Matt Gaetz is now the front runner for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination.

I guess she got visited by the ghost of Christmas Future because she posted this on December 24th somehow.

Can we all just agree that bus drivers are goddamn heroes?

We need criminal background checks and capacity restrictions for cars and lighters.

The suspect's name is Richard Sitzlack. His name and photo were everywhere shortly after the murder.

@3, I don't disagree. So then why does the public allow Metro to disregard their safety?

"Trump
has repeatedly
said that he plans to
expand the federal death penalty."

well
that and
build the Largest
open-air Prison cum
Concentration Camp for
'leftist communists,' socialists,
LGBTQs, (legitimate) journalists, atheists
critics, loud women, Critics & loud women.

I've likely inadvertently left numerous
'enemies' of Thedonold out but
feel free (for now) to add
your Favorites to tng's
fabulously patriotic
fucking Hitlist.

"The Stranger does not typically name someone as a suspect in a case until after prosecutors have filed charges against them."

Bullshit. You breathlessly reported the name of the UHC Killer the second you got hold of it (like every other major news outlet), before charges had even been filed. Quit being such fucking hypocrites.

Republicans should follow the example democrats set with Senator Feinstein.
Push her up to her desk and tell her how to vote. No need to send her off to a senior community.

...suspect emigrated from Guatamala in 2018...
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess "undocumted". Am I right?

@9 Cool. Do Strom Thurmond next.

I do not understand why Metro bus drivers aren't in bullet proof cubicles while driving. They are surely doing the Lawd's work - don't they deserve a modicum of peace while serving all of us? Aren't they worthy of a tiny sliver of money we give law enforcement that isn't even legally required to protect us? At least bus drivers give us a ride to our crappy jobs, surely we can protect them better.
Also - totally agree about the holiday vibe this year. I'm so bummed I didn't bother decorating at all for it, and I don't regret it. Tragic statement about 2024.

@8 more like TS won't name the suspect because he is one our "unhoused" neighbors living in a tent camp and had previously had been charged with murdering his roommate. Wouldn't want to give anyone the idea that public safety is an issue after all the statistics tell us everything is fine.

@12 Because incidents like these are extremely rare. Would a bullet-proof cubicle even helped? Could the driver still have been maced? And would he still have pursued Sitzlack, leading to the same result? Possibly.

The breathless coverage from the likes of the Seattle Times (whose editorial board has probably never set foot on a bus) about how this is reflection of how terribly unsafe riding Metro is, is ridiculous.

I probably take public transportation in Seattle more than 99% of the people posting here. It's not always the most pleasant experience, but it's not an anarchic hellhole either.

Rest in peace, Shawn Yim.
Jesus wept. What a frightening way to die.

@3 Indentured Service Economy: +1 for the WIN!!
Bus drivers are braver than I am.

@1 DOUG: I live in fervent hope that by 2028 every charter member of the entire Elon Musk / Jeff Bezos misled Turd Reich, including their sock puppet, Orange Turd, itself, and JD Vance will be entirely wiped out. And that this will happen immediately after there is FINALLY a scientifically successful vaccine for MAGA stupidity.

And what will happen to that Republican and her staff? NOTHING. They all collected paychecks while she sat in a dementia home for six months not knowing who the fuck or where the fuck she was. And Congress votes to give themselves a raise while refusing, as always, to raise the federal minimum wage above $7.25 an hour. While Biden pardons white collar criminals who stole tens of billions, committed Medicare fraud, and otherwise ripped off the people of America - leaving a Black woman in Texas in prison for sending her child to the wrong school district. Fuck this country. When Musk (oh wait I mean Trump) slithers back into the White House people are really going to find out out how hard they are going to get fucked. And yes it will literally be everyone who gets fucked, except perhaps the handful of billionaires on the planet. Every single person in THIS country and countless worldwide will be continuously and vigorously fucked until they die (and if Trump has his way, they will die sooner rather than later).

@7 kristofarian: I wonder if the Orange Turd's hit list of loud women includes the GOP's top obstructionist howler monkeys, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert? Those two and dog killer Kristi Noem deserve to get hit in the butt with a rabies shot.

