‘Islamophobia Expert,’ Flight Attendant on Irish PM’s Jet Chose ISIS: How do Westerners Get Radicalized?

Thousands of Islamic jihadists are flooding out of Barghouz, the last enclave of ISIS in Syria. They come from many countries. Now what to do with them?

FILE PHOTO A fighter of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) near the village of Baghouz, Syria

February 27, 2019. © Reuters / Rodi Said

As Kurdish and Syrian Democratic Forces pound the last remaining ISIS stronghold, a stream of foreign jihadists have poured out of the village of Baghouz, Syria. Who are the captured Westerners and what happens to them next?

US-backed Kurdish and SDF troops launched an all-out assault on the Syrian hamlet of Baghouz on Sunday evening, pummeling the village with airstrikes and killing "dozens" of militants overnight.

Nestled on the banks of the Euphrates near the Iraqi border, Baghouz is the last redoubt of the Islamic State, whose 'caliphate' once spanned much of Iraq and Syria.

SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali told Reuters that 4,000 IS militants in Baghouz have surrendered in the last month, and tens of thousands of their wives, children, and family members have evacuated the village. Only a dedicated few fighters remain inside, ready to defend the caliphate to the death.

Thinking they will go straight to Paradise. Boy, do they have a surprise coming.

Among the dregs emerging from Baghouz are a curious mix of Westerners who had become radicalized and made the journey to Syria to fight for IS.

The 'Islamophobia expert'

Swedish-Norwegian national Michael Skramos was captured in Baghouz by Kurdish forces last week, according to the Swedish newspaper Expressen. The 33-year-old's route to radicalization began when he converted to Islam in 2005, becoming a preacher and self-described "Islamophobia expert" at a Gothenburg mosque shortly afterwards.

Skramos packed up his wife and two children, changed his name to Abo Ibrahim Al Swedi, and headed to Syria in 2014 to join IS. There he filmed a propaganda video encouraging his fellow Swedes to follow his lead.

"The door to jihad is standing there waiting for you," he said in the 2015 video. "It's the fastest way to Jannah (paradise)."

And if you believe that, I have a tropical Island in Labrador for sale, cheap.

As things turned out, there was a Swede among Skramos' captors too. Swedish soldier Jesper Soder, fighting with the Kurdish YPG, told Expressen that Skramos was arrested along with around 50 other militants, including "many Europeans."

The Irish soldier

Irishwoman Lisa Smith, 38, was found by a British TV crew in a refugee camp in northern Syria two weeks ago, after she had fled Baghouz. Although Smith was wearing a burka, the crew noticed her Irish accent and investigated further.

You can only be invisible if you keep your mouth shut!

It turned out that she had moved to Syria in 2015 after converting to Islam in 2011. Prior to her conversion, Smith had a long career with the Irish Defense Force, serving with the army in an infantry battalion, before joining the country's Air Corps. At one point, Smith worked as a flight attendant on former Taoiseach (prime minister) Bertie Ahern's government jet.

"She was a lovely lady, always very engaged and very interested," Ahern told reporters on Sunday. "A very fine person."

Former friends told the Sun that Smith became radicalized through Facebook after a painful breakup. "She is no longer the Lisa people grew up with," one said. "She hates the West."

Crowds of Westerners

Dozens of countries are represented in the human tide leaving Baghouz. British-born Shamima Begum, who left for Syria aged 15 and was promptly married off to an IS fighter, emerged from the village last month and was found in a nearby refugee camp. Her Dutch husband was captured by SDF forces around the same time.

Begum was pregnant and begged to be repatriated to Britain before her baby was born. She wasn't; she was stripped of her British citizenship, and the baby died a few days ago.

Among the captured or surrendered IS members are Americans, British, French, Australians, Italians, and countless more. Many are now in Kurdish, SDF, or US custody, and President Donald Trump last month urged EU leaders to take back over 800 fighters held by US forces in Syria, ahead of the US pullout.

The British Home Office revoked Shamima Begum's citizenship last weekend, and Germany announced that it would strip some returning German jihadists of their citizenship. Denmark has vowed not to take back any of its IS members, while France remains undecided.

