Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“Americans today are increasingly polarized, as if they constitute two separate nations.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine – The American Crisis

Thomas Paine wrote these words 247 years ago, in the most historic year in our history – 1776. That was during the first American Fourth Turning. It’s not a coincidence we are now in the midst of our fourth Crisis period in U.S. history, as they arrive like clockwork every 80 years or so, the length of a long human life. Paine’s American Crisis began in 1773, ignited by the Boston Tea Party and the British reaction to this revolutionary act of defiance. Our current Millennial Crisis was triggered by the Federal Reserve/Wall Street/Government created financial disaster in 2008 and subsequent outrageously desperate, totalitarian, un-Constitutional, extreme acts designed to keep the ruling class in power, while impoverishing and enslaving the masses in a surveillance state techno-gulag.

The polarization and fractures have become too deep to repair. The country, and the western world in general, are hurtling towards a darkening abyss of civil conflict, financial collapse, global war, societal chaos, and loss of life on a scale grander than WW2, the Civil War, and the American Revolution combined. Our technological advancements have outstripped our ability to intelligently, thoughtfully, and humanly, use this power for the benefit of future generations. The destructive deficiencies of human nature, such as: greed, desire for power, hatred, arrogance, resentment, and an unlimited supply of self-delusion, continue to plague our world, as only the most power-hungry psychopaths rise to the highest levels of government, business, religion, and finance.

The immense technological power in the hands of egocentric, megalomaniacal, sadistic, billionaires and their highly paid toadies, lackeys, and apparatchiks, inserted throughout the media, government, academia, banking, and corporations, has pushed the world to the brink of Armageddon. We are entering the sixteenth year of this Fourth Turning. Based on history, we can expect a climax of this Crisis in the 2030-to-2032-timeframe. The path to that climax is guaranteed to be violent and unforgiving.

Neil Howe, in his new book – The Fourth Turning Is Here – tries to decipher the likely path of the remainder of this Fourth Turning. Having read the original Fourth Turning, his joint project with William Strauss (who died in 2007), in 2004, I was curious to read Howe’s update on their generational theory of history. I met Howe for lunch in 2012 during the Occupy Wall Street protests and he correctly assessed that movement as a meaningless left-wing attempt to push their communist like agenda.

The first book, written in 1997, showed no favor towards the right or left. It was a no-nonsense assessment of economic facts and historical precedents. There were no political agendas, which I now attribute to Strauss’ influence, because Howe certainly lets his political views creep into his writings. This isn’t surprising, as his consulting business is dependent upon Wall Street banks and mega-corporations. He owes his living to the establishment; therefore he won’t shit where he eats.

Howe’s current left leaning political views seep into his current tome. He quotes Zelensky as some sort of patriotic leader, while portraying Putin as a thug, without giving any context regarding the 2014 CIA initiated overthrow of a democratically elected Ukraine president. He bought the covid scamdemic hook, line, and sinker, with no skepticism about the coordinated lockdowns and false narratives about masks, social distancing, and vaccines that never worked, but continue to kill. He believes the climate change bullshit narrative.

His tone regarding Trump is clearly negative and he believes the 2020 election was perfectly legitimate. He expounds about the January 6 “armed” insurrection, without one word about the FBI, Pelosi, and the Washington establishment planning, coordinating, and exacerbating the fake “insurrection”. His brain-dead accusations of violence by Trump supporters, while completely ignoring the murder and mayhem created by the BLM and ANTIFA terrorists, clearly reveals his allegiances.

Be that as it may, there is no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. His acumen regarding possible scenarios and outcomes are well thought out. Howe makes some very interesting predictions regarding the remainder of this Fourth Turning, providing some very dark possibilities, along with some more unlikely optimistic outcomes. His research reveals Americans think the American dream is no longer attainable, civil discord will destroy our democratic institutions, and our global standing is in decline. All three fears are legitimate and coming to fruition as we speak. Howe captures the current situation in this passage:

“In the middle of a Crisis era, the social mood has reached an unstable balance of hope, fear, and dizzying uncertainty. Americans are like a compressed spring at the point of maximum potential energy. Internally secure yet externally threatened, they are ready for propulsive public action.”   – Neil Howe – The Fourth Turning Is Here

Events beyond their control are leading them towards their rendezvous with destiny and the speed has begun to accelerate, with 2024 slated to be a historic date in history, on par with 1776, 1861, and 1941. The exact events which will make 2024 historic are obscured by a dense fog of uncertainty, but we can make some educated guesses based upon our current economic circumstances, Biden’s open border purposeful invasion, upcoming elections wrought with fraud, ongoing treasonous governmental and judicial operations, and deepening global conflicts already underway.

Of the three possible paths laid out by Howe, the most likely appears to be the animosity between factions eventually leads to armed conflict within the country. Political dominance by one party is highly unlikely, with the country rallying around the flag against an external enemy. It is more likely our many external foes will take advantage of our internal conflict to further weaken our global hegemony. All paths lead to war at this point.

I sense the delusional masses, still entranced by their electronic gadgets, unending access to debt, NFL fantasy leagues, and oblivious to the lessons of history, are frantically trying to fend off reality by shopping, eating out, partying at bars, and pretending all is well. Critically assessing their true situation is too painful for these snowflakes and gender bending enthusiasts. Their virtue signaling wokeness is about to meet the brutal reality of a violent Fourth Turning climax.

“And however much these paths may seem to differ from one another, they all move toward the same destination. They all push the nation toward a violent struggle requiring maximum mobilization. They all culminate in the Ekpyrosis, which will bring the era into a decisive consolidation, climax, and resolution.” – Neil Howe – The Fourth Turning Is Here

The drivers of this Fourth Turning, as documented in 1997, continue to be debt, civic decay, and global disorder. They have propelled this Crisis since the outset in 2008 and are accelerating towards an explosive collision in 2024. The national debt at the outset of this Fourth Turning was $10 trillion. It had taken 219 years to accumulate $10 trillion of debt, with the majority amassed during this century. It has taken just fifteen years to pile an additional $24 trillion of debt on the backs of Americans and future generations, if there are future generations.

This doesn’t even take into account the $200 trillion of unfunded welfare and pension obligations tallied up by your government leaders. At the same time, the Federal Reserve increased their balance sheet from $900 billion to $9 trillion. With the rapid rise of interest rates in the last year, if banks were required to mark their assets to market, as they did prior to 2009, the entire banking industry, including the Too Big To Fail Wall Street behemoths, would be insolvent, along with the Federal Reserve. Does this seem sustainable to you?

