Who is Big Oil?

Few states have more experience with Big Oil than New Jersey. I have spent my life in their waste stream. I sat in the President’s Box at a Navy vs. Notre Dame game, under Big Oil’s President Nixon before I was a teen. The Navy and Big Oil were kissing cousins, might still be, but I am a historian, not ever or now a Big Oil or federal employee.

There Will Be Blood. There was blood and tar balls up and down the Jersey coastline. There was also Bowser’s Esso were Dixie Bowser repaired rich folks’ bicycles when she felt like it.

New Jersey’s Princeton University put their tiger in everybody’s tank, with a wink.

Long before there was Murder Inc. Big Oil had touched all those bases. NJ was where both nested. Trusts were said to have been busted, but that did not stop the syndicate for a New York minute.

When titans battle, the whole planet rattles. Some of us live long enough to grow beyond shaken into stirred. The syndicate labels us as disturbed. They tend to have the last word.

Don’t get me wrong. I am grateful that the syndicate allowed me to examine its soft spots. I am grateful that they have not removed me yet. I know that they can any time they want. They want you to know this too. Sure, they do. Intimidation takes care of most resistance. The algorithms pile on.