As for 'Islamophobia expert' Skramos, the Norwegian Police Security Service has said that it will likely prosecute him. Swedish terrorist researcher Magnus Ranstorp also claimed that Skramos may be handed over to US authorities, where he could face up to 30 years imprisonment.

He certainly won't get that in Norway. 30 months is unlikely there.

The Irish government, meanwhile, has extended every possible assistance to Smith. Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said that "every effort will be made by Irish authorities to ensure she gets home." Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that Smith may be prosecuted, but that protecting her citizenship is "the compassionate thing to do."

Because compassion is the sensible response to an insane Islamic jihadist who wants nothing more than to kill every single person who is not. Good grief!

Berghouz - somewhere on the Euphrates (in green) near the Iraqi border (solid grey line)

Iranian human Rights Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh Sentenced to 38 years, 148 Lashes, Husband Says

That should teach Iranian women to shut up and go back to being invisible!

The joys of being a woman in Islam!

Sotoudeh has represented opposition activists

and women who removed mandatory headscarf

Thomson Reuters ·

Nasrin Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, wrote on Facebook that she had been given a sentence of

decades in jail and 148 lashes, unusually harsh even for Iran which cracks down hard on dissent and

regularly imposes death sentences for some crimes. (Arash Ashourinia/The Associated Press)

Nasrin Sotoudeh, an internationally renowned human rights lawyer jailed in Iran, was handed a new sentence on Monday which her husband said was 38 years in prison and 148 lashes.

Sotoudeh, who has represented opposition activists including women prosecuted for removing their mandatory headscarf, was arrested in June and charged with spying, spreading propaganda and insulting Iran's supreme leader, her lawyer said.

She also was jailed in 2010 for spreading propaganda and conspiring to harm state security — charges she denied — and was released after serving half her six-year term. The European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

Official sources are giving a different story. A judge at a revolutionary court in Tehran, Mohammad Moqiseh, said on Monday Sotoudeh had been sentenced to five years for assembling against national security and two years for insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, wrote on Facebook that the sentence was decades in jail and 148 lashes, unusually harsh even for Iran, which cracks down hard on dissent and regularly imposes death sentences for some crimes.

The news comes days after Iran appointed a new head of the judiciary — Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric who is a protégé of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The appointment is seen as weakening the political influence of President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate.

Iran, often accused of human rights abuse, said on Monday it had allowed UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore to visit Iran last week at the head of a "technical mission."

The visit, confirmed by a UN official, appeared to be the first in many years by UN human rights investigators who have been denied access by the government.

The UN investigator on human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, raised Sotoudeh's case at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, saying that last week she "was reportedly convicted of charges relating to her work and could face a lengthy prison sentence."

"Worrying patterns of intimidation, arrest, prosecution, and ill-treatment of human rights defenders, lawyers, and labour rights activists signal an increasingly severe state response," Rehman said. 

French Islamic Militant Who Attacked Jewish Museum in 2014 Sentenced to Life

By Darryl Coote

Security was on alert at the Brussels Palace of Justice during the sentencing Monday of Mehdi Nemmouche, the man convicted last week of killing four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in 2014. Photo by Stephanie Lecocq/EPA-EFE

(UPI) -- A French man convicted of killing four people at a Jewish museum in 2014 has been sentenced to life in prison.

Mehdi Nemmouche, a 33-year-old militant who'd previously fought in Syria for the Islamic State, was found guilty last week of "terrorist murder" for the anti-Semitic massacre of four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium on May 24, 2014. It was the first terrorist attack on European soil by an individual who had fought for the group in Syria.

He was arrested in Marseilles, France, six days after the shooting. Shortly after, he was extradited to Belgium to stand trial.

When asked for comment following his sentencing Monday, Nemmouche said, "life goes on," BBC News reported.

Accomplice Nacer Bender, 30, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for having helped plan the attack and supply Nemmouche with the weapons he used during the crime.

"I am ashamed to have crossed paths with [Nemmouche]," Bender told the court following sentencing. "He is not a man, he is a monster."

And you are a monster's assistant!

Nemmouche had claimed to be innocent, and his lawyer attempted to paint his client during the two-month trial as having been set up by foreign intelligence agencies in a conspiracy targeting Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.

