Reject Rex Tillerson, EXXON's Russian Obligate Oil Guy - Here's why.

A collection of informative articles about Rex Tillerson and why we should never allow such a single-minded corporate machine to become USA’s Secretary of State.  A position demanding respect for our Constitution and a much broader understanding than a dedicated oil man(42+years) who knows nothing but drilling for profits is capable of acquiring.  No matter now many big shot deals he may have closed! 

Why are supposedly patriotic Republicans so accepting of Tillerson’s oh so cozy, nay intimate, ties to Russia’s Putin, which he is disingenuously back peddling?  More importantly Tillerson is a corporate guy who despises our government for interfering with his business dreams.  Given the powers of the Secretary of State you can be sure that his objective will not be to uphold his oath and USA's constitution but to rearrange USA from a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, into the Corporation of Amerika, a government fully owned and dedicated to the interests of today’s corporate oligarchs.  People who have utter disregard and contempt for anything beyond their own oh so myopic self-interests. 

Also consider, Tillerson still deludes himself about the scientific understanding regarding manmade global warming.  Yet another issue that should have disqualified him outright - but than what can we do when most Republican politicians are so beholden to corporate money that they themselves remain steadfastly willfully ignorant on an issue that is already inflicting substantial damages to our global economy, infrastructure and its vulnerable citizens.  With the guarantee of worse on the way, while we sleep.

I share the following full text of “Tillerson Called Out for 'Lying About Climate' During Confirmation Hearing”  thanks to Common Dreams generous “Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License” ~ I also include quotes and links to a variety of articles, listed below:

* As Tillerson Dodges, Exxon Ordered to Hand Over Evidence of Climate Cover-Up

* Rex Tillerson Denies Oil & Gas Subsidies Exist, While Company Profits From Them

* Tillerson doesn’t deny climate change – but dodges questions about Exxon’s role in sowing doubt

* Rex Tillerson Would Put the Dollar Sign on the American Flag

* A War on Regulations

* Seven Issues that Could Have Rex on the Ropes

* Rex Tillerson Is Big Oil Personified. The Damage He Can Do Is Immense

* #RejectRex: Protests as 'Big Oil Personified' Faces Capitol Hill Hearing

* The Existential Threat of Trump’s Corporate Cabinet

* How Rex Tillerson Changed His Tune on Russia and Came to Court Its Rulers

* Behind the deep ties between Exxon's Rex Tillerson and Russia

* What It Really Means to Be a ‘Friend of Putin’

** United States 115 Senate Committee on Foreign Relations list

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Tillerson Called Out for 'Lying About Climate' During Confirmation Hearing

Published on 

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

by Deirdre Fulton at  Common Dreams

'Listening to his hearing, it would be easier to conclude Tillerson is under criminal investigation than under consideration for secretary of state'

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/11/tillerson-called-out-lying-about-climate-during-confirmation-hearing

At his senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, U.S. secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson on Wednesday dodged questions about ExxonMobil's long history of denying climate science, lending credence to claims his tenure would be a disaster for the planet.

When pressed by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) about the major charges unearthed by the ongoing ExxonKnew investigation—namely, that the oil company hid evidence going back to the 1970s of how the burning of fossil fuels impacts the climate, and funded misinformation campaigns to spread skepticism about growing scientific consensus—former Exxon CEO Tillerson "essentially pled the fifth," said Oil Change International executive director Stephen Kretzmann.

Our Children's Trust vs. Big Oil - Federal Lawsuit

I tend to distance myself from the news, it gets too distracting, and I'd get nothing done, so I'm often playing catch up regarding the latest happenings.  But, dealing with frolly's video is so depressing that I've been drifting.  Then I came upon this story that's impressive and worth sharing.  Why?  Because this is what I'm talking about.  Stand up and say enough is enough, be it oil company lawyers, government inaction, or lying about what scientists are actually telling us.

I wasn't able to find any news post-hearing, but soon as I do I'll share.

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Our Children's Trust 2015 Federal Lawsuit

On Wednesday, March 9 at 10 am, Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin will hear oral arguments for motions to dismiss in the landmark constitutional climate change case brought by 21 young people from Oregon and around the Nation.

http://ourchildrenstrust.org/us/federal-lawsuit

21 young people from across the United States have filed a landmark constitutional climate change lawsuit against the federal government in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. Also acting as a Plaintiff is world-renowned climate scientist Dr. James E. Hansen, serving as guardian for future generations and his granddaughter. The Complaint asserts that, in causing climate change, the federal government has violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, property, as well as failed to protect essential public trust resources.

The Complaint alleges the Federal Government is violating the youth’s constitutional rights by promoting the development and use of fossil fuels. 

These young Plaintiffs are challenging the federal government’s national fossil fuel programs, as well as the proposed Jordan Cove LNG export terminal in Coos Bay, OR. Plaintiffs seek to hold President Obama and various federal agencies responsible for continued fossil fuel exploitation. The Federal Government has known for decades that fossil fuels are destroying the climate system. No less important than in the Civil Rights cases, Plaintiffs seek a court order requiring the President to immediately implement a national plan to decrease atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (“CO2”) to a safe level: 350 ppm by the year 2100.

Meet the Youth Plaintiffs!

Click here for a summary of the complaint.

Click here for major pleadings and court orders in the case.

How climate science denialists employ the "Serengeti Strategy"

Here's an informative post worth passing along, it's a good description of one of my pal Mr. Steele's main strategies, right up there with misrepresenting what scientists have actually written and said.  I tip my hat to SkepticalScience.com for making me aware of this article

Posted on 9 January 2015 by Guest Author Deirbre Fulton

Climate Deniers Employ Predatory Tactics in Fight Against Facts: Scientist 
by Deirdre Fulton 
was originally posted on Common Dreams on Jan 6, 2015.

Michael Mann writes that the strategy 'is similar to what happens when a group of lions on the Serengeti seek out a vulnerable individual zebra at the edge of a herd.'

"The 'Serengeti strategy' is often employed wherever there is a strong and widespread consensus among the world’s scientists about the underlying cold, hard facts of a field, whether the subject be evolution, ozone depletion, the environmental impacts of DDT, the health effects of smoking, or human-caused climate change," Mann writes. (Photo: Bulletin of Atomic Scientists/Brocken Inaglory)

Like lions targeting lone zebras in the Serengeti grasslands, industry-backed climate change deniers prefer to target individual scientists rather than take on an entire scientific field at once, climatologist Michael Mann writes in a paper published this month in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

In "The Serengeti Strategy: How Special Interests Try to Intimidate Scientists, and How Best to Fight Back," Mann describes a concerted effort on the part of fossil fuel interests who find themselves facing overwhelming scientific consensus about the threat of human-caused climate change—and, by implication, the necessity to reduce global carbon emissions.

"By singling out a sole scientist, it is possible for the forces of 'anti-science' to bring many more resources to bear on one individual, exerting enormous pressure from multiple directions at once, making defense difficult," writes Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. "It is similar to what happens when a group of lions on the Serengeti seek out a vulnerable individual zebra at the edge of a herd."