Thai prime minister's fantasy of land bridge is fading, rapidly.

Good morning all Fishwrap readers.
It's February 4 already! Or darned close. Time flies when you're having Armageddon.
This is the early edition of Fishwrap news for February 4, which is Sunday.
  

You have to love a country that puts Queen Elizabeth on its one-dollar coin and calls it a Loonie.


G'day Fishwrap Readers. We did not actually travel to Digby for the Nova Scotia Daks Day, but we are informed the giant rat has
predicted a short rest-of-winter and an early spring, at least for everywhere between Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and Truro.
 The Associated Press NPR are on that story and have
VIDEO:

as well as verbose
TEXT: http://tinyurl.com/5n6cxm7k

From The Canadian Press (and thus completely credible)
Ontario's Wiarton Willie, Nova Scotia's Shubenacadie Sam and Quebec's Fred la Marmotte all reportedly did not see their shadows. So the same as Punxsutawney Phil, eh?
https://www.cp24.com/news/groundhog-day-canada-s-famous-furry-forecasters-predict-early-spring-1.6752877
Below, the authentic
Shubenacadie Sam looks around for his shadow after emerging from his burrow -- but there wasn't one.

CP VIDEO: https://www.cp24.com/video?clipId=2859395
NOTE: The incredibly lovely little town of Shubenacadie (SHOO-bə-NAK-ə-dee) has a population of 411 plua two (2) giant rodents and a wildlife park. And (true!) more than 1,000 AirBnB places. And an airport and a Quality Inn, which is more than Punxsutawney as any movie watcher knows.

Srettha losing his Land Bridge Idea
Faster! than a Kra Canal. More Powerful! than a unicorn.
Look! Down South! In less than a week, the super-Land Bridge fantasy of Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has plunged to non-starter.
Srettha became a billionaire by building and selling houses, condos, apartments, moo-baan and subdivisions. Now he can't sell one lousy bridge.
He took the cabinet to Ranong where large crowds of the People's Network told him they don't want his Land Bridge -- specifically not in Ranong and not in Chumphon provinces where Srettha wants to place brand new ports for ocean-going freighters and terminals of brand new road networks to link those two new ports.
Not a person in his own ruling Pheu Thai (For Thais) Party has spoken in support, nor even new party leader Paethongtarn aka Ung Ing, daughter of Thaksin.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China came to town, talked extensively to Srettha, never mentioned the land bridge. (He only upbraided Sreattha and Thailand for its 'far too slow' progress in building and linking the high-speed train tracks to Laos. And China is more interested in Myanmar and Cambodia.

And now...

... Now he's losing the media.
Land Bridge: A Project for No onehttps://t.ly/CZr1C
 The Land Bridge project risks becoming a mere paper policy.
 Thailand's foreign policy must evolve beyond outdated playbooks, focus on regional integration and play a more dominant role in the Mekong.

JOURNALISM INTERNET
 ♫ ♪ And Another One's Down, Another One's Down, ♪♫♫ Another One Bites The Dust ♪♪ ♪♫♫
And so it goes... On and on without stop.
Hey, Jimmy -- Have You Seen My 50 Million Dollars? https://t.ly/XKA2l
 The Messenger news site went dark after blowing through $50 million in startup funds in less than a year.
 CEO... erm, that's EX-CEO and founder Jimmy Finkelstein promised investors that The Messenger's appeal to "a big, generic news audience" would generate $100 million in the first year alone.
555555hahaha

OUCH!
Learn to Code. In January, i.e. last month, more than 500 journalists were laid off. Where "laid off" means fired, permanently.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/01/journalism-layoffs-00138517

It seemed impossible but...
Fake news is getting even faker. https://t.ly/rJ1jW

Thailand's top public geopolitical analyst and Chulalongkorn University Professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak has noticed
Myanmar is revolting*
Never has a military in Southeast Asia staged a successful coup and then failed to consolidate power afterwards.
 Yet this is precisely what's happening in Myanmar.
 A fierce and determined coalition of resistance forces is in the process of prevailing over Myanmar's battle-hardened army.

