Thursday, December 15, 2016

Tillerson has never worked anywhere but Exxon, how did he get on the list for secretary of state?

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/12/1610177/-Tillerson-has-never-worked-anywhere-but-Exxon-how-did-he-get-on-the-list-for-Secretary-of-State
"Trump's cabinet picks have been uniformly awful and patently ridiculous, with many of his selections made for no other reason than to offend as many as possible and continue Trump’s Gish Galloping campaign. Tillerson certainly meets that criteria. Among the worst, the most preposterous, contenders is ExxonMobil Chief Executive Rex Tillerson. How did he even get on Trump’s list? That’s an excellent question, actually. There doesn’t seem to be any history between Trump and Tillerson. He’s a man who has worked at exactly one company in his entire life and who has zero experience with either diplomacy or even with any business other than oil. Where did Tillerson come from, and why is he suddenly the only name on Trump’s short list? There’s a clear enough theory behind the choice: Friends and associates said few U.S. citizens are closer to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin than Mr. Tillerson, who has known Mr. Putin since he represented Exxon’s interests in Russia during the regime of Boris Yeltsin. “He has had more interactive time with Vladimir Putin than probably any other American with the exception of Henry Kissinger,” said John Hamre, a former deputy defense secretary during the Clinton administration and president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank where Mr. Tillerson is a board member. Trump keeps insisting that Tillerson’s experience with Russia is a good thing. Except … what is Tillerson’s experience in dealing with China? Or Israel? How’s his deal making on anything but oil and gas? Tillerson is a piano with exactly one note. Big. Oil. Deal. With. Putin. And his consideration as secretary of state isn’t simply the kind of “$!@k you, rationality!” statement that Trump has issued with other choices."