{"id":132231,"date":"2016-12-11T01:30:09","date_gmt":"2016-12-11T08:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/11\/because-what-the-us-state-department-needs.html"},"modified":"2016-12-11T12:42:12","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T19:42:12","slug":"because-what-the-us-state-department-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/11\/because-what-the-us-state-department-needs.html","title":{"rendered":"Because what the US State Department needs"},"content":{"rendered":"

… is to be led by the multi-zillionaire head of a massive multi-national oil company and<\/i> decorated friend of Russia.<\/p>\n

I mean, really?<\/i><\/p>\n

And how is that whole "conflict of interest" thing going to work when the guy who has worked for Exxon all his professional career and as CEO probably has a zillion dollars in stock is suddenly in a position to lift sanctions against Russia that were keeping Exxon from a half-a-trillion dollar deal?<\/p>\n

Yes, we are all terribly, terribly glad that Trump is using his minority<\/del> mandate to "drain the swamp," get Big Money out of DC, and make Russia<\/del> America great again!<\/p>\n

This represents another opportunity for the GOP members of the Senate who have any desire to maintain their national security cred to block this particular nomination. <\/p>\n

Blocking John Bolton, neocon retread, as Deputy Secretary of State would be refreshingly intelligent, too, given his non-stellar record as UN Ambassador.<\/p>\n

Do I expect that to happen? Well, hope springs eternal …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nTrump picks Exxon CEO Tillerson for secretary of State: report<\/a><\/span>
\nCritics have already called into question Tillerson’s ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… is to be led by the multi-zillionaire head of a massive multi-national oil company and decorated friend of Russia. I mean, really? And how is that whole "conflict of interest" thing going to work when the guy who has worked for Exxon all his professional career and as CEO probably has a zillion dollars … Continue reading “Because what the US State Department needs”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,35,532,131,374],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-big-business","category-elections-2016","category-energy","category-money-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":128324,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/15\/exxon-and-climate-change.html","url_meta":{"origin":132231,"position":0},"title":"Exxon and climate change","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 15-Oct-15 3:23pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Exxon researched and started making changes to its operations in the 90s and 00s in response to climate change predictions that its own internal scientists agreed with -- even as it fought in public to discredit climate change science. Exxon treated it as a business expense and competitive necessity, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130714,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/20\/its-good-to-have-important-friends-in-congress-just-ask-exxon.html","url_meta":{"origin":132231,"position":1},"title":"It's GOOD to have important friends in Congress. Just ask Exxon","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 20-May-16 4:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The GOP leader and members of the House Science Committee are subpoenaing the records of 17 state attorneys general and eight environmental groups regarding investigations into Exxon's lengthy history of denying or downplaying climate change, even while its own internal investigations confirmed that such climate change was happening. 'The letters\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132296,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/13\/what-should-a-secretary-of-state-know.html","url_meta":{"origin":132231,"position":2},"title":"What should a Secretary of State know?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Dec-16 10:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The linked, rather screedy, piece makes two worthwhile points:1. Even if Tillerson divests himself of every bit of Exxon stock, pension, golden parachute, whatever, he's still going to be approaching the role of the US chief foreign policy guy and diplomat from a lifelong career as an Exxon employee and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132954,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/01\/tar-sands-are-being-written-off-by-major-producers.html","url_meta":{"origin":132231,"position":3},"title":"Tar sands are being written off by major producers","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 1-Mar-17 10:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"Long-term and pretty systemic drops in petroleum prices, plus high extraction costs, means that major oil companies are actually writing off their investments in Canadian oil sands. 'A glaring example of this problem came from ExxonMobil this week, which announced that it had removed 3.3 billion barrels of Canadian oil\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133205,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/04\/the-charity-for-publicity-president.html","url_meta":{"origin":132231,"position":4},"title":"The Charity-for-Publicity President","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 4-Apr-17 7:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh, good. Trump's pledge to turn over his salary to charity worthy causes is now going to become a periodic \"See what a cool guy I am for giving money to this particular cause?\" PR stunt -- in this case delivering a stunt check to the Secretary of the Interior\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132993,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/07\/tweetizen-trump-2017-03-07-weak-strong-jobs-infighting.html","url_meta":{"origin":132231,"position":5},"title":"Tweetizen Trump – 2017-03-07 "Weak! Strong! Jobs! Infighting!"","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 7-Mar-17 10:29am","format":false,"excerpt":"You're watching the morning news shows again, aren't you, Donald? ===\u25ba Thank you for the great rallies all across the country. Tremendous support. Make America Great Again! [1]That one was from the 5th, but I didn't think it warranted its own post. It's great to see you have some supporters\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/donald-trump.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132232,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132231\/revisions\/132232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}