Astrodragon
Been away and catching up. Somewhat frustrated that the Timor Battle ended with no major carrier battle after all that build-up, but then it seems fairly likely under the circumstances.
In regards the US coastal convoys that might be the one type of area that King could be right, about an unescorted convoy being worse than no convoy. Given the natural bottlenecks that would occur with coastal convoys it might be more dangerous for MS to travel in unescorted packs. Would agree however that it does seem rather unlikely the USN couldn't arrange some escorts. Especially given they still have the 50 extra 4 pipers and they should have known war was coming.
The Japanese will soon have to start realising how deeply in the shit they are. Given the delays on Alexander's attack in Malaya, awaiting the Australian armour, I'm suspecting [and hoping] that Yamashita will be pushed into attacking 1st. His outnumbered and under-supplied forces will bleed themselves white and then be smashed in the counter offensive. [Although a little surprised that Churchill hasn't been hounding Alexander to liberate Bangkok yet!

]
If the Japanese have bled their forward forces enough then a quick[ish] advance through Thailand may be possible, especially since a lot of people in the country could well be less than pleased with their new overlords, sorry allies

. In terms of FIC I think any advance from Burma would be bloody difficult due to the terrain but as others have pointed out there are French forces also in the region who might also be considering their options.
In terms of Java, since Somerville has 4CV and 2CVL and at least some awareness of the Japanese attack I find it difficult to see it becoming anything but a bloody massacre for the Japanese. Unless their lucky enough to see early losses resulting in the cancelling of the attack I could see all 3CVL and the entire invasion force destroyed. Especially if the allies allow them to actually get close to Java before showing their hands.
Bad for the US-Filipino forces in Bataan but it was OTL and can see nothing to change that. Don't know if the heavy artillery reinforcements were OTL but unlikely to change things a lot. What might be significant, especially if Mac is captured/killed is the status of the assorted sub-commanders. OTL the forces in Mindanao were obliged to surrender along with those in Bataan because they had the same commander and the Japanese insisted they would only accept both surrendering. If that is different TTL then the southern units could be able to continue fighting. Given how stretched the Japanese forces are and the relative weakness of the defenders they might be left largely undisturbed.
In the Pacific the extra fleet CV and the additional losses of the IJN in the fighting so far should mean the USN is in a better position to raid the Japanese flank more effectively. They might end up giving the coup_de_grâce to the Japanese carrier force, rather than the RN doing it.
The Pacific is going to take the bulk of the allied attention for the next few months but once the immediate threat is out of the way in the east I think the priority will return to the European theatre. Be interested to see if BC is any more effective TTL than OTL.
Steve