Luckily for our teetering empire of debt, delusions, and deceptions, they can change the rules whenever it suits their purposes to extend and pretend until it all “suddenly” collapses, like a vaxxed soccer player on the pitch. Of course, the U.S. is not alone in being burdened with unpayable debt and an unsustainable financial system. China and the EU countries are also insolvent and issuing debt to service their existing debt.

The only major global power without a large debt problem is Russia, with a debt to GDP ratio below 30%, while the U.S.- 120%, EU – 90%, Japan – 220%, and China – 80% have accumulated perilous levels of debt and still growing. These debt levels and the domestic implications of unsustainable economies will lead shamelessly corrupt politicians and even dictators like Xi to provoke foreign conflict in order to distract their populations from their dire economic circumstances. A wag the dog type false flag is just around the corner.

An man-made banker created economic disaster ignited this powder keg of debt in 2008, and the “solutions” rolled out by the ruling elites since have been designed to extend, pretend, and bend the minds of the masses, while fostering the perpetual pillaging campaign by the billionaire oligarchs who really run this world. The plebs have been destroyed by the relentless inflation purposefully created by Powell and his fellow central banker puppets of the Deep State, while the lords of finance have reaped billions in ill-gotten riches.

The “Haves”, who control the financial markets, media, and politicians, are ecstatic with the current paradigm, as the stock market hits new highs every day, while average Americans go deeper into debt to keep up with the Joneses, pay the rent, and put some food on the table. The U.S. is nothing more than a sophisticated technological looting operation at this point, as we await the Great Taking to be initiated by the oligarchs as their final solution.

The Great Taking is David Rogers Webb’s warning to those not on the inside about the coming seizure of all your assets (stocks, bonds, savings) by your own government in the name of some new contrived national emergency. You will sacrifice your life savings for the good of the country (aka Deep State). At this point it’s just a matter of which comes first, The Taking, Global war, or Civil chaos caused by the ongoing election fraud. They are all coming and will merge into a category 5 hurricane of hell for the nation and the world.

The Deep State continues its complete control over who gets “elected”/selected in this country, as they use the captured judicial system as a cudgel to crush the rule of law and our Constitutional rights. The Soros selected District Attorneys, Mayors, Governors, Judges, Secretaries of States, and various other low-level captured bureaucrats, are doing what they were selected to do – destroy the country’s social fabric and create a chaotic disintegration of our community norms.

A populace propagandized into a woke communist ideology and prodded into a buy now, pay later mentality, is unwilling or unable to accept that LATER has arrived. They will pay, one way or another. Multiple bubbles in stocks, bonds and real estate are all poised to pop, with the slightest provocation from a global and/or domestic blunder. We have now positioned our naval forces in the highly dangerous waters in the Middle East. Militarily supporting Israel and Ukraine has done wonders for our GDP, but it seems we are running out of ammo to defend our own country, as the invasion of our southern border accelerates. We are currently provoking armed conflict in Yemen, Syria, Gaza, Iraq, Ukraine, and Russia.

All it will take is one lucky missile or unexpected hyper-sonic missile and our vaunted navy will see a vessel or two go to the bottom of the Red Sea. Then all hell will break loose. The rhetoric, threats and accusations of atrocities are ramping up, along with armed conflict across the Middle East. With the raging religious hatreds and centuries old struggles for land and power coming to a head, it will just take one of these psychopaths to ignite a global conflict. Meanwhile, China is biding its time for when they make their ultimate move on Taiwan. That would really roll a grenade into the party.

Financial markets have ignored the worsening global conflict thus far, but what happens when Americans start dying in large numbers? If the markets are at all time highs based upon expectations of a strong thriving economy in 2024, why is the Fed signaling multiple interest rate cuts in 2024, regional banks are desperately clinging to the Fed’s emergency bailout fund, commercial real estate is collapsing, housing has peaked, gold is hitting all-time highs, credit card debt is at all-time highs, layoffs are increasing, and the number of working age citizens is in free fall due to vaxx deaths and disabilities?

But buy stocks because the Wall Street shysters and their media mouthpieces tell you it’s the best time to buy. The only question at this point is what additional grain of sand will cause the sand pile to collapse. Will it be a foreign war, or will it be a civil war within our borders or something no one has even considered? I know most people dismiss the possibility of civil war, believing there aren’t enough people willing to risk their lives for a just cause. Neil Howe seems to think it is probable.

“Roughly half of all Americans think a civil war is likely. And a growing number of social scientists agree that the United States now fits the checklist profile of a country at risk. Trust in the national government is in steep decline. Check. Respect for democratic institutions is weakening. Check. A heavily armed population has polarized into two evenly divided partisan factions. Check. Each faction embodies a distinctive ethnic, cultural, and urban-versus-rural identity. Each wants its country to become something the other detests. And each fears the prospect of the other taking power. Check, check, and check.” – Neil Howe – The Fourth Turning Is Here

Virtually no one believes civil war is possible, just as no one expected a civil war in 1860, as the presidential election approached. Truthfully, the civil war has already begun, but only those on the left, in conjunction with the FBI, CIA, Big Media, and other governmental agencies, are aggressively fighting. They are vigorously at war against the American people by rigging elections, arresting opposition leaders, and discarding the U.S. Constitution.

The good guys have thus far been too civil. But the simmering anger of heavily armed rural, red state Americans is close to boiling over. All the signs are there, awaiting a triggering event for this undeclared war to engulf the nation. At this point a number of possible triggering events are possible.

If David Webb is correct and those in power initiate the Great Taking, the level of violence in reaction would be unprecedented in U.S. history. Maybe that is their plan. Biden and his handlers could use this event to declare a national emergency, suspending the presidential election because they were going to lose, and instituting martial law. Their attempt to lockdown the country and use the military against civilians would surely result in massive bloodshed, as local animosities would result in assassinations, wholesale slaughter of those considered disloyal to whichever side controls the high ground in that community. Previously petty disputes would suddenly become lethal disputes.

Even if the presidential election is held in November, I don’t believe either side will accept the outcome. We know the Democrats and their Deep State co-conspirators will cheat, rig and once again try to steal the election. If they fail, they will unleash their BLM, ANTIFA terrorist arm into the streets to create chaos as an excuse to not hand over power to Trump.

With multiple states now attempting to unlawfully keep Trump off the ballot in their states, the animosity between the right and left grows ever deeper. The imprisonment of Trump or more radical attempts to steal the 2024 election will be met with violence from the here-to-for persevering right. Mixing this toxic domestic atmosphere with a deepening global chasm is a recipe for global disaster.

