It’s December. Which is rude. Didn’t the election just happen? The weather got the memo, though. Expect clouds all week, and we’ll have rain off and on. But! We’ve got a break this morning, so get outside before the sun goes down at 4:20 p.m.
National Guard Shooting: On Wednesday afternoon, after driving across the country from Bellingham, a 29-year-old Afghan national named Rahmanullah Lakanwal allegedly shot two National Guard members in DC. One, Sarah Beckstrom, was killed, and the other, Andrew Wolfe, is still in critical condition. Lakanwal has been charged with first-degree murder.
What We Know: Lakanwal came to the US during the chaotic troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, as part of a program to resettle Afghan citizens who had worked with the US military in the war. He’d been part of the Zero Units, military units that worked with the CIA, conducting night raids. His motive is still unclear, but it is clear that he was struggling with his mental health before the shooting. According to emails written by a caseworker who was helping him and his family settle in the US, he was struggling to find work. He’d isolated himself in his bedroom, even from his wife and five kids. And he had manic episodes where he would take off for weeks with the family car.
The Fallout: After the shooting, Trump said on Truth Social that he planned to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” and “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.” He’s already stopped all asylum decisions, and yesterday, Trump told reporters that he expected the situation to last “for a long time.”
Just the (Unsexy) Tips: Trump followed through with his campaign promise to stop taxing tips, but now there’s a caveat: the IRS doesn’t want to give that tax break to anyone doing “pornographic activity.” And specifically, that means OnlyFans tips don’t count. On the bright side, though, some of the tax professionals think the IRS will have a hard time spotting porn in your tax filing.
Trump Doesn’t Know What Part of His Body Was Scanned: And he doesn’t know why. But he knows the MRI was “perfect.” He told reporters that if they wanted the MRI released, he’d release it. *crickets*
SNAP Benefits Are Under Threat: Again. The USDA seems to think they’ve uncovered “massive fraud” in the SNAP program, which currently helps feed 42 million people in the US, and says they’re releasing information about a massive restructure of the program this week. It’s not clear what those changes will be yet, but the USDA did submit draft regulation to the Office of Management and Budget that tried to roll back the long-standing rule that allows anyone on welfare to access the program.
Rubber Hits the Road: But not like that. Seattle is the first city to test out bike lane barriers made out of recycled tires. The barriers are made out of bricks of rubber, about 12 inches tall, and a few feet long. Each brick is about 100 pounds, and made from a whole car’s worth of tires. Turns out, most “recycled” tires are just burned or incinerated. Now, instead, they get to replace the flimsy barriers made of just paint and plastic bollards.
Some Bad News for E-Bike Riders: First, we found out that Rad Power Bikes is probably going out of business in January. Then we found out their batteries should probably be recalled for lighting on fire if they get too wet, but the company is too broke for a proper recall. And this weekend, NYT Magazine dove into the e-bike injuries we’re not really keeping track of. According to one hospital in California, their patients’ chance of dying in a conventional bike crash is less than 1 percent. But if you slap a motor on that baby, it goes up to 11 percent. Right now, e-bikes are allowed to go up to 20 mph and still stay in bike lanes. In Europe, it’s around 15 mph. “The technology has moved forward way faster than our ability to measure its impact or develop sensible regulation,” one public health officer told NYT Mag.
But Good News for Train Riders: Three new light rail stations are opening on Saturday, December 6: Kent Des Moines, Star Lake, and Federal Way Downtown. Our southern extension adds almost 8 miles to the 1 Line, and Sound Transit expects it to add as many as 23,000 riders on an average weekday. Maybe it’s finally time to visit the Masonic building in Des Moines that’s haunted by some ghost named George.
