Colin Davies

30 May 2026

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

Mark Stücklin takes issues here with the government’s portrayal of landowners, as a distraction from its failure to deal with underlying structural problems in the property market. The great irony is that policies aimed at punishing “major landowners” often hit the very people needed to increase supply: small and medium-sized investors willing to buy, renovate and rent homes. Treating them as villains may satisfy the politics of resentment, but it does not house anyone.

Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas is far more knowledgeable than I am about the snake-pit of Spanish politics and possibly more jaundiced. Here he is on current astonishing developments.

Predictions here on next year’s Caminoers. Bear in mind that around 40% don’t register their arrival in Santiago de Compostela, which would take the 2027 total from 600,00 to 1,000, 000. I again saw evidence of the growth this morning when entering the supermarket carpark off the Camino out of Pv city, As I did later this morning when comparing facilities now available on the Camino de Invierno compared with what there were when I walked it in 2019.

The United States of Trump America

Putin rules Russia – as Stalin did of course – by playing on fear and ignorance. So, not so different from Trump. If at all.

You might have read all sorts of negatives around the World Cup but, for Trump: Ticket sales are through the roof for what will be the greatest and safest sporting event in [US[ American History. Other opinions are available, particularly among hoteliers.

Good to read . . . There are several US billionaires who have publicly opposed Trump, though the opposition is often to specific policies rather than to Trump personally. Recent coverage names Reid Hoffman, Seth Klarman, and John Pritzker as major anti-Trump donors, and also shows billionaires such as Mark Cuban, Jamie Dimon, Stanley Druckenmiller, Bill Ackman, Ken Fisher, and Elon Musk[!] criticizing Trump’s tariff agenda or broader economic approach.

The Way of the World

The Psychology of Trumpism – This a fascinating podcast on Trump, his followers, social media, fascism and the impervious religious logic of a cult and successful counters to Trumpism. If you can’t listen to it all, the first 7 minutes will prove worth i,t if you want to heave a better understanding of Trump’s hold over the MAGA core, regardless of what he says or does.

Russia

A new Iron curtain?

Spanish

  • Marsopa: Porpoise
  • Delfín: Dolphin
  • Ahuyentar: To scare off/away.

Did you know?

Fun facts about US history.

Finally . . . You Have to Laugh

Betrayal . . .

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.

5 comments

  1. Hola Colin,

    A valuable complement (supplement?) to the video “The Psychology of Trumpism”: Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War. This provides a first-hand dive showing the foundations of the social psychology and EEUU culture and politics that in large part brought the EEUU to its current state. The author has died, so I would have little qualm finding a pdf version of the book.

    Cheers.

    Aleksandras

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. Esto de la vivienda es un problema por la escasez y los sltos precios. En cuanto a que el gobierno no lo gestiona bien, posiblemente. Es cierto que tener otra vivienda o dis, bien porque la has heredado o la adquiriste ( en muchos casos tiempo atrás, no te hace ser un gran tenedor ) por lo que me dijo mi hijo, sobre un piso fe su mujer que tenía de soltera, que siempre alquilan cuando tardan dis meses, por ejemplo, en alquilarlo entre un inquilino y otro, le cobran un dinero mensual, me parece injusto. Por otra parte si hay grandes tenedores, llamados fondos buitre ( una familia experta en esto es la familia Aznar/ Botella ) esis son viviendas que le fueron quitadas a sus propietarios, normalmente por no poder pagar la hipoteca, ahí entra la banca, una familia que ha pagado durante años, una vivienda y tiene problemas graves o bien paran el desahucio por un tiempo o bien les pagan lo que han pagado ya que se quedan con su vivienda, es muy injusto quedarte sin casa y perder el dinero que has invertido, en ella.

    Hay muchos tipos de especulación injusta como también es cierto que un propietario de varias viviendas, poe herencia i pequeña inversión, no es un gran tenedor. También corresponde además de al gobierno central, a lis gobiernos autonómicos y alcaldías.

    Hay gente que dice, que hay muchas viviendas vacías a lo largo del país , otras sin terminar y también hay que construir algunas. El Gobierno ha dado terreno de Defensa por ejemplo, que estaba en ruinas y al menos en algun

    Sitio, han demolido y van a construir, en este caso para alquilar. Es un tema serio que preocupa.

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