Dying of dysentery is now more than just a video game meme in Oregon.
In a disgusting turn of events straight out of the “Oregon Trail” game, the diarrhea-inducing malady dysentery is making a stomach-churning comeback in a densely populated region of the state.
Cases of the hyper-contagious bacterial disease have surged in Multnomah County, with health officials reporting 40 cases of the wretched sickness in January, according to the Multnomah County Health Department, KOIN reported.
Cases of dysentery is on the rise in a densely populated region of Oregon.NEXT-Ai – stock.adobe.com
The infection, also known as shigellosis, can spread through exposure with infected feces, contaminated food or water, or sexual contact – with person-to-person the most common form of transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Officials said 56% of the most recent cluster are believed to be among the homeless, with other cases linked to methamphetamine or opiate usage, the outlet reported.
“When you don’t have housing, it is harder to prevent infectious disease and harder to access care to treat disease compared to if you are housed,” the health agency told the outlet in a statement.
“This rise in Shigella cases over recent years is concerning and is a result of multiple pathways of transmission. Investments made in public health are critical for monitoring and slowing the spread of the disease.”
Strains of the infection circulating in Oregon are resistant to various forms of antibiotics, with patients also experiencing fever, vomiting and cramps, the outlet reported.
Officials, however, have not found evidence of the more severe strain that can often lead to death.
In a turn of events straight out of the “Oregon Trail” game, the disease is making a stomach-churning comeback in the state.MECC
Cases of the illness have been on the rise in the state’s smallest and most populous county since 2012, with an elevated spike of a whopping 158 infections reported in 2024, according to data provided to the outlet.
Data shows 35 dysentery cases were reported in December compared to the 3 recorded in July.
County officials are providing short-term housing to those suffering from the misery-inducing illness, stressing access to hygiene and sanitation will help curb the spread of infections, the outlet reported.
The Multnomah County Health Department did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Actually, the Ukrainian president did read a room — but it was the wrong room.
Before meeting Trump, Zelensky met with anti-Trump Democrats who advised him to reject the terms of the mineral deal the president was offering, according to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).
“Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky here in Washington. He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine,” Murphy’s office posted on X at 11:15 a.m. Friday.
He attached a picture of Zelensky at a conference table, with Murphy seated on the opposite side.
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Forty minutes later, Zelensky arrived at the White House, where Trump met his car, smiled, shook his hand and walked him into the Oval Office.
Arrogant ingrate
The meeting, as the world now knows, quickly went off the rails and ended with Trump angrily ejecting the arrogant ingrate from the White House.
The earlier meeting with Dems undercuts wild claims that Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance staged an ambush. In fact, it was Zelensky who came with an ulterior motive.
The purpose of the meeting was to sign the mineral agreement he and Trump representatives had negotiated. He had twice refused to sign it after promising to, and thanks to Murphy, we now know he had no intention of signing it Friday.
By listening to the nakedly partisan advice of Dems instead of dealing forthrightly with the current president, Zelensky betrayed his countrymen and, for now at least, leaves them without the military and diplomatic protection that only America can provide.
Good luck counting on Britain, France and the rest of Europe to save Ukraine. Maybe the Germans will send strudel.
In a perverse way, Murphy and other Dems got the outcome they wanted. The fireworks at the White House gave them an excuse to replay their Russia Russia Russia hoax.
Once again, they and their media handmaidens are dishonestly insisting that Trump is in Vladimir Putin’s camp.
Like the original Russia hoax that consumed much of Trump’s first term, Russia 2.0 is born of political desperation. After months of not knowing how to respond to Trump’s fast, populist start to his second term, Dems up and down the food chain decided that the president’s refusal to write a blank check to Zelensky and pledge a military guarantee amounts to a gift to Putin.
Desperate for relevance
The logic is twisted beyond description, but any port in a storm will do. And with Trump off to the fastest start of any president in modern history, Dems are desperate to be relevant.
It’s a mark of their bad judgment that Zelensky is their new hero. He and they have zero chance of persuading tapped-out Americans that an open-ended commitment of their tax dollars and possibly sending troops to Ukraine is sensible.
Certainly Trump supporters didn’t vote for that, and the president himself campaigned on bringing the war to a fast end, not sending our army to fight Russians.
He made it repeatedly clear for three years that he viewed Joe Biden’s strategy of providing just enough support for Ukraine to keep the war going without any plan for victory as a fool’s errand. He has also been consistent about his desire to stop the enormous loss of life on both sides and the destruction of Ukrainian cities and towns.
Despite the fact that the president made foolish comments two weeks ago suggesting Ukraine started the war, I am convinced Trump truly wants peace. He is not afraid to use the military, but he is not a warmonger.
To that end, he and his White House came up with the minerals plan that he called a first step to a cease-fire.
The plan went through several drafts and the latest would have America and Ukraine form a partnership to mine the eastern European nation’s plentiful rare earth deposits, with much of the proceeds going to help rebuild Ukraine.
A gift to Putin
Zelensky, who privately agreed to the terms, has every right to demand a security agreement — up to a point. But he didn’t get one and his decision to respond by insulting the president and vice president, interrupting them and waving off their responses, was madness.
As Trump noted, the heated jabs made for great television, but it was a disaster for Ukraine and a gift to Putin.
Zelensky had an opportunity to apologize to Trump in a later interview with Brett Baier on Fox, but repeatedly refused to do so, saying “I’m not sure we did something bad.”
Add ignorance to his list of flaws.
Unfortunately for him, there is an audience egging him on. Beyond Washington Dems, the European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, wrote on social media that “the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge. We stand by Ukraine.”
