Measles-stricken Samoa arrests vocal anti-vaxxer for telling officials to 'enjoy your killing spree' amid two-day shutdown to give islanders MMR jabs in outbreak that has killed 63 people

Samoan authorities have arrested an anti-vaxxer amid a measles crisis that has killed at least 63 people on the Pacific island.

Edwin Tamasese allegedly told health authorities – who have launched a mass immunisation drive – to ‘enjoy your killing spree’.

He has now been charged with incitement against a government order, as officials have warned fellow anti-vaxxers: ‘Don’t get in the way.’

Mr Tamasese’s arrest comes after the United Nations yesterday blamed anti-vaxx propaganda for the unprecedented measles epidemic.

Almost 4,400 cases – one in every 50 people – have been recorded since the outbreak of the killer infection began last month.

Samoa, home to just 200,000 people, has since declared a state of emergency as health bosses desperately try to contain the epidemic.

The island is currently on a two-day shutdown, with the usually bustling capital city transformed into an eerie ghost town.

Islanders have been told to stay indoors while emergency workers go door-to-door to give all unvaccinated residents the MMR jab.

Mr Tamasese, who wrongly claims quack remedies such as papaya leaf extracts can treat measles, was arrested after an unnamed member of the public complained.

Samoa’s Office of the Attorney General said the complaint alleged Mr Tamasese said: ‘I’ll be here to mop up your mess. Enjoy your killing spree.’

Officials said they acted after he ignored previous warnings to stop his campaign. Mr Tamasese has no medical training.

In a final post on Thursday before his arrest, he described the vaccination drive as ‘the greatest crime against our people’ and said vitamin C would save children.

He also shared a picture of what appears to be him in the back of a vehicle being driven by two men in blue uniforms.

It was posted with the caption: ‘Well its come to this. All the parents I have have helped sorry I couldn’t do more [sic].’

The post had more than 7,000 shares, comments or interactions. The Samoa Observer reports that Mr Tamasese could face two years in jail.

Stuff reports the charge comes under the 2013 Crimes Act, which makes it illegal to incite hostility against Samoan authorities that may spark protests.

Communications Minister Afamasaga Rico Tupai said anti-vaxxers spreading conspiracy theories were hindering the unprecedented public health mobilisation.

‘The anti-vaxxers unfortunately have been slowing us down,’ he told TVNZ. And he warned anti-vaxxers: ‘Don’t get in the way, don’t contribute to the deaths.

‘We've had children who have passed away after coming to the hospital as a last resort and then we find out the anti-vaccine message has got to their families.’

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said Thursday - the first day of the shutdown - was a success, with 17,500 people receiving their jabs.

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Kamala Harris and the Democrats’ identity crack-up

Why Harris’s woke posturing just didn’t wash with the public.

In theory, Kamala Harris was the perfect presidential candidate for today’s Democratic Party. She is black, female and popular in California, the deepest blue of the Democratic blue states. She would be ideally positioned, some said, to reunite the ‘Obama coalition’, which brought together African-Americans and college-educated whites.

The reality, however, was nothing like that. Harris, who was once among the top contenders to be the Democrats’ nominee for president, watched her support fall to a low of three per cent in the polls. Her campaign staff were bickering and telling-all to the New York Times, and her bank account was running out of money. Yesterday, she dropped out of the race.

A few weeks ago, Harris suggested that she was being penalised for her identity, questioning if ‘is America ready for a woman and a woman of colour to be president of the United States?’. Now, after her campaign has ended, identity-focused Democrats are worried about what Harris’s demise says about the party’s image. ‘You have to recognise that going from the most diverse field ever in January to a potentially all-white debate stage in December is catastrophic’, tweeted Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, a national progressive group.

But, if anything, Harris benefited from her identity, rather than being a victim of it. She was elevated and celebrated by Democrats and the media because of her skin colour and sex, well beyond what her political talents and track record justified. In a country that elected a black man (Barack Obama) twice, and gave the highest number of votes to a woman (Hillary Clinton) in the last presidential election, there are no grounds to say the American people are ‘not ready’ for a woman of colour.

Harris’s ‘not ready’ comment was really an attempt to blame the voters for her own failings. Implicitly, she was suggesting that the country is racist. Yet it was black voters who didn’t find her appealing. In particular, Harris was unable to wrest blacks from supporting Joe Biden in South Carolina and other states. Even in her base in Oakland, California, which has a significant black population who know her well, she was in fourth place. It seems that black voters don’t conform to Democratic strategists’ condescending view that they will vote with their skin colour.