Danny Westneat Keeps Saying Things: And this week, Seattle Times’ NIMBY columnist’s take is about King County’s plan to buy up hotels during the pandemic and house people there. The column fixates on one really bad purchase the County made: the Inn at Queen Anne. First, they overpaid for it, by some 75 percent. Then the hotel turned out to be in far worse shape than the County was originally told, and after closing it down room by room, the whole place is now shuttered and wrapped in razor wire. That sucks. A lot. But it’s just one building in a county-wide program. What seems far more important is that the program has fallen massively short of its promises. The county was supposed to have 1,600 units open by the end of 2022. As of now, they have 600 units open. With at least 9,800 people sleeping unsheltered in King County, we need those units yesterday.
Four teenagers were arrested after stealing a car and firing a gun at a cop on I-5. No one was injured, but a nearby car was hit, leaving bullet fragments in a witness’s lap. SPD is still looking for two teens who fled the scene.
Seattle’s Big One: The big race, that is. The Seattle Marathon was yesterday, and more than 8,000 runners took on the 26.2 mile route. This year’s map looked a little different. Instead of running through Capitol Hill, on the I-5 express lanes, and around Green Lake, runners looped around Magnolia. The Seattle Times cataloged some Facebook posts from residents who were not pleased about the traffic disruptions: “The reason for the ellipses in the excerpts from comments is that they contained, shall we say, unrestrained language?”
The Torrent Comes Home for the First Time: Seattle’s brand-new professional women’s hockey team played their first home game on Friday. The Torrent lost 0-3, but in all fairness, the team has only existed for a few weeks, and they were playing the Minnesota Frost, who have won the Walter Cup (the Stanley Cup, but for ladies) both years that the PWHL has existed. And while we may not have won the game, Seattle fans showed up in force. We broke the league record with 16,014 people in the stands. Their next game is on Wednesday, December 3 against the New York Sirens. Get out there.
I wholeheartedly agree Hannah, it’s rude to be December already. Time gets ruder and ruder as we age to where it’s “breakfast every 15 minutes” – Kitty Carlisle
“‘The technology
has moved forward
way faster than our ability
to measure its impact or develop
sensible regulation,’ one public health officer told NYT Mag.”
when you allow the cunningest
to amass vast swaths of Capital
and Power — enough to buy ‘our’
Government — is it any Wonder their
desire for MORE will trumpf their concern
for either the Citizenry or the fucking Planet?
but let’s let our Narrative
be about all the Crime
‘the bottom 95%’
are doing or
facing.
how Fucking
STUPID we
ARE.
As a Seattle born/Minnesota transplant, I like the games between them. Go Frost!
(It doesn’t make up for the drubbing y’all gave the Vikings, tho…)
I’ll see y’all a week from now for some Wild/Kraken weirdness.
Every time I’ve gotten an MRI, they asked me to confirm what body part was being scanned. The scans were “perfect” in that they clearly showed that body part was fucked up.
MFer is a pathological bullshit artist. He probably got a CT scan. Can you imagine him shutting up and holding still for a 20-minute MRI?
@3 You’re kinda like NotMyopic and Biped had an annoying racist baby.
@6 – What’s wrong with celebrating diversity? It is Our Greatest Strength™
@3
Strip mall? Rainier valley?
The hooka lounge was near the corner of Rainier Ave S and S King Street, by the International District. I’ll be listening for more gunshots next time I go to the Goodwill two blocks away.
And Republicans are our greatest liability, Knife dear. Remember, Republicans are horrible people, and horrible people are never an asset.
Speaking of diversity, I saw a press release for the new Mayor’s transition team, and I was impressed. She’s got a solid group of people from both business and human services. And even The Chamber of Commerce is making hopeful noises.
@6…
‘Knife’ is ‘Bi-pedo’.
Stupidly posting the same shit under different names, which is why I’ve been asking him if sock puppetry can make someone schizophrenic.
He outed himself a couple weeks ago (idiot…) but it wasn’t anything people didn’t know already.
The tires are not “just burned”. They are used as fuel in cement kilns. Remove them and another fuel will be used. Great there’s an alternate use but I doubt it will need all the tires out there.
