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/Galiza

The PM was yesterday questioned in a parliamentary committee re corruption in his PSOE party. No one who knows anything about Spanish politics will be surprised that dignity and decorum were in short supply. One local paper headed its report: The umpteenth accusation of “You, more so” betrays/exposes everyone, Or something like that. Another one was: Once upon a time there was a circus.

Anyone thinking of coming to live in Spain needs to be aware that: Spain is fragmented into high- and low-tax regions.

I don’t get the impression that Trump’s military is doing much about the cocaine reaching our shores. From Colombia, by the way. Not Venezuela. Possibly because it doesn’t come in fishing boats. And I guess narcosubs are the hardest vessels to detect and hit. Plus we don’t have any oil he and his oligarch mates want to get their hands on.

Every event in Spain is accompanied by its pastry. At this cemetery-centred time of the year, it’s the bones of the saint . . .

The mad, bad world of MAGA

More of those Teutonic echoes, perhaps reflecting Trump’s ancestry . . .

• This put me in mind of Cristi Noem’s new jet . . . Conspicuous consumption was not just a mark of the personal corruption that affects every dictatorship, but also expressed a widespread desire among the higher Nazi officials to demonstrate symbolically that they were the new masters of Germany.
• Corruption was often concealed from the media. It was encouraged by the lack of any press or public control over the government and the Party, by the personal nature of power in the regime, and by the general distaste of the Nazis for formal administrative structures and rules. Not surprisingly, corruption allied itself to theft and extortion when Nazi leaders and their underlings came into contact with the helpless and the powerless. [I think we all know the categories]

A ‘scathing’ attack by an architect on that ballroom. . . There are two big issues here beyond the obvious chutzpah, megalomania and political distraction.

For the seriously interested in the Trump phenomenon:-

• How Trump tricked the world into believing he’s a business genius.
• How will Trump fail?: Five ways his reign might end.

And I’m citing this video again as perhaps the best indictment of Trump, his cronies and his supporters. TBH, it’s also an indictment of US society, where 40m folk would vote for him if he’d murdered someone in the middle of 5th Avenue. Possibly just because they want to keep their guns.

Quotes of the Day

• Only the insecure desire scale to massage their delicate egos.
• Trump is guilty of all the things his supporters claim to hate. Why, despite that, do they continue to support him? Because he hurts the people they hate.

Russia v Ukraine

Probably the latest situation.

Spanish

• Delatar: Snitch/rat on.
• Inquietarse: To fidget

English

Chrysophilia: The love of gold. A medical condition, in fact.

Did you know?

The 1938 radio hoax that became history.

Finally . . .

My smartphone isn’t as dumb as I accused it of being . . . I discovered last night that my YouTube and podcasts ads were in Italian because my VPN was set for Milan. God knows how. I certainly don’t.

Well, readership wasn’t above average yesterday. So, ‘testicles’ didn’t do the trick. Or ‘sex’ or ‘prostitute’. So, I have no idea why the number spiked, as with the last time this happened. . . . . Hang on . . . I see that today’s total has just reached the same high level. Curiouser and curiouser, says my friend Alice.

Finally . . . Finally . . . .

After a black day yesterday, I got the good news this afternoon that my car is finally ready to pick up and that the laptop problem is very probably – as I’d hoped – a faulty charger. Some days are diamonds and some days are stones,

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.

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.