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

An (anonymous) reader advises: Historians mention one more Spanish contribution to US independence. The siege of Gibraltar sucked in enormous naval British resources that would otherwise have most probably tipped the balance in Britain’s favour. Without France’s naval assistance in Cheasepeake Bay and other sea battles on America’s coast, the rebels would have been defeated. Soundly defeated. Furthermore, it might surprise US citizens to know that Gibraltar was considered by the Crown to be more worth the effort of defending than British colonial possessions across the Atlantic.

Not terribly surprising that 77% of Spaniards believe that the courts treat politicians differently from the rest.

Galicia’s coastal town of Ortigueira has an annual Celtic music festival, advertised this year as Eight Nations, One Culture. This is the regular attempt to equate Galicia with the 7 genuine Celtic nations, who decline to let Galicia join, because Gallego isn’t a Celtic language

A new experience in Caminoland . . . At 9 this morning I stopped at a crossing and witnessed a new record – 60+ teenage Basque Caminoers en route to Santiago de Compostela. Not something you’d like come upon from behind.

Portugal

A sad night for all Portuguese but especially Ronaldo. But should he have played against Spain? Most commentators seem to think not.

Iran

A foto of the Tehran crowds at the funeral of the leader killed by Israel/the USA.

One wonders if Trump imagines similar numbers for his internment/immolation. As we know, dealing with numbers isn’t really his thing. Though imagining them certainly is.

The World Cup

Well, what can one say about the Argentina-Egypt his evening? Football close to its best in a great game. Ending in an astonishing fightback by Argentina, involving another superb goal from Messi. I had to delete a wotsap message of commiseration to my Argentine friend, Alex, and compose new one. Of congratulations, of course. But pointing out that it would have been worse to go out to England, everyone’s old enemy.

An interesting commentary on why England won in Mexico.

And an interesting irony – the red-carded US player that Trump championed is only a US citizen because his pregnant mother wasn’t allowed to fly home to the UK. Where the player has lived most of his life. So, he’s someone MAGA wouldn’t allow to be a (US)American citizen entitled to play for the USA.

After the USA lost to Belgium last night, will Trump now query all 4 Belgian goals, so that the USA wins 1-0?

An mind-boggling development – Sepp Blatter has accused FIFA of being corrupt!

The Middle East War

The latest update from Naked Capitalism. Further posture hardening by Iran.

The United States of Trump America

Quotes

Trump

• I didn’t think it was a foul. I’m good at this. I’m great at sports. You can’t take the best player out of a team. [So. he knows as much about football as he does about everything else].
• I don’t like to create controversy.
• I don’t use the putting green in the White House grounds, as I don’t want people to think I’m playing golf.

Others

• Trump slimes everything. Now it’s the World Cup. [Where a corrupt emperor meets an infamously corrupt international organisation].
• Everything Trump touches is worst off for it. And he wants to touch everything. Now it’s

Something to be grateful for – Trump is the laziest president ever. No president has ever done less than Trump.

Fox – reporting on the reversal of the US red card – failed to even mention the President’s involvement . . . Reminding me of what my old Contract Law professor told us: Half truths can be more effective than outright lies.

Trump has lifted his number of those attending his July 4 speech to 422,000. Well, why not? One number’s as good as any other to a stable genius.

Is Trump rigging the World Cup? Podcast Video

This Is What Trump’s Crazed Posts Are Really About. Podcast Video

A Secret Service agent is said to have explained what Trump is like behind the scenes. In a phrase, utterly weird. See the end of post for a bizarre long list. Might well be true.

Spanish

• Hortero: Tacky. Kitschy.
• Inherencia: Interference
• Pelota: Ball. But my neighbour says you can’t use it for a football, where balón is favoured. Or, would you believe, hemisférico.

Did you know?

The man who became Uncle Sam.

Finally . . .