@9: Hate to say it, but now it’s progressives that are the horrible people as they made society angrier than never before with their harmful ideologies and bending of truths. Progressives ushered in Trump in 2024.
@10 – “He outed himself”
Ooooooooooh nooooooooooooooooo
lol
@12 You’ve literally got a super racist republican spouting hateful shit about black people every chance he gets on here, my dude… all we want is for gays to be able to buy wedding cakes and for everyone to have healthcare and housing and food… lol.
@10 – Wow so clever, yuk yuk yuk. Do you call yourself a “Bi-pedo” too? Because you’re a biped too. Or are you too stupid to know what “biped” means?
“A “biped” is an animal or creature that moves on two legs, such as humans and birds.”
@10 I kind of assumed so but he also took over the mantle of posting articles that “the Stranger missed” like NotMyopic used to do. But in retrospect… he’s only focusing on ones where black people shot or hurt someone so yeah.. definitely Biped.
“he’s only focusing on ones where black people shot or hurt someone so yeah”
I do have to give credit to Hannah for devoting the bare minimum of 3 sentences about the “teens” who shot at the cops from the stolen car, but she probably felt like she was obligated to do so, since I posted it here yesterday:
https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2025/11/26/80345481/slog-am-fire-destroys-hong-kong-apartment-towers-ag-nick-brown-sues-trump-again-and-king-county-has-a-new-boss/comments/93
The irony is that Knife and all his sockpuppet accounts belong to some poor brown dude half the world away who gets paid peanuts to troll here.
@20 – LOL thanks for the good hard gut laff
@15 Bi-pedo/Knife…
Wow! It only took you a month to get that joke.
It’s kinda sad that you are this easy to troll. Your parents must be so proud.
CDiz @20…
Hmm, I hadn’t thought of that.
You might be on to something there
“Wow! It only took you a month to get that joke. “
It’s sad that you are really that naive
@ Max Solomon,
As I recall, you followed this traffic death story and were outraged the driver was not even cited.
Well the WSDOT just agreed to pay $30 million to the victim’s family.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/wa-to-pay-30m-to-settle-lawsuit-over-teen-killed-in-faulty-crosswalk/
So Max, and everyone else, what should happen to the employees responsible for the state not repairing the defective pedestrian signals? What do you will actually happen
Meanwhile in Seattle, Celebrate Diversity, which is Our Greatest Strength™! How could I have possibly known? It’s such a huge mYsTeRy! Not being a goofy naive White-Guilt Seattle “Progressive” helps! Remember kids, “White Seattle Progressive” = “stupid and naive”!
More details from the killing I linked to earlier:
Argument at Seattle hookah lounge turns deadly, suspect at large
Mon, December 1, 2025
SEATTLE — A homicide investigation is underway after a man in his 30s was shot in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District and subsequently died from his wounds at the hospital.
Just before 8 a.m. Monday, officers were called to the 400 block of Rainier Avenue South near South Jackson Street. There, police found a man with a gunshot wound. Seattle Fire Department medics took him to Harborview Medical Center in serious condition. The victim underwent surgery and died in the operating room.
…. Investigators learned there was an argument inside the hookah lounge before the gunfire erupted. Police said a man fired several rounds from the front steps of the business into the lounge, hitting the victim. There were other people inside at the time of the shooting, but they were not hurt.
https://komonews.com/news/local/1-person-killed-in-shooting-near-south-seattle-strip-mall-rainier-valley-gun-violence-homicide-crime-spd-search-for-shooter-suspect-rainier-ave-s
Oooph…
Sick burn, dude.
Try harder.
@5 They probably gave him twilight anesthetic for the trip through the MRI. Not enough to have to admit they anesthetized him, but definitely enough to get him to shut his yap.
@26 – I burn you every time I post a news story that you’re desperate to ignore.
@1
“but let’s let our Narrative
be about all the Crime
‘the bottom 95%’
are doing or
facing.”
–@kristo on December 1, 2025 at 9:53 AM
@2, and right on Cue:
“Meanwhile, in Seattle:
1 person killed in shooting
near south Seattle strip mall.”
