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

Ceuta

• It really wasn’t the place to go for a beach holiday this summer. . .

• There’s said to be a steady daily drip of folk returning to Morocco voluntarily.
• Astonishingly, one who turned up at the fence to go home was an 11 year old girl.

It’s reported that the number of cruise ships to Vigo and La Coruña – each with thousands of brief visitors – has massively increased in the last decade – to a level of 800,000 cruceristas last year. Which isn’t to everyone’s taste, of course. This foto show 5 ships in La Coruña port at the same time. Possibly 20,000 or more tourists wandering the old quarter for a couple of hours at a time.

I’m very glad Pv city’s port silted up many years ago

This happens from time to time here in Spain but not usually at this level . . .Just when you think you’ve seen it all in the despicable art of dine-and-dash[‘simpa’], someone manages go further. This time it happened at a restaurant in the Galician town of Culleredo, where after a children’s birthday party with more than 80 guests, the organiser left without paying a bill that came to 7,000 euros. Per the owner: “I kept calling them to ask them to make the transfer and they threatened to burn down the place and burn me alive”. According to Galician restaurant owners, this is happening more and more. Hard times?

Some years ago a friend told me that the Spanish publishing industry would go bust without the ‘scam’ of textbooks being revised every year or two. In public schools, the books are bought by the school and then lent to pupils, who only pay if they damage them. But for private schools, parents have to fork out hundreds of euros for numerous books costing up to 50 euros each.

We’ve reached the point in Pv city where – according to restaurant owners – folk are calling in November to make reservations for the following summer. This can only be bloody guiris who want to eat at 7 or 8 latest and who occupy the terraza tables once available to residents for an early evening aperitivo.

Pv city will soon see the opening of The Pont-Up [Bridge-Up] Store. As the name was meaningless – both in English and Galician – I looked it up and found it will provide assistance to would-be entrepreneurs.

The Middle East War

The latest update from Naked Capitalism. More depressing tif-for-tat. No end in sight.

The United States of Trump America

Quotes

• Trump’s history of bankruptcy is now his gift to the the USA.
• We are so used to how much that Trump does is impeachable that nothing moves the needle.
• This is a mafia government. The most corrupt in the history of the USA.

“Over the weekend, Republican Steve Schmidt, who ran John McCain’s 2008 campaign for president, was interviewed on MSNBC. In response to a very general question regarding the Trump Presidency, Schmidt spoke for 2 solid minutes and gave the most insightful and brutally honest response of what the Trump Presidency has done to the USA”:-

• Donald Trump has been the worst president this country has ever had. And, I don’t say that hyperbolically. He is. But he is a consequential president. And, he has brought this country in 3 short years to a place of weakness that is simply unimaginable if you were pondering where we are today from the day where Barack Obama left office. And, there were a lot of us on that day who were deeply skeptical and very worried about what a Trump presidency would be. But this is a moment of unparalleled national humiliation, of weakness.
• When you listen to the President, these are the musings of an imbecile. An idiot. And I don’t use those words to name call. I use them because they are the precise words of the English language to describe his behavior. His comportment. His actions. We’ve never seen a level of incompetence, a level of ineptitude so staggering on a daily basis by anybody in the history of the country who’s ever been charged with substantial responsibilities.
• It’s just astonishing that this man is president of the United States. The man, the con man, from New York City. Many bankruptcies, failed businesses, a reality show, that branded him as something that he never was. A successful businessman. Well, he’s the President of the United States now, and the man who said he would make the country great again. And he’s brought death, suffering, and economic collapse on truly an epic scale.
• And, let’s be clear. This isn’t happening in every country around the world. This place. Our place. Our home. Our country. The United States. We are the epicenter. We are the place where you’re the most likely to die from this disease. We’re the ones with the most shattered economy. And we are because of the fool that sits in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk.

There’s been an allegation of Trump-like fraud against the De Santos Republican administration of Florida. Any AI engine will give you a summary of the astonishing revelations. Needless to say, De Santis says the investigation is a hoax. An apple doesn’t fall far from a tree.

Natalie Harp, a close White House aide to Donald Trump, is being sued alongside Trump and other officials over a plan to charge up to $100,000 per month for early access to his Truth Social posts containing official government announcements. What is being sought: A preliminary injunction to stop the defendants from posting official government information exclusively on Truth Social while the paid “early access” scheme is in place, and a declaration that doing so is unconstitutional. Relevant video.

I think I’ve mentioned the case for a book called The Sayings of Emperor Trump. Now, I’ve seen reference to something on Trump’s Most Stupid Comments. As it happens, yesterday I was musing on a book dedicated only to Trump’s insults, called A Thousand and One Slights . . . .

Relevant Books

To be published in October. Can be pre-ordered now: Wtf America?!: The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy. On Amazon or here.

The final pages of Kurt Andersen’s fascinating run through the USA’s history – Fantasyland: How America went haywire. A 500 year history.

The Way of the World

There have been political and ideological systems in history that sought to dictate popular understandings of truth and knowledge; there have been systems that have fought violently over the meaning and control of both of them, and more recently there have been systems of thought that deny that either can really be said to exist objectively. But I think that ours is the first society in history where the ruling classes genuinely don’t care about truth and knowledge, and so don’t give either much importance.

Spanish

• Ramal de salida: ‘Exit branch’ = Exit slip road
• A lomos de una caballo: ‘On the flanks of a horse’ = Astride a horse
• La dolorosa: ‘The painful’ = The bill. The ‘damage’, I guess – in British slang.

English

This sentence on the Pont-UP website shows the importance of good punctuation, In this case, a comma before ‘citizens’: “An initiative open to all citizens whose objective is to support entrepreneurship and increase the entrepreneurial culture in society.”

You Have to Laugh

Finally . . .

Pilate classes started again yesterday. Happily, I was able to transfer to another class, so that I don’t have to endure the woman who never stops talking, even for a few seconds. The (near) silence was bliss.

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts.

The Usual Links .

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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.