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

It was, of course, too much to ask that this wouldn’t happen . . . The police warn of fraud in Spain’s migrant regularisation scheme amid online fake-document black market – with over 400,000 applicants ‘not residing in the country’

The Bank of Spain warns homeowners that their money will be seized if their accounts remain untouched for a length of time. Albeit after a formal notice.

Trump lashed out at Spain yesterday during remarks from the NATO summit, urging the U.S. to cut off all trade with the European country over what he called a lack of contributions to defense spending.   . . “Has anybody looked at how badly the country of Spain is doing,” Trump said in a Truth Social post back in April. “Their financial numbers, despite contributing almost nothing to NATO and their military defense, are absolutely horrendous. Sad to watch!!!”. In another world.

The entrance exam for Galicia’s universities used to be out of 10 but are now out of 14. I have no idea why the change was made, but I do know they are always to 3 decimal places. To get on a medicine course you need 12.844, or 92% but is actually second to the combined course of Maths and Physics, for which you need 13.449, or 96%. As there’s a maximum of 30% multiple choice questions, I find it hard to understand how these are achieved.

Some readers will recall that a few months ago I sued a tiler who’d stolen €350 from me, and then cancelled – at the courthouse – my denuncia, after I’d finally got it back from him. Well, the court proceedings still still took place on 30 June and today I got a 2 page letter – all in only Gallego – telling me this and citing an immense amount of pointless information. This might help to explain why there’s a massive backlog in Galicia’s courts.

The World Cup

Congrats to Argentina but it has to be said that there is a plausible case that Egypt was treated differently as regards fouls prior to a goal.

The “beautiful game” has undergone sweeping changes, most of them unwelcome, mostly in the name of profit maximisation, since this World Cup began. That this is occurring during a tournament hosted primarily by the US, where money does ALL the talking, is no coincidence. The 3-minute commercial cooling breaks that occur at the 22nd and 67th minute of every half regardless of meteorological conditions represent a radical reconfiguration of the way the game is played, and one that has left most football coaches, players and fans severely unimpressed. The reason why FIFA is bending over backwards to accommodate the Trump administration’s every whim is pretty obvious: the organisation’s money-grubbing leadership is desperate to conquer the world’s biggest consumer market for itself and its biggest constituency, global corporations. And it it willing to do just about anything to achieve that, including awarding Trump a Mickey Mouse peace prize. . . .  It should perhaps come as no surprise that the Trump administration should embrace outright cheating in a sporting event when Trump himself often cheats in golf. The main takeaway is that the US government’s contempt for the international rule of law now even extends to the world of football.

The Middle East War

The latest update from Naked Capitalism. Is the MOU dead? Or merely moribund?

The United States of Trump America

Quotes

Trump

• Infantino is highly respected. Whose level of respect has gone up tenfold since the red card reversal.
• Our country was laughed at all over the world. It isn’t laughed at now.
• Kennedy liked to relax by sailing – on water

Others

Why the Left Can’t Match Trump’s Moral Clarity. [Err . . .Apparently because Trump says the USA is the hottest country on earth and they don’t believe this].

It’s rumoured that, expecting a Republican defeat in November, Trump and Miller are planning to launch a new party. But can’t decide on a name. Options: The Disgusting Party. The Evil Party. The Vile Party. The Fascist Party. The New-but-Jewish NAZI Party. Finally, The Trump Party. I’m pretty sure I can accurately guess which one it’ll be.

The Clown Show

• Why does JD Vance keep saying stupid things?  What I have long believed:- Vance resembles Trump in every way – he lies effortlessly, he’s utterly without principle, and he’s intent on gaining power – except that he’s smarter and more ruthless than Trump. Thus, a more dangerous demagogue.
• Why Trump keeps getting worse Podcast Video
• Trump Wrecks His Own 250 Crowd Size Claims in Final, Epic Humiliation.

A book I’ve just downloaded and a very much looking forward to reading, grandparent duties permitting . . . Kurt Anderson’s: Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History a unique and raucous history of America and a new paradigm for understanding our post-factual world. See the puff piece below.

Spanish

• Por otra parte: On the other hand
• Llevar por delante: To carry off.
• Ojeroso: Hollow-eyed, haggard, drawn.

Did you know?

How many trees there are on earth?

You Have to Laugh

‘Sparkling Wit’: Did you hear about the Irishman who joined Alcoholics Anonymous? He still drinks but undeer a different name . . .

Finally . . . Fantasyland

Fantasy is the USA’s primary product. From the Pilgrim Fathers onward America has been a place where renegades and freaks came in search of freedom to create their own realities with little objectively regulated truth standing in their way. The freedom to invent and believe whatever the hell you like is, in some ways, an unwritten constitutional right. But, this do-your-own-thing freedom also is the driving credo of America’s current transformation where the difference between opinion and fact is rapidly crumbling.

So how did we get to this weird pseudo-reality, where science and objective facts are dismissed in favour of opinions and wild speculation, or indeed, fantasies? The post truth, fake news, free-for-all mentality isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. If you want to understand Trump’s America, how the lines between reality and illusion have become dangerously blurred, you have to go back to the very beginning and take a dizzying road trip across five centuries of crackpot delusion and make-believe from Salem to Scientology.

Fantasyland is a journey that connects the dots between crazed franchises of true believers – a rich freak show tapestry from Mormons to Flat-Earthers and satanic panic, new age quacks to anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists of every stripe, creationists to climate change deniers, UFO-obsessives to gun-toting libertarians, showmen hucksters from P T Barnum to Trump himself, all topped off with a dangerous dose of anti-government paranoia and pseudoscience. Along the way, New York Times bestselling author Kurt Andersen has created a unique and raucous history of America and a new paradigm for understanding our post-factual world.

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.