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

More on the difficulty the Spanish PM will have on delivering on the promise made to EU allies that he will significantly increase military spending.

Closing the circle of pain.  Franco’s victims finally come home, as the 50th anniversary of the dictator’s death looms. BTW . . . Not everyone in Spain sees Franco as a dictator; Vox party members prefer to describe him as ‘authoritarian’. A Spanish version of Trump, then. Or Victor Orban, of Hungary,

Spain continues to hunt down and prosecute the builders of high-speed narco launches. But, just across the border, where there are many such companies, Portugal has yet to do much to help in this endeavour.

For the history buffs . . . This article covers the merger of Aragón and Barcelona in 1137 and also the formation of Spain as a unified kingdom on marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon.

Portugal

Another paean of praise. Better get there before it’s over-touristed.

The UK

A key battle, fought by the Anglo Saxons in 937 against the Norwegians and the Scots on the Wirral peninsula, near Bromborough.

Trump Lunacies

Trump had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport 5 Venezuelans but this has been halted by a judge, on the grounds that the USA is not at war with that country. Civil liberties organizations have accused Trump of illegally invoking the Act to accelerate mass deportations and sidestep immigration law.

He has appointed 2 Fox News ‘reporters’ to the Board of the Kennedy Centre. All 14 trustees are now MAGA supporters. Hitler would have been proud of such an anti-modern-art achievement.

There are now more than a dozen people from Fox working in the Trump administration.

Good point . . . To grasp the extent to which the world has tilted on its axis, try the following thought experiment. Suppose that Donald Trump were secretly working for Vladimir Putin. What would he be doing differently?

This columnist thinks that Trump has a plan to devalue the dollar  . . . Economic orthodoxies are being challenged left, right and centre under Donald Trump’s second presidency. Disallowed from running for a third term, and therefore free of the normal constraints of having to face the ballot box anew, he behaves like a man possessed. What comes next? It’s hard to know, but one policy objective which has so far received only passing attention is a seeming determination to weaken the dollar. . . His bottom line . . There’s no telling where this will end. Badly, would be a reasonable guess.

Trump is mired in the briefest honeymoon in White House history. His every unwitting misstep brings chaos and strife.

Musk

The people v. Elon . . . Thousands have attended peaceful protests at Tesla showrooms in cities and towns across the country. In the 54-odd days since the inauguration, those protests have grown from a handful of people in cities like San Francisco chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, Elon Musk has got to go” to massive demonstrations across the US replete with live bands, Musk-as-Hitler costumes and heavy police presence.

The USA

The government has moved from threatening Denmark to begging it for eggs . . .

The Way of the World

• Back to cash: life without money in your pocket is not the utopia Sweden hoped. Nordic countries were early adopters of digital payments. Now, electronic banking is seen as a potential threat to national security
• Restauranteurs fight back against grumpy reviewers.
• ‘Narrow planes’ are making a comeback, even for long flights.

Spanish

• Estaño: Tin
• Filón: Reef, vein, motherlode

You Have to Laugh

Did You Know

• Teslas can spontaneously combust
• Likewise when torched . . . As protests have multiplied, so has vandalism against Tesla’s brick-and-mortar business and individual vehicles.

Finally . . . Proverbs from around the world

• Japan: Virtue is not knowing but doing.
• Germany: People show their character by what they laugh at.
• Peru: That which is a sin in others is a virtue in ourselves.

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.