Monthly Archives: December 2016

March of the Plutocrats

The victory of the Plutocrats is complete. Is there anyone left in the country who still thinks Donald Trump is looking out for the little guy? Perhaps you’ve turned off your TV.

Rex Tillerson’s company, Exxon Mobil, has known about the dangers of climate change since 1981. Their scientists wrote some of the initial reports. To protect their profits, they spent millions of dollars not only to keep this information from you, but also to so stir the science that nobody could ever again trust results. The damage caused by that effort is very likely unmeasurable. Rex knows all this. And then he smiles, while he sells you the very product that may kill you. Other than that, though, he’s a nice guy.

I won’t even begin with Tillerson, Manafort, and the Russian connection. This goes deep and broad.

Meanwhile, damage to ‘the environment’ is #10 on Americans list of important issues facing the country. Terrorism at #6. Meanwhile, we are losing species – got that, entire species of life forms – at a clip of 10 a day, while terrorist still kill fewer people than bathtubs and lighting.

The victory of money over truth, common sense, and over life itself … may well be complete. Unless we don’t give up, and are willing to lift our heads from the warmth and security of the sand. The meek are never going to inherit the earth, that’s not the way it works;  but we can take it back at the ballot box if the Plutocrats aren’t going to play fair.

Russia’s energy industry could create a blurry line between Mr. Tillerson’s interests as an oilman and the role he will assume as America’s top diplomat.
NYTIMES.COM