@17 xina: I'm just as shocked, horrified, and outraged as you are.
What sickens me the most is that here in the 21st Century far too many MAGA stupefied people STILL will ecstatically vote for a convicted, mentally unhinged felon unfit for government office over an educated, well qualified woman. These are end times indeed.
When the day comes when everybody---including the dumbest MAGA deep in pro-Trumpist denial---loses everything, all squandered to corrupt self serving trillionaires, and says, "Wait------WHAAAAAAAAAAT?!?"
upon losing their Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc., I'LL be saying, "Don't look at me---I voted for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as well as for Bob Ferguson, Washington's next Governor---blue all the way down."
If the idiots in the red states, counties, and communities nationwide get hit the hardest over the next four years, oh, well. They were warned.

I just want to take a moment to recognize that the Palestinian National Security Forces have been wrecking fools in Jenin all weekend and on into today. Yeah Palestine! Jalalu wal jamalu!💥💥💥

@14, Assaults with serious injury are common. Metro does and says nothing, because they don't want to scare the public.

Pierce Transit give every driver 8 hours of seated self defense training.

Remember that godawful episode a few decades back when a nutjob killed a driver, and the bus plunged off the Aurora Bridge? Not to take away from this tragedy, only to point out how long this has been going on. We've come a long way since the days of the "Magic Carpet Zone"

But I will also quietly murmur that before Eyeman's stupid $30 car tab initiative, Metro had excellent security.

"Senior Deputy Prosecutor Don Raz noted in charging documents that Sitzlack was investigated last year in the stabbing death of his roommate. After a six-month investigation, prosecutors did not have the evidence to file charges because they could not disprove Sitzlack’s self-defense claim."

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/man-accused-of-fatally-stabbing-seattle-bus-driver-charged-with-murder/

The guy accused of murdering the Metro driver had a history of slashing people to death with a knife.

I am not criticizing the cops or the prosecutors in the prior case. Disproving self-defense, when there were only two witnesses to the fight, and one of them is dead, is nearly impossible.

@5 The Stranger didn’t publish the picture of the suspect… nor his name. They left it up to real news outlets. Can’t help out the police catch a murderer because… well, you know, that would hurt The Stranger’s progressive “street cred.”

@21 How long this has been going on? Or how long it has been? 26 years to be exact. Both driver murders are terrible tragedies, of course, but the Mark McLaughlin shooting and crash still killed three fewer people on Aurora Avenue than the Ride the Ducks one did.

@24, So the weekly assaults on drivers don't matter I guess. It only matters when the driver dies.

@25 You got a source?

@26, ATU 587.

@11
He’s been dead for more than 20 years, but Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell are fair game. I don’t care which party these fossils are with.
Come to think of it, add Sanders and Biden to the list as well.

Loren Michaels and the good folks on Saturday Night Live again got it right: the septic red tidal wave of clueless voters really do comprise Dumbfuckistan.

@16 xina: Oops--sorry. My comment @17 is supposed to be in response to your @16.

@21 Catalina Vel-DuRay: Ohhh, I remember that horrible tragedy! I can't unsee that Metro bus plunging over the side of the Aurora Bridge. Condolences to the driver and fellow murder victims, and to those who lost loved ones.
After all his years of willful damage hasn't videotaped Office Depot chair thief, Tim Eyesore finally been put out to pasture yet? If Timmy pushes any more of his insane initiatives---despite his financial and legal hassles---I hope our Governor-elect Bob Ferguson roasts Eyesore like a pig, calmly declaring checkmate.
I'd love to see Ferguson permanently rid us of loony Loren Culp and Joe Kent, too.

Okay. Griz is stepping off her soapbox now.
Wishing happy, safe, and healthy holidays to all.

@29, So majoritarianism is to be feared then? The Founding Fathers got that right.

@33 NotPayingAttention: No. Read my comment @29 again. If you are blindly and thus stupidly into Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, the GOP, the KKK, the NRA, RWNJs, white nationalism, the Heritage Foundation, Patriot Players, and Proud Boys, ad nauseum, you are a misinformed MAGA tool. That was what SNL was spoofing.
I take it you're unfamiliar with Saturday Night Live.
Wean yourself from FOX TeeVee--it causes brain cancer.

@33 NotPayingAttention (shorter version): Fear, along with hatred, ignorance, violence, and chaos is what Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Donald Trump and its MAGA tools WANT in their plot to destroy the world.