Nemmouche also faces separate kidnapping charges in France for detaining four French journalists from June 2013 to April 2014 in Islamic State-controlled Aleppo, Syria, prosecutors said.

Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin Among Dozens Charged in U.S. College Admissions Scam

Corruption is Everywhere - Even in America's Best University Admissions

Federal prosecutors charged William Singer with running racketeering scheme

Thomson Reuters ·

Federal prosecutors in Boston have charged William Singer with running the $25-million US racketeering scheme,

which served a roster of clients, including Hollywood actors such as Felicity Huffman.

(Peter Kramer/Getty Images) I'm guessing this photo was taken before #MeToo

Hollywood actors Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives) and Lori Loughlin (Full House/Fuller House) were among 50 people charged by U.S. federal prosecutors on Tuesday in a $25-million US scheme to help wealthy Americans cheat their children's way into elite universities such as Yale and Stanford.

Federal prosecutors in Boston charged William (Rick) Singer, 58, with running the racketeering scheme through his Edge College & Career Network, which served a roster of clients, including CEOs and Hollywood actors.

Prosecutors said Singer's operation arranged for fake testers to take college admissions exams in place of his clients' children, and also bribed coaches to give admissions slots meant to be reserved for recruited athletes, even if the applicants had no athletic ability.

Parents paid tens of thousands of dollars for Singer's services, which were masked as charitable contributions, prosecutors said.

Philanthropist David Sidoo accused of paying $200K to help sons pass U.S. college entrance exams

Singer is scheduled to plead guilty on Tuesday in Boston federal court to charges, including racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice, according to court papers. He could not be reached for immediate comment.

Thirty-three parents, including actor Lori Loughlin, were charged, as well as 13 coaches and associates of Singer's business. (Danny Moloshok/Reuters)

Some 33 parents, including Huffman and Loughlin, were charged, as well as 13 coaches and associates of Singer's business. Huffman and Loughlin were not immediately available for comment.

On a call with one parent, prosecutors said Singer summed up his business thusly: "What we do is help the wealthiest families in the U.S. get their kids into school … my families want a guarantee."

The scheme began in 2011, prosecutors said, and also helped children get into the University of Texas, Georgetown University, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Part of the scheme involved advising parents to pretend to test administrators that their child had learning disabilities that allowed them extended time to take the exam.

The parents were then advised to choose one of two test centres that Singer's company said it had control over: one in Houston and the other in West Hollywood, Calif.

The test administrators in those centres took bribes to allow Singer's clients to cheat, often by arranging to have a student's wrong answers corrected after completing the exam, or having another person take the exam.

In many cases, the students were not aware that their parents had arranged for the cheating, prosecutors said.

Some of them are now!

John Vandemoor, a former Stanford sailing coach, is also scheduled to plead guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges.

The Other Side of the Solar Activity/Climate Change Debate

At the bottom of this article I present a brief note on the work of a Danish astrophysicist, and a link to his presentation, that I think you might find very interesting, if not a little technical.

The sun is quieter than normal, but don't panic

Some fear that we could be heading to another Little Ice Age, but (some) scientists say that's unlikely

Nicole Mortillaro · CBC News

Our sun's activity waxes and wanes. But it's been quieter than normal, and that can have an effect on us here on Earth. (ESA/NASA)

The sun is quiet … very quiet.

In February, for the first time since August 2008, the sun went an entire month without any sunspots.

Sunspots are cooler regions of the sun. How many appear on the sun's surface depends on what cycle the sun is in. Every 11 years our star goes through a maximum, followed by a minimum (the entire magnetic cycle of the sun, when the poles flip, is 22 years).

Over the past three decades, the sun has been consistently dropping in activity. Maximum has been quieter than is typical; minimum has been particularly quiet. And this has caused some to make the false assumption that, as a result, Earth is going to cool.

This graph shows the decrease in solar activity over the past 33 years. (David Hathaway)

The oscillations here are minor cycles while the overall trend is part of a major cycle.

It all stems from an incident that took place between 1645 and 1715, called the Maunder Minimum, where sunspots all but disappeared. This coincided with the "Little Ice Age" that stretched from 1500 to 1850 in the northern hemisphere. In England, the Thames River froze over; Viking settlers abandoned Greenland.

