-- DOROTA WELLMAN WRITES TO YOUNG PEOPLE IN WO: "What must happen for you to wake up from your lethargy? Will they run out of caffe latte with soy milk? Will they turn off the internet? Will there be no free wi-fi? Will they not let you sit by the Vistula? Will they take away your passports? Will Netflix stop working? (...) After all, you have to replace us. Replace Schetyna, Pawłowicz, Piotrowicz, Petru, Kaczyński in the Sejm. This is your country and your homeland. You can't give a damn about it!" http://www.wysokieobcasy.pl/wysokie-obcasy/7,127763,23758052,wszystko-wam-jedno-obudzicie-sie-gdy-przestanie-dzialac-netflix.html

-- BIRTHDAYS: Bartosz Kownacki, Łukasz Kamiński, SUNDAY: Paweł Mucha, Witold Sitarz, Wojciech Wilk, Jerzy Konieczny, Jakub Żulczyk.