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
Someone answers here the question – Why is the cost of living creeping up?
Life in Spain isn’t getting better for everyone . . . A long established problem is getting worse. And solutions don’t seem to be thick on the ground. Just words.
Spain’s attempt to impose a national registry on short-term rentals has been struck down by the Supreme Court, reopening the door for thousands of tourist and seasonal lets that had been blocked under the system. The ruling is a setback for the Housing Ministry, a relief for many owners, and another reminder that in Spain’s property market, the regulatory pendulum rarely stops swinging for long.
I’ve been stressing this to prospective purchasers of Spanish property for at least 20 years. Ironically, I didn’t do this 26 years ago but got lucky. Basic rule: The more the smiling estate agent tells you this isn’t necessary in Spain, the greater the case for doing it. Their interests are speed and commission, sometimes (illegally) from both buyer and seller. Don’t be fooled.
The Pv city council will spend more than €104,000 on fireworks for our summer fiestas. Call me a killjoy but I’d prefer better warnings for drivers of imminent zebra crossings, especially at the city end of O Burgo bridge.
The Middle East War
The latest update from Naked Capitalism. Another attack really is imminent – because trump can’t admit defeat?
The United States of Trump America
How Trump is exposing his bottomless grift – Podcast or Video
The Way of the World
This must-read columnist tells (US)Americans – or at least those who want to listen – about the false stories they’ve told themselves about who they are. The greater understanding of which might well lead to global changes, as the myths of the US empire are dismantled. Another columnist has written: On this Memorial Day Monday in the United States, let us remember what our unthinking imperialism has done to so many millions of families around the world. Possibly even more so than the Brits. And the Germans. Etc., etc.
Cuba
Right on cue . . . Washington is inventing industrial-scale lies to justify its escalating collective punishment of Cuba as well as its latest power grab in Argentina[?]. As the Trump administration tries to starve the 11 million people of Cuba into submission through a near-total siege of the island, Marco Rubio placed the entire blame for a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis on the shoulders of the Cuban government. In a video message addressed to the Cuban people (though the real intended target, of course, was the US voting public), Rubio said: “The reason you are forced to survive 22 hours a day without electricity is not because of an oil blockade by the USA…[but] because those who control your country have looted billions of dollars.” This is political hypocrisy of an unusually high order, even by Washington’s standards. As the NYT points out, Rubio “works for a guy who has looted far more billions of dollars for himself and his cronies than even the most corrupt Cuban officials.”
Another response: After spending decades suffocating your economy, we’re offering you neoliberal privatization and billionaire colonization to destroy your hospitals, schools, and social services. Overthrow your government so we don’t have to.
A relevant video, kindly supplied by Perry.
Quote of the Day
From that article, on Trump: I suspect we get the leaders who mirror what we’ve become as a nation. [Words that spring to mind are mammon and guns.]
Spanish
- Indebido: Inappropriate, undue, improper, etc.
- Auto de imputación: Indictment.
- Salvarse de: To save oneself from. To avoid. To be exempt from?
You Have to Laugh
In 1965, writer Thomas Meehan imagined having to introduce Uta Hagen to Yma Sumac, Ava Gardner, Abba Eban, Oona O’Neill, Ugo Betti, Ona Munson, Ida Lupino, the Aga Khan, Ira Wolfert, Ilya Ehrenburg, and Eva Gabor at a cocktail party: “Uta, Yma; Uta, Ava; Uta, Oona; Uta, Ona; Uta, Ida; Uta, Ugo; Uta, Abba; Uta, Ilya; Uta, Ira; Uta, Aga; Uta, Eva.”Then Polish concert pianist Mieczyslaw Horszowski turns up. “‘Come in, Mieczyslaw!’ I cry, with tears in my eyes. ‘I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my whole life!’”
Finally . . .
