Thai monkeys run tourists, traders and townies out of Lop Buri

Thanks to everyone who reads Fishwrap.
Below is the early edition of the journal for Wednesday, February 7.
  

I was playing chess with my friend and he said, 'Let's make this interesting'. So we stopped playing chess.
  

Listen, both Travis and Taylor are wonderful young people. They seem very happy.
 -- Roger Goodell, commissioner, National (gridiron) Football League.
Unexpected: Goodell claimed he is the head of a whole family of Swifties.

THAILAND USA DIPLOMACY
Year 43 of the Cobra Gold military exercise focuses on amphibious drills on the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea. The headquarters is 100 klicks southeast of Bangkok at the Royal Thai Navy's base, U-Tapao and Sattahip -- just outside the raunchy resort city of Pattaya.
The main U.S. contingent is a 4,000-man and woman group of the U.S. Navy, now already in-country.
The American group is spearheaded by the USS Somerset,  San Antonio-class transport dock, and USS Miguel Keith, a Lewis B Puller-class mobile base.
The U.S. has a mission for Cobra Gold 2024 -- keep Chinese People's Army Navy away from the corvette HTMS Sukhothai (FS-442), which sank in heavy seas in the Gulf, just before last Christmas.
It's all very hush-hush, but a Chinese salvage company rushed to Thailand and signed a contract to recover the Sukhothai.  Washington is angry about that and hopes heavy U.S. Navy participation in Cobra Gold can turn around that distressful situation.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2735886/

Two views of Rattanakosin-class corvette HTMS Sukhothai -- in calm waters and on the December 20 night she listed and was scuttled.
PHOTOs courtesy Royal Thai Navy.

ENTERTAINMENT
SUPER BOWL gridiron football
This Sunday (U.S.-Canada time) is the biggest gambling day in North America. And probably elsewhere.
The biggest Taylor Swift Super Bowl I news is a tiny change in the 'official' (Las Vegas) betting odds.
Around noon on Monday San Francisco became the (tiny) 2-point favourite, dropping Kansas City down to 2-point underdog.
The two most common bets, and current odds:  

And a delightfully mad satire
Taylor Swift is now living rent-free inside the broken brains of MAGA conspiracists
On the far right, there is always an alternate reality. There is always wiggle room to cast aspersions on the obvious.
When everything is a conspiracy, life must be exhausting for the far right.
Toronto Star: https://t.ly/FyrRf

It ain't football, but rasslin's entertainment, right?
The pro-wrestling PR bills it as 'the leading star in Hollywood against the leading star in professional wrestling.'
WrestleMania XL, April 7 at Philadelphi, a town in northeastern USA, and former capital of that nation.
And who knew that bringing back The Rock for a feud nearly four years in the making would cause such a snafu? Which it did.

https://www.outkick.com/sports/wwe-made-the-right-calling-booking-the-rock-vs-roman-reigns-despite-backlash-bobby-burack

THAILAND MONKEYS MACAQUES LOP BURI

Planet of the Macaques

Thousands... not a joke, an army-like thousands of macaque monkeys invaded right into the centre of Lop Buri.
An estimated 3,500... Lop Buri people know these primates...
An estimated 3,500 ran amok. Locals fled fast and barricaded their families at home. Downtown shops pulled down the steel doors and tourists fled.

Lop Buri has had to establish several no-go zones throughout the city, as some of these areas have been taken over by warring rival monkey gangs.

And on the other side of the world:

And there's something about Covid...
Also no joke, the Lop Buri primates have become more violent since the pandemic started.
Thailand’s Department of National Parks has had to launch a sterilisation program, in the hope that they can curb some of the rapidly-growing monkey population. But the monkeys recognise the vets and helpers and resist capture.
They used to capture 500 monkeys a day. Now it's 20. On a good day.

THAILAND POLITICS JUSTICE
Suspended jail terms for Pita, Thanathorn over flash mob
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2736626/
and
'You can ban us but you can't kill us'
MFP unfazed by court ruling
 It's a movement, not just a party, and can always be 'reincarnated'
The Constitutional Court's unanimous ruling against the Move Forward Party (MFP) concerning its push to amend Section 112 of the Criminal Code, known as the lese majeste law, has established the limits on any attempts to change the law.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/special-reports/2736330/

OPINION OPED EDITORIAL
Human rights litmus test
The arrest of seven members of a Russian-Belarusian rock band known for having an anti-Putin stance will be a test case for the Srettha Thavisin government's position on human rights.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2733470/
PHOTO: Bi2 players were not afraid of arrest.
The case will be another diplomatic hot potato for Thailand, which is known for having warm diplomatic ties with Moscow dating back to the late 19th century when Russian Tsar Nicholas II and King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) of Siam formed a friendly personal relationship.
 As did Thailand's 'other royal family,' the Chakrabongse who married and had children by Russian dads.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2733470/

Yuan loans likely to rise for Thai firms Growing trade with China is predicted to increase corporate borrowing in Chinese currency
Growing trade with China is predicted to increase corporate borrowing in Chinese currency
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2735384/
photo HSBC

February showers cause tourist glowers
The usual, annual April rain started two months early in Bangkok and most of Central Thailand.