As we have seen throughout history, the egos of psychopaths at the helm of nations often lead them to act irrationally and/or emotionally when it comes to committing their people to war. While the U.S. has further weakened its global hegemony with its disastrous forays into Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine; Russia and China have gotten stronger and more mutually committed to creating their own new world order. The USD as the dominant global currency is reaching its endpoint, marking the end of empire. Now Israel will further deplete U.S. resources and global stature with their war to wipe out Palestine. Once the dominoes begin to fall in a game of global warfare, all bets are off regarding possible outcomes. Neil Howe’s worst-case scenario is certainly not out of the question.

“At worst, should at least one desperate country resort to WMDs, the outcome of a great-power war could prove to be even more devastating than that of a civil war. The toll could be almost unimaginable – with multiple cities destroyed, many millions killed, and many tens of millions displaced – all perhaps triggered by some ill-fated combination of the wrong leader making the wrong choice at the wrong time.” – Neil Howe – The Fourth Turning Is Here             

All scenarios for 2024 seem depressing and dark, but the odds still favor just continuing to muddle through as we have done through the first fifteen years of this Fourth Turning. I gave up trying to make specific predictions within a specific time frame years ago. It’s a fool’s errand as there are too many variables in the world to correctly predict which ones will drive the course of events within a one year time frame.

What I do know is that pessimism about the future continues to deepen, paranoia strengthens, trust declines, anger grows, and the arrogance of those running the show has reached epic levels. We’ve been subjected to three years of propaganda about how the Great Reset will fundamentally transform our world, where we will own nothing and be happy. It seems this fits perfectly with David Webb’s Great Taking theory of how we will ultimately own nothing.

There does seem to be a common thread running through everything happening in the last three years and appears to be on deck for 2024 and beyond. It all revolves around this broad Great Reset concept pushed by Schwab, Gates, Soros, and the rest of the Davos elite. The entire Covid plandemic was engineered to introduce authoritarian measures and instruct the masses to obey their masters.

The vaccine is now clearly revealed to be a depopulation weapon, killing off some suddenly; others through myocarditis, turbo cancers, and strokes; babies through miscarriages; and future generations through reduced fertility. And most still believe our overlords rolled these jabs out to save them. Trump is still crowing about his big, beautiful vaccines. He’s either a fool or a charlatan.

The climate change scam is hastening, as the war on farmers, meat, and fossil fuels is waged relentlessly by unelected bureaucrats and captured media mouthpieces. The EV scam is collapsing rapidly, as people with common sense see through it all. The Great Replacement of white people with third world savages is unabetted, with the Biden Administration ushering them across the southern border, giving them phones and money, flying them to cities across the country, and paying for them to stay at upscale hotels.

This is not incompetence, but treason. They have already used their predictive programming/brainwashing to prepare the masses for civil war and a massive cyber-attack. Your government will protect you, as long as you sacrifice your remaining liberties and rights. All that is left is the initiation of the Great Taking. The “emergency” will occur on a weekend and by Monday morning your assets will be gone.

This is their master plan, but we will have a say on whether it is ever successfully implemented. I wonder if these Davos psychopaths absconded with The Great Reset moniker from Strauss & Howe, as they used it to describe Fourth Turnings back in 1997.

“A Fourth Turning is a great reset.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

A Fourth Turning great reset may be a surprise to Schwab and his totalitarian acolytes inserted in governments across the world. They are in control. They are running this shitshow. They are the establishment. They are reaping the benefits. They are suppressing dissent and the truth. They are the existing social order that traditionally gets swept away during a Fourth Turning. 2024 may mark the beginning of the end for the Davos crowd and their iron grip on our spiraling society of chaos.

The future course of history could be radically altered by actions taken by supposedly influential characters in this movie, but also by courageous deeds performed by average Americans who will sacrifice themselves to ensure future generations have a chance to live in a nation devoid of a psychopathic elitist ruling class.

It seems like a long shot at this point, but giving up is not an option for those of us who still love this country. The four possible outcomes for this Crisis, laid out by Strauss & Howe in 1997, are as valid today as ever, and disturbingly close at hand. We will all have to do our part if we are to have any chance of producing a positive outcome to this Crisis. Happy New Year.

1. This Fourth Turning could mark the end of man. It could be an omnicidal Armageddon, destroying everything, leaving nothing. If mankind ever extinguishes itself, this will probably happen when its dominant civilization triggers a Fourth Turning that ends horribly. For this Fourth Turning to put an end to all this would require an extremely unlikely blend of social disaster, human malevolence, technological perfection and bad luck.

2. The Fourth Turning could mark the end of modernity. The Western saecular rhythm – which began in the mid-fifteenth century with the Renaissance – could come to an abrupt terminus. The seventh modern saeculum would be the last. This too could come from total war, terrible but not final. There could be a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society. Such a dire result would probably happen only when a dominant nation (like today’s America) lets a Fourth Turning ekpyrosis engulf the planet. But this outcome is well within the reach of foreseeable technology and malevolence.

3. The Fourth Turning could spare modernity but mark the end of our nation. It could close the book on the political constitution, popular culture, and moral standing that the word America has come to signify. The nation has endured for three saecula; Rome lasted twelve, the Soviet Union only one. Fourth Turnings are critical thresholds for national survival. Each of the last three American Crises produced moments of extreme danger: In the Revolution, the very birth of the republic hung by a thread in more than one battle. In the Civil War, the union barely survived a four-year slaughter that in its own time was regarded as the most lethal war in history. In World War II, the nation destroyed an enemy of democracy that for a time was winning; had the enemy won, America might have itself been destroyed. In all likelihood, the next Crisis will present the nation with a threat and a consequence on a similar scale.

4. Or the Fourth Turning could simply mark the end of the Millennial Saeculum. Mankind, modernity, and America would all persevere. Afterward, there would be a new mood, a new High, and a new saeculum. America would be reborn. But, reborn, it would not be the same.

*  *  *

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The Supreme Court of Israel has struck down a controversial judicial overhaul law enacted last year by the Netanyahu administration which would limit the high court’s power.

The judicial overhaul, passed last July and resembling a constitutional amendment, sought to restrict the Supreme Court’s authority to nullify government decisions deemed “unreasonable in the extreme.” However, the court – unsurprisingly, has ruled against the law, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The ruling could revive the deep political and social strife generated by the judicial reform last year, just as the country reels from the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel and is embroiled in a devastating war in Gaza.

