Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts
the stars to flight.
And, lo, the hunter of the east has caught the sultan’s turret in a noose of light!

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable – Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain.

Cosas de España

I’ve often thought that Spain should be a de jure federal state, rather than the (complex/confusing) de facto one it actually is. So, I was surprised/pleased to read that – post Franco – this was considered, but rejected because of a bad experience with an attempt at a such a state some time in the 19th century. I get the impression this is now thought to have been a bad decision, given the complexity of Spain’s numerous Autonomous Communities and even more numerous provinces and municipalities. Which, in that useful phrase, must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

You’ll know that Tesla sales plummeted around Europe in February, the highest fall – almost 80% – being Germany’s. Spain’s, though, was only 10%, compared with the 2nd lowest of 26% in next-door Portugal. One wonders why.

These are said to be the 10 unspoken rules for ordering tapas.

Planning a trip to Spain this summer? Here are all the new rules and regulations you need to know.

Portugal

This is an article on Tax-related reasons for not retiring to this lovely country. Five or six years ago, I looked at taking advantage of the then-offered 10 year holiday on income tax on my pension. My rationale was the financial benefit for my 2 daughters but, ironically, it was they who persuaded me to stay in Spain. I now wonder what would happen to my tax status if I had moved.

The UK

Vive la différence? . . . The US is much more foreign than we thought. Britain and America are two countries separated by … everything, and were finally beginning to understand that. . . . If Donald Trump can be said to have done this nation any service so far in his second term as president, it has been to provide us with a salutary and unignorable lesson in the strangeness of the US. It is becoming ever harder to sustain the illusion that Britain should or can be like America. . . . None of this is to remotely imply that all Americans are freaks and barbarians. Theirs is of course a vast and complex country. But taken as a whole, it is different from ours in ways that too many British people have naively ignored. The process of coming to terms with American strangeness will not be a comfortable one. But it is long overdue.

Europe

How do European values differ from those of MAGA? In a nutshell . . . The American right – on issues from foreign affairs to appetite for autocracy – is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the West. Details here.

Trump Outrages

We are going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs. You will be so rich you won’t know where to spend your money. [Trump insists/pretends these dollars won’t come from American taxpayers. If he really believes that, he’s very possibly the only person in the USA who does.]

[To a reporter who asked him a good question] You’ve lost credibility. [Yet more projection from a man with zero credibility]

[From a man has always obsessed and boasted about the (rising) stock market: We shouldn’t look at the [plummeting] stock market but, instead, take a 100 year view, like the Chinese. I’m bringing huge wealth to the country [presumably, in his mind, via the tariffs] and we should concentrate on that.

The USA: Observations and Quotes

At the start of another tumultuous week in the markets, investors are contending with the question of whether Trump is crashing the economy deliberately, as part of a “madman” strategy. The tentative answers, based on noises from Washington, are closer to “yes” than they are “no”.  As with his stance on Ukraine, Trump thinks he can construct a version of economic reality that supersedes the facts on the ground. He will tell Americans they are better off with tariffs, that the “globalist” stock markets are out to punish him, and he will try to distort growth figures to cook the books. It is a path of potential ruin for the world’s reserve currency and its economy.

This being the USA, one anti-Musk protestor has fired shots from a semi-automatic rifle at a Tesla dealership and then set it alight with a Molotov cocktail, causing 500,000 dollars worth of damage.

The New York Times addresses here the key issue of the looming constitutional crisis: If Trump Defies the Courts, What then? Some are equating this possible development with the ‘death of the US democratic experiment’.

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace has asked: Is there anyone in the cabinet who prior to January 20th, advocated any of the policies they are now defending? She claims that Trump’s economic advisers have never, on the public record, advocated for any of the economic policies that have been ushered in over the last 5 weeks They are, she said, “weak weenies who wreck both economies and NATO, and aid Putin.”

This ‘unholy trinity’ is composed of 3 Cabinet members whom insiders say don’t believe Trump’s policies are wise but go along with them to retain their prestigious positions – having not really drunk his Kool-Aid:-

• Secretary of State: Marco Rubio. Not likely to have to pretend for much longer.
• Secretary of the Treasury: Scott Bessent
• Secretary of Commerce: Howard Lutnick. Specifically said not to believe his claim that there won’t be a recession this year.

From a British right-wing columnist . . . One camp in Trump world consists of conventional conservatives attached to faith, family and flag. They want stable jobs, an end to illegal immigration and the policing of speech, and no more discrimination against white people, men and the reality of biological sex. But another camp consists of paranoid conspiracy theorists driven by belief in racial and ethnic purity, white supremacism and hatred of Jews. These people support Russia’s despotic president as a force for ethno-nationalism standing against the Left’s globalist agenda, and they are as a consequence viscerally hostile to Ukraine. . . . Those of us who regarded Trump’s arrival in the White House as promising deliverance from an agenda that seemed to be driving western civilisation off the cultural cliff must nevertheless speak up against those elements of Trumpworld that threaten to bring about exactly the same thing.

Russia v Ukraine

Peace negotiations/talks seem to be edging along, with the Europeans still excluded and the chances of a Zelensky resignation rising. And both sides trying to establish a better position by killing more people.

Spanish

• Tomar el relevo de. Take over from, succeed.
• Poner en vilo: To put in suspense

Did you know?

The Battle of Navas de Tolosa was a key one in the Spanish Reconquista. For history buffs, this is a (long) video on it.

Finally . . .

I’ve wrongly said you can get an automatic translation of my posts into Spanish if you access them on Facebook. You can’t, I’m told. But you can if you subscribe for receipt by email. Or Gmail, at least. I’m not sure why I’m writing this as, if you can’t understand English, you’ll never learn this . .

I’ve started to put my posts on both X and Substack, which might be preferred by some readers. If you subscribe to the latter, you’ll have the honour of being only the second person to do so. The first being me, it seems. Automatically. So . . .

• X – Thoughts from Galicia
• Substack – Colin’s Substack, I believe. With subheading Thoughts from Galicia

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts.

The Usual Links . . .

• You can get my posts by email as soon as they’re published. With the added bonus that they’ll contain the typos I’ll discover later. I believe there’s a box for this at the bottom of each post. If you do this but don’t read the posts, I will delete your subscription. So perhaps don’t bother if you have other reasons for subscribing . . .
• For new readers: If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there.
• For those thinking of moving to Spain:– This is an extremely comprehensive and accurate guide to the challenge, written by a Brit who lives in both the North and the South and who’s very involved in helping Camino walkers. And this is something on the so-called Beckham Rule, which is beneficial – tax-wise – for folk who want to work here. But see here on this. And this article ‘debunks claims re wealth and residency taxes’. Probably only relevant if you’re a HNWI. In which case, you’ll surely know what that stands for.
• Getting a mortgage in Spain: Some advice on this challenge.