Shocking access inside SF's open-air drug market trade

Ukraine lashes out at NATO

Hello, this is the Free Political Newsletter. My name is Justin Robert Young.

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On the most recent Politics Politics Politics we discuss the quirks of 2024 fundraising including how getting Doug Burgum on stage could net you $19.

How San Francisco’s drug markets build houses in Honduras

The gates and new homes above are in the Siria Valley of Honduras. They were built with money sent back from the Bay Area, which is why they are decorated with murals of the Bay Bridge and the logos of the San Francisco 49ers and Golden State Warriors.

These stories and pictures are part of a new investigative series from the San Francisco Chronicle about the supply-side of the most visible drug boom in America: the Bay Area fentanyl epidemic.

I greatly encourage everyone to read it. The Chronicle has dropped the pay wall on the main articles. It’s heartbreaking all around.

I’ll just tease this one paragraph:

One mango-colored mansion is an homage to the city: a Golden Gate Bridge sculpture on the garage door, a San Francisco Giants logo on the balcony’s ceiling, two 49ers logos on the front gate and “Civic Center” splayed across its security bars.

This is the Civic Center that built that house. An open-air drug market in the heart of one of America’s most temperate and gorgeous cities.

This isn’t good journalism, it’s great journalism.

It brings to light evidence that policies of the city of San Francisco and state of California are part of the reason these dealers have targeted the area. Specifically…

• SF’s sanctuary city policy is a material reason why this is happening, according to the Hondos.

• Mexican cartels are feeding the drugs to the Hondos

• SF city policy on releasing dealers without bond affect the durability of dealers

• While SF officials say that the majority of Hondos are human trafficked, those interviewed believe that is overblown “I’m going to tell my lawyer that!” says one.

By wary of anyone saying that local San Francisco politics are going to go national, but there is a fragile element of the Democratic coalition at play here. Good liberal voters only have so much patience for crime and squalor for the sake of a greater good.

They won’t go red, but they might not vote. And if city-folk are less politically engaged that’s a big-picutre problem for Democrats.

Ukraine slams NATO

Ukrainian President Zelensky is in Poland for the NATO conference, but on his way he let the coalition know he wasn’t going to be happy when he got there.

At stake is Ukraine’s membership of the Anti-Russia Club which is a touchy subject since technically if they were a member now we’d be in World War III. This is because of Article 5 of NATO, Article 5 essentially means that an attack on one member is an attack on all members, and other member countries are obligated to assist the country under attack. The nature of the assistance isn't strictly defined, but may include military support.

The only time Article 5 has been invoked in NATO's history was after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. NATO took a series of measures to respond to the threat of international terrorism, including the deployment of forces to Afghanistan.

Joe Biden does not want an unhappy Zelensky as that would damage his reputation in America and hurt what has to this point been the most important part of Joe’s foreign policy record.

Feedback

Does it make sense for the Biden camp to “withdraw” him from the election some time from now to buy them an opportunity to secure a better horse? It seems that all of the press lately is sinking his re-election and I do not understand the strategy behind “fully supporting” the President for the Dems. - Kanen

The Dems are locked into Biden for 2024. Unless he had a health scare and decided to remove himself. But even then that would likely not leave room for anyone but Kamala to take over. Looking at her approval ratings, do you think she’s a better shot than Joe?

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How much of this was AI generated?  All the images except twitter?  They are great if they were generated.  I’m very curious how you are using AI professionally?   I used it for a few cover letters for jobs and had some success. - Sean

Midjourney for the images. I use ChatGPT for first drafts of things that I have mental blocks on.

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Pub Subs are awesome. -Zachary

Alway upgrade to Boar’s Head. You deserve it

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DeSantis is dead! His reputation of "Trump but better/worse" kills him on both the MAGA side and any independents. - Matthew

Doing a deep dive on the campaign for Friday’s Px3 show.