By now, anyone seriously interested in Exxon’s long and twisted history in the oil industry worldwide can readily find information about its dealings with dictatorships, criminals, and shadowy politicians to extract and export black gold from the far reaches of the earth.

But the proposed appointment of ex-Exxon Rex Tillerson as U.S. Secretary of State should be considered very dangerous since it essentially puts the head of one of the world’s largest global corporations at an equal level with the entire U.S. government—or maybe above it.

Based on Exxon’s history, this corporation and its top management, including Tillerson, have put their interests ahead of the U.S. on many occasions, including its actions to violate trade sanctions and conduct business without any regard for U.S. foreign and domestic policies, including environmental laws, regulations, and skirting embargoes.

However, in case no one noticed, Tillerson’s ascent to becoming Secretary of State was a coup for corporate America. At the beginning of the 20^th Century, the corporate elite in the Gilded Age bought their politicians as proxies. Still, now, with the proposed Tillerson appointment, corporations (as evidenced by other Trump cabinet nominees) are in the process of taking over the U.S. government by inserting a top CEO, who spent over 30 years at Exxon and was indoctrinated in its arrogant, pro-oil culture that operated for years above and beyond the rule of the U.S. government.

After all, why buy politicians when you can just take over the government directly. It’s faster, cheaper and easier.

While others can produce thousands of pages on Exxon’s worldwide arrogance and violations, here are a few direct quotes from the 2012 bestseller Private Empire: Exxon Mobil and American Power by Steve Coll that show what Exxon thought of its power and its relationship to the U.S. government.

• “[then-Exxon CEO Lee] Raymond aligned Exxon with America, but he was not always in sync; he was more akin to the president of France or the chancellor of Germany. He did not manage the corporation as a subordinate of American foreign policy; he was a private empire.” Page 19
• “ExxonMobil’s interests were global, not national. Once, at an industry meeting in Washington, an executive asked [then-Exxon CEO Lee] Raymond whether Exxon might build more refineries in the United States to help protect the country against potential gas shortages.

“Why would I want to do that?” Raymond asked as the executive recalled it.

“Because the United States needs it…for security,” the executive replied.

“I’m not a U.S. company, and I don’t make decisions based on what’s good for the U.S.,” [then-Exxon CEO Lee] Raymond said.”  (Page 71)

Re: Exxon’s Distain for the Environment

• “In a large color ad taken out in Life magazine in 1962 by ExxonMobil’s precursor Humble Oil, a small, smartly dressed cartoon character saluted a photograph of a majestic glacier. “Each day, Humble supplies Enough Energy to Melt Seven Million tons of Glacier!” the ad’s headline declared.”  (Page 77)
• “They [ExxonMobil top management] had concluded that the whole debate around global warming was kind of a hoax,” said an executive who had direct access to [then-Exxon CEO Lee] Raymond. “Nobody inside Exxon dared question that.” (Page 83)

Corporations Now Run the Government

So, even the fact that Tillerson is being considered for the U.S. Secretary of State position means the reins of federal power have been offered directly to the world’s top global corporations.

Money in politics is a given that may not disappear for a generation. Now, corporations represented directly in the cabinet is something J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie would really appreciate.

After all, why buy politicians when you can take over the government directly? It’s faster, cheaper, and easier.