By Alexander Reid Ross (July 12, 2017)
I just don’t get all the jockeying and positioning of some leftists around Trump and Russia. Now that it’s been proven that the Trump Campaign actively embraced Russian espionage, there are fewer people giddy over denying the whole thing (and comparing good journalists to conspiracy theorists in the process). However, it’s now fashionable to simply dismiss everything as unimportant or, better yet, a distraction from other things like climate change.
Trump, it appears, is in power today, at least in part, because of an extensive smear campaign that activated deep networks of oligarchs and media figures, most likely for the sake of releasing sanctions that crippled the Russian economy and furthering the interests of collaborative energy relations.
Trump’s climate policy and the placement of ExxonMobil chief Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State have everything to do with this arrangement. Tillerson’s long history arm-in-arm with Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft, is crucial to understanding how, as the Arctic fades, the US and Russia hope to partner up and exploit all the oil they can find.
This marks a 180 against any sensible climate policy. It is directly linked to the Russia affair. How can the point be made seriously that it’s a 100% distraction? Like, we are the 99% and we all hate the oligarchy, but let’s not allow that to blind us to the political operations at play in international relations.