Before the Oct. 7 attack, hundreds of thousands of Israelis came out weekly to protest against Netanyahu’s push to limit the powers of the court and give more control to the elected government.

Eight justices ruled in favor of striking down the law, with seven against.

According to the report, analysts say the decision could have substantial consequences for postwar politics when Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas militants in the Gaza strip eventually comes to a close – including any inquiry into intelligence failures leading up to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, which left 1,200 people dead (and which has drawn a disproportionately deadly response).

The law, passed last summer by the Knesset, was a component of a broad package aimed at limiting the court’s power and giving lawmakers more control. According to Netanyahu, activist, liberal judges control the court – and the legislation seeks to restore the proper balance of power (so, what Democrats want to do to the US Supreme Court). Opponents have argued that the legislation would undermine the court’s power as a check on executive and legislative power, and would erode the country’s liberal democracy.

“This is really an unprecedented decision because it is the first time in the history of the state where the court strikes down a basic law,” said Yaniv Roznai, a law professor at Reichman University in central Israel, who likened the law to a constitutional amendment.

The court also ruled 12-3 that it has the right to strike down a basic law in “unusual and extreme cases” when it runs counter to the core principles of Israel (in their opinions, of course).

Netanyahu’s Likud party slammed the ruling, saying “it is unfortunate that the Supreme Court chose to issue a decision at the heart of Israel’s social divisions, precisely when [Israeli] soldiers” are “fighting and risking their lives.”

Justice Minister Yariv Levin, considered the judicial overhaul’s chief architect, said the court’s ruling “takes away from millions of citizens their vote and the basic right to be equal partners in decision-making.” Levin has long argued that elected leaders should have more influence over the courts and their authority.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid praised the decision as protecting Israeli democracy. “If the Israeli government again starts the fight over the Supreme Court,” Lapid said, then “they learned nothing on Oct. 7.” -WSJ

Now, Netanyahu’s options are limited – but could include passing a more nuanced version of the amendment, or passing basic legislation that would limit the court’s ability to strike down basic laws.

Update (Monday):

“If anyone is flying out of JFK Airport today, please plan to travel to the airport ahead of time,” Chief Philip Rivera, the head of transportation of the New York Police Department, wrote in an X post.

Rivera said pro-Palestinian protesters are expected to cause delays at JFK Terminal 4 (departures). 

“There are planned protests today and will cause delays. We don’t want anyone to miss their flights! Safe travels and Happy New Year,” he said. 

If anyone is flying out of JFK Airport today, please plan to travel to the airport ahead of time. There are planned protests today and will cause delays. We don’t want anyone to miss their flights! Safe travels and Happy New Year.#nypdconnecting #nypdprotecting pic.twitter.com/qpErgidNCi

— Chief of Transportation (@NYPDTransport) January 1, 2024

Social media reports show NYPD officers only allow people with an “Employee ID or Boarding pass” to enter train stations to JFK Airport. 

#NOW “Employee ID or Boarding pass!” Long line at Jamaica station to take JFK Air Tran to the airport as police limit access to employees and people with boarding passes only.

Protest was called by WOL to flood JFK Terminal 4 today, prompting shut downs. Heavy traffic… pic.twitter.com/UrT3150f3p

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) January 1, 2024

Since arriving at the Jamaica AirTrain station to JFK, a few protestors have approached the officers guarding the entrance to the AirTrain station and requested entry, but all have been turned away. pic.twitter.com/acEz0Oa4oQ

— katie smith (@probablyreadit) January 1, 2024

A pro-Palestinian vehicle convoy appears to be heading to the airport. 

LIVE From STRIKE For Palestine Protest at JFK Airport in NYC https://t.co/qvLY7qMohz

— Status Coup News (@StatusCoup) January 1, 2024

Some pro-Palestinian protesters are calling NYPD officers “NYPD, KKK, IDF, You’re all the same.”  

🚨𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚- The planned Palestinian protest ‘FLOOD JFK FOR GAZA’ at the JFK international airport in Queens, New York is already ramping up with hundreds of protestors already gathering to begin.

The police at JFK airport in New York City are making significant… pic.twitter.com/oCF5zIHAia

— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) January 1, 2024

“Reports of massive law enforcement mobilization around strategic entry points into JFK airport to protect travelers from pro-Hamas protestors. This includes resources from NYPD, NY State Police, Port Authority Police, National Guard, and multiple state and city resources. May God bless them all. Enough is enough. Long past due to take back our streets. Thank them when you see them,” one X user said. 

#BREAKING Checkpoints at JFK stopping protesters from getting to the airport.

Belt Parkway shut down as Pro-Palestine protesters drive to JFK Terminal 4 for today’s protest “Flood JFK for Gaza”#HappeningNow Desk@freedomnews.tv to license pic.twitter.com/u0iLGplGtn

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) January 1, 2024

*   *   * 

Days after hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters surrounded the World Trade Center in New York City and screamed “Allahu akbar,” a flyer circulating social media platform X shows a possible rally at John F. Kennedy International Airport on New Year’s Day. 

The pro-Palestinians are chanting “intifada revolution” and shouting “Allahu Akbar” outside the entrance to the World Trade Centre complex. They are sending the message very loudly about who they are. Hear them.pic.twitter.com/hLzM2ah91C

— Heidi Bachram 🎗️ (@HeidiBachram) December 29, 2023

Joel Mowbray, a former columnist for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a non-partisan institution focusing on national security and foreign policy, pointed out the protest flyer is full of hate:

Pro-Palestinian “protesters” are now openly embracing Hamas. Key word is “flood.” Hamas calls 10/7 massacres “Operation Al Aqsa Flood.” 

So “Flood JFK for Gaza” is an open support for Hamas’ campaign of raping, murdering and beheading Jews — and Muslims & Christians. Vile.

Pro-Palestinian “protesters” are now openly embracing Hamas. Key word is “flood.” Hamas calls 10/7 massacres “Operation Al Aqsa Flood.”

So “Flood JFK for Gaza” is an open support for Hamas’ campaign of raping, murdering and beheading Jews — and Muslims & Christians. Vile. https://t.co/bGNnh8cWTD

— Joel Mowbray (@joelmowbray) December 29, 2023

Organized protesters are expected to arrive by foot and vehicles at JFK Terminal 4 (departures) around 1400 ET Monday. The terminal serves several international airlines, including El Al Israel Airlines Ltd.

