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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Allegedly Used Email Alias As Exxon CEO (arstechnica.com)
According to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Rex Tillerson used an email alias of "Wayne Tracker" to communicate with other Exxon executives about climate change while serving as CEO of Exxon Mobil. "New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been leading an investigation of Exxon Mobil centered on whether the company misled investors by publicly arguing against the reality of climate change even though its executives knew the science was accurate," reports Ars Technica. "The investigation was triggered by news reports describing climate research the company undertook in the 1970s and 1980s, which affirmed the work of other climate scientists and showed that greenhouse gas emissions were causing climate change. Exxon buried that work and spent the next couple decades claiming that the science was unclear, although it has recently publicly acknowledged reality." From the report: The e-mails that were provided allowed the attorney general to figure out that Tillerson used the account between 2008 and 2015 at least, but it didn't appear on Exxon's list of accounts for which records were preserved. The letter also mentions 34 other e-mail accounts "specifically assigned to top executives, board members, or assistants" that the attorney general thinks should have been included. In a statement, an Exxon spokesperson explained, "The e-mail address, Wayne.Tracker@exxonmobil.com, is part of the company's e-mail system and was put in place for secure and expedited communications between select senior company officials and the former chairman for a broad range of business-related topics." The Office of the Attorney General's letter claims that "Exxon has continuously delayed and obstructed the production of documents from its top executives and board members, which are crucial to OAG's investigation into Exxon's touted risk-management practices regarding climate change."
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Predicting the future science has been always as reliable as it is... this is completely ridiculous...
considering the fact that publicly funded institutions like universities etc bury politically incorrect results all the time...
Wow this story has:
AGW? check
Trump? check.
EMAILS!? check.
Which means I need:
popcorn? popcorn? Not check?!? No popcorn! Sad.
Someone had to do it.
Dude had IT set him up another account so he could surf porn... who hasn't?
Film at 11...eyeroll
There's no law against using an email alias. Why is anyone even talking about this?
Many of us in engineering field know better than to put anything down on email. Use personal face to face meetings or phone calls to discuss things and only use emails when everything is decided. This should be the standard practice. Otherwise you'll be opening yourself up to lawsuits when something you engineered fails and it shows you picked a less sound engineering option to save some money or there was a better engineering alternative you didn't take.
it could not, a company is not animate. People do things on behalf of the company. Thus it is people who misled investors, etc.
The difference is important because all too often they will let the company/corporation pick up the blame for what they did and pay any fines. Until executives start losing their homes and pensions their behaviour will not change, we will continue to see scandals such as this. I am not talking about making executives paying for mistakes, even bad ones, but for deliberate lies/... such as this.
Moron.... private company != Government
I can create all the email account I want for my company ... the Government has no constitutional power to complain.
The witch hunt to file some sort of criminal complaint because I dare to talk about climate change or deny climate change.. is simply that.
The problem isn't that he used a secret email address.
The problem is that he used that secret email address to hide communications.
Those communications were allegedly about a scheme to mislead the public (and investors) about the state of climate science.
Misleading investors with information you know to be false is a bad thing because it causes them to make investments based on your lies, if those emails show that Tillerson knew he was lying it could be a very bad thing.
I stole this Sig
Oh the horror, the horror! See it isn't wrong that Hillary did it!
There are laws about misleading investors that the attorney general is investigating. If the attorney general has probable cause that a crime has been committed, shouldn't they be investigating it? One of the ways they gather further information is to subpoena records related to the case.
but the purpose is the same as a political use: to hide something that you're afraid might backfire on you some day.
Would it be too much to ask that folks of great power and privilege conduct their affairs more honorably? Let's not forget he wasn't using the pseudonym for private communications... it was being used to deny global warming was anthropogenic after Exxon's own studies clearly indicated to the contrary.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
So tell me just how do you feel about the NSA rendering everyone's electronic communications not private ?
Or are you only upset just when people you don't like have privacy ?
Like Exxon, I too am NOT the federal government.
Quit using my real name some 20 years ago. One email account is for real mail, closely guarded. The other is for everything else.
I get 2-3 messages a week in my real email, and 10-20 a day in the other one. I read maybe 2-3 of them.
when his salary depends on him not understanding it.
None of this matters. I don't care about climate change. I care about whether I'm going to have a job and whether my kid's gonna have a job because in our civilization those who work eat and those who don't starve.
It's impossible to have a meaningful discussion on climate change without socialism. As long as we accept that it's OK to abandon over half the populace to abject poverty in the name of freedom we have to accept that those people will oppose anything that takes away what little they have in the short term even with the promise of the long term. Like Trump said, these people have nothing to lose.