The truth is that Harris was a dull and lacklustre candidate. Attractive and photogenic, yes, but the problems started as soon as she opened her mouth. She would speak in platitudes that would make your eyes glaze over, then laugh too hard and for too long at her own unfunny jokes. She was prone to bust out in cringe-inducing dance moves. She came across as artificial and stiff, in an era that prizes authenticity.

These personality flaws were outward reflections of a deeper problem. Harris simply did not appear to know what she stood for, or even why she was running. She sought to pander to all of the Democratic Party’s factions, and ended up unable to connect with any.

She established a trademark for vacillation. At a CNN town hall in January, in an off-the-cuff remark, she said she supported the complete elimination of private health insurance. But she then reversed her position, saying she no longer supported Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All legislation (even though she was an original co-sponsor), and later unveiled a plan that would provide some aspects of Medicare but maintain private insurance.

Similarly, she made a big splash at the June debate by attacking Biden on his record regarding race and school bussing in the 1970s. ‘I do not believe you are a racist’, she said to Biden, but of course she was accusing him of racism. But in the days after the debate, she waffled about her own views on bussing, and seemed to retreat. She eventually admitted she didn’t support the federal government mandating that black kids get bussed to schools in white districts – which just happened to be Biden’s position in the 1970s.

She also could never figure out how to present her record as a former prosecutor in California. At first, she claimed her history as prosecutor was an advantage, and meant she could ‘prosecute Trump’. But, as she came under criticism from Democrats, in April she apologised for anti-truancy policies and claimed she was a criminal-justice reformer.

But that didn’t put the issue to rest. In a July debate, Tulsi Gabbard devastatingly listed Harris’s draconian policies as prosecutor: ‘There are too many examples to cite but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana. She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labour for the state of California, and she fought to keep a cash bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way.’

Time and again, Harris would pander to the Twitter-based left of the party – embracing Medicare for All, calling out Biden for racism, claiming she was a criminal-justice reformer – without success. She didn’t have the track record to make her recent conversions sound convincing, especially to the woke, who demand purity. At the same time, she discovered that basing policies on Twitter likes did not translate into voting support with the bulk of the party, and her newfound wokeness was turning off the rest of her potential voters. So, she frantically sought to move back to her old positions — again, without success.

She clearly thought she could navigate the different factions within the Democratic Party and win each of them over. But that proved impossible for her.

There is an objective reason why that is difficult to do today: the generally moderate black voters and the ‘beer track’ white working-class voters remaining within the Democratic Party have little in common with the woke cultural left and the well-off upper-middle classes on the coasts. These divisions are surfacing in the Democratic presidential primary contest, and partially explain why support is spread across many candidates, with no strong frontrunner. As Ronald Brownstein has noted, ‘Only two months before the first voting begins in Iowa, the principal components of the Democratic coalition are fragmenting, with such key demographic groups as whites with and without college degrees, African-Americans and Hispanics all tilting towards different contenders.’

American politics has not seen the last of Kamala Harris. She will return to the Senate, where she is likely to grandstand in the coming Trump impeachment trial, just as she played to the gallery in the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Who knows, she may reappear as the Democrats’ vice-presidential candidate.

And while Harris has fallen, her brand of identity politics – despite being a vote-loser and flaming out so badly in her presidential campaign – is unfortunately still going strong and unchallenged within the Democratic Party.

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Couple 'told they couldn't adopt a white child because of their Indian heritage' win £120,000 in landmark discrimination case

 

British couple have won nearly £120,000 in damages following a landmark discrimination case after they were told they could not adopt a “white child” because of their Indian heritage.

Sandeep and Reena Mander, from Maidenhead, Berkshire, saw an application to join a register of approved adopters turned down because of their Indian ancestry.

As a result, they were unable to register with the Adopt Berkshire agency in 2016 and claimed they were told “not to bother applying” and that their chances would be improved if they looked to adopt in India or Pakistan.

The Sikh couple, aged in their 30s, sued Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council for discrimination with backing from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Judge Melissa Clarke ruled at Oxford County Court today that the couple were discriminated against and awarded them almost £120,000 in damages.

The judge made a declaration that the council "directly discriminated" against the couple in the provision of adoption services on the grounds of race.