Also in the Central and South, the winter is definitely over and we are starting the dry season.
The North and goodly parts of Isan (the Northeast) are still chilly at night, and Thai tourists love it.
Khao Sod (Fresh News) https://www.khaosod.co.th/breaking-news/news_8081095
More (in English) at: https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40035221

PHILIPPINES SOUTH MORO
The Radio Free Asia crews have an excellent piece on the still-continuing problems in Moro lands.
PHOTO: Former Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels participate in a 'decommissioning process' and hand in their weapons at Maguindanao province.
https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/philippine/violence-concerns-02012024123627.html

Also, the Marcos-Duterte rift gets ugly, now including drug accusations

That's President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at a Manila rally two weeks ago for his New Philippines Movement.
Marcos hit back at Duterte in a feud simmering between the country's top two dynastic political families, which had allied together in the last election. Duterte's daughter Sara is the vice president under Marcos.
https://shorturl.at/bATYZ

The Nation Thailand newspaper, completely online but still leftist:
The lowest point ever in Thailand’s criminal justice system
I can be straightforward enough to highlight the excessive privileges enjoyed by the upper classes, the miscarriage of justice in numerous cases, the police misconduct and brutality, the undeniable overpowering of justice by the Corrections Department, and so on. Our country’s justice system has chronic problems that are difficult to solve.
https://www.nationthailand.com/blogs/more/commentary/40035038

IRAN TERRORISM USA
Cliff May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)
Seven years ago this month, then-Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged that the $150 billion in sanctions relief the Obama administration was providing Iran’s rulers would – to a greater or lesser extent – fund terrorism.
 Biden response strikes only a distraction unless they target, destroy top Iranian military leaders and Iran's capabilities
FDD: https://shorturl.at/eijkF

GLOBAL WARMING THAILAND SOUTHEAST ASIA CHINA
China’s EV makers continue to make inroads in Southeast Asia, as they double their market share in Thailand  -- the 'Detroit of Asia'
And Thailand churns out more than a million cars, trucks, vans and buses a year, with hopes for an Electric Vehicle plant.
Fortune.com/Asia https://t.ly/uZFaC

When Patty met Jimmy. And Billy
It has been 50 years since the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) kidnapped newspaper heiress Patty Hearst from her Berkeley apartment.
 Hearst came to embrace the SLA, changed her name to Tania, and helped the SLA to rob banks.
 The FBI finally tracked down Tania. She got 35 years but then came two presidents who believed she just didn't deserve any punishment.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/02/when-patty-met-jimmy-and-billy.php

ENTERTAINMENT DEATHS RIP
Carl Weathers, best known as Apollo Creed in the first Rocky, died at his home in Los Angeles. He was 76.
He was also a linebacker in the NFL back in the day. Golf fans will recall him in Happy Gilmore, where he played Chubby, whose hand was bitten clean off by an alligator.
Excellent obit by Cracked: https://t.ly/B7Iyr

ALSO USA POLITICS ELECTION NIKKI
The problem is not her trying to manipulate opinion, but doing it so stupidly.
  Nikki Haley appears to fabricate her own fan mail and gets devoured by the apex predators of MAGA.
AmericanThinker.com https://shorturl.at/gADFV

SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT SUPER BOWL (MORE)
Early next Monday, 0630 to be exact here in the Zulu+7 region

And ZOMG did Fishwrap mention to yous guys that Taylor Swift will be there, watching her current squeeze Travis Kelce of the Chiefs?

Tay-Tay's Super Bowl LVIII is the National Football League (NFL) championship match.
The game will be at 0630 on Monday morning Hua Hin time (Zulu+7), February 12, at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, near Las Vegas.
Translation to help American and Canuckian readers: The game will be at 1830 Letterkenny time (Zulu-5) at Allegiant Stadium, Paradise, in the state of Nevada in America.

First (and hopefully last) Annual Taylor Swift Super Bowl
 Match to be played under rules of U.S. Gridiron Football
 at Allegiant Airlines Stadium near Las Vegas

San Francisco 49ers (12-5) vs Kansas City Chiefs (11-6)
Sunday 1830 Ottawa-Hull time
Monday 0730 Tainan-Taiwan time
Monday 0630 Nong Bon-Thailand time

Above: Smaller person is billionairette Tay-Tay, larger one is her possible future ex-husband Trav Kelce, gridiron football star.
  

NFL.com Game Preview: https://t.ly/hotWW

Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show: Usher. Reba, who will also sing the U.S. national Anthem (The Star Spangled Banner) before the actual game.
 Stupid Bet: How long will she make the national anthem last?
 Stupider Bet: Which of them will be the first to forget their song lyrics?
Completely Unofficial colours:  Red and Gold for San Francisco, Red and off-white for Kansas City.