-- "STAN GRY" WAS THE FIRST TO SEE THE FACEBOOK PROFILE THE PRIME MINISTER IS LAUNCHING TODAY ON HIS FIRST CAMPAIGN BUS TOUR - The profile will feature more personal photos of the Prime Minister, Live broadcasts of his speeches, and answers to internet users' questions. -- "I COULDN'T BE WITHOUT YOU" - WRITES THE PRIME MINISTER: “I know many people on Facebook have been waiting for me to join you. A strong state is measured not only by the strength of its economy or the strength of its families. A strong state also means the strength of arguments, a lively discussion among Poles, who, thanks to Facebook, actively engage in strengthening democracy on the Vistula, in building a reliable flow of information from region to region, from person to person. I couldn't be without you.” https://www.facebook.com/Mateusz-Morawiecki-111465470197991/ -- THE NEWSPAPER PUBLISHES THE NAMES OF OPPOSITION SENATE CANDIDATES AND COMPARES THEM TO 2015 RESULTS - MICHAŁ KAMIŃSKI VS. KONSTANTY RADZIWIŁŁ, Klich VS. Mazur, DUDA AGAINST FEDOROWICZ: http://sonar.wyborcza.pl/sonar/7,156422,25098998,wybory-2019-pakt-senacki-opozycji-przeciw-pis-porownujemy.html -- THE PRIME MINISTER IN AN INTERVIEW WITH POLITICO ON THE JUDICIAL REFORM WHICH SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED 25 MINUTES AFTER THE FALL OF COMMUNISM, NOT 25 YEARS LATER: “Morawiecki’s regrets: “Certain mistakes could have been avoided — mistakes that have been slowing us down for too long — for example that we would have had the chance to start our judiciary reforms not 25 years, but 25 minutes after the transition,” the prime minister wrote” -- THE PRIME MINISTER ON RECKLESS PRIVATIZATION: “I also wish that the social policy would have been more inclusive and that many businesses had not been thoughtlessly sold out to foreign owners in the 90s,” he added”. -- POLITICO COMPARES MORAWIECKI'S APPROACH TO UKRAINE AND BELARUS WITH MERKEL'S APPROACH: “Eastern approaches: Like Merkel, Morawiecki is thinking about countries outside the EU. “I especially regret that some former Soviet republics, like Ukraine and Belarus, as well as some Balkan states, were not able to keep pace with the rest of the region. It is our collective duty to help them now and unite Europe for real, once and for all, so that it can start fully breathing with both its Western and Eastern lung,” he wrote”. https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/brussels-playbook/politico-brussels-playbook-a-backstop-by-any-other-name-polish-pm-interview-good-news-for-greenland/ -- SO MUCH TALK OF NEW QUALITY, YET SUCH A LIST COULD HAVE BEEN ASSEMBLED UNDER KOPACZ - MICHAŁ KARNOWSKI: “After almost four years of talking about new quality, of drawing thousands of people to the streets to find new talents and activists, a list has been presented that could just as well have been created on the last day of Ewa Kopacz's government. And if anyone was co-opted – it was former PiS members. An interesting move and an interesting conclusion to four years.” -- KARNOWSKI BELIEVES KO IS CAPITULATING AND IT'S ONLY ABOUT SCHETYNA'S POSITION IN THE FUTURE PARLIAMENT: “On the one hand, it's sad. The quality of the opposition contributes to political life. The current one, unfortunately, despite proudly calling itself the "team of tomorrow," doesn't want to be anything other than a group of anti-PiS avengers. On the other hand, there is a capitulation in all of this, from the arrangement of the lists to the form of presentation, an admission that it's only about Mr. Grzegorz Schetyna's strong position as the leader of the opposition in the new parliament.” -- A CONVENTION LIKE IN LEGIONOWO - KARNOWSKI CONTINUES: “Perhaps it was precisely due to these palpable unspoken things that the atmosphere was so dense that sweat poured from the meeting's ringmaster, and the images from the candidates' presentation – clearly marked as “provided to the television stations by the organizer” – resembled a district party convention, for example in Legionowo, rather than a launch for victory.” -- HITTING PiS FROM THOUSANDS OF EDITORIAL CANNONS - KARNOWSKI CONTINUES: “The campaign will therefore be based