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Russia Starts Construction on New Iranian Nuke Plant

A Russian atomic energy corporation announced late Monday that it has formally begun construction on a new $10 billion nuclear plant in Iran amid global efforts by the Trump administration to crack down on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear endeavors.

The deal, which has been in the works since the Obama administration negotiated the landmark nuclear agreement with Iran, is aimed at further cementing ties between Moscow and Tehran and is being handled by Russia’s state Rosatom corporation.

Iran is permitted to construct new nuclear reactors and plants under the current nuclear agreement, a point former Obama administration officials disclosed to the Washington Free Beacon in January 2015, when the two countries were inking a deal to build at least three new nuclear plants in Iran.

The allowance of such construction under the nuclear deal has sparked criticism from some U.S. lawmakers and nuclear experts, who have warned that these plants would provide Iran with an alternate, plutonium-based, pathway to a nuclear weapon.

The State Department declined to comment directly on yesterday’s announcement, only telling the Free Beacon, "We will continue to hold Iran strictly accountable to its commitment under the JCPOA," or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Asked if the administration supports such a move and views it as in line with the accord, the official declined further comment.

The Obama administration was open about Iran’s right to build new nuclear plants, despite concerns over the level of nuclear-related know-how this would impart to Tehran.

"In general, the construction of light water nuclear reactors is not prohibited by U.N. Security Council resolutions, nor does it violate the JPOA," an Obama administration State Department official told the Free Beacon in 2015, referring to the interim nuclear agreement that paved the way for the JCPOA.

The head of Rosatom said late Monday that the new nuclear project will boost Russian-Iranian ties, which have flourished since the nuclear deal, particularly in Syria, where both countries have worked in tandem to support Bashar al Assad.

"I am sure this major Russia-Iran investment project will strengthen cooperation and ties between our countries," Alexey Likhachev, Rosatom’s Director General, was quoted as saying at the ground breaking ceremony for the new nuclear plant.

The new plant, dubbed Bushehr-2 after Iran’s original nuclear facility, will be equipped with the latest nuclear technology and be capable of producing larger amounts of electricity, according to reports in Russian-controlled media.

It is expected to take up to a decade to finish the construction.

Russia also jointly build Bushehr-1, Iran’s original nuclear plant, which went online in 2011.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladamir Putin has been on a diplomatic visit to Iran, visiting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei early Wednesday. Putin is set to meet a range of high-level Iranian officials as the two countries seek to boost their diplomatic relations on a range of fronts.

The post Russia Starts Construction on New Iranian Nuke Plant appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

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A new poll shows people aren’t so wild about… the Boy Scouts

Just how bad has the rat race gotten when we have to do approval ratings on the Boy Scouts? And yet, here we are. NBC News and the Wall Street Journal felt compelled to put such a poll in the field to determine how people feel about the recent BSA decision to begin admitting girls next year. The results might provide a bit of clarity for the organization’s leadership because people aren’t wild about it at all.

Nearly six-in-ten Americans — 57 percent — disagree with the move to allow girls to join the Boy Scouts, with 37 percent voicing strong opposition.

Thirty-six percent overall say they support the decision.

The Boy Scouts of America announced on October 11 that young girls would soon be allowed to join Cub Scout troops and that older girls would be eligible to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, saying in a statement that the decision came after “years of receiving requests from families and girls.” But the policy change has received mixed reviews from some advocates, including Girl Scouts USA, which responded to the announcement by lauding the benefits of “the single-gender environment.”

Almost all of the support for this idea is coming from one group: millennial Democrats. Roughly half of Democrats and the same margin of all respondents in that age group voiced support. But overall, there were no other major demographic divides. A majority of both men and women oppose it.

I previously wrote about the protests coming from the Girl Scouts board of directors. In that article I set forth all of my reasons for opposing this move so I won’t dredge them up again here. Instead, perhaps we could offer a few ways to address the perceived problems leading to this decision.

The chief complaint seems to be that the Girl Scouts don’t offer the same range of activities and opportunities as the Boy Scouts, giving them a leg up in the college application process and eventual career opportunities. I hadn’t been aware of this discrepancy, but it certainly sounds like a valid gripe. With that in mind, what say we concentrate on making the Girl Scouts better rather than letting them jump ship to the Boy Scouts?

Let’s identify what advantages the Boy Scouts offer and replicate them for the girls. The major problem here is that it doesn’t really sound like they’re all that different. Time Magazine assembled a good comparison of the two programs last month and found that the similarities outnumber the differences. The range of badges earned in both programs matches up fairly closely. Both have STEM programs in place to prepare the kids for good careers. The difference between the Eagle Scout rank and the Gold Award (for the girls) seems minimal also. So is this more a question of society placing more value on the Eagle Scout award than the girls’ equivalent? If so, public education on the subject might go a long way.