Yesterday I was listening to a long podcast on a historical subject. The pleasant voice was that of a British male. Or so I thought, until my listening pleasure was affected by 2 things characteristic of AI – an inability to deal with homonyms and illogical sentence breaks. As regards the former, the word ‘bow’ was sometimes pronounced as something done with a ribbon and sometimes – correctly – as a weapon for firing arrows. And the latter happened at least once every minute and, over a long podcast, eventually moved from amusing to mildly irritating. And worrying. If AI can’t deal with this, what other incapacities is it prone to?
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 no longer post on Facebook. But I can be readon X at Thoughts from Galicia. And on Substack here
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.
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. And on Substack here. 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 
Buen análisis.
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“ossibly even more so than the Brits. And the Germans. Etc., etc.”
Really? I do dislike trump as much as the next man. The US have treated their Central and South American neighbours with one-sided contempt and brutal agression over the last 2 centuries. Then there is Vietnam, Iran, Irak, Afghanistan, and so on. And I am not forgetting Kissinger’s murderous bombing of Cambodia (for which he should have been jailed for life). But to say the Americans are/were worse than the Brits? Pull the other one. And the Gemans? let alone the Holocaust, what they did in Namibia during their very short “tenure” there was absolutely horrendous.
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Apart from everything else . . .
Harvard’s summary of Atul Gawande’s reporting says a Boston University model estimated 600,000 deaths already from the dismantling of USAID.
Other analyses reported in the press project millions of additional deaths by 2030 if aid cuts continue, with one estimate cited in coverage putting the total at 14 million deaths globally, including 4.5 million children under 5.
A different analysis reported by CIDRAP said a severe global aid-cut scenario could reach 22.6 million deaths by 2030.
Important caveat
These figures are not direct body counts. They come from epidemiological and economic models that estimate deaths from lost access to malaria treatment, HIV care, vaccines, nutrition support, and other life-saving services.
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Discerning AI voice patterns from human speech is essential for humanity, but is an attribute of senior citizens who are reaching the ends of their allotted time spans. Continue to be irritated, so that you are not deceived. Shibboleths exist to differentiate us from them, which means that I would prefer inadequate AI narration to continue, so I can continue to preserve the xenophobia that served my ancient PIE speaking ancestors so well.
Dastardly,
Perry
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Sometimes, whimsies takes a chap to unexpected locations. Reading this article https://www.twz.com/air/u-s-militarys-lucas-kamikaze-drone-is-getting-hivemind-swarming-capability led me to this Stanford University Press evaluation of Garrett Jones’ book titled Hive Mind: How Your Nation’s IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own.
“Over the last few decades, economists and psychologists have quietly documented the many ways in which a person’s IQ matters. But, research suggests that a nation’s IQ matters so much more.
As Garett Jones argues in Hive Mind, modest differences in national IQ can explain most cross-country inequalities. Whereas IQ scores do a moderately good job of predicting individual wages, information processing power, and brain size, a country’s average score is a much stronger bellwether of its overall prosperity.
Drawing on an expansive array of research from psychology, economics, management, and political science, Jones argues that intelligence and cognitive skill are significantly more important on a national level than on an individual one because they have “positive spillovers.” On average, people who do better on standardized tests are more patient, more cooperative, and have better memories. As a result, these qualities—and others necessary to take on the complexity of a modern economy—become more prevalent in a society as national test scores rise. What’s more, when we are surrounded by slightly more patient, informed, and cooperative neighbors we take on these qualities a bit more ourselves. In other words, the worker bees in every nation create a “hive mind” with a power all its own. Once the hive is established, each individual has only a tiny impact on his or her own life.
Jones makes the case that, through better nutrition and schooling, we can raise IQ, thereby fostering higher savings rates, more productive teams, and more effective bureaucracies. After demonstrating how test scores that matter little for individuals can mean a world of difference for nations, the book leaves readers with policy-oriented conclusions and hopeful speculation: Whether we lift up the bottom through changing the nature of work, institutional improvements, or freer immigration, it is possible that this period of massive global inequality will be a short season by the standards of human history if we raise our global IQ.”
In conclusion, I have to ask, how ***king likely is that?
Perry
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Thanks, Perry. Will check out that book.
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Oh, for an editing button: “whimsies take”.
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