*No pun intended but just saying: The last military dictatorship in Burma lasted 68 years. And as of today Aung Suu Kyi is locked in a dreadful prison.

Meanwhile, the chief of the Burmese junta, and six-star Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (photo below) vows that, "We [the junta] will do whatever it takes to crush this opposition."
Source: The Irrawaddy: https://t.ly/DhnN3

Entire Thai 'Soft Power Committee' quits, walks off
Because, exactly like the military dictators who came before them, today's Thai government believes the only way to show Thai Soft Power is with a government-appointed, government-run top-down committee.
The unanimous 23-member resignation was triggered by the government-owned Tourism Authority of Thailand, which announced it intends to hold a seven-day Guinness World Record event, February 21-27, to see who can wear the most spectacularly ugly 'elephant-print clothes' in one minute.
As committee members and others pointed out, the 'elephant clothes' aren't Thai and can't possibly boost Thailand's goofy 'Soft Power'.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2735524/

Kamonnart Ongwandee, a leading designer and leader of the Soft Power Sub-Committee noted to news media that the Elephant Pants Contest uses taxpayers' money.

DRUGS OPIOID PAIN
Well... anything is "safer" than opioids, especially synthetic opioids -- from pure opium to fentanyl -- but this could be really big.
New pain medicine may be safer alternative to opioids
UPI Health: https://shorturl.at/corW7

Our country and our state have never seen a drug this deadly and addictive, and all are grappling with how to respond.
 -- Tina Kotek, governor, Oregon state, which is in America.
Oh you know how to respond, but you would have to admit to the world that your progressive policies have failed.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/01/30/Portland-fentanyl-state-emergency/8131706668053/

 Vertex Pharmaceuticals' experimental non-opioid pain pill cleared a significant hurdle in a set of studies unveiled Tuesday. It outperformed a placebo in patients recovering from painful surgeries and keeping pace with a commonly used opioid.

Much More from Reuters https://t.ly/mfIp5

FOLLOW-UP RUSSIA
Thailand wriggles out of the whole Rock-Alternative Band-Anti-Putin problem.

Reuters PHOTO, AP report: https://t.ly/qDoCH

CHINA CORONAVIRUS COVID PNEUMONIA
Remember when China and the CCP told us that the novel SARS-Cov 2 virus was just pneumonia, stop worrying about it?
As of today...
A 'severe outreak of pneumonia' in China has overwhelmed many of the largest city hospitals.
'Sudden deaths are reported in rural areas'. The outbreak is worse than the 2019-2020 Covid. In a village of 300, 15 people died all of a sudden.
No surprise.
The leader of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who is Xi Jinping, has ordered a 'downplay about the outbreak' and banned all mention of Covid-19, despite the similarity of symptoms.

The Maoist-Marxist director of WHO, the World Health Organization, has 'asked' China for more information.

But WHO claims nothing has changed in the past 5 years. Nothing.
It recommends Reduce The Risk
CNBC: https://shorturl.at/dstWZ
Get vaccinated.
Keeping a 2-metre distance from people who are ill.
Stay home if you feel ill.
Get to the doctor and/or hospital for tests and and medical care.
Wear masks.
Wash the heck out of your hands.
Stay where there's good ventilation.
Not one whit of which seems to update anything that the discredited WHO and U.S. CDC have said since 2019.

SPACE Just Wonderin'
How's that space program coming along?
 A 'Potentially Hazardous' Asteroid 2008 OS7, the size of a football field, will  make its closest pass to Earth in more than a century -- at 0100 Saturday, Thailand time.
 But highly scientific Experts assure that, meh, there's Not that much danger of it hitting us. This time."
 And it will be another 200 years before it approaches us again, so you won't even know. Whew!
UPI News: https://shorturl.at/uW246
PHOTO: Yes, it's this big. Better if it doesn't hit Earth.

