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

I’ve said several times that Spain’s impressive macro level GDP growth obscures the fact that, at the micro level, real incomes have not kept pace and inflation-adjusted salary growth is low. These are the 1995 to 2024 rates for selected EU countries, rounded up or down:-

• Lithuania 290% – the highest
• Ireland 60%
• Luxembourg 40%
• France 27%
• Germany 22%
• Portugal 21%
• The Netherlands 6%
• Spain 5%
• Italy 3% – the lowest

A relevant cartoon from a local paper

Train accidents, floods in Valencia – every disaster in Spain strongly reignites political battles. Using tragedy for political gain is widely condemned. Is this a typical Spanish thing, or is the taboo weakening?

This is a good podcast series on the Spanish Civil War. Episode 64 centres on the International Brigades and their massive losses in February 1937 when they used – cynically – by the Spanish Republican government in a huge battle in the Jarama valley, south east of Madrid. This is described as the first time modern warfare met modern narrative – a reference to the way in which the battle was spun as a gloriously victorious defence of Madrid rather than as the senseless massacre it really was. The black joke as the time was that it was called the Lincoln Brigade because it had been assassinated.

Portugal

The Portuguese police have intercepted a narcosub carrying 900 kilos of cocaine off the Azores. Almost certainly heading for our coast.

Europe

The West needs a reckoning with America’s decline. Trump’s erratic foreign policy is a sign of the US’s weakness, not its strength.

The USA

See my posts of late last night (the Alex Pretti shooting frame-by-frame) and early this morning (insane Trump and Miller posts, here and here).

From a leading US political commentator: Yes, It’s Fascism. Until recently, I thought it a term best avoided. But now, the resemblances are too many and too strong to deny. [There’s an AI generated definition of fascism at the end of this post.

Lies and more lies. These are scum who are perpetrating them in the service of fascistic Trump:-

• Kristi Noem: He was a domestic terrorist, brandishing a gun and intent on murdering ICE agents. [There is nil evidence of any of this. I don’t know about god being proud of Trump but I’m certain that Josef Goebbels would have been proud of this woman,
• Stephen Miller: It’s all the fault of the Liberals and Democrats.
• Kash Patel: Noem said it correctly: There will be consequences if you threaten the ICE officers. [When asked on Fox News how Alex Pretti was doing this, Patel ducked the question.]
• Patel again: You don’t have a right to incite violence. [Of which there is nil evidence in Pretti’s case].
• You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. You don’t have a right to break the law.[Pure sophistry. Pretti wasn’t breaking the law.]
• Greg Bovino, senior border patrol commander: We respect Second Amendment rights, but those rights don’t count when you riot and assault, delay, obstruct, and impede law enforcement officers.[Pure sophistry again. Alex Pretti, of course, wasn’t doing this. So, even if it were true, it would be irrelevant].
• Greg Bovino again: The victims are the Border Patrol agents there. On Saturday, my officers prevented a massacre. [A man who forces you to conclude the USA will need its own version of the Nuremburg trials].

This story is barely believable: I was breastfeeding my baby when ICE agents came and grabbed her.

America feels like a country on the brink of an authoritarian takeover.

Quotes of the Day

• Well-known Russian (?) saying: A fish starts to rot from the head.
• ICE is Trump’s praetorian guard. Dark forces have been unleashed in the Land of the Free.
• [Trump, after the killing of Alex Pretti] At some point ICE will leave Minneapolis. They’ve done a phenomenal job.
• Barack and Michelle Obama: Our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.

The Way of the World

Narrative: I cited this word in the comment on the Spanish Civil War above. This is the Google ngram of the word, showing how ‘popular’ has become since 1960.

English

Domestic terrorist: [USA only] Anyone injured or killed by ICE officers. Or, indeed, anyone even resisting or showing distaste for ICE actions. A mislabelling on the Hitlerian scale by the perpetrators of terrorism.

Spanish

• Terrorista nacional: Domestic terrorist.
• Murciélago: Bat
• Frugívoro: Fruit-eating.
• Murciélago frugívoro: A multi-syllable way of saying Fruit bat. Also known as the flying fox.

Did you know?

There’s only one thing worse than small dogs — small dog owners. Might well be true. I’m sold anyway. Here’s the argument . . .

You Have to Laugh

I cited this yesterday to friends new to Spain, which as good an excuse as any to show it again now . . . Spanish bureaucracy.

Finally . . .

The BBC has issued 4 new episodes to its series of 2 years ago on Ruja Ignatova, called The Missing Crypto Queen – Dead or Alive? Available on BBC Sounds. For which you might need a VPN if you’re outside the UK.

FASCISM

Fascism is usually defined by a cluster of recurring features rather than one single element.

Core ideological elements

• Ultranationalism and “rebirth” myth: The nation (often defined in ethnic or racial terms) is seen as a sacred community that must be purified and reborn after a period of supposed decadence or humiliation.
• Authoritarianism and the leader principle: Power is concentrated in a single leader and a small elite, with the leader portrayed as the embodiment of the people’s will, above ordinary laws and institutions.
• Totalitarian ambition: Fascist movements seek to control all aspects of life (politics, culture, education, media, private behavior), dissolving the boundary between state and society.
• Anti‑liberalism and anti‑socialism: Fascism rejects liberal democracy, individual rights, and pluralism, and is fiercely hostile to Marxism, socialism, and independent trade unions.

Society, state, and economy

• Militarism and glorification of violence: War, conquest, and internal repression are celebrated as ennobling and necessary, and paramilitary groups are common.
• Hierarchy and social Darwinism: Fascists assume “natural” inequalities between groups and justify rule by elites, often linked to ideas of race, nation, or masculinity.
• Corporatism and controlled economy: They usually reject both laissez‑faire capitalism and socialism, favoring a state‑managed “corporate” system that organizes workers and employers under regime‑controlled bodies while protecting private property and big business.
• Suppression of opposition: Political parties, free press, independent unions, and minority organizations are censored, harassed, or destroyed, often using secret police and terror

Community and identity

1. “People’s community” (Volksgemeinschaft): Fascists claim to create a unified national community in which individual interests are subordinated to the collective, and those labeled “outsiders” (ethnic, religious, political, or other minorities) are excluded or persecuted.
2. Scapegoating and conspiracy thinking: Regimes mobilize support by blaming national problems on internal and external enemies, often framed as part of a vast plot.
3. Traditionalism, sexism, and machismo: Fascist ideology exalts a romanticized past, rigid gender roles, and aggressive masculinity, coupled with hostility to feminism and sexual minorities.

Style and mobilization

4. Mass propaganda and cult of the leader: Use of rallies, symbols, uniforms, and tightly managed media to generate emotional identification with the regime and its leader.
5. Populist mobilization: Fascist movements claim to speak for the “real people” against corrupt elites and unpopular minorities, using simple slogans and emotional appeals rather than coherent policy debate.

A common scholarly shorthand is that fascism combines ultranationalism, a myth of national rebirth, and a drive for totalizing authoritarian control, expressed through violence and mass mobilization,

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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 there.

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