Sure, Europe stands by Ukraine — and will continue to stand by as it gets carved up by Putin’s war machine.
‘Ukraine is our ally’
Murphy and other Dems are no better, celebrating Zelensky’s stupendous failure as if it were a victory. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote that “Trump and Vance are doing Putin’s dirty work” and the always repellent Sen. Adam Schiff called Trump a “coward.”
New York’s daffy governor, Kathy Hochul, who seems to pick a daily fight with Trump, added her two cents, saying “Ukraine is our ally. Putin is not. It’s not complicated . . . This president may not stand with democracy, but we will.”
Oh, please. Hochul can’t even keep the peace on New York’s crime-ridden streets.
Meanwhile, Zelensky’s rejection of the mineral deal means there will be no American interests and businesses in Ukraine, which, as Trump repeatedly said, would help deter Russian attacks.
Moreover, Trump said a final settlement would require Putin to return some of the lands he has taken, and that France, Great Britain and others likely would station peace-keeping troops in Ukraine.
All that should have given Zelensky more than enough confidence to go forward, or at least to raise any concerns in private. Instead, he used a friendly meeting in front of the press to complain that no agreement was sufficient without an American security guarantee, despite being told repeatedly none would be included in the minerals deal.
He’s right that Putin can’t be trusted but he’s a fool for rejecting Trump’s plan and counting on Europe and feckless Dems to help him get a better deal from Trump.
As the president reminded him three times, “you don’t have the cards” to make the demands he was making, but Zelensky ignored the advice and the facts.
Or maybe it was one of Moore’s first documentaries, and he just didn’t know it. I say this because Canada’s Chrystia Freeland (one of Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum clones and the granddaughter of an actual Ukrainian Nazi) promised this week that she will enter into a military alliance against the United States should she become the next prime minister. It’s always loony-leftist women with “crazy eyes” who threaten nuclear war over hurt feelings -- the same loony-leftist women who pretend that all war would magically disappear if only women (but, egad, what’s a woman?) ruled the planet.
Freeland’s warmongering rhetoric against President Trump and the U.S. is no surprise. She’s simply channeling the primal screams of Canadian Karens everywhere who really don’t like that Trump continues to offer the people of Canada an escape hatch from the Trudeau family’s Marxist destruction: becoming America’s 51st state. The rest of the world would kill for the opportunity to join Team U.S.A., but so many of the loony-leftists who live inside America’s hat have mistaken American protection for Canadian power that America’s goofy little brother thinks it’s something that it’s not: America’s peer.
The reason President Trump refers to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “governor” is because his country’s economy and security depend entirely upon America’s goodwill. Canada is a huge country with some of the most valuable natural resources on the planet, but it has a small population and no means of defending itself without taking refuge under America’s security umbrella. If China or Russia wanted Canada and the U.S. looked the other way, Canadians would soon be speaking Chinese or Russian.
If the U.S. closed its borders to Canadian exports, Canada’s economy would quickly collapse. Heck, if the U.S. merely stopped subsidizing Canada’s economy with one-sided trade “deals” that benefit Canadian producers at Americans’ expense, Canada’s economy would still quickly collapse. America literally pays to keep Canada economically viable, and America’s military machine protects Canadians while they sleep. All that maple-flavored pomp and circumstance that allows Canucks to puff out their chests and proudly proclaim, “We are not Americans,” is paid for by the American people. Canadians just never bother reading the boilerplate language that comes with their country’s extended warranty label.
The U.S. props up Canada on the world stage and allows its little brother to sit at the grown-ups’ table during international meetings. U.S. national security chiefs share intelligence with their friends up north, and American diplomats include their Canadian counterparts in global strategy sessions. But these are the perquisites of being America’s reliable friend. They are American-bestowed “privileges” that could easily disappear if Chrystia Freeland and her band of America-hating misfits turn Canada into an even greater liability for Americans.
Make no mistake, Canada is already a liability. A strategic thinker and wise Canadian named Julius Ruechel recently put together a wonderfully succinct exposition of how Canada creates unnecessary risks for the U.S. As Ruechel argues, by rejecting our shared Western culture and embracing “multiculturalism” as its global brand, Canada has invited many of America’s enemies into its own house. China’s fentanyl operations across the U.S. depend upon Canadian distribution hubs. Canadian officials have permitted the Chinese Communist Party to conduct military training operations inside North American airspace and within Canada’s Arctic territories. The Canadian government nearly allowed China to establish a deep-water naval port in the heart of Nunavut’s Arctic coast -- an ideal Northern position from which to target American cities across the continent. Just as is a major problem in D.C., too many Canadian politicians are in bed with the Chinese.
Aside from Canada’s unhealthy relationship with communist China, its leftist government has allowed the country to become home base for a host of other bad actors who enjoy poking America in the eye. Transnational crime syndicates depend upon Canadian financial institutions and communication networks. The World Economic Forum uses Canada as a center for delivering globalist propaganda into the United States. The U.K. and European Union use Canada to undermine official U.S. policy and project European power into North America. And whenever Canada wishes to “flex its muscle,” it threatens to cut off hydrocarbon energy supplies to the U.S. and redirect critical resources to communist China. In effect, Canada is a weak link that leaves America exposed and American interests vulnerable.
What does Ruechel recommend for his fellow Canadians? He concludes, “Life inside Fortress America looks pretty good considering what Canada has become.” Joining common-sense North Americans together would certainly defang vampire Chrystia Freeland and help us all avoid Canadian Bacon: Part Deux.
