Missive #685

Eco (The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, 2005, etc.) doffs his scholarly gown and dons his trench coat for another bracing—and controversial—mystery.

Semiotician, medievalist and linguist, Eco delights in secret codes, cabals and conspiracy theories. He’s got a humdinger in this new high-level whodunit, which features a fictional fellow—Simone Simonini by name—who wanders, darkly, throughout a late-19th-century Europe packed with very real people. Simonini, 67 years old when we meet him in 1897, is detestable. He’s a study in suburban prejudices, among them a virulent strain of anti-Semitism, though, to be fair, he’s got something bad to say about just about everyone: The Jew, he grumbles, is “as vain as a Spaniard, ignorant as a Croat, greedy as a Levantine, ungrateful as a Maltese, insolent as a Gypsy, dirty as an Englishman, unctuous as a Kalmyk, imperious as a Prussian and as slanderous as anyone from Asti.” Did he leave out the Germans? No, they smell bad owing to a surfeit of beer and pork sausage. No one evades Simonini’s withering glare, but it’s the Jews he’s really after, working farragos and guiles to stir up hatred against him through manufactured events up to and including the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that tract that gave the Nazis so much fuel for their fires.I liked this book more than, The Name of the Rose, which was the first book of Eco’s that I read. That is not saying a lot however, it is not an easy read. You need a program to follow the action and the author has provided one, however it is in the last chapter of the book. You can give it a try but I’m hesitant to give it a recommendation. In an oddball but bravado performance, Eco makes Simonini—who doesn’t like Freemasons or Jesuits either—many things: a forger, a master of disguise, a secret agent and double agent, a shadowy presence who’s up to more than we’ll ever know, and on top of all that quite a good cook—there are recipes for fine dishes tucked inside these pages, and recipes for bombs, too. Simonini also keeps good and interesting company, hanging out with Sigmund Freud here, crossing paths with Dumas and Garibaldi and Captain Dreyfus there, and otherwise enjoying the freedom of the continent, as if unstoppable and inevitable.What does it all add up to? An indictment of the old Europe, for one thing, and a perplexing, multilayered, attention-holding mystery. Expect it to find many readers. — Kirkus Review

This story was carried by a half dozen Middle East news site on Saturday. I could not find any main stream media that was reporting the strike or the deaths of any Americans. When the body bags starting to arrive at Dover AFB I hope president Trump is there to meet them.

Strike on Kuwait
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that its naval forces carried out a large-scale joint attack targeting US and Israeli-linked positions in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, as part of the 84th wave of Operation “True Promise 4.”

According to a statement issued by IRGC Public Relations, the operation targeted Al-Shuyoukh Port in Kuwait and coastal areas near Dubai using a combined barrage of ballistic and cruise missiles, totaling 380 projectiles.

The statement said six US landing craft of the “LCU” type were targeted at the Kuwaiti port. Field reports cited by Iranian sources indicated that three vessels sank following direct hits, while the remaining ships were left burning after sustaining damage.

In parallel, the operation targeted gathering points of US drone unit officers along the Gulf coast, as well as a hotel in Dubai, using suicide drones. Iranian sources said the strikes were carried out with “high precision” and resulted in direct hits on designated targets.

The IRGC statement said the operation caused the deaths of “a large number of Americans,” in addition to the destruction of tactical naval assets.

One month into a ‘well planned 4 day operation’ is revealing many predictable operational and logistical crises, as well as a noticeable reduction in the tactical and operational choices for US and also Israeli theater commanders,… — Karen Kwiatkowski, former US Department of War analyst 

I have not copied president Trump’s Truth Social posting but direct you to Vox Day’s blog where he has. Go here to read what I consider something written by a man that has failed. As Vox says “Sad”.