It seems like the rules changed after the pandemic. This could just be perspective because during the pandemic we were forced to look deeper at the world we lived in because is was in our face or the change might be a physical that changed in the world just because of the upset. Regardless, the path to the future certainly seems rocky and unpredictable. As 2026 rolls in I find it necessary to revisit my threat matrix to see where I need to update for the current situation.

Threat 1 (in no particular order) The economy

The debt of, not only the United States but the entire world, is evident that either politicians are just driving us all into a brick wall or there is something coming that we don't know about. Either options sounds like hard times ahead to me. When, not if, the economies of the world start to fall apart it will mark a transition for preparedness where things will go from very easy to very hard. Putting away extra food will get more expensive and global shipping might become not possible. Inflation will make the prices of everything go up. Before the world goes to shit it might be wise to double down on filling the gaps in your preparations. Beans, Bullets and Band-Aids. Or, Food, security and medical. This will assume that you have your water figured out.

Remember that food is fuel. Don't bring 85 octane to the Datona 500.

Threat 2 Artificial Intelligence and Deep Fakes

Threat assessments are based of good intelligence gathering and discernment. Trust in both will fade this coming year, or it should if you are paying attention. Do not let yourself be fooled by computer generated headlines and commentary. My prediction is that those who are seeking truth will develop a distaste for anything generated by computers and will step beck a few decades. Hell, I'm considering trading in the smart phone for an old flip phone just to create a little distance from the noise of it all.

The real threat of this, I believe, is that the millions of sheep in both sides of this fractured world will be pushed and sickly entertained by fake news and videos. Side note: if you haven't turned in your membership card to both sides of this by now it might be time. Every distraction that comes through your phone and across your eyes keeps you from doing the real work that you should be doing to improve yourself and your resilience to chaos. Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see will change this year to "Don't believe anything you see or hear".

Threat 3 The Power Grid

It won't matter whether the grid is taken down by and EMP, CME, Cyber attack, domestic terrorism or just over use on the quest for AI dominance in the world, we are closer than we ever have been to finding out whether the EMP commission was right about the amount of casualties that would come if it went down. This was my first real threat to prepare for when I started out because it covered many of the same things for other disasters that might come. My timeline for this and a breakdown of the system to prepare for this will have to come in another post because it would take too much space here.

Threat 4 Civil Unrest

There are lots of directions to go with this but I will limit it to just a few things. The polarization of the world is a ticking time bomb. It is only a matter of time before there are more riots and protests fueled by political passions. This combined with the AI piece I already mentioned and we are looking at prime conditions. The other part of this will be the presence of planted members in the crowd who are there to still up more because of the benefit of smoke and mirrors.

Where did all those military age males go off to that crossed the border in the last few years? This threat might play into the previous one or even the threat of the power grid.

And going back to the first threat listed, the frightened people of the world are going to be mighty pissed if there retirements get wiped out because of irresponsible politicians and spending. Runs of the banks or even grocery stores will be likely.

There are many more threats than these but the process for preparedness will be the same. Get yourself ready mentally, physically and spiritually. Get you household in order. Create plans now of what you might do if any of these situations actually happened. And finally, practice situational awareness everywhere you go. It isn't really practical to stay dialed in all the time but you should know where you are and whether the threats merit a heightened awareness.