Allowing the girls to jump ship creates the exact opposite effect. The Girl Scouts aren’t just going to disappear overnight after 105 years of operation and having 1.8 million members. As the survey shows, there are going to be a lot of families who won’t want to enroll their daughters in the Boy Scouts, but some will. That means that you’ll bleed down the membership (and therefore the resources) of the organization which currently is most in need of support. And looking at the demographics in the poll, the families hurt the most by this will be the more conservative ones which place more value on traditional gender roles.

Opening the doors of the BSA to girls isn’t addressing the underlying complaint. What you’re going to be doing is leaving a lot of girls behind and starving the Girl Scouts of resources. The Boy Scouts need to rethink this decision pronto.

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Democrats Praised the Now-Pulled Anti-Gillespie Ad Depicting Violent Driver

Before Tuesday’s terrorist attack in New York City, Democrats lauded the progressive Latino Victory Fund’s ad that depicted a supporter of Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie as a violent racist who chased minority kids with a pickup truck.

The Latino Victory Fund pulled the ad following the attack in Manhattan, where a suspected terrorist killed eight people and injured nearly a dozen others by driving a rental truck down a bike path. The group also released a statement describing why it canceled the ad.

"We knew our ad would ruffle feathers. We held a mirror up to the Republican Party, and they don’t like what they see," said Cristóbal J. Alex, president of the Latino Victory Fund. "We have decided to pull our ad at this time. Given recent events, we will be placing other powerful ads into rotation that highlight the reasons we need to elect progressive leaders in Virginia."

Before the ad was pulled, Democratic activists and operatives praised it as moving and accurate.

Former Hillary Clinton spokesman and former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee official Jesse Ferguson called the ad one of the most "powerful" he has watched.

Hispanic Media Director for the DCCC Javier Gamboa also called the ad "powerful."

Markos Moulitsas, founder of the liberal Daily Kos, appeared to revel in the anger expressed by Gillespie and other Republicans at the ad.

Daily Kos staff writer Gabe Ortíz endorsed the ad and said communities of color in Virginia and the country live in fear.

Host and managing editor of TV One’s daily morning show "News One Now" Roland Martin said the ad was "brutal" and that Gillespie needed to explain his stance on Confederate statues.

Here is the Latino Victory Fund ad.

Gillespie said Tuesday that donations have tripled since the controversial ad was released.

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam’s campaign has made previous attempts to paint the Gillespie campaign as racially charged. One mailer from Virginia Democrats, including the Northam campaign, tied Gillespie to white nationalists who protested in Charlottesville, Va. earlier this year.

Former Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon tweeted a picture of the white nationalist protest in Charlottesville and said it was a "live look" at a Gillespie campaign strategy meeting.

The post Democrats Praised the Now-Pulled Anti-Gillespie Ad Depicting Violent Driver appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

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CAIR shutting down free speech

CAIR shutting down free speech, Red Green Axis
We are at a tipping point in our society.

Either we fight to survive or surrender to the forces of anarchy and despotism. In collusion with Islamic supremacists, the Left has gone to the mats to bring down our nation in an unholy alliance we call the Red-Green Axis.

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CBS Celebrates ObamaCare Open Enrollment, Whines About Trump Efforts

<p><em>CBS This Mornin</em>g co-host Charlie Rose on Wednesday hyped the open enrollment period for ObamaCare, spinning good news for the law and skimping on the massive problems ahead. Rose cheered, “Eighty percent of people can find a 2018 plan for  under $75 a month. In 2017 only 71 percent could.”  </p>

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How New York and California hope to save Obamacare

Today is the first day of Obamacare’s annual open-enrollment period allowing people to sign up for insurance plans for 2018. Under the Trump administration, the federal exchange will be cutting the duration of open-enrollment from 12 weeks down to six. That, combined with increased prices and a cut in federal advertising, is expected to reduce the number of enrollees on the federal exchange next year. But Politico reports New York and California, which both run their own exchanges, are hoping to buck the national trend.

The task for the blue states — California, New York and others running their own exchanges — is to mute, or at least counter, President Donald Trump’s messaging in this fifth enrollment period. The president keeps declaring Obamacare “dead,” which confuses the public. His administration has also truncated the federal sign-up season to six weeks from 12, and slashed outreach and consumer assistance. It’s all part of his efforts to discourage enrollment and discredit the Affordable Care Act.

That becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The worse Obamacare performs this year, the easier it is for Republicans to keep depicting it as a failed program that must be scrapped…

While the federal government has cut Obamacare advertising and outreach from $100 million to $10 million this year, California increased spending this year to about $111 million — or more than 10 times what the federal government is paying for in the 42 states that rely on the federal HealthCare.gov site. New York has committed to spending $27 million on advertising and outreach, the same as last year…

Both states also committed early on to keeping the original 12-week enrollment period. They will both run until Jan 31, while the federal exchange sign-up will go from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15. Looking ahead, California even passed a new law establishing that its enrollment period will run from Oct. 15 through Jan. 15 starting in 2019.

Neither state is projecting a surge in enrollment, even with the extra weeks and added advertising money. New York refuses to offer any prediction of where things will stand next year. California, when pressed, will only say that it hopes to keep enrollment steady. “We anticipate having the same number of insured as we come out of open enrollment [next year] as we did in 2017,” Covered California’s Peter Lee tells Politico.

It’s worth remembering that in 2017, with a full 12 weeks of enrollment and a bigger advertising budget (a small fraction of which was cut in the final week by the Trump administration), Obamacare enrollment was down slightly from the previous year. The individual mandate was not working as anticipated and insurers were dropping out before Trump arrived. The effort by California and New York is a delaying action at best. At some point, a political solution to these problems was always going to be necessary, but at the moment any kind of compromise seems a long way off.

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Hero Cop Took Down The NYC Terror Suspect

Via Daily Mail: A hero cop who shot the New York truck killer was in the right place at the right time after being called to another emergency minutes before the carnage began, it has emerged. Ryan Nash, 28, had been dispatched to a nearby school in the Lower West Side of Manhattan amid reports […]

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Report: Navy Shipyards Not Meeting ‘Operational Needs’

USS Port Royal in drydock at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard / Getty Images

BY:

Much needed maintenance work is overdue at U.S. Navy shipyards around the country that are unable to meet the service’s “operational needs,” and the price tag to overcome the problem will be high, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office.

The GAO warned that the backlogged restoration and maintenance projects at the shipyards will cost an estimated $4.86 billion, a 41 percent increase over five years, National Defense reported Wednesday. The backlog will take at least 19 years to complete.

The GAO report, titled “Naval Shipyards: Actions Needed to Improve Poor Conditions That Affect Operations,” found that the maintenance work must be done to properly maintain the Navy’s fleet, including nuclear-powered vessels.

“Although the Navy committed to increased capital investment and developed an improvement plan in 2013, the shipyards’ facilities and equipment remain in poor condition,” the report said. “Partly as a result of their poor condition, the shipyards have not been fully meeting the Navy’s operational needs.”

The problems are projected to continue.

“The Navy estimates that it will be unable to conduct 73 of 218 maintenance periods over the next 23 fiscal years due to insufficient capacity and other deficiencies,” according to the report.

The GAO warned that unless action is taken soon, the costs will grow immensely and could cripple the Navy’s operations.

“The Navy estimates that it will need at least $9 billion in capital investment over the next 12 fiscal years, but this estimate does not account for all expected costs, such as those for planning and modernizing the shipyards’ utility infrastructure,” the report said. “Unless it adopts a comprehensive, results-oriented approach to addressing its capital investment needs, the Navy risks continued deterioration of its shipyards, hindering its ability to efficiently and effectively support Navy readiness over the long term.”

The Navy currently owns four shipyards around the country: Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Virginia; Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Maine; Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, Washington; and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, Hawaii.

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Obama DHS Interviewed Manhattan Terrorist About Suspected ‘Terror Ties’ — Let Him Walk Free

Obama DHS Interviewed Manhattan Terrorist About Suspected ‘Terror Ties’ — Let Him Walk Free

November 1, 2017
by Joshua Caplan

A new report reveals the Department of Homeland Security interviewed the Manhattan terrorist Sayfullo Saipov in 2015 over suspected ties to Islamic terror groups.

Agents let Saipov go free because they did not find enough evidence to open a case on him.

ABC News reports:

Saipov’s name and address was listed as a “point of contact” for two different men whose names were entered into the Counterterrorism and Criminal Exploitation Unit’s list after they came to the United States from “threat countries,” one federal official told ABC News.

One of the two men has vanished and is being actively sought by federal agents as a “suspected terrorist.”

[…]

Authorities say Saipov claimed in a handwritten note found near his truck that he carried out Tuesday’s attack on behalf of ISIS.

Following the Manhattan terror attack, where an Islamic jihadist killed 8 and injured several people, President Trump ordered the Department of Homeland Security to strengthen its ‘Extreme Vetting Program.’

“I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!,” tweeted President Trump.

On Wednesday, President Trump announced that he was ending the “Diversity Visa Lottery Program.”

“I am today starting the process of terminating the Diversity Lottery Program,” President Trump told the press.

Asked if he would send the terrorist to the Guantanamo Bay military prison, President Trump said, ‘I would certainly consider that, yes. I would certainly consider that. Send him to Gitmo.”

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