Skip to main content

Top 5 Under the Radar Stories


 


Here's another installment of our popular Under the Radar series. Check out the new "Under the Radar" online magazine to read even more stories that may have been under-reported.

 
1)      Surging Foreign Arm Sales:  Sales surged 36% in 2015 and are set to remain strong in the coming years. ISIS has fueled demand among our allies for US missile defense equipment, helicopters and munitions. 10 years ago, the focus was on fighter jets. Europe, the Pacific and even Centcom have provided the demands. The total value of sales in the works is around 500 billion dollars.The Pentagon vets all requests, including those from countries with weak human rights records.

 
2)      139 Countries get power from Renewables:  There is a blueprint released within the last few years giving details of how all 50 US States may run on renewables by the year 2050.  The plans include wind turbines, solar farms, and hydroelectric dams. The point being that there is a path forward, without being dewy eyed or thinking that this is some kind of a “pipe dream”.

It may be quite feasible to propose a set of numbers to aim towards the type of power structure laid out in these proposals. That is the purpose of the Paris Summit! To begin to look at actual concrete numbers and “do-able” proposals.

3)      What’s killing the bees? Colony Collapse Disorder is a real threat, and honey bee colonies have been collapsing for a while now from this very real threat. The cause has been traced by many beekeepers to a class of pesticides that weaken the entire system of a honey bee. The mega-corporations that control the manufacture of the pesticide may be getting away with murder.

4)      Weakening Dodd-Frank:  Attaching Financial Regulation Amendments to spending bills erodes it.  Things masquerading as technical changes-per Jack Lew…. In Dodd-Frank, banks had to be subjected to annual regulatory tests to assess their ability to withstand stress in a down market. If they fail, regulators could put restrictions on them. Dick Shelby of Alabama, Chairman of Senate Banking, wants to effectively exempt most of the large banks from the test. Shelby wants to raise the definition of large banks from 50 billion to 500 billion. The compromise may be support of a 100 billion dollar threshold.

Also, the Financial Stability Oversight Council is in the crosshairs of GOP. A regulatory entity set up by Dodd-Frank, this council was set up to give a range of financial advisors the ability to assess whether or not dangerous risks were beginning to build up within the banking system once again. In other words, oversight. The new legislation would lengthen the process of designating at-risk institutions, with critics pointing out that AIG’s bets were at a dangerous level in less than four years, which is the time the new legislation recommends for evaluating risks.

5)      According to Washington, these are the worst schools in the US: The network of schools which administer education to Native American children is run by an obscure branch of the Interior Department. Washington has known this for going on eight decades. To date, there has never been a successful reform of this agency.

There are 183 schools for Native Americans in reservations interspersed in 23 states. They report to the federal Bureau of Indian Education, a small agency deep within the Department of the Interior.

Approximately 48,000 students attend these schools, and they produce some of the lowest test scores and graduation rates in the country.

Bill Clinton and George W Bush both made concerted efforts to improve the BIE schools. Obama recently became involved after visiting a reservation and seeing the plight of the schoolchildren.

One of the main problems is attracting good teachers to stay. The teacher vacancies are chronic at the BIE schools. The plan to overhaul the system is moving “at a crawl”. There is only some glimmerings of hope that a system that has been broken almost eighty years will change anytime soon.
 
Stay tuned as we are going to provide up-to-date lists on a bi-weekly basis that will help make sense of the news stories that are often missed or at least not given more than a cursory mention on the nightly news. We update the news constantly on our online site: "Under the Radar". Check it out!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hillary and the Man in the Arena

From the standpoint of one who voted for and endorsed Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton, there seems to be a question hanging in the air. How could someone who opposed the Clintonian dynasty support Hillary’s bid for the Presidency? Isn’t it a bit hypocritical? Or at least inconsistent with the view previously taken? This is true for many supporters of Obama. Some on the left cannot support her bid for President.They see many of her acknowledged flaws and conclude she cannot be a viable option. My view comes from watching her over the course of the past eight years, four as the Secretary of State within this Administration. And having watched the two debate in 2008- Obama vs. Hillary- there can be little question that the divide that separates them on most issues is a small one. Theirs is a centrist left view of the world. On Foreign Policy, I daresay that Hillary would never have worked for Obama had she held wildly opposing views from his own world view. But the...
Post a Comment
Read more

What hath We Wrought?

If someone waking from a deep freeze just saw that tape where Trump was bragging off the record about the way he treated women, grabbing them by the crotch because they "let you do it", it would seem that so many red flags are raised that they would immediately conclude it as disqualifying for any candidate for higher office. It goes without saying that women are not objects, or something lesser to be grabbed and treated as toys or groped simply because someone believes themselves immune from the rules of polite society, an ethical code of conduct or common human decency. It was obvious that Trump couldn't handle even the small amount of power that is bestowed on a Hollywood TV Reality star. Why would anyone think that this person could handle the immense power and pressure that the highest office in the land entails? That does say something about the voters. Voters didn't vote simply for change, they voted for the strong man who didn't just fall to the top...
Post a Comment
Read more

Are we even asking the right questions?

    What is this about really? Are we somehow conflating this withdrawal with the idea of America as a superpower?  Is it about American Exceptionalism and the idea that we have lost our innocence? Is this something that we will use to justify what we are doing in the world; where we are going, and what we want to be known for in the world? Just asking what we want to stand would be a good start in terms of questions going forward. This may be a conversation that needs to be had in the coming years. All of the talk,   and the hopes and aspirations were discussed and mapped out before being put into the small 21st Century online political group that was created in 2017. The thoughts & ideas came from a hopeful take on the dark reflections seen in the election of Trump in 2016. Are we a country and a people that are even capable of building a better tomorrow?   We need to be able to have this serious talk with Allies and others of good will;   T...
Post a Comment
Read more