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

Curiouser and curiouser . . . . Spain was the outlier when it came to the declining sales of Tesla cars in February. And now they are ‘soaring in March’. What on earth explains this? Have Spaniards, moved from being anti-American to pro Trump???

Here’s Lenox Napier on the tricky problems faced by the opposition right-of-centre PP party.

Cousas de Galicia

The VdG today: Trump Tries to Sour Galician Wine: Three million liters – that’s what that the 5 Galician regions export each year to the USA. Trump has threatened to impose a 200% tax on these and all European wines. Exporters saw the danger coming when he came to power and began selling as much as they could, but it was a short-term solution. The situation is serious for the Rías Baixas [Albariño] zone, as the US is its most important export market, at 2.5m liters. Producers hope it’s just a tantrum, as they believe it penalizes consumers in the US, which doesn’t have enough domestically produced wine.

Romantic Galicia. Oh, Yes. It’s Valentine’s Day.

Portugal

Possibly not too happy about Trump’s 200% on wines either.

Trump Comments

Mark Wayne Mullin was great on Fake News CNN last night. Made Caitlin* Collins look like the third rate, low ratings reporter, she is! [*Deliberately misspelt, in his petty way.]

Tariff related money in pouring into the USA [from importers within the USA!]

If you don’t think Trump’s posts can get any more insane, take a look at what in wrote in the middle of last night, about the EU. Mad as these comments are, as one of the shrinks I’ve cited said, Trump believes everything he says in the moment, even if it conflicts with what came last or what will come next. The day Vance uses Article 25 to usurp Trump gets closer by the minute. Meanwhile, he’s surely trying to accelerate it by urging Trump on to even more lunatic words and actions. As he did during the Oval Office meeting with Zelensky. Careless of the economic consequences.

Other Nutters/Sycophants

See the beginning of this video for Commerce Secretary Lutnick at his (phoney) maddest (in

Senator Mark Wayne Mullin, answering a point for Kaitlin Collins: The president, as a business person, understands completely that tariffs are a tax. No one understands the economy better than this president. There hasn’t been a president that understands this economy better than this president. [Mullin should go far, at least for a while].

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and her colleagues appear to be stepping up the pressure on the FBI and the Attorney General to investigate instances of Tesla vandalism as acts of domestic terrorism, which Donald Trump has championed.

Robert Kennedy tries to use words and fails.

The USA: Observations and Quotes

The 2 shrinks I’ve cited:-

7 Feb: Trump and Musk are unhinged hypomaniacs, with the hallmarks of confidence and arrogance. In addition, Trump is a malignant narcissist, with a severe personality disorder, which explains his compulsive, pathological lying and his criminal instincts. On top of that he’s suffering from progressive dementia. The situation is even worse than we imagined it would be a year or so

28 Feb: Trump’s appalling FBI appointments and his military sackings show that he’s trying to create what all autocrats have – a Praetorian guard. His sacking of FBI lawyers shows that he will ignore legal constraints on this. To quote Hannah Arendt in “The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), Totalitarians in power invariably replace all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.” This observation underscores the self-destructive nature of totalitarian systems, where the pursuit of absolute control leads to a degradation of talent and capability within the power structure.

Russia v Ukraine

Richard North today: It would be possible to spend a great deal of time and energy assessing the ceasefire deal in Ukraine being brokered by Trump. . . . On the other hand, one could take the view that the activity to date is simply posturing, and nothing is going to happen until Putin wills it. And, at the moment, it is painfully evident that Putin is not rushing to conclude a deal, despite Trump’s enthusiasm to see this done. [Hence Trump’s (vainglorious?)threats to devastate the Russian economy]. . . . All this leaves plenty of room for ambiguity, especially as to the degree to which Ukraine – or the United States – will have to concede Putin’s final demands, as a condition to agreeing the ceasefire. . . .The Putin road to a ceasefire is littered with conditions “that would be almost impossible to meet”.

Did you know?

It’s time to abolish daylight saving time.

You Have to Laugh

Finally . . . .

Proverbs from around the world:

• France: Men make laws; women make morals.
• Morocco: If you are afraid of something, you give it power over you.
• Russia: You can’t sew buttons on your neighbor’s mouth.

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.