Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts
the stars to flight.

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

POSTED EARLIER (07.00 UK time)

The USA

Under a ‘peace-loving’ president, now at war with Iran – without the obligatory prior consent of Congress. All those prayers, all that crossing of fingers, all those appeals to reason and even the opposition of such Maga luminaries as Marjorie Taylor-Greene came to nought. A power-crazy imbecile in a stupid hat has ignored the advice of his own security service advice and taken his country into a war many will surely come to regret. And magnified the pariah status of the United States.

And this, in his standard sub-Churchillian English, is how the imbecile trumpeted the bad news to the world – ending with a sick joke: NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE.

Query: Will the US Director of Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, now resign?

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NOW

The WSJ is supportive. ]Prop. Richard Murdoch]

The NYT:

• With a military strike his predecessors avoided, Trump takes a huge gamble.
• The US military is pulled back into Middle East wars. The Pentagon is braced for almost-certain retaliation against American forces in the region

The I newspaper . . . Three bits of British understatement?

• Trump hails the US attacks on Iran, but what happens next is beyond his control.
• Trump, who avoided military action himself by getting a diagnosis of bone spurs, has always liked to give the idea that he is a strong man.
• Trump’s actions represent a huge gamble. The world is watching and praying that Trump’s gamble pays off.

Trump:

• We want to thank God . . . [For staying out of the way, I guess. As he/she always does.]
• [On folk like Lindsey Graham who are encouraging Ukraine to continue fighting]: They should be very careful with their mouth.

A couple of queries

• Has Trump been skilfully played by Netanyahu?
• Is he giving Israel a good name . . . ?

Iran

There’s no way of knowing if this is true or not . . It appears Iran was unable to impede the entry of US jets. Alternatively, in the light of Iran’s claims that it had removed nuclear assets from these sites (the enriched uranium and perhaps the centrifuges), a much less likely but possible scenario is that Iran decided not to contest the entry since if their claims are correct, America would have wasted firepower on now-unimportant targets. Better to husband air defenses for more critical targets and to lull the Americans in a false sense of security. Note that it’s been pointed out that Iran does not need large sites for its nuclear development program. It can distribute the activity across many locations.

*****************************************************************************************************

Cosas de España

Quite an opening paragraph: The PSOE is engulfed in a corruption scandal involving prostitutes, public contracts, kickbacks, secret recordings, a former nightclub bouncer and a porn star.

As I’ve opined . . Spain’s government blames everything but the real culprit for the blackout.

Guaranteed to upset Spaniards . . . Eating dinner at 10pm is nothing short of psychopathic.

Cousas de Galicia

Pv city’s Triathlon: Some names to follow. Though they might well have had only one race, last night. [Seems so. . . Male and Female event winners]

Portugal

Slightly surprising: Portugal remains ahead of Spain in the world competitiveness ratings.

The EU

More surprising . . . The European Museum of the Year.

The Way of the World

Pure greed . . . Fifa’s Club World Cup shambles: content first and to hell with the football. Fears over empty stadiums, player fatigue and an awful fan experience have come to pass. But, with, Fifa the game always comes second.

Spanish

Tiquismiquis: Noun: Pettifogger, stickler, fussbudget, fusspot, jobsworth. Adj. Picky, fussy.

Did You Know?

One way, it’s said, of telling whether text is AI-generated is to check the frequency of semi-colons. While these are dying out these days, AI text is said to favour them. Another way is to check just how verbose and repetitive the text is, and how many extraneous words it contains.

Finally . . .

Kids . . .

• Was that a joke, Grandad?
• Yes.
• Why do you so many make jokes?
• It’s my personality. I like to make jokes. Don’t you?
• [Rather disdainfully] No.

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 . . .

I can also be read on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/colin.davies.752861 or on Substack at https://doncolin.substack.com/

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.
• This post of mine contains several relevant articles from ThinkSpain.
• 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.
• A comparison of UK and Spanish living costs.
• And here’s a personal guide to moving to Spain – to work, not to retire.
• What to do if your visa application is rejected
• Finally, from a tax lawyer: Everything you need to know about taxes and healthcare when retiring to Spain.