Consolation, we are in sync today. That’s what I’ve been wondering. I can’t imagine putting profits ahead of funding terrorism. And with the price of oil dropping, how can it stay so profitable a business?
The drop in oil prices reportedly has hit ISIS hard. But they also have the traditional terrorist funding mechanism of kidnapping and extortion.
The Fiscal Times gives some information about their oil sales . They evidently sell locally, to people who don’t have other reliable sources:
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/11/18/Here-s-Why-Oil-Prices-Are-Holding-Steady-Despite-ISIS-Attacks
@Youdon’tsay –
“I can’t imagine putting profits ahead of funding terrorism” – The. U.S. can and does. Saudi Arabia, the nation hugely responsible for much of the terror around the world, is one of our top sources of oil.
The Syrian refugee family that was supposed to go to Indiana, but was turned away by the Indiana governor, ended up in New Haven instead, joining some 20 other Syrian refugee families. They are a mother, a father and their four year old son. They fled war-torn Homs, Syria, three years ago. They’ve been in the pipeline since then, and finally got here. Welcome home, Syrian family!
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/11/19/elm-city-welcomes-syrian-family/
The US refugee resettlement program partners with nine different private resettlement groups, most of them religiously affiliated. However, the religious affiliation of these groups is not necessarily rigid. When I called another resettlement partner, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, to get some information, I mentioned that I’m an atheist. The LIRS representative said she’s an atheist too. 
CC threads intersect in funny ways. I found this article by surfing after someone in the Yale protests thread linked to a different Yale Daily News thread.
Strange how the popular concern and fear of foreign policy threats has not translated into greater popular demand for minimizing oil consumption (e.g. demand for more practical electric vehicles, or highly fuel efficient liquid fueled cars, or public transportation, etc.), given how many of the foreign policy threats are directly or indirectly funded by oil. It took $4 per gallon gasoline to get people interested in such things, but such interest appears to be receding with lower gasoline prices.
“I can’t imagine putting profits ahead of funding terrorism” – The. U.S. can and does. Saudi Arabia, the nation hugely responsible for much of the terror around the world, is one of our top sources of oil."
Absolutely. Hence my statement earlier about suburban mothers who “needed” SUV’s to cart two kids and some groceries.
Well, I don’t know, Pizzagirl, there are some big curbs one must navigate in any any self-respecting suburb… and don’t even get me started about the battle over parking spaces at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. You gotta have an SUV to just cope.
What I meant by “I can’t imagine putting profits ahead of funding terrorism” was more about a direct link. Are there people who go, “Hey, I can get cheaper oil by getting it from ISIS so, yeah”? Do the people doing the business know they’re dealing with ISIS, or is it more nebulous? Does it get conflated with other things?
But let’s imagine the path. ISIS has the oil. They sell to a middleman who knows who he’s dealing with, but who also buys oil from other sources. The middleman sells to buyers who don’t know that some of the oil they’re buying comes from ISIS, but don’t enquire too closely either, and to buyers who do know the oil comes from ISIS but don’t object.
I daresay that some of the products we buy have shady origins that we’d object to if we looked closely: child labor, forced labor, poor environmental practices. But we don’t look closely.
http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=oil_use describes what oil is used for in the US.
As of 2013, about 46% of US oil consumption was for gasoline, and another 20% was for diesel fuel. LPG (propane or butane) production accounts for about 13%, and jet fuel accounts for about 7.5%.
Choosing a fuel efficient car (or a non-petroleum-powered vehicle if practical for your use) can be good for all of your personal finances, national security, trade balance, and environment. Win-win-win-win.
One of the evacuated Mali hotel hostages appears to be pulling his rollaboard bag as he’s exitting the hotel (00:50 second mark in video)
dude… unless you’ve got top secret engineering plans for constructing a nuclear bomb in that rollaboard, let go of the bag.
@katliamom, I manage to navigate the Trader Joe’s parking lot perfectly well in my Focus station wagon! 
I manage in my 8-year old economy sedan: I even take it skiing (at well over 8,000 feet.) My post defending SUVs was tongue firmly in cheek.
@katliamom, I fully realized that AFTER posting! Sorry!! B-)
Hee hee, @Consolation – Not the first time irony or sarcasm didn’t come across cyberspace
CNN video:
French father in Mali explains the terrorist attack to his young son
http://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/11/17/father-explains-paris-terror-attacks-to-young-son-orig-updated.cnn
Interesting video, not only because the kid is awfully cute, but it shows how multi-racial the French are.
I have seen that video multiple times on CNN and it still makes me tear up. I don’t think we realize how much young children absorb. These things really upset their world and compromise that sense of security they feel. In this little boy’s mind he was thinking they would have to “change houses.” So sad.
I managed with infant/toddler/young twins in a Honda Civic and later a Touota Camry. If you don’t use your car like a traveling suitcase, it’s no problem. I was quite the rarity at my mother of twins club where they all “had” to have vans or SUVs. I now drive a Prius. I have been to Saudi Arabia, seem how they treat women, and buying a car with really good gas mileage is a value I have - regardless of the price of gas. I want as little of my money going to that region if possible.
He used the migrant crisis as a cover, which is exactly what people are afraid of. When you let in thousands, if not tens of thousands of refugees a day, you can’t exactly expect a thorough screening of each person.
The whole thing is a very big mistake IMO.
That’s different than knowingly letting an ISIS fighter in.