“On New Year’s Day, pro-Hamas mobs plan on shutting down JFK airport, but don’t worry, New York’s governor @GovKathyHochul and @NYCMayor Eric Adams will be hard at work nursing their New Year’s Eve hangover. Once they’re over it, they’ll pretend it did not happen,” one X user said in response to the flyer. 

On New Year’s Day, pro-Hamas mobs plan on shutting down JFK airport, but don’t worry, New York’s governor @GovKathyHochul and @NYCMayor Eric Adams will be hard at work nursing their New Year’s Eve hangover. Once they’re over it, they’ll pretend it did not happen. pic.twitter.com/uWSIhpRCqt

— Sam E. Antar (@SamAntar) December 31, 2023

Another person said: “Ah yes, disrupt people trying to get home for the holidays for your cause. I’m sure they will agree with you and support it now.” 

Marxist groups appear to be funding these anti-Israel protests, as some point out. What’s troubling, just like when Marxist groups supported Black Lives Matter, the federal government appears to be ignoring these folks who are shutting down highways, bridges, business districts, and airports nationwide. 

Though they no longer seem to put their names on these hateful fliers, it’s no surprise if divisive orgs like @nycDSA , @WOLPalestine , etc., still endorse these pro-terror “protests.” Defund THEM for supporting baby-beheaders—and toss OUT their “progressive” allies!

— barrymosk (@barrymosk) December 31, 2023

Last Wednesday, anti-Israel protesters blocked critical roadways to JFK. 

🇺🇸🇵🇸🚨‼️ JFK is blocked too! It’s a ceasefire now protest.

Folks, the best way to make somebody anti Palestine is to make him miss his flight.

I stay by my traditional stance: “do not block traffic”.

pic.twitter.com/VkrZwnyPeu https://t.co/EIqMd3rxv1

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) December 27, 2023

BREAKING: Pro-Palestine Protests Disrupt Major US Airports, JFK and LAX Causing Chaos.

Watch how quickly this would stop:

– Cut off social welfare for protesters who block streets
– Every protester should be arrested and heavily find
– Anyone who is non-citizen or green card… pic.twitter.com/OzvsEUDoYs

— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) December 27, 2023

The coordinating organizers are listed below 👀

Any testiculated DA could shut it down before it happens and start filing RICO charges for what already happened in JFK recently

— Browsus Maximus (@DadlyDoNothing) December 29, 2023

Where is the Biden administration denouncing these rogue organized protesters shutting down critical infrastructure? There should be zero tolerance for any group attempting to disrupt airports. Maybe Biden’s federal government is too busy weaponizing agencies against Trump supporters to actually care about real threats to the nation. 

Authored by Meryl Nass via The Brownstone Institute,

When Bobby Kennedy talked about writing this book a couple of years ago, I asked him, why?

Mindful of how the truth about everything Covid (and much else) was being memory-holed, he said he wanted to create an accurate historical record of what happened, for the future. 

I thought that was a good answer.

We desperately need a clear, accurate understanding about many things that have been taking place over the past few years, or should I say decades, and we all need to be saving hard copies or pdfs on hard drives of the important bits of history that we dig up.

Bobby did the difficult part and collected those scraps, and he knitted them together into a narrative that very few people know about.

In a nutshell: there is a cabal that took the concept of biological warfare 30 years ago and ran with it – in order to create new industries, massive profits, and to control the world using fear of death by contagion.

He created a history that is also a page-turner, enabling us to understand in a much deeper way what we have just lived through. 

No kidding, he has the receipts.

Tony Fauci is only one pawn on the chessboard in this book. There are many others, and I will mention just a few. Robert Kadlec is one. Sir Dr. Jeremy Farrar is a real knight, despite or because of having played a pivotal role in the overdosing of over 2,500 patients with hydroxychloroquine in the UK/Oxford and WHO clinical trials that he oversaw and funded. 

There are the funders; the scientists who will do anything for another grant; the massive network controlled by a syndicate: the money men and women from NIH’s many institutes, especially its best-funded NIAID; the NSF, whose former director was on the board of EcoHealth Alliance; the Wellcome Trust, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation; and other charities deeply entangled with the ones I just mentioned. There are think tanks that help guide the direction the funding takes. A US DoD that contributes billions to whitewash and hide its biowarfare research. And a massive bureaucracy and media that protects all these people from exposure and punishment.

Nobody really wants to think about bioweapons. They are unpleasant in the extreme to contemplate. They should not exist. They challenge our entire concept of medicine being sacrosanct, the knowledge of medicine never to be used for harm. This is in the Hippocratic Oath. 

Unfortunately, we cannot bury our heads in the sand over this issue. Our lack of knowledge about it, our revulsion toward it, and our deep-seated fears about it have enabled the spectre of biological warfare to lead us on a long and winding road to hell.

The 2001 anthrax letters, sent at the right time to the right Senators, led to the Patriot Act, a massively profitable biodefense industry, and the rise of the Surveillance State. 

By 2005 we had the PREP Act, ostensibly to allow the DoD to continue using anthrax vaccines despite the revocation of the vaccine license in 2004. Did anyone know back then that the PREP Act would be used to greenlight contaminated gene therapy injections for billions around the world? Why didn’t the scientists designing these injections predict some, if not all of their harms, having spent hundreds of millions to study beta coronaviruses over 2 decades? Or did they?

Without the PREP Act removing liability from the Covid vaccine manufacturers, the injectors, and the government planners who both designed the program, and gave away billions of taxpayer dollars in bonuses for each shot administered, such untested, unlicensed, and deadly shots would never have been administered.

These Patriot and PREP Acts were passed because Congress and the American public were played like a fiddle, induced to be terrified. Congress attempted to immunize itself from criticism by throwing money at the problem, much of it going to Fauci, while through ignorance Congress made the problem of biological warfare far worse. 

Many Americans took the Covid experimental shots willingly, out of terror and ignorance. The half that held back were mostly beaten, shamed, or cajoled into compliance through the most incredible, federally-funded fifth general mind control assault the world has ever experienced.

We have just lived through 3 bioweapon events, at least: the original Wuhan coronavirus, the Omicron variant, and monkeypox, all of which assuredly came from labs.

It is obvious that many more nasty viruses and other microorganisms are still sitting in labs, many sponsored by military and intelligence agencies using our tax dollars. It is absolutely critical that the public act a lot smarter than it did last time, if there is a next time. It is critical to know what it is we are dealing with. And critical to understand that there ARE ways we can save ourselves that lie outside the government’s prescribed Overton window. 