As a result, there have been strong suggestions that the Maunder Minimum caused the Little Ice Age, but some scientists warn that there were other contributors, such as increased volcanic activity.

This graph illustrates solar activity over the past four centuries. The Maunder Minimum is evident.

On average, the sun produces 180 sunspots a cycle. The greatest ever was 285 in solar cycle 19; for solar cycle 24, so far it's been 116. 

So, with the decrease in solar activity, are we heading into another Maunder Minimum?

"No Maunder Minimum. Certainly no Little Ice Age," said David Hathaway, an astrophysicist who once headed NASA's solar physics branch at the Marshall Space Flight Center. "The next cycle looks like it's going to be very much like this one."

He explains that, while the sun does dim during a minimum, it's only by a tenth of a per cent, which translates into a tenth of a degree Celsius. And with the warming by about 1C  that we've seen due to climate change — and the warming that is to come — it's unlikely that we'll notice.

Different cycles

The sunspot cycle is also called the Schwabe cycle. At the moment we are at the end of cycle 24, heading toward 25. And scientists predict that this quiet trend is going to persist.

"There's been this steady decline," Hathaway said. "I'm fairly confident looking at our own predictions and predictions of others, that cycle 25 is going to be another small cycle."

The sun had no sunspots for the entire month of February, a sign of an approaching period of solar minimum next year,

when the sun's activity will be at the low end of its 11-year cycle. (Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA)

Sunspots dot the sun's surface, or photosphere. The sunspot unleashed a spectacular show on Oct. 28, 2003.

This sunspot released one of the biggest solar flares ever recorded. (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, NASA)

But it's believed that the sun goes through many different cycles. Aside from the Schwabe, there is also one called the Gleissberg Cycle, where solar activity decreases roughly every 90 years.

And Hathaway said data over the past two centuries suggests that what the sun is now going through may be part of this cycle.

"We've now seen three or four of these modulations where we have small cycles, then they get bigger and then they get smaller again," he said. "We're at that bottom phase, where we haven't seen cycles this small in 100 years."

This image shows a tiny sunspot on the surface of the sun on March 7. (Helioviewer/NASA/SDO)

Hathaway said that he's probably seen thousands of satellites drop out of space as a result of solar activity causing drag.

"Skylab really opened up our eyes," Pesnell said.

Since then, there has been an increase in missions to study our star, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, Hinode and the recently launched Parker Solar Probe.

So, are we in a minimum?

When astrophysicists talk about solar minimum, they're not referring to the quietest time on the sun, but rather to the sun coming out of its quiet time and and starting a new cycle.

Though February went without a sunspot, a tiny one appeared on March 5. However, it wasn't a sunspot that was part of the coming cycle.

Sunspots are magnetic and have both a north and south pole. One sign that a sunspot is part of a new cycle has to do how the magnetic field lines connect and this sunspot connects in the same pattern as the current cycle.

The sun doesn't rotate as a solid sphere. Instead, different parts of it rotate at different speeds. As a result, the magnetic field lines are stretched out. The magnetic field of the next cycle, instead being north-south would become east-west.

As well, there's the location.

"To be a cycle 25 spot, it's apt to appear at about 30 degrees latitude, Hathaway said. "This was at nine [degrees]. So this was definitely old-cycle."

However, both Hathaway and Pesnell believe that solar cycle 25 should begin sometime in 2020.

Some astrophysicists believe that the next cycle, the one beginning about 2031, will be very significant, perhaps approaching the level of the Maunder Minimum.

And when that happens, sunspot activity will increase. And as activity increases, we are almost certain to see more solar flares and coronal mass ejections, eruptions from the sun. While these eruptions are responsible for our beautiful northern lights, they can also cause power outages as was seen in Quebec in March 1989.

While Hathaway is officially retired, he continues to monitor our nearest star, to unravel its mysteries and better understand its effects on Earth.

"I continue to strive to understand this beast," Hathaway said.

