For the third year on the trot, Shell service stations generated billions of dollars and revenue but not a cent in company tax. Infact the owners of the sunny yellow servos reported tax benefits in all three years despite total sales which may be in excess of $60 billion.
This is an incredible situation for a nationwide network of services stations as well as a large refinery which makes up the “downstream” division of the global oil brand.
Shell last year sold its downstream business in Australia including its Geelong refinery, a portfolio of 870 petrol stations and other assets to Dutch oil group Vitol.
Durbin, not Schumer, as Senate Majority Leader in 2016?
Marcy Winograd: Mobilizing to prevent Schumer's Senate ascendancy may be the most practical way grassroots Democrats can channel their anger at a perceived rush to war on Iran.
Yohuru Williams and Steven Singer: The focus on teacher bathroom breaks misses the point on problems impacting teachers. Once again those entrusted with the most important job of preparing the next generation through our system of public education are losing a PR campaign that can’t or won’t distinguish truth from falsity.
Irene Monroe: The Stonewall Riot of June 27-29, 1969 in Greenwich Village started on the backs of working class African American and Latino queers who patronized that bar. Those brown and Black LGBTQ people are not only absent from the photos of that night, but have been bleached from its written history.
Lisa GarcÃa Bedolla:Despite an African American and two Latinos on the stage, Thursday’sdebate contained no substantive acknowledgment of or appeal to a broader audience. These candidates are still catering to their white base, holding strong to the Southern strategy.
Black Lives Matter Protesters Shut Down Bernie Sanders Rally In Seattle
By: Jason Easley
Saturday, August, 8th, 2015, 9:33 pm
Two Black Lives Matter protesters shut down a Bernie Sanders rally on Social Security and Medicare in Seattle. The Senator did not get to address the crowd after protesters stormed the stage after he began speaking and hijacked the event that was ended by the disruption.
Video:
Just after Sanders began to speak, a pair of protesters took the stage.
The Seattle Times described the scene that unfolded: “If you do not listen… your event will be shut down,” one of the protesters told organizers, who at first argued that they could speak after Sanders, but relented and said they could go first.
Some in the mostly white audience booed and hissed as they urged protesters to let the senator talk. A few yelled for police to make arrests. The protesters demanded silence before they’d speak.
Marissa Johnson, one of the protesters, shot back at the crowd, “I was going to tell Bernie how racist this city is filled with progressives, but you did it for me,” accusing the audience of “white supremacist liberalism.”
The activists demanded 4 ½ minutes of silence in memory of Michael Brown, the black man shot to death by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri a year ago. While rally organizers stood and raised their hands in support, some in the crowd yelled profanities.
After the event was canceled the Democratic presidential candidate said in a statement, “I am disappointed that two people disrupted a rally attended by thousands at which I was invited to speak about fighting to protect Social Security and Medicare. I was especially disappointed because on criminal justice reform and the need to fight racism there is no other candidate for president who will fight harder than me.”
Black Lives Matter Seattle issued a press release explaining why they disrupted the Sanders event, “This city is filled with white progressives, which is why Bernie Sanders’ camp was obviously expecting a friendly and consenting audience for today’s campaign visit. The problem with Sanders’, and with white Seattle progressives, in general, is that they are utterly and totally useless (when not outright harmful) in terms of the fight for Black lives. While we are drowning in their liberal rhetoric, we have yet to see them support Black grassroots movements or take on any measure of risk and responsibility for ending the tyranny of white supremacy in our country and in our city. This willful passivity while claiming solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement in an effort to be relevant is over. White progressive Seattle and Bernie Sanders cannot call themselves liberals while they participate in the racist system that claims Black lives.”
No one should have yelled profanities or racial slurs at the protesters. While I agree with the Black Lives Matter message, the bigger issue is that two protesters were able to storm the stage. Why is this still happening? Bernie Sanders is a major presidential candidate. Everyone involved was lucky that the BLM protesters were looking for a platform, instead of someone who wanted to harm Sanders. It is way past time for better event security.
The protesters are angry at Sanders after the Netroots Nation fiasco, but disrupting and protesting his events isn’t going to accomplish anything. It is time for Black Lives Matter to protest John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, governors, and the Republican presidential candidates. The protesters need to go after the power people in Washington and state capitals if they want to bring about real change.
The exchanges between the white liberals and Black Lives Matter have gotten ugly on both sides. It is time for the groups to unite and for this to end.
Together, they could be a force, but protesting Bernie Sanders isn’t going to accomplish anything. Divison only helps to strengthen the racial injustice.
Two Black Lives Matter protesters shut down a Bernie Sanders rally on Social Security and Medicare today. The Senator did not get to address the crowd after protesters stormed the stage after he began speaking and hijacked the event that was ended by the disruption. Read more »
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President Obama took aim at Republican efforts to suppress the vote by calling their laws that make it more difficult to cast a ballot a disgrace. Read more »
The Republicans are circling the wagons to get rid of Trump and they scored bonus points for putting on a very public show of caring about misogyny. Unfortunately, they only care about misogyny when it's aimed at a Republican woman by a man they want to get rid of, which is to say they don't care at all, Read more »
Trump notwithstanding, the exciting stuff seems mostly to have happened around, not in, the debate, especially in biting Twitter commentary Read more »
SEE BELOW FOR THE 1001STTIME THE REITERATION OF DEMAND PAYMENT OF RETIREMENT PAY WHICH SHELL REFUSED TO HONOR IN THE PRESENCE AND DEEMED APPROVAL OF THE HONORABLE MAGISTRATES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE PHILIPPINES
Michael West: 9 August 2015
