Double Play: Sonmez Out at WaPo, Boudin Out as SF DA

Hello lovely Smoke ‘Em people, Nancy here with a newsletter/update-y thingy. It’s been a BIZZEE week (not to be confused with the greatly-named WaPo executive editor Sally Buzbee, who herself has a bizzee week last week, and more on that below) for the Smoke ‘Em gals. Sarah has been rassling a 10,000-word story about… wait for it… Depp-Heard, which that should be ready for you within the next 24 or so. And I’m just back in NYC after driving halfway across the country and staying in not one but two super scary hotels, the second in Wheeling, WV, the location of which at least provoked repeated fits of laughing from my daughter, who, as we amscrayed out of there before 8am, kept quoting back to me what I’d said when I’d picked it blind off the Hotels.com site: “‘It’s right on the waterfront!’”

Did someone ask whether Maverick was worth seeing? I’ma say, big yes. Also, that my daughter leaned over midway through and said, “You look like her,” of Jennifer Connelly, an untruth I will nevertheless shamelessly spread. Plus, holy cow, the F-18 scenes!

In addition to prepping the “We read your letters!” episode, Sarah and I are getting ready to start having guests. We have several in mind and want to hear who you want to hear from so, hit us up with suggestions.

Smoke ‘Em wishes to amplify your happiness, which the gypsy* lady says is in the cards when you become a paid or free subscriber.

People who tell you often and loudly that they're right sometimes get shown the door. Such was the case last week with WaPo reporter Felicia Sonmez, who, not satisfied with her previous campaigns against coworkers, caused such a Twitter kerfuffle her bosses terminated her employment, which Sarah and I talked about on episode 18.

Based on what I know about Sonmez, which new visitors (and hello!) can read about in this post, I’d say it’s a good bet we will be hearing more from Sonmez, likely in court, albeit her previous suit against her employer was dismissed, with prejudice.

Chesa Boudin, SF’s progressive DA, could not convince voters that his progressive policies were what was best for the city. He was voted out last week.

As I alluded to on the past two episodes, I was in SF writing about what Boudin had hoped to accomplish and spoke with SF police sergeant who felt the policies were not working, and also about the devastation of the open-air drug market at United Nations Plaza and the area surrounding the Tenderloin Center, a site ostensibly to help addicts but which instead, to my eye, had metastasized the troubles. A clip:

I am going to do my best to not put too fine a point on this, to not illustrate what is happening within a few feet of Sandberg and me in a way that makes you think I am trying to win you to one side or another, but if you will, here is the scene: A young man stands in front of us babbling for ten minutes, wanting us to buy a vape pen or to have sex, it’s unclear which. A toothless woman screams. A legless man lights a pipe. Tourists photograph each other with City Hall in the middle distance, and a woman with a leg cast encrusted in grime rolls past. It's not possible to tell how old she is: thirty? Fifty? She has no possessions that I can see, and no destination, rolling in a desultory manner toward and then away from several men also in wheelchairs, one whose foot is so badly infected my groin contracts and feels flash-burned.

The day after the recall, I published "Delusion on Crime in San Francisco Will Get You Recalled" at Reason, and also spoke with Reason's Nick Gillespie.

Last, Matt Welch (eagle-eyed clickers will recognize the babes in his avi!) and I planned to talk about both ousters yesterday on the Paloma Media YouTube channel, but at the last minute he had a conflict so it’s just me! Video here; audio embedded. Happy Tuesday!

*Nancy’s Czech great-grandmother had a Romany surname so don’t @ her but do sign up for a paid of free subscription!

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