For another point of view:

Another astrophysicist stated recently that there is much more research that needs to be done in the area of cosmic rays effect on global warming.  Henrik Svensmark is a physicist and professor in the Division of Solar System Physics at the Danish National Space Institute in Copenhagen. He is known for his theory on the effects of cosmic rays on cloud formation as an indirect cause of global warming.

Basically, his theory is that cosmic rays cause ions in the atmosphere which eventually contribute to cloud formation. Sunspot activity acts as an umbrella reducing the cosmic rays that reach the earth, thereby reducing cloud cover, resulting in warming temperatures. Periods of minimum sunspot activity correlate well with reduced cosmic rays and temperatures.

Over the past 10,000 years, temperature fluctuations of up to 2 deg. C have been noted. Over the past several million years, temperature fluctuations of up to 10 deg. C have been determined to be associated with this effect. At least, that's the theory.

Basically, there is a lot more about global warming that we don't know, than that we know.

=============================================================================================

Australia PM Adviser Says Climate Change is 'UN-led Ruse to Establish New World Order'

Tony Abbott's business adviser says global warming a fallacy supported by United Nations to 'create a new authoritarian world order under its control'

Note: This article was written in May 2015 when Tony Abbot was still PM of Australia

Please check out the links and comments at the bottom of this article, the links were mostly written within a year or so of this and reveal a frightening scenario.

Maurice Newman, chairman of the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council Photo: AP

By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney 

Climate change is a hoax developed as part of a secret plot by the United Nations to undermine democracies and takeover the world, a top adviser to Tony Abbott, Australia’s prime minister, has warned.

Maurice Newman, the chief business adviser to the prime minister, said the science showing links between human activity and the warming climate was wrong but was being used as a “hook” by the UN to expand its global control.

Tony Abbott

“This is not about facts or logic. It’s about a new world order under the control of the UN,” he wrote in The Australian.

“It is opposed to capitalism and freedom and has made environmental catastrophism a household topic to achieve its objective.” Born in Ilford, England, and educated in Australia, Mr Newman, a staunch conservative and former chairman of the Australian Stock Exchange, has long been an outspoken critic of climate change science.

He was appointed chairman of the government’s business advisory council by Mr Abbott, who himself is something of a climate change sceptic and once famously described climate change as “absolute cr**” – a comment he later recanted.

In his comment piece – described by critics as “whacko” – Mr Newman said the world has been “subjected to extravagance from climate catastrophists for close to 50 years”.

“It’s a well-kept secret, but 95 per cent of the climate models we are told prove the link between human CO2 emissions and catastrophic global warming have been found, after nearly two decades of temperature stasis, to be in error,” he wrote.

“The real agenda is concentrated political authority. Global warming is the hook. Eco-catastrophists [ ...] have captured the UN and are extremely well funded. They have a hugely powerful ally in the White House.”

Not anymore, thank God!

Environmental groups and scientists described Mr Newman as a 'crazed’ conspiracy theorist and some called on him to resign.

“His anti-science, fringe views are indistinguishable from those made by angry trolls on conspiracy theory forums,” said the Climate Change Council.

Professor Will Steffen, a climate change scientist, told The Australian Financial Review: “These are bizarre comments that would be funny if they did not come from [Mr Abbott’s] chief business adviser.” Mr Abbott’s office did not respond but his environment minister said he did not agree with Mr Newman’s comments.

The article was written by Mr Newman to coincide with a visit by Christiana Figueres, the UN climate change negotiation, who has urged Australia to reduce its reliance on coal. Australia is one of the world’s biggest emitters of carbon emissions per capita.

Since his election in 2013, Mr Abbott has abolished Labor’s carbon tax, scaled back renewable energy targets and appointed sceptics to several significant government positions.

I first blogged of this theory in 2015. Lord Christopher Monkton, British Peer, was the first to publicize the UN's plot, that was in 2014 before any of the events he described happened. 

According to Monckton, a former policy adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Monday's Canadian election will decide if Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whom he calls the last man standing against the establishment of a 'one world government', will remain against a deliberate international effort to remove him. 

One-World Government if Harper Loses Election - Margaret Thatcher Advisor

The second last, Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott, was overthrown, as predicted by Monckton in 2014, in order to clear the way for this international scheme. 