I discovered 2 things this morning:-

• That there are WordPress ‘Contacts’ by visitors to my blog. I’m not sure how and why these are different from Comments. But, anyway, my thanks to those you are making contact to say nice things. In particular,  John Hallissey, who wrote back in March 2025!
• That there’ve been ‘comments’ on Substack. Such as this one, from an amusing chap called Dash MacIntyre who writes The Halfway Café on Substack.

A Secret Service agent explains what Trump is like behind the scenes

The agent – who has served 7 president- s says Donald Trump is weirder than all of them put together. The following are details the agent has compiled based on reports of Trump’s behavior:

• Trump has never once ridden in a car with Melania or Barron because Melania forbids it.
• Trump is a big fan of the Swedish pop group ABBA, and on motorcade rides liked to blast “Dancing Queen,” and when he hears the lyrics, “You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen,” he tells the driver, “Epstein used to love this song.”
• The floor mats in the back seats of the presidential limousine had to be replaced monthly because of how much fried chicken Trump eats messily on his way to rallies that coats the fabric with grease.
• Once a month Trump likes to go on a long drive with a Republican member of Congress he’s upset with into the middle of nowhere in Virginia farm country, and leave him or her there to walk back to D.C.
• The Secret Service had to start offering bonuses to drivers of the presidential limousine because Trump smelled so bad. The agents quietly went on strike in January at the start of his second term, and refused to drive him without extra “stench pay.” It made Trump furious because the strike made him miss a few days of golf.
• The seats of the vehicles Trump rides in are regularly stained with orange foundation makeup. On long drives, Trump sleeps and always leaves orange stains on the seat belt strap.
• He regularly tries to convince agents to invest in his crypto currency by promising it’s not a pump and dump scheme, but, also, if he does decide to do a rug pull on all his investors, he’ll let them know when it’s coming ahead of time.
• Sometimes Trump throws Big Macs he brings for snacks against the windshield when he hears bad news. The Secret Service thinks of this as an incredibly reckless, potentially catastrophic security threat given that each time they have to stop the vehicle and wipe off the smeared ketchup.
• Following every meeting with an Asian diplomat or leader, Trump talks with an exaggerated Asian accent for fifteen minutes.
• Every Secret Service agent has heard Trump recommend they spend their next vacation in Moscow because “Russian girls are into some crazy stuff.”
• During international events and global summits, Trump tries to “accidentally” walk into the women’s bathrooms, which is always really awkward for Secret Service agents to have to witness.
• Trump occasionally asks his Secret Service drivers to run over people just to see how they react and test how loyal they are.
• Trump tries to get perimeter defense Secret Service agents to help him cheat when golfing. He hands them several balls and tells them that if they see him hit a ball into water or sand, to throw the balls somewhere on the green.
• After every motorcade ride, Trump tells his drivers, “I’d tip you but I don’t have any cash, so I promise I’ll tip you big on the next one.” The Secret Service also heard him say that to every Mar-a-Lago employee who served him, his golf caddies, and various hotel staff members when staying in foreign countries.
• The Secret Service had to triple its golf cart fleet and pay for storage space in foreign countries to store them because Trump refuses to walk anywhere, even when attending ceremonial events outside with other leaders, including female leaders wearing heels.
• Trump sometimes makes long phone calls where he listens a lot, and says things like, “NATO is ripping us off, you’re right,” “Ukraine is ripping us off, you’re right,” and “the US should tell Poland, the Baltic states, South Korea, Japan, and the European Union to fuck off, you’re right,” and then announce after he hung up, “That wasn’t Putin I was talking to by the way, it was — uh — Barron, yeah, Barron was asking me questions about his college homework.”
• The Secret Service has to regularly invent excuses for why women Trump invites to ride alone in a car with him can’t in order to save the government millions in under-the-table hush money payouts.
• Trump occasionally makes suggestive comments to agents like, “You know, in Russia and North Korea, their security agencies will push the leader’s political enemies out of windows…”
• Trump has asked the Secret Service agents to “pull a Princess Diana” on Mike Pence, Kevin McCarthy, Eric Trump, and JD Vance.

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 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.