–@Knife* on December 1, 2025 at 10:24 AM
our Billionaire’s
taking Us OFF their
Track of Subjugation
Alienation & Domination
keeping us fighting
each Other in their
Culture Wars so
We don’t EVER
even Consider
a Class War.
‘but What can WE DO?’
said 350,000,000
People, per-
plexedly
*thanks for Illustrating
my point so clearly
& so swiftly,
Shivvy.
and Thoroughly.
@29 – 30
Yeah it’s “the billionaires” FORCING black people to commit murder in Seattle over once a week
@24: didn’t know the signal was faulty, thanks for the update.
I have no idea what will happen or should happen to the WSDOT employees responsible. It could have been negligence; it could have been incompetence. They may not have even known about it. Does the article say? It’s paywalled and fuck the Blethens.
@32 – Seattle Times paywalls, and almost any paywall on the internet, are easily passed by using archive.is
Here you go, here is the article you wanted to read:
https://archive.is/jsxVY
@31 Why do you have such a problem with individual black adults shooting each other but no problem with white young men walking into schools, churches and stores and shooting 20 babies at a time?
It’s a rhetorical question. The answer is: You’re a racist piece of shit.
@34 – because compared to how often blacks kill other blacks (and Asians and Whites), the frequency of a White doing such a thing is very rare. Also, there’s an entire graft/grift industry of “non-profits” and authors and speakers (etc.) that demonize Whites, supposedly in order to “uplift” blacks from their constant dysfunction.
That’s why! Thanks for asking.
PS: Reality itself is “racist”
@32, The article says that WSDOT was aware of it being out as well as seven other pedestrian signals on the route being out. They had willfully delayed and postponed the maintenance to an indeterminate future date.
I raise the issue because the allegation is made here that when police are sued and settle for wrongful death, people want the cops involved fired or severely disciplined. I almost never happens because the cops were within policy, or if they weren’t, progressive discipline (counsel, retrain, suspend, etc.) must be applied.
It is no different for any other government worker. It has been the same for WS Ferries, school teachers and administrators, Evergreen College, Seattle City Light, and other cases of wrongful death settlements or verdicts, and discrimination verdicts for which public links are available (and have been provided in the past).
Government employees are not “at will”, where they can be disciplined or fired for any reason that is not unlawful, at the whim of the employer. Government workers are citizens, and the courts take a dim view of government coercing them out of Constitutional rights with a paycheck. The 4th, 5th, 14th, and other Amendments apply as well as case law such as New Jersey v. Garrity. Disciplining public employees is a whole other world.
@34 – Someday you’re just going to face up to the cold hard fact that +90% of all homicides and non-fatal shootings in Seattle/King County are committed by black people.
no to worry
shank — your Great
White Hope cadet Bonespurs’s
gonna Lock Up all them Non-Whites so’s
us White peeps can have this place all to Ourselves
your problem’ll be when he
starts sending poor and then, middle
class Whites to his buddies’ slave/concentration camps
maybe by then you’ll be
a Sargent in his
Gestapo
Write some more funny shit
@39 — DID NOT READ.
Yes you did
@Bi-pedo/Knife…
Again, does running multiple sock accounts make one schizophrenic?
@42 – don’t care
No way did Donald give anyone a blow job named Bubba. This was likely an inside joke between the Epstein brothers. Sociopathic narcissists are not capable of enjoying blow jobs, as a significant part of the experience is giving pleasure.
@43… ooh, back to monosyllable words again.
So do you care if I ask if wrangling multiple sock puppet accounts turns someone into a sociopath? You seem to be the person to ask…
‘After the shooting, Trump said on Truth Social that he planned to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” and “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.” He’s already stopped all asylum decisions, and yesterday, Trump told reporters that he expected the situation to last “for a long time.”’
Petty autocrat is petty.
Because you wouldn’t want to reward someone who’d helped you. All that’s going to do is make other persons in future want to help you, and we can’t have any of that, now can we?