TECHNOLOGY
COMPUTING IN SPACE: It turns out NASA's Mars helicopter was much more revolutionary than we knew. (ArsTechnica)
Exciting, too.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/01/now-that-weve-flown-on-mars-what-comes-next-in-aerial-planetary-exploration/

TECHNOLOGY
Senate hearing with five social media CEOs was a missed opportunity. (The Verge)
A missed opportunity for what, they do not say.
But reading between the lines, apparently they mean it was a missed opportunity for the largest censorship and propaganda program in human history
https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/31/senate-hearing-with-five-social-media-ceos-was-a-missed-opportunity/

Could we be living in a simulation? (Ars Technica)
Well sure, but actually no.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/01/could-our-universe-be-a-simulation-how-would-we-even-tell/

AMD has announced that it will be launching Zen 5 CPUs for desktops, laptops, and servers this year. (WCCFTech)
Sometime between July and December is all we know at this point.
https://wccftech.com/amd-next-gen-zen-5-cpus-2h-2024-launch-granite-ridge-desktops-strix-laptops-turin-servers/

ENTERTAINMENT TV STREAM
Canadians and Americans will pay Amazon to watch their commercials.
And they think you’ll like it. https://t.ly/R4HQ1
 Looking back, the American television viewing experience probably peaked shortly after the turn of the century.

Only you can prevent carjackings and auto theft. (The Truth About Cars)
BMW Adds Manual Transmission Option for 2025 Z4 M40i.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/cars/news-blog/bmw-adds-manual-transmission-option-for-2025-z4-m40i-44504923

The new space race:

Elon Musk's SpaceX could launch a private moon lander within weeks. (livescience.com)
The robotic Nova-C spacecraft was encapsulated inside the payload fairing of its SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket today (Jan. 31) to prep for liftoff, which is right around the corner.
https://www.livescience.com/space/the-moon/elon-musks-spacex-could-launch-a-private-moon-lander-within-weeks

The coming mission, called IM-1, aims to put Nova-C down near an impact crater called Malapert A, which lies within 10 degrees latitude of the moon’s south pole. This area is of great interest to scientists and exploration advocates, for it’s thought to harbor large amounts of water ice.
That would make Malapert A an extremely valuable piece of lunar real estate. Which is good news for all moon-based realtors.
Jeff Bezos is also doing his bit to advance 21st century rocketry:

https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/1753238508519444763

USA POLITICS ETC also IRAN HOUTHI RED SEA USA

Well, yes. Eliminating the systems of the NIH and CDC and razing their swell headquarters might help.
 Systemic US reforms needed to prevent mass death in the next pandemic
This article is DEI, top to bottom, but revealing.
 https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-01-reforms-mass-death-pandemic.html

Gold Star Parents of Soldier Killed in Drone Strike Required to Fill Out "Paperwork" to get a Condolence Call from Slow Joe Biden
Will Kennedy Sanders get three funerals like George Floyd did? What about the other dead soldiers? Will the Democrats in Congress get down on their knees for an extended period of silence, to honor our fallen military members? No, of course not."
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/01/gold_star_parents_of_soldier_killed_in_drone_strike_required_to_fill_out_paperwork_to_get_a_condolences_call_from_slow_joe_biden.html

Meet the Mom Being Politically Persecuted for Protesting Massachusetts' Tyrannical Covid Mandates
The Massachusetts legal system's prosecution of Michelle Efendi for protesting the state's overreaching Covid mandates continues to drag on.
https://thefederalist.com/2024/01/30/meet-the-mom-being-politically-persecuted-for-protesting-massachusetts-tyrannical-covid-mandates/

We might not have seen nothin' yet. https://t.ly/3J4R_
White House says first response to Jordan drone attack "WON'T be the last" as it prepares for 'weeks' of strikes and blames Islamic Resistance in Iraq for 'facilitating' the killing of three U.S. troops.

Sounds like 'Air Bombing' because
Terror Groups evacuate their positions after the President Biden administration tips them off to their plans.
The Iranian-backed terrorists responsible for murdering three U.S. soldiers and injuring dozens more in a drone attack last weekend have started to evacuate their bases after President Joe Biden's administration leaked to the media (see above) that they are gearing up to respond by carrying out a sustained bombing campaign.
Will Biden hold anyone to account? Repeat: hahahaha55555

This is a bit like World War II in reverse, only this time with the Poms riding to the defence of the poor Yanks.
Does not seem sustainable.

Lovely water, though, innit.