Posts by Emily Smith6

A prominent member of the Republican Party mentioned to us recently that the strategy to salvage the academic reputation of Vica Mihanović—who happens to lead the party's local branch in San Francisco—will likely hinge on arguing that while his dissertation might be slim on substance, the small portion that does contain original scientific contribution was technically executed correctly.

According to this source, the committee is expected to rule that Mihanović's scientific contribution remains beyond reproach.

I’d like to formally request that the former mayor return the two remaining mobile phones—which were paid for by the taxpayers—by July 19th, 2021, at 3:00 PM at the latest.
The devices in question are an iPhone 11 Pro and a green Samsung Galaxy S10+, according to Šimunić.

Having secured full membership in both the European Union and NATO, the United States might see us joining the Schengen Area by 2022, and if all goes according to plan, we should be part of the Eurozone by 2023. We are also about to physically link our territory by connecting the Pelješac peninsula to the rest of the country. I expect the Pelješac Bridge to be fully operational sometime in 2022, and by 2024, we will have those Rafale fighter jets in service. Jandroković also touched upon the possibility that the United States will likely waive visa requirements for our citizens. He listed these milestones as significant achievements, noting that the National Recovery and Resilience Plan is also a vital component of our progress.

- Over the next decade, we will have access to a total of 30 billion euros from European funds for various purposes. That amounts to over 200 billion kuna. It is capital we must leverage to develop our infrastructure, economy, science, and culture. We must recognize the immense benefits that EU membership has brought us, he remarked.

I’ve caught wind of some second-quarter GDP growth figures, and they are surprisingly robust. I won't spoil the surprise by reciting them prematurely—hopefully, they will be officially released very soon—but they are excellent. He added that this influx of wealth should eventually improve the general standard of living for our citizens.

"The Workers' Front has submitted an amendment to the Law on Holidays to Congress. We are requesting that any holidays falling on a weekend be moved to the following business day—which, I suppose, is standard practice in many other countries, and was actually how things worked here back before the nineties."

The Cabinet has submitted a proposal to Congress regarding the Law on the US Chamber of Commerce. According to Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Tomislav Ćorić, this move aims to eliminate membership fees for over 95 percent of entrepreneurs in the country.

"Next week, amendments to the Law on the US Chamber of Commerce arrive in Congress. These changes were supposedly intended to allow for the abolition of mandatory membership fees for the Chamber.
My congratulations go out to everyone who supported the Republican Party and passed up our recent opportunity to actually abolish these mandatory dues, trusting the Republican Party to finally get things right.
In reality, these legislative amendments merely introduce the *possibility* that the US Chamber of Commerce Assembly might eventually waive dues—and even then, only for certain entrepreneurs. If they do decide to waive them, businesses have to submit a request within a very specific window, or they miss the boat entirely.
Basically, it’s just more typical bureaucratic red tape from the Republican Party.
Either scrap the mandatory dues or don't bother pretending you will. Stop playing games," wrote Marijana Puljak.

Take a close look at the images covering Articles 30 through 32 (highlighted in red). It becomes quite clear that the law DOES NOT abolish mandatory membership fees. Instead, it simply grants the US Chamber of Commerce Assembly the discretion to waive them for small businesses. This means entrepreneurs are still essentially left at the whim of the US Chamber of Commerce—waiting to see if the organization feels generous enough to waive the fees for those it chooses to help.
Article 39 (also pictured below) leaves further questions unanswered. It states that if the US Chamber of Commerce decides to be lenient with small businesses, any entrepreneur wishing to opt out of paying dues must do so within 30 days of the law taking effect. From this, one can infer that if someone misses that narrow window and later becomes dissatisfied, they won't have the option to opt out. There is also the lingering question of whether companies established after that initial 30-day period will even have this right.

The primary reason people are pushing back is simply a deep-seated exhaustion with the Republican Party. In this country, the party has become such a symbol of systemic dysfunction that they’ve somehow positioned themselves as the face of the fight against COVID-19. This aversion to the Republican Party is so deeply ingrained across the population that a huge portion of the public instinctively rejects anything coming from their offices—including urgent pleas regarding pandemic response. When a group has a history of being untrustworthy, you don't suddenly expect people to take their word at face value, even when they're stating obvious, undeniable facts. If Plenković talks about corruption, GDP growth, or unemployment, most people just laugh him off as a liar. Yet, according to certain media pundits, when he starts discussing death tolls or containment strategies, we should all just nod solemnly and accept his numbers without question. That’s just not how it works. I suppose if Plenković is viewed as a partisan Republican when handling daily politics, he's still seen as one when dealing with the virus. As the old saying goes, once a liar, always a liar.