“Lakanwal came to the US during the chaotic troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, as part of a program to resettle Afghan citizens who had worked with the US military in the war. He’d been part of the Zero Units, military units that worked with the CIA, conducting night raids.”
We obviously failed Lakanwal, big time, by not getting him the medical help he desperately needed. Now, thanks to the pettiness of a petty autocrat, it’s going to hurt a lot of innocent persons.
(Good thing progressives worked to throw the election to Trump over Gaza, eh? Bet it felt sooooo good for them, “to punish Kamala Harris and defeat her,” for Harris’ refusal to follow progressives’ clear and explicit orders on Gaza. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/at-seattle-rally-sawant-says-harris-deserves-to-lose-1000-times/)
@43 & 46
@
tS’s
two
biggest
cunts they’re just
Here to take it Down.
@45 – whine and cry at me some more, it’s so delicious
ask me more of your dumb questions
I am of the Devil and I am here to do the Devil’s Work
you will always just be some goofy naive libprog
bugger
off troll
pot meet kettle
stare into my abyss ‘fartian
“As of now, they have 600 units open. With at least 9,800 people sleeping unsheltered in King County, we need those units yesterday.”
The Inn at Queen Anne wasn’t the only disaster resulting from King County’s buying of hotels to house the homeless:
‘Efforts were made by King County officials to start a homeless initiative and help people off the streets by leasing an extended stay at an inn hotel called “The Red Lion,” located off of Rainer and Grady Way S. It was leased to the county for $32 million dollars and housed over 200 homeless people when it opened in January. It was home to many through the rough months of the COVID-19 lockdown. Then it went up in flames. A man was arrested for arson and the homeless were moved to another extended-stay hotel down the road for a flat rate of $28 million, where they are now.’
(The person arrested for arson was one of the homeless persons housed there.)
“Astute readers may have noticed that The Red Lion Hotel seems to be derelict and abandoned as of now. Owing to the county’s extended lease of the property, taxpayers are still paying 330k a month for an empty hotel that only hosts private security guards and no residents. At the end of the day, King County has used $55 million and a change of taxpayer dollars and is still locked into payments and repairs for an abandoned building that has no current plans for reacquisition.”
(https://rhshawkeye.com/10667/news-2/red-lion-report/)
Housing First, misapplied to a homeless population with severe mental problems and drug addictions, claimed a once-useful building. That’s another 200 units we also needed yesterday. And last year. And the years before then.
(https://rhshawkeye.com/10667/news-2/red-lion-report/)
@51 there are numerous examples like this from all over. I noted a few in another thread. Housing first works if homelessness is the only issue. When combined with mental illness and addiction it just a waste of money and resources.
https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/06/07/a-28-million-low-income-apartment-complex-descends-into-chaos-in-just-two-and-a-half-years/
https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2022/san-francisco-sros/
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-08-16/mayfair-hotel-was-beset-by-problems-when-it-was-homeless-housing
https://komonews.com/news/local/renton-firefighters-respond-to-fire-at-hotel-being-used-as-temporary-homeless-shelter
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/owner-of-civic-hotel-used-as-homeless-shelter-sues-seattle-king-county/
@48…
You already used that one the other day. I mean, you could have just called yourself the ‘Tooth Fairy’ and it would have had the same impact (i.e. none). You really aren’t very good at this.
I must say a few kind words for the dearly departed old Inn at Queen Anne, where my family stayed on a visit to Seattle, ‘way back in the days of steadily falling unemployment and no inflation. She was a solidly three-star classy lady: solid, roomy, tastefully decorated in a delightfully faded manner, and (above all) incredibly comfortable. Location? Right there, baby! We walked to Ten Mercer (also, sadly, now gone) and Seattle Center (tourists gotta tourist), then rode safe and working public transportation (remember that?) to museums around town. Yet more great experiences of Seattle, ones that current residents will never know. Sad!
