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 is unimpressed – nay, infuriated – by Spain’s response to the dreadful wildfires. ]TBH, I’ve wondered about the feasibility of denuding the (empty) interior of combustible materials . . .]

That columnist refers to pious platitudes that display the delusional pomposity that dominates Spanish political discourse. But once the fires are out and the TV crews have left, the politicians will return to their endless bickering over which party is more corrupt – which, believe me, is a close-run thing. I’d probably go along with that.

The columnist is Jim Lawley. He writes regularly for The Spectator on matters Spanish, having lived here for 40+ years. Here’s another article from him on a new benefit being introduced in the Madrid region here – for unborn children – by the right-wing regional government.

Despite impressive macro economic growth, the per capita income of Spaniards is still 8 percentage points below the European average, as it was 8 years ago.

Well, it might be mid-July but Vigo has started to install the Xmas lights which have made the mayor (in)famous. Along with the lights, of course. But just famous in their case.

As I drank a caña at one of my off-tourist-piste places midday today, my eyes noted that the middle-aged woman at the next table was smoking a cigarette with her left hand while using her right hand to put bits of food into her mouth. Occasionally changing the latter in favour of a glass of white wine. This wasn’t healthy for either her or me, I thought. Roll on the law banning smoking on terraces.

Europe

• Why the Continent is warming twice as fast as the global average.
• Europe’s heat dome and its implications for the holiday month of August.

The Middle East War

The latest update from Naked Capitalism. More tit-for-tat.

The United States of Trump America

How to brownose: Sean Hannity painted a disturbing picture of heaven at Lindsey Graham’s memorial. “Lindsey, Mr. President, probably has a heavenly version of Mar-a-Lago. “It may even be a little bigger. He may have a little more gold in the Oval Office in his mansion in heaven. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he added one big, beautiful ballroom and an arch somewhere on the property because he would wanna obviously duplicate his dearest friend in life: you, Mr. President.”[BTW: Am I the only person not to know which one is/was Lindsey Graham and which Mitch McConnell? Though, admittedly, this has got easier of late. And might not matter at all quite soon.]

It’s worrying to hear that despite Trump’s appalling popularity numbers, the Republicans might still win both the House and the Senate in November, simply because they can vastly outspend the (broke) Democrats. What does this say about the US political system?And about US voters?

What is Trump thinking about death? And what on earth is Vance thinking/believing full stop/period?

I’ve just realised that it’s British women who present – from the USA – those 2 podcasts. Duh.

The most fascinating sections of Kurt Andersen’s book on the craziness of the USA are those on religiosity in the USA. And on why this impressively modern state is very much the exception to the significant secularisation of the rest of the developed world. A few quotes.-

• The big, undeniable piece of American exceptionalism that helped launch this inquiry is our religiosity. One of the two developed countries that even come close is Israel, a religious state. The other is South Korea, a country very much built by (US)Americans
• Americans invented and scaled all the most extravagant new [religious] species, and most believers in other affluent countries are irrelevant minorities or else quiet true traditionalists, such as pious Italians and Poles still attending mass and making confession.
• Although the USA is by far the largest importer of things, we have become the world’s great net exporter of fantasy. For the last century, we have created, defined, and dominated the ever-expanding, increasingly global culture industry—from advertising to movies to recorded music to television and digital games. Alongside the shiny pop-cultural fantasies, we’re also phenomenally successful exporters of exciting fantasy religion. [Apart from South Korea, mainly to Africa].

The Way of the World

• FIFA is planning to sell ‘a chunk of commercial rights’ linked to the football World Cup. Need I add that the Trump family will be leading the investors. UEFA has acted furiously, saying “This crosses a line that the institutions governing football should never cross. None of us owns football.”
• Says one Us sports columnist: Football must be saved from the megalomaniac Infantino. The Fifa president does what he wants but hawking a slice of the World Cup should be the cue for outright rebellion. Of all Infantino’s delusions, perhaps the most dangerous is that he regards himself as a head of state. . . . If you thought the entanglements between Fifa and the Trump clan were uncomfortable already, this threatens to be only the beginning.

I fear rebellion is unlikely, given the corrupt nature of FIFA and its voting system. UEFA breaking with FIFA is perhaps slightly more possible.

Spanish

• Sudario: Shroud
• Descojono: Something funny/hilarious. [‘Rude’]
• Descojonarse: To laugh a lot, to die laughing, to be creased with laughter. [Ditto]
• Dress code boho informal: Casual, boho style.

English

Boho: Socially unconventional in a way regarded as characteristic of creative artists. Bohemian

Did you know?

The company Nintendo is older than the aeroplane. And Mario wasn’t its strangest idea.

You Have to Laugh

Finally . . .

Well, neither the sparrows no greenfinches have partaken of the sesame seeds. So, I’ve returned to traditional fare, in the hope that I haven’t permanently scared them off. Or even more permanently killed them. Actually, I suspect the greenfinches had departed for cooler climes before I started this experiment with surplus culinary seeds. The sparrows seem to have had the feeder to themselves for at least what we Brits call a fortnight. Though we no no longer use sennight. Which I regard as a shame.

Finally . . . Finally . . .

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts. And welcome to new subscribers on both WordPress and Substack. The latter have increased 5-fold in a few weeks. But, then, this is rather meaningless when the starting point is very low.

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. And this, on the annual costs of owning property here.