Gonna be a fun month.

The sky outside this morning is far creepier looking than during the near-totality of the eclipse a couple of weeks ago.

@2

Yeah. Things have been getting a little bit apocalyptic these past few months.

Like Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

When we don't have extreme weather, they think weather and climate are the same thing, if the weather is fine, the climate is fine. When have extreme weather, they say weather and climate are two different things, and the climate is fine, it's just the weather.

@6 Maybe I've overlooked something, but I think you might have jumped the gun on the climate/weather issue. I didn't see anything in the post or the comments referencing climate change. As a result, I am somewhat uncertain who "they" are in this context.

@7, You are they.

@7 wait a minute, they'll show up.

@8 dammit, you stepped on my line before the dude could say "okay now where are they?"

Pay by the mile. So someone driving a full size SUV will pay the same as someone driving an all electric Leaf even though they have vastly different impacts on the road and the environment. Gas tax was partly meant to be a disincentive to burning more fuel. If gas costs more then there is more incentive to get a more efficient vehicle. Yeah, yeah, I get that even people who drive electric cars should have to pay something for the roads, but then the people driving gas guzzlers (and I'm one of them) should still be paying more simply due to the larger impact.
Another question is what are we supposed to do when we drive in Canada or Oregon? Get a note at the border that says these miles don't count? What about all the out of state people driving into WA?
Seems it might just be easier to keep increasing the gas tax tied to an annual fuel efficiency/use index so revenue remains flat and it still keeps the efficiency incentive in place.

the weather outside is frightful, it's time to start square dancing with steelhead trout, marmots, chorus frogs, and goldfinches, while green darners and orcas scream about how this land is their "native home," if you know what i mean. also isis' siege of deir ezzor is over, much to the chagrin of.... jerks.

WITNESS MEEEEE!!!

@13

And for the end to that siege, we can thank... Vladamir Putin's air support.

So yeah, maybe not so surprising that we're not hearing more about it in the American press.

@17 it was an embarassing goof almost one year ago when with nearly 40 stikes the us coalition killed 100+ and wounded 100+ of syrian army "on accident," which significantly strengthened isis' position there, maybe that's another reason who can say. also maybe that before isis routed them it was the then-us-backed al nusra "rebels" fighting for years to control the city who knows tho, who can say.

@12 is correct - vehicle weight correlats with road damage (data from American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials)

http ://pedalfortcollins.com/greatest-demand-on-tax-dollars/

@16, @17, Putin's air support was killing hundreds of civilians daily. The Russians were doing that on purpose while we fucked up and did it once by accident. Big difference.

@19 us coalition has bombed syrian forces many times and it is delusional to think it was a one-off accident. russia has also "accidentally" bombed us coalition forces. airwars says russia killed 8-11k of civilians over the nearly 2 years it has been at it, and i am not here to defend it. they say us colaition has killed at least 5-8k civilians, and seem bent on one-upping russia's civilain death numbers, if the brutality of the last several months continue, killing over 1.7k civilians since march in raqqa alone. the numbers are likely much higher as they are based on reports weighted by credibility; we don't really know what exactly us coalition or russia has done but it is clear there are no good-guys any more (if there ever were), just brutes and victims.