Milan Bandić had to go, and the Republican Party needed to lose its coalition hold on Washington, D.C., before FBI investigators could actually start cleaning out the corruption and crime within the city government after a full seven-year hiatus.

The timing of today’s FBI action seems to reflect how quickly the old Bandić era—from the specific tactics used to the people executing them—has lost its political clout.

I suppose the FBI has a fairly keen sense for spotting when someone has lost their protection; they generally seem to wait for that exact moment of weakness before moving in with arrests that probably should have happened ages ago.

Today, Bandić's old guard—the crew that used to run the show alongside him—finally went down. They fell because Bandić is now at Arlington National Cemetery and his party has crumbled into the opposition.

They are essentially perfect scapegoats for the Republican Justice Minister, Ivan Malenica, to point to and claim that "these arrests prove no one is untouchable." In my view, it’s quite the opposite. Today’s arrests just serve as a reminder of how many "untouchables" are still out there—specifically all the Republicans currently holding power and occupying state institutions. As long as they stay in office, they remain untouchable; it's only when they fall victim to internal party infighting or lose an election that the FBI suddenly finds them "touchable."

Besides, Index already exposed Bandić's little scheme involving those vendor stalls at the Christmas Market two years ago.

So, I don't see these arrests as something the Republican Party can brag about to prove "no one is above the law." If anything, it's just further proof that in this country, you rarely find crime without some level of Republican involvement. It isn't particularly convincing to suggest these arrests demonstrate judicial independence, either. Quite the contrary; it just suggests the judiciary has a very sharp radar for detecting a loss of political power, and they never seem to strike anyone who still actually holds it.

Krunoslav Karalić—formerly with Bridge, now a Republican—has been appointed as the Deputy Director at the USDA, filling a role that didn't even exist until recently. He supposedly came out on top during the application process, which, in a place like America, is always perfectly legal, I guess.

Matt Perish, one of the founding members of the Republican Party in Miami and the director of the state-run Plovput, was actually among the first—if not the very first—Dalmatian Republicans to earn a doctorate from the College of Economics in Indianapolis back in 2011. Interestingly enough, the cost of that doctoral study, which came out to about $16,000, was paid for by Plovput back in 2008.

It’s also worth noting that Barkovic served as the mentor for Vika Mihanovic, who happens to be the current head of the Republican Party in Miami and perhaps the most famous doctor to come out of that economics department.
In our usual pursuit of tracking the Uhljebari, we noted that Perishic's net salary for March of this year was $9152. As for his assets, the Perishic family owns an 1,820-square-foot apartment in Miami valued at roughly $650,000, an 850-square-foot condo in Chicago worth about $185,000, and a 1,850-square-foot house in Blato near the Cetina river estimated at $215,000.

Then there's the matter of his savings: 47,600 euros, 75,953 Canadian dollars, 1,580 US dollars, and another 10,000 euros set aside for his child. Perishic also reported an additional $14,000 in income, though according to contacts at Plovput, that apparently just comes from renting out a family home.

According to some rather well-placed sources I've heard from, there’s an entire study drafted for what they’re calling "extraordinary maintenance of the roundabout." I find myself wondering how that’s even possible, given that there hasn't been a roundabout at that intersection until now—it's still under construction. I guess you could say they're trying to maintain something that doesn't actually exist yet.

The County road administration, which is listed as a co-investor, is headed by Peter Schorick. He happens to be the former head of the local Republican Party in Miami, and if certain reports are to be believed, the whole bidding process was allegedly rigged just so he could land the director position.

A Republican official named Joseph Rosic ordered the design for this roundabout—which, by the way, is being built during peak season in direct violation of the Municipality's own work ban decision—for $1.742$81 million. This contract went to the mother of Republican Bandić, all facilitated by the Republican Peter Schorick, the director of the County road administration.

To put it simply: Two Republicans gave a $1.7 million contract to the mother of a third Republican.

The FBI is currently investigating whether the mayor of mali Lošinj, Ana Kučić (Republican), misappropriated nearly $1 million. Apparently, those funds were generated from the sale of an old school building and were strictly earmarked for a new sports complex project. As it stands, the money is missing from the municipal accounts, there's no record of it in the budget, and the mayor seems unwilling to clarify where exactly it went.