The Wuhan Cover-Up gives you the facts, the history, and the understanding you need to grasp what is actually happening, right now. If enough of us read it, we will gain the knowledge and strength in numbers to stop and defund the biowarfare industry, revoke these terrible laws, and lay down our deep, unconscious fears regarding contagion.

[Full disclosure: I helped edit this book. I was the first person in the world to study an epidemic (epizootic) and prove it was due to biological warfare.] 

Israel’s military announced Monday it is about to initiate its first major drawdown of troops from Gaza since the ground offensive began. This is to involved pulling back multiple thousands of reserve soldiers to begin with, at least temporarily.

“This move is expected to significantly alleviate economic burdens and enable them to gather strength for upcoming activities in the next year,” the Israel Defense Forces statement said. Reservists from two brigades are expected home this week, while three more brigades will return to Israel for training.

This appears to be in response to recent White House pressure to dial down the intensity of the fighting amid the soaring Palestinian civilian death toll, but also as the Netanyahu governing coalition faces growing anger domestically over how it has handled the war and hostage situation especially. An estimated over 350,000 IDF troops had been mobilized for the war effort.

Additionally, as The New York Times explains, “The call-up added to the economic burden faced by hundreds of thousands of Israelis who fled their homes on Israel’s borders following the attacks.” This as “The Israeli economy is expected to shrink by 2 percent this quarter, the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies, a nonpartisan think tank in Israel, said in late December, as many left the labor force for reserve duty or abandoned businesses in their hometowns.”

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari described that the IDF is “adjusting” its “fighting methods to each area in Gaza” to prepare for a long war. “Tonight, 2024 will begin. The goals of the war require lengthy fighting, and we are prepared accordingly,” he said Sunday.

A White House official has been quoted in the NY Times as saying that recent war planning discussions between Israeli and US top officials has focused on a strategy that seeks to “maximize focus on high-value Hamas targets.”

Again, between the lines here is likely the strain the Biden administration is feeling from other countries and allies over the 21,000+ Palestinian deaths, among them possibly over 8,000 children, according to Gaza Health Ministry statements. Over 50,000 people have been wounded.

People of Gaza desperate to get UN food aid – Most of the Gaza is starving. pic.twitter.com/sknsOAJAay

— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) December 30, 2023

And as the conflict continues grinding, disease and hunger will persist and become bigger factors in terms of more casualties and the dire humanitarian crisis unfolding.

On the military front, however, Hamas appears fully intact, still having lost likely several thousand, but is waging a guerrilla campaign using small teams which effectively utilize the tunnel system. Very likely, it’s part of Hamas’ war aims to lead Israel into a “trap” and endless quagmire in Gaza, which appears to already be happening.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in his year-end speech, an annual tradition, was widely reported to be somewhat muted in intensity this year (given also it was much shorter than usual, at under four minutes), coming the day after the Russian city of Belgorod suffered its single worst day of attack from Ukraine forces since the war began. During the Saturday cross-border drone and missile attack 24 Russians were killed and 108 were injured.

Putin in the address vowed that Russia would “never back down” and that national unity will be maintained at all costs. “We have repeatedly proven that we can solve the most difficult problems and will never back down because there is no force that can separate us,” he said according to AFP.

“What united us and unites us is the fate of the Fatherland, a deep understanding of the highest significance of the historical stage through which Russia is passing,” Putin said while also hailing Russian citizens’ “solidarity, mercy and fortitude.”

Without naming Ukraine directly, he further praised Russian troops on the front lines of fighting: “We are proud of you, you are heroes, you feel the support of the entire people,” Putin said.

Belgorod was also not mentioned by name, and while many New Year festivities continued as usual across a number of major cities, including in Moscow, many areas canceled their customary fireworks displays this year. The big one held at the Red Square was also canceled, but there were other events in other parts of the capital city.

However, Putin addressed the border problem in great detail during separate statements offered Monday. He said Russia will “intensify” strikes against Ukraine in wake of the deadly strikes on Belgorod city.

“We’re going to intensify the strikes. No crime against civilians will rest unpunished, that’s for certain,” Putin said while touring a military hospital.

“Of course, we can strike public squares and Kyiv, and any other city. I understand. I’m burning with rage myself. But do we need to attack civilians? No, we hit military targets, and we’ll continue to do that,” he added.

While meeting w/ wounded soldiers at a hospital outside Moscow, Putin indicates that Russia isn’t done retaliating for Ukraine’s Belgorod attack. He doesn’t repeat the “Vampire” missile claim but says firing a multiple launch rocket system at a city center qualifies as terrorism pic.twitter.com/eymEVSHsdx

— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) January 1, 2024

He labeled the early Saturday strikes on Belgorod a “terrorist attack” and charged that Ukraine’s military had been intentionally targeting “right in the city center, where people were walking, before New Year’s Eve.” Videos showed that at least one Christmas marketplace had been shelled, where many children had been present. At least two children were reportedly among the deceased.

The day prior to that on Friday, Russia had unleashed a massive missile and drone attack on cities across Ukraine, which killed at least 39. The Kremlin said the operation struck military targets, while Kiev said malls, apartment buildings, and schools were hit.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The tricky part is distinguishing the critical dependencies – those resources the empire literally cannot do without – from longer-term sources of decay and decline.

In response to my recent post What If There Are No Analogs for 2024?, an astute reader nominated the Roman Empire as a fitting analog. Longtime readers know I’ve often discussed the complex history of Western Rome’s decay and collapse, for example, Why Rome Collapsed: Lessons For the Present (August 11, 2023).

Dozens of other posts on the topic stretch back to 2009: Complacency and The Will To Radical Reform (February 12, 2009)

What conclusions can we draw from recent research and the voluminous work done by previous generations of historians? Our first conclusion is simply to state the obvious: it’s complicated. There was no one cause of Western Rome’s decay and collapse. A multitude of factors generated feedback loops and responses over hundreds of years, some more successful than others.

Indeed, we cannot help but be struck by how many times impending collapse was staved off by brilliant leadership and policy adjustments.

Our second conclusion is to distinguish between the erosive forces of decay and critical vulnerabilities that can trigger collapse. Many authors have pointed to moral decay and fiscal over-reach as sources of Rome’s eventual fall, but there were far more pressing dependencies that created potentially fatal vulnerabilities.

In the case of Western Rome, these included:

1. The depletion of the silver mines in Spain (and the eventual loss of Spain to the Visigoths). Once you run out of hard currency, your free-spending days are over. This dependence on large quantities of hard currency to fund your armed forces is a trigger for collapse.