Following the ruling Mr and Mrs Mander, who work as Vice President in charge of sales at an IT company and as a programme manager, respectively,  said: "This decision ensures that no matter what race, religion or colour you are, you should be treated equally and assessed for adoption in the same way as any other prospective adopter.

"We believe our experience with Adopt Berkshire was not just an isolated event. "When we went through the Intercountry adoption process we came across many couples who had similar experiences.

"Let us be clear, a child's welfare is the most important thing when looking for any prospective adopter.

"However matching cultural values and beliefs is just one of many areas that should be assessed when looking at the suitability of adopters to ensure that child's welfare.

"It should never be the overriding factor to stop you even being considered, which is what happened to us.

"And certainly, cultural values and beliefs should never be assumed based on an ethnic tick-box, as was our experience.

"We felt there needed to be a change. This is what this case has all been about for us, to ensure discrimination like this doesn't happen to others wishing to do this wonderful thing called adoption. "And today's landmark ruling will ensure this doesn't happen again."

The council had rejected claims its social workers were "racist" towards the couple. A council spokesperson said: "We are very disappointed by the judgement in this case, which we will now take time to consider in full. "We have reviewed our policies to ensure they are fit for purpose and are confident that we do not exclude prospective adopters on the grounds of ethnicity.

"Finally, we always put the best interests of the children at the heart of any adoption decisions and are committed to best practice in our provision of adoption services."

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‘You deserve to be honoured’: Pauline Hanson pays tribute to Australian men

A counterblast to the feminists

Pauline Hanson has paid tribute to “the everyday men of Australia”, thanking them for “working hard” and blasting feminists, saying they should “be ashamed of themselves”.

In an extraordinary five-minute speech yesterday, the One Nation leader addressed an almost empty Senate to “pay homage to the majority of men in Australia”.

“It’s not often that the dedicated and hardworking men of this country collectively get a pat on the back, as they deserve, so I’d like to do that now,” Senator Hanson said.

“Well done, men. You deserve to be honoured. I thank you.

“It is more often that we lift up women in this country. Men are widely regarded as toxic. That is wrong. The extreme majority of men are not toxic. They are good, they are caring.”

Senator Hanson said she was prompted to make the speech while Australia is in the grips of one of its worst bushfire seasons on record.

More than 680 homes have been destroyed in NSW this bushfire season, according to the Rural Fire Service while fires also rage in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria.

“While the firefighters, who are mostly male, were battling the blazes we had feminists telling us that after they fight the fires, no doubt exhausted, covered in sweat, ash and soot, and with their skin singed from the heat, they go home and beat their partners,” she said.

“What an idiotic suggestion.”

Senator Hanson was referring to a since-deleted tweet from journalist and Red Heart Campaign founder Sherele Moody, who claimed domestic violence spiked after “cataclysmic events”.

“I’ve also made it clear that I have had a gutful of hearing from man-hating feminists,” Senator Hanson told parliament.

“I believe in what is fair and just and I am sick and tired of this constant criticism of men in Australia, especially if they’re white.

“Why is there such an ongoing attack on the men of this country, especially those who show strength and masculinity.

“Well, I’m not going to man-bash. There is no reason to do it. The vast majority of men are not toxic. They are loving, caring, respectful and hardworking and it’s mostly men who step up and face the flames, extreme heat … to fight the bushfires.”

Senator Hanson went on to quote percentages from the Australian Bureau of Statistics about the number of women who were firefighters, truckies and coal miners.

“Feminists should be ashamed at themselves for letting themselves down in this field,” she said.

“I’ve never seen a feminist recruiting campaign to get more women behind the wheels of a truck.

“Maybe it’s too demanding, not glamorous enough, so they’re happy for the men to do it.

“I’d like to say thank you to men. You help make Australia the great nation it is today and to my colleagues in the chamber, thank you very much you make it very interesting.”

Senator Hanson’s video has received dozens of comments praising the One Nation leader.

“Great speech, Pauline. You’re one of the few politicians who recognise the work of ordinary men who struggle through life supporting their families and community,” Steve Smith said.

“Brilliant speech, it’s a pity not many of your fellow senators were there to listen to you; that is disgraceful in itself. Man bashing is just another weapon of the left that needs to be called out and you have done so, bravo,” Les Baxter added.

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here.  Email me (John Ray) here. 

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