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

Suddenly Spanish politicians are doing something they rarely do – resigning for malfeasance. It seems far more than one of them has been creative with their CV. . . . A wave of resignations has swept through Spain’s political class, amid growing scrutiny over falsified academic credentials, affecting figures across the political spectrum and prompting calls for greater transparency. The growing scandal has triggered a broader national debate about political integrity and the need for verified academic qualifications for public officials. Said one observer: We Spaniards continue to suffer from a chronic ailment: ‘titulitis’, the obsession with accumulating degrees that, all too often, are nothing more than empty ornaments.

God is not siding with the ‘heretical’ nuns in Belorado in their tussle with the Vatican over ownership of their convent. Or not yet at least, as they’ve just lost their first court case. Now for the Supreme Court of Castilla y León. And then the Spanish Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court, and possibly one or two courts in Brussels or The Hague. I hope God has the patience for it. But there might well be a new Pope before a conclusion has been reached.

Truth to tell, I’ve heard folk familiar with French pastries mock ‘showy’ Spanish versions. This post from Lenox Napier suggests they might well have been right to do so. I confess to liking polverones. And more or less anything made with almonds, like tarta de Santiago, for example.

I read with astonishment that: After a July with milder than usual temperatures, August will bring Spain’s second heat wave of summer 2025. Here in Galicia, it was the hottest July on record.Rain we can endure but we don’t like temperatures above 25 or 26.

Cousas de Galiza

It was 36 in Pv city today. Unusually, the same as famously hot Ourense, And 13 degrees lower than La Coruña, up in Galicia’s NW corner. As we continue to have strong winds here, I wonder what it’s like up in that (famously) windy city.

Things around her being very dry, the insane pyromaniacs are at work. Or one of them at least. The police naturally decided that 6 fires in one place were the result of a human hand. Let’s hope they catch the cabrón.

The UK

These are said to be the 10 most annoying things British tourists do on holiday. Apart from coming here, that is . . .

Europe

Europe’s trade deal with the US was dead on arrival – it needs to be buried.  . . The “deal” in Scotland is in reality an unstable interim accord. Nothing is yet inked or signed; Washington and Brussels are already locking horns on its interpretation and negotiations on the finer (and broader) points are ongoing.

THE MAGA REALITY TV SHOW

Trumpisms

• We took in hundreds of billions from China. [The tariffs are actually paid by American importers.]
• Today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.[Let’s kill all the messengers. They’re worse than lawyers!]

Quotes of the Day

• This is banana republic stuff.
• By shooting the messenger Trump has taken another step in destroying confidence in the institutions the public needs to have faith in.
• Scrubbing files is what Trump does. He’s always done it, eg with his companies’ documents. The FBI’s 1,000 agents ‘working 24/7’ are probably doing that to the Epstein files right now.
• We are on the precipice of a censorship state.
• Trump is a reality TV star, a malignant narcissist, a bad businessman, a crooked politician and an appalling person but also a genius marketer. He’s brilliant at controlling the media cycle. I fully expect him to set up a TV event which absolves him. And I expect him to survive the Epstein crisis.

The Way of the World

More quotes from ‘How Tyrants Fall’:

• The enemy within is the most immediate threat to every tyrant. To survive in power, the tyrant needs to take good care of it. That means channelling money to the rich and powerful to keep them on the tyrant’s side.
• When that doesn’t do the trick, the tyrant can try to resort to violence to keep court elites in line. That’s a dangerous game and finding the right combination of carrot and stick is exceedingly difficult. While all elites matter insofar as they have an influence on the leader’s ability to maintain power, one group stands out among the rest: the men with guns. 

AI

There’s a brilliant video doing the rounds of an AI adaptation of Lautrec paintings. But, even if I could download it, WordPress wouldn’t allow me to include it. Try to see it. Very imressive, but frightening.

Spanish

• Rebuscado: Far-fetched, ridiculous.
• Fulano: Guy, fellow, bloke.
• Aljibe: Cisternm well, reservoir.
• El ojo del amo engorda al ganado: The owner’s eye fattens the cattle. [A tendency to exaggeration]

Did You Know?

Sophistry: The use of clever but false arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving. Ring any bells?

Finally . . .

It it really unlikely that no one in the Obama or Biden administration took a copy of the Epstein files? Por si acaso. What Trump does with them might not matter in the end.

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 . . .

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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.

If you´re thinking of moving to Spain, this link should be useful to you.