on the most important resource of III Polish Republic politicians – their media dominance, the ability to hit PiS from thousands of editorial cannons. It has already begun.” https://wpolityce.pl/m/polityka/460009-cos-chyba-poszlo-opozycji-nie-tak-jak-planowala -- KO'S NUMBER ONE IN BYDGOSZCZ AS A TVP JOURNALIST IN THE 90S: T. Zwiefka - A few days have passed since the XIII Plenum of the Party's Central Committee. From this short perspective, how do you assess the plenum's achievements? PGR Worker (in the field) - The ideological theme of the XIII Plenum itself raises the rank of this plenum... https://twitter.com/StZerko/status/1163492835095695360?s=20 -- THE BIGGEST THREAT TO THE LEFT ARE SECTARIANS - ADAM LESZCZYŃSKI IN CRITIQUE: “Now, all of this must not be spoiled. The biggest threat to the hard-won left-wing coalition are the sectarians: the admirers of revolutionary purity.” -- LESZCZYŃSKI ON THE NECESSITY OF UNIFYING THE LEFT: “The next step is, of course, unification. A left-wing coalition will enter the Sejm, but as a partner in government (presumably with PO in the future), it can only be taken seriously if it is a single organization.” -- DON'T ARGUE OVER MATTERS IMPORTANT TO 17 PEOPLE ON FB - LESZCZYŃSKI'S CONCLUSION: “So, my dears, enter the Sejm, don't quarrel over matters that only matter to seventeen people on a party discussion list on Facebook, and then build a strong left-wing party in Poland. One that can co-govern. That's what you want – just like us, your voters – right? https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/do-lewicy-mamy-koalicje-teraz-zjednoczenie/ -- TOMASZ PIETRYGA ON THE ROLE OF THE SENATE: “Thanks to these powers, the Senate can influence the political sphere, limiting the decision-making freedom of a party with a parliamentary majority, and thus forcing cooperation and compromise. In summary: the Senate, often dismissively called the chamber of reflection, can give the opposition some influence on shaping reality in Poland in situations of strong political conflict and autocratic rule. Today, it is merely an observer. In this sense, seeking a separate electoral strategy for the Sejm and a separate one for the Senate may be justified.” https://www.rp.pl/Opinie/308199930-Jest-sens-bic-sie-o-Senat---komentuje-Tomasz-Pietryga.html -- GW ON MAREK SZOLC - WARSAW COUNCILLOR: “Nine months after the elections, he is one of the most active councillors. He has dozens of interpellations to his name, which he reports on social media. His specialty is ecology, the climate crisis, and he recently became the chairman of the environmental protection committee. He also supports the fight for LGBT+ rights and helped create the provisions of the LGBT+ Charter. He publicly came out during the campaign. – For me, it was obvious that as a public figure, I would openly talk about my sexual orientation. Hiding it, being ashamed of who I am, would be unworthy – states Marek Szolc. – Secondly: to convince Poles that LGBT+ people are not a threat, as church and government propaganda presents us, we need a critical mass of coming outs. We need out actors and actresses, athletes, politicians, artists, journalists, ordinary people.” http://warszawa.wyborcza.pl/warszawa/7,34905,25089811,27-letni-radny-ktory-zrobil-publiczny-coming-out-prawica-atakuje.html -- MICHAŁ OKOŃSKI IN TYGODNIK POWSZECHNY ON THE REACTIONS OF HOMOSEXUAL PEOPLE TO THE AGGRESSION THEY FACE: “In the dark fantasies of many a right-wing publicist, and perhaps even a bishop, these individuals do not resemble citizens like the majority of society and represent a figure of an outsider. This figure, unfortunately, has just received the face of a drag queen using the pseudonym Mariolkaa Rebell. How much easier it is to exclude from the community or scare with a costumed character waving a knife from the stage (and how easy it is then not to wonder: out of powerlessness? out of despair?) than with one's own neighbor or fellow train passenger, who differs in no way from others except for sexual orientation. The chances for a calm conversation about the rights of LGBT+ people, about the verbal oppression they have