2. Dependence on revenues from foreign trade with India, Africa and central Asia. Western Rome’s income was highly asymmetric, depending heavily on import duties from foreign trade funneling through the Red Sea and the Roman ports in Egypt. Many of Rome’s far-flung provinces were net drains on the imperial coffers; rather than generate income, they were costs

3. Military defeats. In his recent book The fall of the Roman Empire: a new history of Rome and the Barbarians, historian Peter Heather persuasively argues that the Roman Empire was neither on the brink of social or moral collapse, nor fatally weakened by resource depletion. What brought it to an end were the Barbarian invasions from what is now Germany and Eastern Europe, mass tribal movements triggered by the Huns pushing into Europe from the east.

Heather argues Rome’s great success eventually led to its undoing, as the small, loosely organized Barbarian tribes learned from the Romans how to form larger, more cohesive and thus more powerful social and military organizations.

We must also note Rome’s many defeats at the hands of Attila the Hun. It is not coincidence that Attila died in 453 AD and the Western Roman Empire expired in 476 AD, unable to recover from the losses incurred by the Huns, Visigoths and Vandals.

4. Dependence on wheat from North Africa. Rome depended entirely on the bread-basket of North Africa to feed its populace. Once the Vandals swept through Spain and conquered North Africa, cutting off Rome’s supply of wheat, the empire was doomed.

5. Incompetent leadership. Western Rome–and every empire, if we look closely–was critically dependent on competent leadership when faced with existential threats to the Empire’s cohesion. We can cite Marcus Aurelius and Constantine as two examples of many.

When the leadership was weak and/or incompetent, defeats and failures piled up and things fell apart.

We must also note the role of the great tidal forces of demographics, disease, climate change, regional rivalries and cultural sclerosis in weakening the empire’s ability to respond to polycrisis. The rise of the Barbarian tribes led to Rome’s successful melding of diplomacy, bribes and military victories, a strategy mirrored by the Han Dynasty in China at the same time.

(I’ll have more to say on the Han Dynasty this weekend for my subscribers.)

Rome successfully Romanized the Barbarian tribes, but made the critical cultural error of dismissing this new cohort of productive Roman citizenry as second-class. Romans who happened to have been born in Gaul (France) or Germany eventually chafed at these institutional biases, and this contributed to their eventual replacement of Italian leadership and its centralized control.

Indeed, the Roman Empire did not disappear in 476 AD as much as break apart into Barbarian-led pieces of what they reckoned was a continuation of the Imperial era. This complex history is ably addressed in the remarkable volume The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000.

In some ways, the Catholic Church replaced the political-military empire as a centralized authority in western Europe. In the Eastern Roman Empire (the Byzantine Empire) that continued on for another thousand years, the Orthodox Church played a central role in its coherence.

The Antonine Plague of 165 to 180 AD weakened the empire. Generally ascribed to smallpox, the plague killed millions and decimated the Roman military. Rome recovered, but arguably never quite to the same level.

Empires tend to do just fine until climate change disrupts their agriculture and water supplies. Climate change–cooling weather across the prime agricultural regions–weakened both Rome and the Han Dynasty. Historian Kyle Harper describes the gradual and eventually consequential changes in his book The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire.

The centuries-long rivalry with the Persian Empire also drained the Empire of resources, even as new challenges from Barbarians and Huns demanded increasing military expenditures.

We would be remiss not to include the internal decay wrought by clinging to the alluring fantasy that past success guarantees future success, without any nasty sacrifices by the ruling elites. Historian Michael Grant addressed this in his book The Fall of the Roman Empire:

“Enmeshed in classical history, all he can do is lapse into vague sermonizing, telling the Romans, as many a moralist had told them throughout the centuries, that they must undergo an ethical regeneration and return to the simplicities and self-sacrifices of their ancestors.

There was no room at all, in these ways of thinking, for the novel, apocalyptic situation which had now arisen, a situation which needed solutions as radical as itself. His whole attitude is a complacent acceptance of things as they are, without a single new idea.

This acceptance was accompanied by greatly excessive optimism about the present and future. Even when the end was only sixty years away, and the Empire was already crumbling fast, Rutilius continued to address the spirit of Rome with the same supreme assurance.

This blind adherence to the ideas of the past ranks high among the principal causes of the downfall of Rome. If you were sufficiently lulled by these traditional fictions, there was no call to take any practical first-aid measures at all.”

Roman elites in Gaul were still writing letters to one another complaining of the breakdown of everyday life right up until the system collapsed. Their letters complaining of the collapse were never delivered, it seems. Their estates continued to exist for a time at the behest of their new Barbarian overlords, but power shifted away from old elites to new elites.

Lastly, let us note how cycles tend to impact empires. Systems arise due to their superior performance, reach their limits and then become obsolete as new selective pressures are met with half-measures and doing more of what’s failed.

There are many Imperial Analogs of Decay. The tricky part is distinguishing the critical dependencies–those resources the empire literally cannot do without–from longer-term sources of decay and decline.

Here is a short list of recommended reading on these topics.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (abridged)

Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change

*  *  *

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What a shock…

Ohio’s ‘Republican’ governor, Mike DeWine, took over $40,000 from hospitals which prescribe puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children, before vetoing a bill that would outlaw puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children.

DeWine stunned state Republicans on Friday, vetoing House Bill 68, which would also prevent transgender athletes (dudes) from competing in girls’ sports.

According to The Federalist Papers;

A review of donations from 2018 to 2023 reveals that the governor received a total of $40,300 from the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association (OCHA), Cincinnati Children’s, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and ProMedica Children’s Hospital.

The OCHA donated $10,000 to the Mike DeWine and Jon Husted Transition Fund on Dec. 28, 2018, and another $10,000 on Dec. 7, 2022, according to the report. This transition fund allows candidates to spend donations for “transition activities and inaugural celebrations,” as outlined in Ohio’s campaign finance handbook.

Affiliates of OCHA, such as Cincinnati Children’s and ProMedica, also made significant contributions. Cincinnati Children’s donated $300 on Dec. 15, 2022, and ProMedica, another affiliate of OCHA, donated $10,000 in December 2018. Nationwide Children’s, a third affiliate with OCHA, donated $5,000 in December 2018 and another $5,000 in January 2023 to the transition fund.

The Cincinnati Children’s and Nationwide Children’s hospitals, for example, offer gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, and have no stated age limit guidelines for patients.

Nick Lashutka, president of the OCHA, slammed House Bill 68 during testimony, arguing that it “strips away” the rights of parents and their transgender children.

