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

This author says that Spain is perfect for drug trafficking and that, in Galicia and the rest of the country, it’s been normalised as part of the scenery. He explains the factors behind this and what needs to be done about it. Reform, he insists, is needed at all levels. It’s hard to be optimistic about this taking place.

Nice to see some progress in converting unused ground floor retail spaces into much-needed flats in Pv city. Much more is needed.

Talking of flats . . . A street in Pv city was closed for many months while this new block of them was built.

I can’t help wondering it it was worth it. On the other hand, I’ve seen worse.

The UK

A possibly seminal by-election took place in the UK yesterday. It was won by the Green Party whose strategy was to play the Muslim card. This is said to have been a disaster for the governing Labour Party and for the PM, who probably now has very little time left in that position. These are quotes from an article in a right-of-centre paper. They might or might not be alarmist:-

• Sectarianism is poised to become the new lever of British politics.
• This is another staging-post in our descent into politics dominated by Islamist kingmakers.

In its analysis of the development, the left-of-centre Guardian chose not to mention Islamists – or even Muslims – and concentrated on the failure of the Labour Party to counter the advance of the ‘far-right’ Reform party and on its ability to alienate ‘progressive’ voters.

Germany

How a major German bank rolled out the red carpet for Epstein. BTW . . . Over roughly two decades, said bank lent over 2 billion dollars to Donald Trump and his companies . . . In 2016–2017, staff of the bank flagged suspicious transactions to Russian individuals by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner

France

France has become the giant problem child of the eurozone. . . . Tension is now pitting France against Germany.

The USA

Epstein? Epstein who?? Throughout his nearly 2 hour address, Trump didn’t mention the Epstein files once.

I’ve cited the increased polarisation in US politics between The West Wing finishing in 2006 and the presidential election 10 years later. This features large in this article. Did the Constitution doom American democracy? In March 2015, Matt Yglesias predicted America’s political system would collapse. Did Trump prove him right?

So, I guess I can repeat my question of yesterday – Has the American experiment in democracy failed? If so, what are the consequences for all of us?

Quote: Trump announced his presidential bid in June 2015 and most people in Washington treated it as a joke. [They’re not laughing now, I guess].

Says the WSJ here, US citizens are leaving in record numbers, replanting themselves and their families in lands they find more affordable and safe. . . . In the past 10 years, the number of American residents has nearly doubled in Spain.

The Way of the World/Social Media

How X’s algorithm shifts political attitudes.

Spanish

• Chistera: Top hat
• Pringado: Loser, sucker, fool
• Sendas: Both. All 3, or 4 etc.

Did you know?

Back in the Late Bronze Age – 1550-1200 BC – there were 10 interconnected empires and numerous vassal kingdoms in the eastern Mediterranean. The empires were those of the Hittites, Egyptians, Mitannians, Kassites/Babylonians, Assyrians, Cypriots, Canaanites, Minoans, Mycenaeans and the Phoenicians. Around 1177 BC, they all collapsed, possibly like dominoes. Some recovered better than others, with the Phoenicians doing best of all. From their homelands in the Levant, they went on to command the Med and to found Carthage in North Africa (814 BC) and both Cádiz (late 9th century BC) and, via descendants, New Carthage in southern Iberia (228BC), all of which fell to the Romans at the end of the 3rd Punic War, when they took revenge for Hannibal’s depredations in Italy. This collapse is the theme of the book 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline, who noted that: It seems that the politics, trade, and diplomacy of 3,500 years ago were not all that dissimilar to those practiced as part and parcel of the globalized economy of our world today, complete with economic embargoes, diplomatic embassies, and both gifts and power plays at the highest diplomatic levels.

You Have to Laugh

Finally . . .

‘Super-agers’ brains have a special ability, it says here. Very probably evidenced by reader Perry . . .

Finally . . . Finally . . .

Epstein’s last girlfriend was a Belorussian, called Karyna Shuliak, to whom he left a mere 100m dollars in his will. The wages of sin, no doubt. It appears she hasn’t received this yet and might not receive anything close to it .

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 there.

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