Info Meme of the Week: Brotherhood of Evil Mutants Pt Twelve – Rex Tillerson

NinaIllingworth February 5, 2017November 17, 2022 Angola, bad choice, bastard, blog, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, CC3, climate catastrophe, climate catastrophy, Climate Crisis, climate science, climate science denier, Clinton Foundation, conflict of interest, corruption, drain the swamp, Equitorial Guinea, Evil Mutant, Exxon, Exxon climate destruction, Exxon lies, ExxonMobil, FA1, Galacticus Eater of Worlds, global warming, GOP, Hillary Clinton, horrible people running horrible companies, Imperialism, Info Meme of the Week, lobbyist, Meme, millionaire, MP6, murderer, News, nightmare, Nina Illingworth, Observations from Outside the Death Star, oil, OODS, planet murderer, Politics, Rec Reads, Recommended Reading, Republican, Rex Tillerson, shady deals, Six Things I Think, State Department, swamp creature, Tillerson, Trump, Trump Administration, Trump Cabinet, unqualified, US environmental policy, US Secretary of State, war, WD7

Editor’s Note: after two nightmarish weeks that can be best described as fast and feckless, the Trump administration finally ran into it’s first buzz saw in the form of a temporary Federal Court order suspending the swine emperor’s cruel and irresponsible Muslim ban. Things are objectively getting pretty crazy right now in America and as a result, I’ve worked hard to set aside more time to catch up on our Brotherhood of Evil Mutants series examining the nightmare neo-feudalist, fundie-fascist government The Donald appears to be assembling.

I’m working on another essay about American fascism as well, but there’s still quite a few can’t miss names in the Trump government we haven’t meme’d yet and today I’d like to lead off with a guy who’s built-in conflicts of interest and status as an evil corporate overlord should automatically disqualify him for his new role as US Secretary of State; Rex Tillerson:

Sources:

4 Reasons Tapping Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State Is a Terrible Idea

Why Rex Tillerson would be a disaster as Secretary of State

Why is Rex Tillerson as secretary of state so controversial?

Exxon Mobil under more scrutiny from NY Attorney General

As a diplomat Tillerson would face off with Beijing over projects he steered as a CEO

Trump’s pick for secretary of state has a slippery history with Africa’s oil

Tillerson’s potentially huge conflict of interest over Russia and oil, explained

Tillerson Cuts Ties With Exxon Mobil In Advance Of Confirmation Hearings

Don’t Be Fooled—Rex Tillerson Hasn’t Separated From Exxon Mobil

How Exxon & Trump Are Helping Rex Tillerson Put Off a $71 Million Tax Bill

Rex Tillerson: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Trump’s top diplomat enters pressure cooker

What Rex Tillerson’s Exxon Mobil track record tells us

Exxon’s climate lie: ‘No corporation has ever done anything this big or bad’

ExxonMobil’s Funding of Climate Science Denial

Note: Please be reminded that if you’re having trouble reading this Info Meme, just right click on the picture and select “view this image” to pop out a larger version. Additionally, please feel free to post this meme anywhere you like and remember that you can provide sources for the information in this meme by linking observers back to this post – which in turn helps me put food on my table by exposing more people to the donations bar below; thanks in advance for all of your help to grow this website.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about exposing Rex Tillerson to the world is the seemingly tranquil, almost banal quality to his particular brand of evil; at least on a surface level and when compared with terrifying fascists like Bannon and ridiculously unqualified fundies like DeVos. This unfortunately overlooks that as the primary directing force behind an oil & gas multi-national that’s undoubtedly more powerful than most countries on earth; Tillerson is undeniably responsible for more death, destruction and evil than virtually anyone else on this list so far – and that body count is still rising as the climate continues to change; long before Rex signs off on a single war as Trump’s chief diplomat.

This assumption that Rex is somehow a “normal” choice for Trump, even by comparison, also ignores the fact that Tillerson’s continued, extremely friendly relationship with a corporation like Exxon Mobil creates a tangled conflict of interest scenario that offers pretty much the exact same opportunities for abuse and self-enrichment Republicans (rightfully) criticized Hillary Clinton and the William J Clinton Foundation for.

Finally, while I’m still pretty certain that conspiracy theories about Russian Hackers altering the election are basically catnip for delusional neoliberal bloggers who simply cannot accept that Hillary Clinton was a terrible candidate who ran a terrible campaign for President; if anything short of hard evidence were going to change my mind, it would almost certainly be the disturbingly cozy relationship between our new Secretary of State and Russian President Vladimir Putin: