-- DAD WOKE UP, TURNED TO MOM AND SAID: YOU KNOW WHAT? I'M THE PRESIDENT… AND HE LAUGHED - MARTA KACZYŃSKA ON BEATA MICHNIEWICZ'S SHOW "AFTER PRL - DEDICATED TO LECH KACZYŃSKI'S PRESIDENCY" - TVP HISTORIA TODAY AT 10 PM.  -- THE ROOSTER DETAINED BY THE CBA: “Agents of the Central Anticorruption Bureau have detained former PiS senator Stanisław K. and his son, as well as the director of the Małopolska branch of the State Fund for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons. The CBA investigation concerns multi-million dollar bribes.” http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114884,25596040,byly-senator-pis-stanislaw-k-i-jego-syn-zatrzymani-przez-cba.html -- KARCZEWSKI: GRODZKI'S MAINTENANCE CERTAINLY COSTS TWO TO THREE TIMES MORE THAN MY VILLA - 300LIVE: https://300polityka.pl/live/2020/01/14/ -- KACZYŃSKI'S WORDS ABOUT A SINGLE ROUND MAY BACKFIRE ON DUDA - MICHAŁ SZUŁDRZYŃSKI IN RZ: “Jarosław Kaczyński's words that it is possible to fight for re-election in the first round may backfire on Duda. Inflated ambitions may lead to the situation where, if a second round is not avoided despite winning the first, it will be perceived as a defeat, and this will likely change the campaign dynamics. Furthermore, the growing chaos in the judiciary may bore even right-wing voters, who will eventually realize that their, let's say, victory in a property dispute with a neighbor may be overturned because the verdict was issued by a judge nominated by the new National Judicial Council. They will blame – contrary to TVP propaganda – not the 'extraordinary caste' or the opposition, but the authorities.” -- SZUŁDRZYŃSKI ON KIDAWAS BORING CAMPAIGN: “The PO candidate should be pleased that despite a rather boring campaign, she can count on every fourth vote. The polarization of the dispute works in her favor. Paradoxically, even the storm raised by pro-government media around the alleged bribes of the Senate Marshal, her party colleague, is beneficial for Kidawa-Błońska. It shows that two forces matter on the political scene – PiS and Civic Coalition. The left in this dispute – as in the dispute over the courts – is disappearing. Hence, likely, Robert Biedroń's poor result.” -- HOŁOWNIA IS TAKING VOTES FROM KIDAWAS, BUT HE WON'T BE LIKE KUKIZ IN 2015 - SZUŁDRZYŃSKI CONTINUES: “The bad news for the PO candidate is that her support is approximately the Platform's result minus the support for Szymon Hołownia. The publicist who recently announced his candidacy is poaching in her territory. Although his result in a poll at the start of the campaign casts doubt on whether he will follow in the footsteps of Paweł Kukiz, who practically decided who became president in 2015.” https://www.rp.pl/Komentarze/301139914-Szuldrzynski-Prezydent-nie-moze-sobie-pozwolic-na-blad.html -- GRODZKI'S KAFKAESQUE SITUATION, ANYONE CAN BE DESTROYED LIKE THIS - JACEK NIZINKIEWICZ IN RZ: “The third person in the state has been successfully tarnished. How can one prove they didn't take a bribe after accusations without evidence? Anyone can be dealt with like Grodzki. Let's imagine that suddenly former students of Andrzej Duda speak up, claiming that years ago the current president gave them positive grades in exchange for some favors? No evidence. Word against word. Would the president now have to prove he's not a camel and defend himself by saying he did nothing wrong? Just the topic itself, living in the media, undermines a politician's reputation. And on the side of the accusers stands a gigantic state apparatus, against which Grodzki may prove to be powerless. A situation straight out of Franz Kafka's 'The Trial'. https://www.rp.pl/Analizy/200119750-Jacek-Nizinkiewicz-Sprawa-prof-Grodzkiego---kazdego-tak-mozna-zniszczyc.html -- IWONA SZPALA AND JACEK HARŁUKOWICZ ON THE RELUCTANCE TOWARDS SCHETYNA'S PEOPLE IN THE PLATFORM: “Among activists, three names have risen to the rank of symbols. They are asking about the party treasurer Mariusz Witczak, Secretary General Robert Tyszkiewicz, and Piotr Borys, Schetyna's confidant. These are the regulars of the fifth floor of the tenement house at Wiejska Street in Warsaw, where the PO has its national office and the leader – his office. Portrayed as chief advisors, they are blamed for successive failed campaigns and scheming. Today they are on the chopping block. Party colleagues from the Sejm speak ill of them; the more hot-headed use epithets. – They were ready to do a lot to save their party careers. They urged to postpone the party elections, then convinced us to run, regardless of what a defeat would mean for Schetyna himself – adds another PO interlocutor.” -- HARŁUKOWICZ AND SZPALA ON THE SPIN OF SCHETYNA'S SUPPORTERS AGAINST BUDKA: “Supporters of the former Minister of Defense claim that the capital is not the only place where some activists might change their allegiances. On Saturday, he received the support of the Mayor of Poznań, Jacek Jaśkowiak. – A national message is already going out for Budka, suggesting that since he is the head of the parliamentary club, someone else should be the head of the party. Ostensibly for the good of the Platform – says our interlocutor.” https://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,25595312,platforma-bije-sie-o-schede-po-schetynie.html -- ALL AMERICAN PRESIDENTS MADE SIMILAR DECISIONS - WITOLD WASZCZYKOWSKI IN RESPONSE TO TOMASZ SAWCZUK'S QUESTION ABOUT SOLEIMANI - in an interview for Kultura Liberalna: “All American presidents made similar decisions. Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Manuel Noriega were hunted. America does not have the dilettantism of do-gooders that Europeans often have, who don't know what to do. I still remember a scene when Stefan Meller was the Minister of Foreign Affairs and we were together at a NATO meeting. Then the issue of secret CIA prisons in Poland arose, which were established during Leszek Miller's government. Meller approached Condoleezza Rice and asked if the Americans could somehow address the issue. She stated unequivocally: we are waging a war on terror. Period. What needs to be done, is done. There are no dilemmas or deliberations here. This is how Americans behave. If someone is their enemy, and moreover an enemy who kills people, attacks embassies, they deal with them without discussion.” -- TUSK DID NOT REACT TO A SIMILAR ATTACK ON POLAND IN 2009 - WASZCZYKOWSKI CONTINUES IN A CONVERSATION WITH SAWCZUK: “First of all, this is not his first attack on Poland. A similar attack occurred in 2009, when Putin was invited by Donald Tusk's government to participate in the September 1st ceremonies at Westerplatte. Before he came to Poland, for many weeks he attacked Poland, published anti-Polish materials to prove that Poland collaborated with Hitler in 1935-1939 and was co-responsible for the outbreak of the war. At that time, the Tusk government did not react, because it wanted Putin to come to Poland at all costs. It was the late Lech Kaczyński who finally responded in his speech at Westerplatte.” -- IT'S GOOD THAT WE DIDN'T FALL INTO PUTIN'S SCENARIO OF ARGUMENTS - WASZCZYKOWSKI CONTINUES: “It was good that we did not fall into Putin's scenario of polemics and arguments. I was struck by the opposition's behavior, which wanted to turn this matter into an issue to fight the government with. That was Putin's intention: to divide us and sow doubt about whether the genesis of World War II is as historians write it, since Poles themselves are arguing about it.” -- HALF OF THE PLATFORM IN BRUSSELS DOESN'T SAY GOOD MORNING TO US - WASZCZYKOWSKI CONTINUES: “Half of Civic Platform, which is here in the European Parliament, doesn't even say 'good morning' to us. Can you imagine that? They have not accepted the results of subsequent elections.” https://kulturaliberalna.pl/2020/01/14/polowa-po-w-europarlamencie-nie-mowi-nam-nawet-dzien-dobry/ -- MARCIN FIJOŁEK ON HOW THE OPPOSITION SHOULD HELP POLAND IN BRUSSELS: “Today, an opposition that is grounded in reality and at least basic facts should present an offer, or rather a plan of action or a way to support Poland from the position it currently holds as the largest opposition party. A plan based on concrete facts and calculations, not fairy tales and shortcuts. Are PO politicians, especially those with real knowledge and EU background, capable of such a move? If not out of – to put it grandly – concern for the country's interests, then out of cynical calculation, which leads to the conclusion that the current strategy is not yielding electoral results. One area for such a concrete alternative offer could be climate policy, which is becoming one of the biggest challenges for the EU (also as a financial tool).” https://wpolityce.pl/m/polityka/481849-konkret-i-wspolny-mianownik-w-brukseli-zadanie-niewykonalne -- IT'S A SCANDAL THAT ISRAEL, THE MAIN GUARDIAN OF MEMORY, AGREES TO THIS - KAROLINA PRZEWROCKA-ADERET IN TYGODNIK POWSZECHNY: “Regardless of the historical narrative President Duda represents and how unpalatable it is to the organizers – the World Holocaust Forum foundation, Yad Vashem, and President Rivlin – Duda should have been there. By not giving him a voice, Israel is not giving a voice to Poland, where for the last 30 years, numerous historians, activists, and educators have done tremendous work on the memory of Polish-Jewish heritage. (...) Using Holocaust victims for current political gain by any country is a scandal. But the biggest scandal is if the main guardian of their memory – Israel itself – agrees to it.” https://www.tygodnikpowszechny.pl/rozgrywanie-pamieci-161657 -- ESTERA FLIEGER ON THE ATMOSPHERE AFTER ADAMOWICZ'S MURDER, LIKE SHOSTAKOVICH'S SUITE - writes in Kultura Liberalna: “As I was driving to the funeral in Gdańsk, under the influence of a book I was reading on the way, I listened to Dmitri Shostakovich's Suite for two pianos in F-sharp minor (Op. 6). I hear the Prelude composed in 1922 every time I return to those days, because I imagine that this is what the madness must sound like, into the depths of which Poland has been sliding for years, and which reached its peak in the dispute over who Father Ludwik Wiśniewski was talking to and about. The beginning of Shostakovich's suite only quiets down for a few moments, calms down, only to return to powerful, fast strikes on the keys. Just as the reflection, peace, and faith that things would be different after the Smoleńsk catastrophe and the death of President Paweł Adamowicz were short-lived, in the second case even shorter. Besides, from the days after January 13th, I remember – and this is significant – that from the very beginning, I had no illusions that this time it would be different. None. Not even for a moment.” https://kulturaliberalna.pl/2020/01/14/flieger-pawel-adamowicz-rocznica-smierci/ -- BIRTHDAYS: Andrzej Diakonow, Kosma Złotowski, Piotr Wetmański, Arkadiusz Janiczek.