faced in recent weeks, about the discrimination and fear that are their lot, were never high, but now they have decreased even further.” https://www.tygodnikpowszechny.pl/w-kogo-uderzyl-ten-noz-159999 -- ALEKSANDER HALL ON HOW IDEOLOGICAL CONFLICT STRENGTHENS EXTREMES - writes in RZ: “The voice of people capable of saying loudly that the words about the "rainbow plague" are inappropriate, of showing respect to people who emphasize their belonging to sexual minorities, but at the same time are supporters of the traditional family model, is decidedly too weak. We must sound the alarm! The sharp ideological and religious conflict strengthens extremist forces. They fuel each other, leading our country in a dangerous direction. They must be opposed.” https://www.rp.pl/Publicystyka/308199913-Trzeba-bic-na-alarm.html -- KONRAD KOŁODZIEJSKI ON HOW D'HONDT WORKS IN SIECI: “Of course, other variables can also influence the distribution of mandates, but the most important is the scale of the winning party's advantage over the next rival (rivals). In Polish conditions, this scale usually increases if the winning party's rivals are divided. The more rivals there are, the less they will take from the total pool of mandates, even if they manage to collectively gain a similar percentage of votes in the elections as the winning party. For example – if the winner receives 45% of the votes, and his rivals receive 25% and 15% respectively (40% in total), then in an estimated conversion to mandates, it will be about 260 mandates for the winning party and about 200 for the rivals (130 plus 70). However, if the winning party had one – but strong – rival who independently gained 40%, then the mandate distribution would be completely different: about 240 mandates for the winner, about 220 for the rival. This example shows that when only two strong formations compete, with practically the same election result, the winner's advantage shrinks from 60 to just 20 mandates. The presented results are, of course, approximate, as they assume that votes in all constituencies will be distributed evenly, which is rather unlikely, but they illustrate the D’Hondt method well.” https://wpolityce.pl/polityka/459743-w-nowym-numerze-tygodnika-sieci-pedofile-ze-swiecznika -- MAGDALENA GAŁCZYŃSKA'S TEXT IN ONET ABOUT DEPUTY MINISTER PIEBRIAK'S ROLE IN THE TROLL FARM: “The Deputy Minister of Justice and Zbigniew Ziobro's right-hand man is behind the organized hate campaign against judges who oppose the changes in the judiciary implemented by PiS. Onet has established that Deputy Minister of Justice Łukasz Piebiak orchestrated and controlled an operation intended to discredit the head of the largest judicial association, "Iustitia.” https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/tylko-w-onecie/sledztwo-onetu-farma-trolli-w-ministerstwie-sprawiedliwosci-czyli-za-czynienie-dobra/j6hwp7f -- THE PRIME MINISTER DEMANDED EXPLANATIONS FROM PIEBRIAK REGARDING THE ONET PUBLICATION; DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER GOWIN ALSO SPOKE OF SUCH A NECESSITY ON KONRAD PIASECKI'S SHOW. https://300polityka.pl/live/2019/08/20/ -- RZ ON THE FACT THAT THE MINISTER OF INTERIOR AND ADMINISTRATION IS PROTECTED BY SPECIAL SERVICES, NOT SOP: “The law does not specify what "temporary resignation" means and in what situations it is permissible. "We inform that Minister Mariusz Kamiński is the Minister of Interior and Administration, but he also serves as the coordinator of special services and is protected by officers of these services in close cooperation with the SOP," assures us the press office of the Ministry of Interior and Administration.” https://www.rp.pl/Rzad-PiS/308199931-Mariusz-Kaminski-zrezygnowal-z-rzadowej-ochrony.html -- SE ON KACZYŃSKI'S HOUSE: “This is how Kaczyński lives! A crumbling roof, a beer on the windowsill, and an air conditioner [PHOTOS]” https://www.se.pl/wiadomosci/polityka/skromny-posel-jaroslaw-kaczynski-poswiecajac-sie-polsce-nie-dba-o-wlasne-wygody-zdjecia-aa-9LHm-iCKX-R9po.html -- BIRTHDAYS: Barbara Imiołczyk, Adam Korol (turning 45), Jolanta Karasińska, Dorota Niedziela (55), Leszek Jastrzębski.