ProMedica, a member of The Ohio Children’s Hospital Association and the largest hospital chain in Ohio also gave DeWine $10,000.

ProMedica seems to offer gender affirming care. pic.twitter.com/eVWWdhJdES

— Parker Thayer (@ParkerThayer) December 29, 2023

As The Federalist Papers’ Elizabeth Allen notes, it’s hard not to link the donations to DeWine’s 11th hour veto of HB68.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s statement on the veto was incredible (see clipped video):

“Were Ohio to pass HB68, it would be saying that the state knows better, what is medically best for their child, than the two people who love that child the most: their parents.” pic.twitter.com/00KxU96wSw

— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) December 29, 2023

Politics at its finest…

Via The Cradle,

Hamas fired at least 27 rockets at the south and center of Israel in a barrage timed for midnight as Israelis celebrated the start of the new year.

According to The Times of Israel, the Palestinian resistance movement launched 27 missiles. Air defense systems intercepted 18, while nine fell in open areas. Loud explosions from the intercepts boomed through the sky over Tel Aviv, where crowds of partiers celebrated the new year Sunday.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack from Gaza in a video published on social media, saying it had fired M90 rockets in “response to the massacres of civilians” carried out by Israel.

On Christmas Eve, Israel dropped a massive bomb on the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza, killing 68 Palestinians. Days later, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken used emergency authority to bypass the US Congress to send $104 million in additional 155 mm artillery shells to Israel. 

AFP reported on New Year’s Day that in the besieged Gaza Strip, 20-year-old Hamdan Abu Arab said he hoped “2024 will be better”.

“We used to go out and enjoy our time on the last day of the year,” he recalled. “But this New Year’s Eve, there are only missiles and the remains of people.”

🚨🇵🇸 Hamas started the New Year by giving Israel a firework show. pic.twitter.com/MwrxcNmRwO

— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) December 31, 2023

At least 48 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza City over the weekend, the health ministry said, with many still buried under the rubble.

“After the explosion we arrived at the scene of the strike and saw martyrs everywhere,” said one resident after a building was hit. “Children are still missing, we can’t find them.”

The WHO has warned of the risk of hunger and infectious disease. Gaza’s hospital system has largely collapsed, due to lack of fuel and Israeli bombing, forcing doctors to amputate limbs of victims, including children, without anesthesia.

The Grayzone goes to the scene of the Christmas Eve massacre in Maghazi Refugee Camp, which left over 70 dead in a single Israeli airstrike

We speak to survivors of the attack and reveal the scale of the war crime with exclusive drone footage pic.twitter.com/84ZBOSijat

— The Grayzone (@TheGrayzoneNews) December 28, 2023

UN chief Antonio Guterres has condemned the “epic human suffering” and “collective punishment” of Palestinian civilians, where 85 percent of the population has been displaced.

“We are exhausted… We were displaced five times during this war,” said 29-year-old Bassam Hana. “We hope things improve in 2024 and that we live just like any other human being. Currently, we live like animals.”

Authored by Amie Dahnke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A new study reports that brain function can be impaired for 18 months after a person has recovered from COVID-19, especially if the individual was hospitalized. However, COVID-induced cognitive impairment is no more severe than impairment due to other diseases causing hospitalization.

The prospective cohort study, published in JAMA Network Open, suggests that the brain health of COVID-19 patients who were ill enough to go to the hospital suffered long-lasting neurological damage that included new psychiatric diagnoses, such as anxiety and depression, fatigue, and sleep issues. Previous studies showed these symptoms occurred among 12 percent to 50 percent of individuals one year after infection. Consistent with these findings, this study found that about 38 percent of study participants still had cognitive symptoms at the 18-month follow-up.

The results offer insight into long-COVID symptoms and how the virus can affect the brain over time. Although fewer people are being hospitalized for COVID-19, just over 20,000 Americans were hospitalized for the virus during the last week of December.

Disease Severity, Not Necessarily Type, May Influence Cognitive Impairment

Researchers looked at 120 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at two hospitals in Copenhagen between March 2020 and March 2021. The average patient was 61 years old, and over half of patients (58 percent) were men. The COVID patients were compared to a control group of hospitalized patients, which included 50 who had non-COVID pneumonia, 50 with myocardial infarction, and 25 in non-COVID-related intensive care.

Both the COVID patient group and the control group were assessed for cognitive impairment, underwent psychiatric interviews and neurological examinations, and were assessed for fatigue after they were released from the hospital.

When comparing the COVID group with the non-COVID hospitalized control group, the research team found both groups fared similarly in cognitive, psychiatric, and neurological tests 18 months after they left the hospital. However, the COVID group was worse off in overall executive function and sense of smell. Older patients with COVID-19 had a higher risk of cognitive impairment than healthy controls, the research team noted. COVID patients also experienced more psychiatric issues, sleep issues, and problems involving memory between the six-month and 18-month follow-up periods.

Despite COVID patients understandably experiencing more cognitive issues than healthy controls, those hospitalized both for COVID and non-COVID illnesses showed comparable cognitive impairment, leading researchers to theorize that cognitive impairment is determined more by illness severity and hospitalization than COVID-19.

The new study adds to a growing body of evidence that COVID-19 contributes to cognitive decline, including diminished memory and attention and sleep disturbances. A study conducted by Harvard Medical School in April 2022 noted that patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had such trouble recalling words and paying attention that their cognitive decline equated to losing 10 IQ points. Patients who had to be intubated on ventilators experienced more brain fog, the study found.

COVID-19 Impacts Vital Brain Regions

According to a July 2023 article published in Frontiers in Neurology, scientists believe the SARS-CoV-2 virus damages vital brain regions such as the hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex. These parts of the brain are responsible for learning and memory, as well as other fundamental cognitive processes like decision-making, learning, and cost-benefit analysis.

How the virus damages the brain is still being studied. The Frontiers in Neurology article hypothesizes that COVID-19 creates neuroinflammation, disrupting neural circuits and connections; in other words, the virus short-circuits parts of the brain, especially the sympathetic nervous system, responsible for reacting to stress. A short-circuited sympathetic nervous system, combined with damaged cognitive function, can leave the brain vulnerable, according to researchers.

Understanding the mechanisms of how COVID-19 affects the brain can help doctors and physicians better treat those who suffer from long COVID, defined as experiencing COVID symptoms at least four weeks after initial infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Symptoms of long COVID often involve myriad mental health and brain-related issues, including tiredness or fatigue that interferes with daily life, depression, change in smell or taste, headache, and difficulty thinking or concentrating—sometimes called brain fog.