🍝 THE DAILY SITDOWN 🍝

So, this Thaksin Shinawatra guy, right? Big shot, former Prime Minister of Thailand. Billionaire. Sounds like a real piece of work. They got him on some kinda lese majeste charge – insulting the monarchy, they say. Fifteen years they were lookin’ at him for, *fifteen years*! Can you believe the cazzos? Sounds like somethin’ out of a fuckin’ Godfather movie, only with more temple elephants and less…you know…*concrete shoes*. This whole thing goes back ten years, to some interview he gave to a Korean newspaper. He mumbled somethin’ about “some people in the palace” bein’ behind a couple of coups that bounced him and his sister, Yingluck – who, by the way, was *also* Prime Minister at one point. This whole family’s a dynasty, like the freakin’ Kennedys, only with more gold and less… charm. Maybe a little less charm than the Kennedys, anyway. You get my drift. Now, the law itself, this lese majeste thing… it’s a real can of worms. Technically, it’s only about the King, Queen, heir, the whole royal family, not some Palace intrigue. But, you know how these things work. They stretch it, they twist it. It's like those wiseguys who claim they were just “borrowing” the car. Yeah, right. They revived this ancient charge against him last year, after he came back to Thailand from exile. Looks like somebody had a long memory, and a long vendetta. Sounds like a classic power play. These Thai guys, they’re as cutthroat as anybody else, just in silk pajamas instead of… you know… whatever Paulie Walnuts wears these days. So, the court let him off. Acquitted. The guy’s smilin’, thank'n his lawyers, sayin’ he's ready to "work for the country's benefit" – bullshit. He's probably already planning his next move, figuring out how to get back in the game. It's not like he's gonna open a bakery, you know? And his daughter, the suspended Prime Minister? She’s also in hot water. They’re lookin’ to kick her out. The whole family's on the ropes. This is a whole goddamn soap opera, only with more money and less… well, less *Sopranos* – which is sayin’ somethin’! It’s a whole thing, this family. Power, politics, money… they’re all intertwined, like a big plate of spaghetti. You pull one strand, the whole damn thing comes unraveling. And this case? This is just one strand. There’s a whole lotta more spaghetti left. Capisce? Fuhgeddaboudit. For now. But keep your eyes peeled. This ain’t over. Not by a long shot.