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Moron.... private company != Government
I can create all the email account I want for my company ... the Government has no constitutional power to complain.
The witch hunt to file some sort of criminal complaint because I dare to talk about climate change or deny climate change.. is simply that.
Except that Exxon Mobil is not a private company. Its stock is sold in various currencies on numerous exchanges around the world.
The executives of a publicly-traded company have a legal fiduciary responsibility to inform shareholders of potential risks to the company's profitability. Trying to bury their own evidence that their products contribute to climate change arguably is a violation of that responsibility. Hence the investigation by the AGs.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Misleading investors with information you know to be false is a bad thing because it causes them to make investments based on your lies, if those emails show that Tillerson knew he was lying it could be a very bad thing.
Agreed. It also occurs to me that your sentence could be valid in so many more ways.
Misleading _voters_ with information you know to be false is a bad thing because it causes them to make investments based on your lies, if _records_ show that _the president_ knew he was lying it could be a very bad thing.
Then again, I suppose there is no penalty for lying your arse off in record and breathtaking ways to get elected, and then keeping it up when your in power.
There should be though. There should be. The impeachment criteria literally mean whatever the congress thinks it means. In no other job in the world would his behavior be acceptable, but it is okay for the president? Really?
I have had 10 / 15? email address's since the early 90's and not one had my real name, not even my .gov or .mil address's.
The govt. computers did not like the way my name is spelled and it is not Bobby Drop Tables either.
Still have 4 or 5, only one that I use for real mail the rest are for sign-ups.
My e-mail address is fairly close in spelling to my real name, but not quite.
And I use mailinator too.
Passionately Indifferent
The people who are ruling our world are really a bunch of lying jackoffs. All the money, all the power, but they're still lying jackoffs.
You are welcome on my lawn.
From what I can tell, scientists are whores who will sell themselves to the highest bidder.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
this is not a privacy issue, but a criminal issue with the afforded warrants in place.
not even the same conversation.
The difference is that there WAS a subpoena with which Exxon was supposed to surrender ALL correspondence. Fishing line not fishing net.
The population will grow until it cannot be sustained, then we will be famine, or war, or disease. Many will flee, and we'll hear "I have money I was successful stop calling me a filthy immigrant and why aren't you helping me.. please help me" at the borders, complete with armed guards and razor wire. You may think "just as well we're building that wall", unless you understand that you cannot be sure which side of it you will be on. The population will be drastically reduced, and the cycle will repeat yet again.
For an animal with supposedly advanced cognitive abilities, we are incredibly short-sighted and still completely wired into our evolved base compulsions.
In short, I predict more stupidity.
It's a pretty safe bet.
Wow, non sequitur much?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Did he also do it to avoid FOIA requests while holding "Top Secret" clearance and exposing national secrets to foreign hacking? And did he do it on a private server accessible by a legion of people without such clearance? Or was that just Hillary Clinton?
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Oh give me a break. You don't give a flying fuck about the poor. If you did, you would at least accept that climate change is going to inordinately effect them. But it will affect your kids as well, so it is clear you don't actually give a damn about then either. There are solutions that don't involve socialism, so that to is just a strawman.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Weather is not climate. You do understand what the "global" in global warming means, right? You did get far enough in school to learn about average and mean, it I assume so.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
nerd news that matters . i read the wsj for weather and the entertainment today to keep abreast of veterinary news.
Have you forgotten about the same behavior prior to him announcing his candidacy?
Funny how it only mattered when he started having an (R) at the end of name.
And tell me that Exxon's $175 million 'put into trust for Tillerson', isn't really a payoff to leverage his position in government.
I'm sure we should just turn a blind eye to this, except Exxon's major investments are in Siberian oil fields and so *it* has to be Putin's bitch, which means Tillerson has to be Putin's bitch too.
But hey, sell your country out for your own interests Tillerson.
Russia is neither here nor there. They may have influence, they may not. What matters is that some state-level intelligence agency was able to disrupt the American electoral process. That's bad no matter what team you play for. Not only that, but now that it has been successful, do you think that will result in more attempts or fewer? And tell me, exactly how expensive is it to set up a team of hackers?
Russia is the least of our problems.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
Both Climate Change and Global Warming are accurate terms. Global Warming refers to the overall average in global temperatures (note: it says nothing about local trends that result). Climate Change is now used to refer to this phenomenon to avoid confusion when transient or localized cooling occurs because the Earth as a whole gets warmer which changes wind, ocean currents, and a myriad of other effects. Localized cooling does not mean that the globe isn't warming, and instead it generally only means that the heat you're accustomed to seeing is going somewhere else.