As Monkton predicted, he was ousted in a caucus coup by Malcolm Turnbull, in Sept. 2015, after a failed attempt in February of that year.

With Harper out of the way, warned Monckton, world governance will finally begin with a successful December, 2015 Paris Climate Conference. 

Justin Trudeau and Malcolm Turnbull both signed the Paris accord after their predecessor refused.

Millions in Foreign Funds Spent in 2015 Fed Election to Defeat Harper, Report

USA's Own Climate Change Rep Ominously Threatens US

Yes, the planet is warming. That it is anthropogenically driven by CO2 and other greenhouse gasses is speculation. One thing that is for sure - the rate of hysteria over this subject increases daily, just as the UN want's it.

SWEDISH EX-PRIME MINISTER REBUKES BERNIE: SOCIALISM ONLY DESTROYS

And don't forget the Nordic Paradox!

By Alice Salles

Socialism never stopped enticing young American minds. But the more Democratic Socialists such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez open their mouths, we learn the movement’s most vocal proponents simply ignore socialism’s incompatibility with democracy, as demonstrated by Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises in A Critique of Interventionism . Sen. Bernie Sanders is one of them.

With the Vermont senator announcing he’s running for president, his past comments defending socialism and socialist countries notorious for their failures become the type of material critics are eager to dissect. Especially because he still calls himself a Democratic Socialist while using Nordic countries as examples of what he defends.

Thankfully, political figures from the very countries the good senator from Vermont calls “socialist” are here to remind him that the ideology is nothing but a trap.

Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994, Carl Bildt, took to Twitter to warn Sanders that socialism is not the key to creating a great society as he and Ocasio-Cortez seem to think.

After old footage showing Sanders and his wife, Jane, praising the Soviet Union for its programs targeting the youth went viral online, Bildt responded by saying “Sanders was lucky to be able to get to the Soviet Union in 1988 and praise all its stunning socialist achievements before the entire system and empire collapsed under the weight of its own spectacular failures.”

To the former prime minister, the damage socialism can cause is still fresh in his memory. After all, he was the first prime minister in 60 years to not subscribe to the ideology. And thanks to him, Sweden’s capital gains taxes were cut to 30 percent and corporate taxes to 28 percent.

Bildt also privatized several state-owned industries, deregulated multiple sectors of the economy, allowed people to invest portions of their pension, and introduced school choice policies, improving the country’s education system.

After Bildt, Sweden, which had completely lost its host of entrepreneurs thanks to business taxes that sometimes exceeded the 100 percent mark, once again flourished. Even as Social Democrat successor Ingvar Carlsson took over.

Seeing the wonderful changes just a few years worth of reform had done, Carlsson kept Bildt’s policies in place. And business start-ups rose nearly 25 percent as a result.

Unfortunately, politicians like Sanders like to use countries like Sweden as examples of how socialism can work.

The same politician who, in the late 1980s, praised breadlines and celebrated the Soviet Union for forcing its youth to dedicate their whole lives to communism, now tells Americans that the so-called “Nordic model” of socialism can and will work in America. And yet, he seems clueless to the fact that the policies he pushes don’t mirror those adopted by the countries he celebrates.

As explained by Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen in 2015, countries like his Denmark “[are] far from [socialist planned economies].”

“Denmark is a market economy,” he added. And as demonstrated by Mises in Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow , there’s “no western, capitalistic country in which the conditions of the masses have not improved in an unprecedented way.”

In other words, to claim the successes of Nordic countries are due to socialism is nothing but a lie.

As the Acton Institute pointed out, Sanders’ ideology, the same ideology upheld by Ocasio-Cortez and countless others who are now legislating in Washington, D.C., is about putting statism before freedom.

In order to apply the policies they push, we would have to relinquish complete control over our lives, allowing the state to squelch artistic expression, private initiative, and destroy any incentive left compelling people to serve each other better and more efficiently.

Is that the world we want to live in?

These Nordic countries that are the most 'progressive' in the world, the most socialist, the most feminist, have one huge problem that Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez don't talk about. The have the highest ratios of spousal abuse in the western world. This is called the Nordic Paradox because socialists can't figure out why it is happening. There is so much socialists don't understand.