@53: “You really aren’t very good at this.”
You seem unaware that “this” is trolling, and that @48 has (t)rolled you in the grand style. Whatever your purpose in engaging, I doubt very much you’ve achieved it. I’ve previously (and copiously) used kristo’ for cheap examples of just how horribly wrong some of the Stranger’s positions are, but as he’s never going to admit the invalidity of whatever he’s defending (e.g., ‘don’t say HAMAS!!1!’) further engagement would just prove tediously tiresome. So now, with a mere flick of the mouse wheel, I scroll past without a care. (If ever I want an easy laugh at his expense, I can return; his comments will still exist here.) I humbly suggest you do the same.
@53 – Don’t care, cry more
@The Wormtongue,
just trolling for
trollings sake
or trying
to kill
tS?
good question:
“[kristo]’s never going to admit
the invalidity of whatever
he’s defending (e.g.,
Anti-genocide =
Jew hater).”
yeah wormmy
my pro-genocide*
pov’s gonna help Jews
travel safely thru this world
*oh wait
it’s Your unwavering
support for bibi’s keep outta
prison scheme — sorry about that!
say that Reminds me
how’s that Peace Plan
sorry — Ceasefire Plan
coming? has your favorite
War Criminal started stopping
War Criming or is he Still Stealing
West Bank homes olive orchards and Lives?
and claiming there’s a Hamas
agent hiding behind EVERY
Non-belligerent in
Palestine and
Gaza?
keep us posted!
“No Youf jail n’sheeit!” – The Stranger, probably:
Parents argue for release of teens accused of stealing SUV, shooting at Seattle police
December 1, 2025
…. ….
Some of their family members were in court asking for their teens to be released from custody.
“I just feel like she made a bad decision, she just caught up as a child, and I feel like she definitely learned from this situation today,” one parent told the judge. “I do understand this is very serious. I’m shocked. It’s a lot of stress on me.”
“I feel like her coming home, this will never happen, I promise you that,” the parent added. “She’s never been in any kind of trouble; she doesn’t have a record or anything.”
A judge ordered two of the teens who have priors to remain in secured detention, while two others were released onto electronic home monitoring.
“We know one of those two held in secure detention, there was a warrant King County prosecutors made a motion for in a custodial assault case,” Casey McNerthney with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said. “That was active at the time of the most recent arrest from our understanding.”
https://komonews.com/news/local/teens-arrested-after-high-speed-chase-and-shooting-at-seattle-police-face-juvenile-court-aurora-ave-shooting-at-police-crime-teenager-girl-boy-handgun-theft-speeding-chase-pursuit-felony-high-school-investigation
“but let’s let our Narrative
be about all the Crime
‘the bottom 95%’
are doing or
facing.”
–kristo on December 1, 2025 at 9:53 AM
@57 (and right on Cue, too!):
“‘No Youf jail n’sheeit!’ – The Stranger, probably.
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah”
–@Knife* on December 2, 2025 at 6:19 AM
Possibly suffering
What Looks Like
Another stroke?
shiv, Loyal to
our Billionaires,
taking Us OFF their
Track, of Subjugation
Alienation & Domination
keeping us fighting
each Other in their
Culture Wars so
We don’t EVER
even Consider
a Class War
Against
Them.
‘but What can WE DO?’
said 350,000,000
People, per-
plexedly
*thanks for Illustrating
my point so clearly
& so swiftly, and
so Thoroughly
shivvy shivvy
shankittty
skank!
I do Hope
you ‘Did NOT
Read!’ this one Too?
@52: Agreed, and add this failure does more than merely destroy property, waste public funds, and return persons to the streets. In the Renton incident, the resident setting fire to the only home he had also trapped other persons within the burning structure. The Renton Fire Department rescued them, but loss of life could easily have occurred. Over the past decade, thousands of addicts have died in encampments in Seattle and King County — with the Stranger calling it “compassion.” It’s hard to see how simple enforcement of the laws would have produced worse outcomes.