Consider a refrigerator. It does make your home warmer, however it clearly does make one localized area cooler (that is of course its purpose) but does so by removing heat from that one location and moving it elsewhere and since thermodynamics require that in doing so work must be done and that work must also generate heat the overall system is warmer (but with one localized area noticeably cooler and a much larger area subtly warmer).
You are a fucking idiot who needs to read the god damn summary! There was a fucking subpoena as part of an ongoing criminal investigation for email communications you fucktard!
I read mainstream stuff like the WSJ to see how writers mess up a story one way. I watch alternative news to see how someone can turn a slight misfortune by the ruling elite into them being utterly ruined. Stefan Molyneux has some interesting back and forth. MatPat has interesting content as does the skeptic community.
Why, all it takes to outwit them there government revenuers, I mean regulators, is just a email alias. Hell, even I cun unnderstand tha-ut.
Seriously, an email alias was his cover? Geesh!
What is necessary is for polluters to pay the full price of the damage that they are doing to the environment. This can be achieved by carbon pricing in the case of the flap over climate change, which can occur without 'socialism' as such. If however you fail to implement that, it's as immoral as dumping sewage on someone's front garden or graffiting priceless painting...
If a small company was being investigated and their emails were significant to the crime, then there would be no problem with grabbing everything despite the damage that it would do to the small firm. Yet when a big firm is being investigated, they are free to hand over what they feel like. A similar problem was visible when News International was done in the UK over its phone hacking behaviour. A little less subtly from prosecutors would be welcome!
Boo hoo.
Yepper disagreeing on an issue is a criminal matter.
Wow you're thick, and not in the good way. This is fraud, plain and simple.
Lying to Congress under oath is a crime...
Clinton
Clapper
Holder
Deleting 30000 emails subpoenaed by Congress in an investigation is a crime...
Clinton
"No reasonable prosecutor would file charges"
https://ericschneiderman.com/r...
Hey if you have to hang a few people to get elected why not.
This is well intentioned but inaccurate. The predominant theory in the 19th and early 20th Century was that the climate did not change, that it was solely cyclical and that warm years would cancel out cold ones. Theories of climate change were still necessary even in the 19th Century to explain ice ages. That mankind could do anything to affect the climate, and that the effect of this would be warming, was established separately from the idea that long-term climate could change. The two terms are used interchangeably today for fairly obvious reasons.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
As I replied to the other poster, the idea that climate could change at all was established separately from the idea that man could affect the climate. The two terms are nowadays synonymous. You are of course completely dependent on the fruits of science and certainly know very little about anything.
As it happens, AGW is at least as well established as Relativity, and it predates it. You could verify the theory in your basement. Why do you not feel ashamed of your ignorance?
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
EPA head Lisa Jackson, also used an alias to communicate at the EPA. She was known as Richard Windsor. Funny how that wasn't a scandal.
They did not mislead.... they reported the Global Warming Risk on their 10k... !!!!!
5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
They reported the risk of global warming on their 10k.
5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
> Misleading investors with information you know to be false
Can you prove that he knows it to be false?
You might be able to prove that it is false. Or you might be able to prove that you know it's false. But how do you prove that he knows it's false?
Possibly by looking at the emails in his secret account.
I stole this Sig
Misleading investors with information you know to be false is a bad thing because it causes them to make investments based on your lies, if those emails show that Tillerson knew he was lying it could be a very bad thing.
Agreed. It also occurs to me that your sentence could be valid in so many more ways.
Misleading _voters_ with information you know to be false is a bad thing because it causes them to make investments based on your lies, if _records_ show that _the president_ knew he was lying it could be a very bad thing.
Then again, I suppose there is no penalty for lying your arse off in record and breathtaking ways to get elected, and then keeping it up when your in power.
There should be though. There should be. The impeachment criteria literally mean whatever the congress thinks it means. In no other job in the world would his behavior be acceptable, but it is okay for the president? Really?
All politicians lie to some extent, Trump is unusually egregious but they all try to mislead.
Ultimately it's the responsibility of voters to hold politicians to account for their honesty. Trump was an exceptionally dishonest candidate, any voter who voted for him either accepted his lies as part of the bargain, wasn't paying the slightest attention to the campaign, or was a complete idiot.
I stole this Sig
Stick to the case/facts, nutter.
