The Putin-Trump bromance

Rex Tillerson's Exxon-Mobil has been under formal investigation by the SEC since August

Most of the commentary over Donald Trump’s presumed secretary-of-state nominee Rex Tillerson concerns the Exxon Mobil CEO’s closeness to Russia, and Senate Republican discomfort with that relationship. But Trump and Tillerson share something else that hasn’t gotten as much attention—a penchant to rip off their business partners.

In ExxonMobil’s case, I’m talking about shareholders. Tillerson’s company has been under formal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission since August for failing to accurately value its proven oil reserves.Those reserves are critical to investors for assessing the future viability of the company. Without the certainty that the company can keep crude oil flowing decades into the future, ExxonMobil stock would plummet. Rewriting the disclosures to investors with lower valuations would cost the company billions of dollars. And actually the entire oil and gas industry would be affected by a new standard rather than the current ad hoc system.

The investigation is a kind of companion piece to the “Exxon Knew” campaign, which charges that the world’s largest publicly traded oil company was aware of the catastrophic effects of climate change nearly 40 years ago, but lied to shareholders about these risks to its business model. Attorneys general in over a dozen states have opened investigations into these matters.

But the SEC probe goes further. The agency requested documents from PricewaterhouseCoopers, ExxonMobil’s auditor, looking at how the company accounts for future costs from global climate regulations. If it becomes more costly to initiate drilling because of the so-called “price of carbon,” or regulations that mandate reductions to greenhouse gas emissions, Exxon might have to shelve the projects, taking a hit to future profitability. Even if the United States dumps the Paris climate accord (something a Secretary of State Tillerson may be in position to influence), Exxon does business worldwide, including with countries who would be likely to stay in the pact and work to cut emissions. Public companies must account in their financial disclosures for knowable risks to investors, and climate regulations would certainly fit the bill for an oil giant.

The SEC also wants to know why ExxonMobil does not write down the value of its reserves when oil prices drop. The crash began two years ago; a barrel of oil fetched $115 in June 2014, but under $28 by February. Even with the recent announcement of OPEC production cuts, the price has barely crested $50. But ExxonMobil never factored that loss into its calculations of future reserves; by contrast, Chevron has written down $50 billion. Exxon said in October it could “de-book” about 20 percent of its reserves if prices remain low, but it hasn’t done it yet.


the rest:
https://www.thenation.com/article/potential-secretary-of-state-nominee-rex-tillerson-has-an-sec-problem/

'Person' of the year

By any definition of the word, this may be Russia's greatest coup since Sputnik.

The result of Putin’s intervention in the American election cannot be downplayed. If Hillary Clinton had garnered just 107,000 more votes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, this would have given her the Electoral College and the White House. According to pollster Nate Silver, the Russian intervention contributed to eroding up to three per cent of the swing-state vote from Clinton. That small margin was all it took to decide the election.

By any definition of the word, this may be Russia’s greatest coup since Sputnik. It was a spectacular success—it toppled one political candidate in order to place Moscow’s man in the White House—and no matter what happens next, it has dealt a damaging blow to America and its political institutions.

And there can be no doubt that Trump is Moscow’s man. Throughout the campaign, his pro-Russian policies were his only inflexibly consistent proposals. After winning the Republican nomination, his team asked for only one change to the entire party platform—removing support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, contradicting almost the whole Republican foreign policy establishment.

............

How did we get here? Habituation. Every paragraph in this column would have been laughably unbelievable 18 months ago. Putin interfering in the U.S. election? President Trump? A pro-Russian administration? But when this slowly unfolded, day by day, and inch by inch, we gradually became de-sensitized to the change that Trump has brought to America: campaigning on lies, turning America’s foreign policy on its head, and making the United States a subordinate ally to Russia.



http://www.macleans.ca/news/world/russias-american-coup/

People in charge of GOP now aren't traditional Republicans-They took over GOP in a coup in 80s & 90s

Didn't you ask Russia to hack Hillary on live TV?

Donald J. TrumpVerified account
?@realDonaldTrump
Unless you catch "hackers" in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking.
Why wasn't this brought up before election?

"Plunder Monkeys"

STEPHEN KING:

Trump's proposed cabinet is the worst in American history: a motley crew of plunder-monkeys.

Good news. Bipartisan outrage.

This may be America's finest hour, as we act together with unshakable resolve to deal with enemies

A Guidestar:

This may be America's finest hour, as we act together with unshakable resolve to deal with enemies foreign and domestic.

Worth reading this whole thread:
!!!
https://twitter.com/ericgarland/status/808045818024497157?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

"...the Russians provided the lighter fluid, and Trump is standing half-burnt and holding a match.

Former intelligence officers told the Guardian they considered retaliation by Trump to be all but a certainty after he is sworn into office next month. Trump still has several appointments to make at the highest levels of the intelligence apparatus, picks which are likely to be bellwethers for the new president’s attitudes toward the agencies.

“There is not just smoke here. There is a blazing 10-alarm fire, the sirens are wailing, the Russians provided the lighter fluid, and Trump is standing half-burnt and holding a match,” said Glenn Carle, a retired CIA officer and interrogator.

“The facts hurt, Trump won’t like the truth, and he will without question seek to destroy those individuals or organizations that say or do anything that he thinks harm his precious grandiosity.”