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
Spain’s far-right party – Vox – says native Spaniards should get favourable treatment for government provided services. Their target is clearly immigrants, whether taxpayers or not. I doubt Brussels would permit this for EU citizens but I’m not sure about non-EU citizens such as Brits. I can’t see this getting support from the major parties, though I guess there’s a chance it might in regions where Vox is in coalition with the right-of-centre PP party.
The property sector
- Mark Stücklin reports here on the difficulties faced by purchasers in Spain in making reliable sale-price comparisons.
- This article provides some stats on home shortages in a market when construction has completely failed to keep pace with an exploding population. Spain is said to be short of a staggering number of new properties. Doubtless, there will be differing opinions on why.
What ‘expat’ families need to know about Spain’s universal child benefit.
The Diario de Pontevedra reports today on measures being taken by employers in the hospitality sector to ease the lot of their employees, eg by making their turns shorter. No mention of paying them their full entitlement, or increasing their wages. Reading between the lines, the aim seems to be to stop staff moving on to try to get better treatment elsewhere.
Reader David in La Coruña – who flies a lot on business – is even more annoyed than I am about Galicia’s crazy airports situation. He writes: The airport farce has been going on for at least 30 years. And in 30 years it will still be going on and will still be farcical. It has got to the point where I even look at options from Asturias airport. The time needed for me to get there is similar to Oporto. Unfortunately, the motorway to Oporto from Coruña is around €70 there and back in tolls. Adding fuel at €40 minimum makes it very expensive*. Getting to Oviedo and back is barely any tolls, and therefore is just the diesel.
Europe
Europe learns to live with an erratic America [= the USA]. Trump’s war in Iran shows foreign policy by petty feuds is NATO’s new reality.
The Middle East War
The latest update from Naked Capitalism.
The United States of Trump America
As someone who feels Trump is now exactly the same vile person he was as a realtor in New York, though with vastly more political power but increasingly less brain power, I found this portrayal accurate. It’s from a chap called Michael Jochum, who’s the drummer with Ryan Chrys & The Rough Cuts:- Trump is not some misunderstood populist hero who accidentally wandered into authoritarianism. He is a lifelong grifter who discovered that fear sells faster than condos. Every chapter of his life reads the same: exploit weakness, manufacture spectacle, deny responsibility, repeat. As a businessman he sold illusion. As president he sells grievance. The product is always the same, himself. Selling himself is Trump‘s most prized commodity. Go figure. He does not lead. He markets. Leadership requires truth, restraint, and service. He traffics in performance, escalation, and ego maintenance. Campaigning never ends because campaigning is applause, and applause is oxygen. Policy is secondary. Reality is negotiable. The only metric that matters is whether the narrative protects his fragile self-image. If truth serves him, he uses it. If lies serve him better, he reaches for those without hesitation. There is no moral compass in that equation, only utility. And what makes this metastasis possible is not merely the man, but the machinery protecting him. A Republican Congress that once pretended to believe in the Constitution now treats it like optional reading. They have traded oversight for obedience, principle for proximity to power. They know better. That is the most damning part. They know, and they comply anyway. That is not cowardice alone; it is complicity. Trump’s presidency has never been about governance. It has been about dominance. He views institutions as enemies, not foundations. The press must be punished. Dissent must be crushed. Judges must be loyal. Civil servants must kneel. Minorities, women, veterans, the disabled, anyone who refuses to orbit his ego becomes a target. Vindictiveness is not a byproduct; it is the operating system.
And this man was put into power by an electorate not just once but twice.
Other Commentaries
Trump compares himself with Caesar and his ilk. Video
Why the White House is spiralling over Trump’s war Podcast Video
Trump rants at kids. Here and here
The Daily Blast: Trump has no clue what his Supreme Court is about to unleash.
See below under The Usual Links for US commentators I follow via podcasts or YouTube video
Spanish
- Betún: Bitumen, tar, bootblack, shoe polish
- Roza: Slash. Groove.
- Spring: Resort. [Not the season]
English
Obsolete words, some of which merit a return to common use.
Did you know?
How to catch a ‘content thief’.
Finally . . . You Have to Laugh
Another uncomfortable Finn . . .
Again, would never be a problem in Spain.
My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts.
The Usual Links . . .
The US commentators I follow, all on Podbean and/or YouTube for free:-
- The Daily Beast Podcast/Video
- Inside Trump’s Head Podcast/Video
- The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent Podcast
- The Rest is Politics US Podcast/Video
- The DSR Network Podcast
- The Politics Girl Video. Amusing
- The Daily Show Video. Very amusing
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 X at Thoughts from Galicia. I no longer post 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.
Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain 
Years ago many people went on and on writing iin the blogospehere about how Spain 15 years ago had gone ga-ga building far too many flats. Now the same people spend wasteful energy writing about the housing scarcity. I guess they are/were right in both cases. Or not. One of the reasons for the housing problem is that banks have been let off the leash (back in Thatcher’s time). In Britain the old mortgage societies were allowed to act like banks and the banking sector itself was de-regulated, liberalised (however you want to call it). The result are speculative capital markets that invest in housing rather than in productive industries. Something similar but on a lesser scale, and not quite as radical, has been allowed to happen in Spain. While the Chinese build factories, we in Europe are now going to build more houses and continue fuelling the casino economy. And then we complain the chinese are monstrous capitalist communists (which they are) who get their supplies from mines in Angola employing child labour. There is no easy answer for anything. But Britain will have to literally ged rid of the City of London to have any chance at all of prospering some day in the distant future. Spain, for the time being, has decided to join the Chinese.
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Ese partido fice disparates cada día. Prioridad nacional ? Eso es inconstitucional e ilegal. Primero, en sanidad, por ejemplo, la prioridad la establece la enfermería en el triaje, riesgo alto, medio o bajo, no por nacionalidad y en el resto de servicios, ayudas, etc…si hacen eso, el gobierno central puede y lo hará llevarlos a Los Tribunales. El problema es que el PP se adapta a éste discurso para pactar, cuando, por ejemplo, en Castilla y León antes de las elecciones el PSOE, le tendió la mano al PP para apoyarlos y que no dependieran de VOX para gobernar, por el resto del territorio están tan enconados que se hace imposible llegar a acuerdos. Con los británicos, noruegos…no se atreven. En cualquiera caso, es ilegal e inconstitucional.
En cuanto a las condiciones de trabajo, en la hostelería, me imagino que no quieran unas mejoras para los empleados.
Trump es un anormal, le da igual, niños que adultos, no tiene empatía.
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