There are solutions that don't involve socialism
Yeah, if you consider things like war, famine and disease solutions. One way or another the population is going to adjust to a new equilibrium in the not too distant future due to climate change. Nothing can prevent that now. In fact, it's probably too late to prevent our ultimate extinction now too. Given these realities, I'd rather enjoy what time I have left in some relative level of comfort instead of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic or arguing with others about their best arrangement while the ship heads for the bottom.
It's impossible to have a meaningful discussion on climate change without socialism.
No, you've picked up a cheap trick from the denialist crowd which sounds convincing but is wrong. It's an argument in the gamut of "we don't know, the evidence isn't there, the evidence is fiddled, ok the evidence is right but we don't know people are doing it and finally it's too political to discuss properly".
SJW n. One who posts facts.
The reason you see more snow is because increased evaporation causes increased condensation, which tends to cause larger and more violent snowfalls. That doesn't change that the winter is warmer on average than it used to be, that we're getting record-setting temperatures every year and every season, that we're getting more killer storms these days, that former temperate regions are now drying up, etc.
A snowstorm is weather. Years and decades worth of weather is climate. And some use the term 'climate change' politically now to explain global warming because they know some people refuse to accept global warming because they saw snow in the winter.
I think after this debacle I will be ok vesting more power with the state to take your freedoms and crush you. My side has larger numbers too. I think its about time to take this to level 11.
It's impossible to have a meaningful discussion on climate change without socialism.
No, you've picked up a cheap trick from the denialist crowd which sounds convincing but is wrong.
I'm sorry, which word do you think is wrong? All government which attempts to serve the people is socialist by definition. Therefore all government except perhaps our current one is partly socialist by definition. The only thing left to argue about is what percentage socialist a government is. If it does things for everyone, that's socialism. It's not a bad word.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Ah yes, the old "eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we shall die" line. There's no evidence that humans are going to go extinct. Life will become more expensive for many, for many it will become worse, and for some it will likely mean death. You're just trying to mask your lack of desire to actually do anything in some sort of hedonistic nihilism. It's pathetic, in part because I think even you know what you're claiming is pure bullshit, and in part because it betrays just how selfish you really are.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
"The Office of the Attorney General's letter claims that "Exxon has continuously delayed and obstructed the production of documents from its top executives and board members, which are crucial to OAG's investigation into Exxon's touted risk-management practices regarding climate change." This is laughable as the growing body of accurate and confirmed scientific evidence shows no CO2 driven climate change, and no warming outside of the normal Nino for the past 18+ years.
I'm sorry, which word do you think is wrong?
It's the meaning of the sentence that's not correct.
All government which attempts to serve the people is socialist by definition.
Erm, I'm not sure precisely what you mean. Also, aren't we talking about climate change?
Therefore all government except perhaps our current one is partly socialist by definition
I don't think that's a commonly accepted definition of socalism to be honest.
The only thing left to argue about is what percentage socialist a government is.
Well, OK, that's fair. No government is pure, 100% anything despite the party rhetoric. Stanuchly capitalistic governments will have social programs. Even the loony left politicians *cough*Corbyn*cough* don't disclaim private ownership of property and businesses. All governments exist on a spectrum of varying degrees, though calling a government with some socialist policies "socialist" will cause confusion.
It's not a bad word.
True but your statement is still not correct. There's a lot to climate change. You can have discussions about the science, likely outcomes from a physical geographic point of view, forcing factors, oscillations, effect and lifetime of various greenhouse gasses and aerosols without invoking socialism at all.
To be clear: I wasn't accusing you of being a denialist, but the tactic of trying to mix up politics with it is one used by denialists because it's a good way to sow doubt: people disagree on politics and if it's mixed up with the science then by extension some peopple will end up "disagreeing" with the science. It's something taken out of the playbook of the tobacco companies and is a subtle and effective trick.
I was more warning of the dangers of bringing up the two together.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
So North Korea is the only non-socialist government (and even that is up to debate)?
Is that some sort of inverse "no true scotsman" thing?
Hint: If you define a word so it applies to everything, you almost certainly have the definition wrong or you're a troll.
(whether socialist is/should be considered a bad thing is a different question)
Lots of executives been doing this forever...
Fuck you're dumb
Our system conspires by its very structure to allow crimes against the public. Exon does a great wrong. Exon pays a huge fine. Exon passes along the fine as an additional cost for the public to buy gasoline. The public is punished. OK, so we through some Exon executives in prison. The public pays for those prison sentences, trails etc.. If we really want to punish companies tactics such as shutting them down in a number of states for a few years might work. For example we could disallow Exon to sell any products east of the Mississippi river for a ten year period. They would feel that deeply.