October, 11 2022, 10:42am EDT
STOP Campaign Releases New Videos with Rep. Ro Khanna Calling for a Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax
As Big Oil profiteering sends gas prices and home heating bills skyrocketing again, STOP calls on Members of Congress to take immediate action to help working families
WASHINGTON
The Stop The Oil Profiteering (STOP) campaign released two new videos online this morning featuring Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17) calling for a Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax.
"Big Oil has mastered the art of profiteering," Rep. Ro Khanna says in a shorter video released on Twitter. "Over the last year we've been investigating the ways Big Oil has been gouging consumers at the pump and tracking the profits. We found a Big Oil pipeline from your wallet to their pocket....Big Oil has been making us pay. It's about time we make them pay, so join me in supporting the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax."
In a longer version of the video released on YouTube, Khanna talks about the steps that progressives in Congress have been taking to investigate Big Oil and free the country from a dependence on fossil fuels.
"It's less than half a mile from this ExxonMobil station to the US Capitol, but the path from your wallet to the pockets of Big Oil is even more direct," explains Khanna. "Over the last 8 months, Big Oil companies have raked in over $100 billion in profits by limiting supply and jacking up prices."
As gas prices and home heating bills start to climb again across the country, Stop The Oil Profiteering and its allies have intensified their calls for Congress to pass a Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax that would tax a percentage of Big Oil's excessive profits and use the earnings to send relief directly to American families.
Over 80% of voters support a windfall profits tax and 87% of voters want to see Congress take steps to crack down on oil industry price gouging. Dozens of members of Congress support the policy. California Governor Gavin Newsom recently endorsed the idea and called for a special session to pass the tax.
"As fossil fuel prices skyrocket again, these videos aim to educate the public about how Big Oil is gouging us at the pump and on our home heating bills," said Jamie Henn, a spokesperson for the STOP campaign. "The Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax remains the most direct way to hold Big Oil accountable and get money back in the wallets of hard working Americans. It's past time that Congress take action and stop the oil profiteering."
Fossil Free Media is a nonprofit media lab that supports the movement to end fossil fuels and address the climate emergency.
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Amnesty International on Thursday called for a war crimes investigation into recent Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon that killed dozens of civilians, as well as a suspension of arms transfers to Israel as it attacks Gaza, the West Bank, and Syria.
In a briefing paper titled The Sky Rained Missiles, Amnesty "documented four illustrative cases in which unlawful Israeli strikes killed at least 49 civilians" in Lebanon in September and October amid an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) campaign of invasion and bombardment that Lebanese officials say has killed or wounded more than 20,000 people.
"Amnesty International found that Israeli forces unlawfully struck residential buildings in the village of al-Ain in northern Bekaa on September 29, the village of Aitou in northern Lebanon on October 14, and in Baalbeck city on October 21," the rights group said. "Israeli forces also unlawfully attacked the municipal headquarters in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon on October 16."
Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty's senior director for research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns, said in a statement that "these four attacks are emblematic of Israel's shocking disregard for civilian lives in Lebanon and their willingness to flout international law."
The September 29 attack "destroyed the house of the Syrian al-Shaar family, killing all nine members of the family who were sleeping inside," the report states.
"This is a civilian house, there is no military target in it whatsoever," village mukhtar, or leader, Youssef Jaafar told Amnesty. "It is full of kids. This family is well-known in town."
On October 16, Israel bombed the Nabatieh municipal complex, killing Mayor Ahmad Khalil and 10 other people.
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In the deadliest single strike detailed in the Amnesty report, IDF bombardment believed to be targeting a suspected Hezbollah member killed 23 civilians forcibly displaced from southern Lebanon in Aitou on October 14.
"The youngest casualty was Aline, a 5-month-old baby who was flung from the house into a pickup truck nearby and was found by rescue workers the day after the strike," Amnesty said.
Survivor Jinane Hijazi told Amnesty: "I've lost everything; my entire family, my parents, my siblings, my daughter. I wish I had died that day too."
As the report notes:
A fragment of the munition found at the site of the attack was analyzed by an Amnesty International weapons expert and based upon its size, shape, and the scalloped edges of the heavy metal casing, identified as most likely a MK-80 series aerial bomb, which would mean it was at least a 500-pound bomb. The United States is the primary supplier of these types of munitions to Israel.
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The October 21 strike destroyed a building housing 13 members of the Othman family, killing two women and four children and wounding seven others.
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Guevara Rosas said: "These attacks must be investigated as war crimes. The Lebanese government must urgently call for a special session at the U.N. Human Rights Council to establish an independent investigative mechanism into the alleged violations and crimes committed by all parties in this conflict. It must also grant the International Criminal Court jurisdiction over Rome Statute crimes committed on Lebanese territory."
"Israel has an appalling track record of carrying out unlawful airstrikes in Gaza and past wars in Lebanon taking a devastating toll on civilians."
Last month, the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with Israel's 433-day Gaza onslaught, which has left more than 162,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing in the embattled enclave.
The tribunal also issued a warrant for the arrest of Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged crimes committed during and after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, in which more than 1,100 people were killed and over 240 others were kidnapped.
Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice is weighing a genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel. Last week, Amnesty published a report accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
The United States—which provides Israel with tens of billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic cover—has also been accused of complicity in Israeli war crimes in Palestine and Lebanon.
"Israel has an appalling track record of carrying out unlawful airstrikes in Gaza and past wars in Lebanon taking a devastating toll on civilians," Guevara Rosas said. "The latest evidence of unlawful air strikes during Israel's most recent offensive in Lebanon underscores the urgent need for all states, especially the United States, to suspend arms transfers to Israel due to the risk they will be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law."
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Citing recent research by the American Immigration Council and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the JEC report warns that depending on how many immigrants are forced out of the country, Trump's deportations could:
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Adam Rust, director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America, called the rule "a major milestone" in the CFPB's efforts "to level the playing field between regular people and big banks."
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"The CFPB is cracking down on these excessive junk fees and requiring big banks to come clean about the interest rate they're charging on overdraft loans."
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