Eastern European Politics

And of course, even if you try to disprove their claims, they'll accuse you of being bribed to say that and/or claim some shadowy world conspiracy falsifying the results for shits and giggles.

Reminds me of a saying I heard on FB recently. Translated into English, "Arguing with stupid people is like playing chess with a pigeon. Doesn't matter how good you are at the game, the pigeon will knock over all the figures, crap all over the table, then walk around as if it had won."

Yes. And I've heard that saying both in Polish and in English, so I'm guessing the original source was English.

So, Palkovics has began reorganizing Klik. The principal who wrote the petition that started the protest wave is satisfied, the head of the Teachers' Democratic Worker Union says that "the government doesn't say no to even the most sensitive matters". The Teachers' Worker Union (different group) did not participate and have formed a strike committee; they'll have a separate meeting with the cabinet this Friday.

Round-table discussions will be held every two weeks. Matters already covered:

• Klik is getting a budget overhaul.
• School procurements are freed from red tape.
• School principals will be issued a special credit card they can use to effect procurements without requiring central oversight and authorization.
• Unpaid salaries will be sorted out immediately.
• Something concerning the employment of pensioner-aged faculty.
• Administrative burden is being relieved via the shortening of the schools' self-rating system.

The British equivalent is: 'Never wrestle with a pig. You get dirty and the pig likes it.'

Tell that to David.

Should have known that, if I hold my tongue, someone else brings that up.

He'll never live this down.

Hey at least you're not holding the pig's tongue.

Twist time: the schools that signed the petition to reform the educational system are refusing to accept the round-table discussion's results, saying that the govt is only trying to placate them instead of actually correcting the problems. They want a completely new version, not patches and hotfixes. Their current demands:

• The govt must declare the 2011 educational law as transitional and start discussions regarding a new educational law without delay.
• Said discussions are to be started with professionals.
• At least 6% of the GDP must be spent on education to ensure stable financing; it's currently around 3.9%-4.3%.
• Issues preventing day-to-day operations in schools must be corrected at once.

Next protest scheduled to take place this Saturday, in front of the Parliament building.

(For those who wonder why so many protests take place on the Kossuth Square in front of the Parliament building in Budapest: it's symbolic. The 1956 revolution started with such a protest and turned dissatisfaction into revolution when the communist authorities machinegunned the crowd from the nearby rooftops a few days later.)

Other news. The minister of national economy revealed today that Hungary's current national debt is 75.8% of the GDP, the lowest since the 2007 recession.

Also, the govt is about to slam down Über really hard. As in, they're working on amending the relevant legislation so that if a driver gets caught doing Über work, the police instantly confiscate his license plate on the scene. They're also looking at legal options for banning the Über app entirely. According to the govt, Über's Netherlands HQ is completely uncooperative and is "behaving aggressively" in the matter, hence the severity.

edited 10th Feb '16 11:29:32 AM by amitakartok

Now, now. Uber is just doing business, and if some corrupt Orbanistan government thinks they can butt in and skim the profits, they are veeery wrong.

But, today media finally reported the changes in land laws. There's one thing I missed a few days ago: if, according to the new law, nobody is legally allowed to inherit their family's land, the Agricultural Land Agency can buy it at any price they deem fit. Read, lowball the shit out of land value, boot the farmer's kids off the land, then sell it at a profit to anyone in on the deal. It's corruption and corruption with corruption and a side of corruption, which coupled with the supposedly anti-corruption rhetorics of the PISS makes them that thief who screams "Thief!" to divert the attention from himself.

Skim the Profits? Shut the firm down in Hungary, more like. Uber has faced protests and has even been banned in a few other European Countries. Not that Uber operate outside the major cities, of course.

Actually, Über is not just not paying taxes. They are not abiding to any law or regulation.

And regarding , that reminds me of something Orbán's people introduced after their takeover: all inheritance is taxed. That is, you have to pay royalties to the government in order to actually receive that inheritance, proportional to said inheritance's value. Understandably, it was immediately nicknamed "death tax" by the public and after a few years, the govt were forced to abolish it due to massive pressure from the populace.

A very interesting picture indeed.◊

Well, what I had in mind was the government's reaction. Being "aggressively uncooperative" means, in the language of business, that Uber has told them to go stuff themselves with broken glass for being very far from reasonable. Now, didn't the taxi companies grumble about Uber fucking up their monopoly, or did I hear that story about another country?

Don't know.

What I do know is that according to multiple sources, Über is making no effort whatsoever to abide by Hungarian regulations regarding taxi drivers.

4x

We've had that since...forever. Well okay, we receive the inheritence, but the tax payed from it is proportional to its size. Although it can be very damaging to family businesses.

Font is a bit small. What exactly does this show?

Quite. American technology firms need to understand, that when operating in Europe, they need to abide by our Laws, and not do what they like. Especially in a "fail-deadly"^note  That is any mistake could lead to injuries or deaths, highly-regulated industry such as transport.

'07 elections in Poland.

Rather humorously, the part of Poland where most voted PO rather than PIS is apparently now Germany.

You know, because if you don't vote PIS, you are of the worse sort and gestapo.

It's a graph of the results of the 2007 elections in Poland, superimposed over Germany's 1914 borders. The gap between the parties in Poland followed exactly the old German border. It's interesting from a historical perspective to see why that might happen.

That isn't what I was getting at at all.

edited 11th Feb '16 6:01:06 AM by Achaemenid

Yes, I should have noticed earlier. My apologies. >.>

Mass protest in front of the Parliament building today, as expected. Exact number of how many protesters showed up is unknown, with the organizers having lost count slightly above 59000. Speeches were held, not by just teachers, but by current students as well. Crowd chanted "Filthy Fidesz", "Orbán, get out", "We won't let you" and "Mafia, mafia" all the way, but fell silent for five minutes at the end to demonstrate that they're peaceful.

Orbán is making allegations that an "external force" is stirring up the populace against the government; the protesters turned this around by claiming that this force is Orbán himself.

There were a part where the organizers played back recorded quotes from Fidesz politicians so that the crowd can express their opinions. These included Orbán's "honest pay for honest work" and Lázár's "he who has nothing is worth exactly that".

Poll shows that 76% of the populace agrees with the teachers' demands. Even two-thirds of the Fidesz voters do.

Meanwhile, here's a short story that just happened. Klik publishes a tender for dorm principal. Two candidates apply. The local faculty unanimously votes on one of the candidates, 40-0.

Klik picked the guy who got zero votes and outright stated they are not obligated to explain why, so they won't. They also claimed that the faculty-supported guy's tender was full of spelling errors, including misspelling Klik's name.

edited 13th Feb '16 6:03:19 AM by amitakartok

SHIT GOT REAL.

A bipartisan group of US Senators has sent a strongly-worded letter to the puppet that's supposedly the prime minister of Poland. One of the signatories is John Mc Cain, if that means anything. Here's a scan of it, so you can read it.

In response, one of the representatives of PISS called it "leftist hysteria" and pointed out that "the US should do something with the gays in their military instead." I shit you not, that's his Exact Words.

I fucking dare you, question anything bad I say about that bunch of cretins again.

All I'm going to say is that parts of Western Europe are possibly worse.

How so? I did hear that the current British government is buggering some people without even a consideration of lube, so I'm willing to believe that.

Didn't they screw with welfare and the NHS recently? To say nothing of pussyfooting around the issue of corporate taxes? But, that's a question for another thread.