I guess I should start off by wishing everyone a Happy New Year. But…I am just not feeling it. I am going to try one of the short version SitReps and include a short personal message towards the end. And then at the very end I am going to tell you about a series of articles “What Can I do?” that I’ve been working on. It’s a 7-part series that I started about 3 weeks ago and I think it is really good. Then again…I am the one that wrote them so naturally I would think they are good 😉

Why have I not been writing more? Well, that will be covered in the “personal note” towards the end.

---

Topics to be covered:

• Economy
• Terrorism
• DeepState Coup
• State of the World
• AI
• Personal Note

Economy –

Corporate bankruptcies were up 33 – 40% in 2024 (% depends on the data source), bankruptcies set records during multiple months, highest number of bankruptcies since the Great Recession. Primary reasons according to the reports…1) high inflation and 2) interest rates. Notable bankruptcies; Big Lots, Bowflex, Joann Fabrics, Party City, Popeyes, Red Lobster, Spirit Airlines, TGI Fridays, True Value Hardware, & Tupperware. China and Russia suffering same issues.

Actually both China and Russia are in even worse economic shape than the US. Many international economic experts are saying China’s economy is actually in the process of collapsing due to their real-estate issues. Then again…I’ve been telling you about China’s economic problems for almost 3 years, so you shouldn’t be surprised.

Why is the economic situation in the USA, Russia, and China important? Major nations usually solve economic problems the same way…especially the USA…war. And we know for a fact that the US government (i.e. military-industrial complex) loves war…just look at our record.

Christmas season spending…ah, yeah. You heard all those reports of increase of spending this year over last Christmas? Well, let’s look at through the lens of reality. First off…the increase was an anemic 3%.  Factoring in inflation and the larger amount of returns (100’s of billions of dollars)…well, it was an actual net decrease in Christmas spending. And then there is the fact that the majority of the money spent wasn’t money at all…it was plastic. Yup, credit card debt/spending went through the roof.

75% of Christmas shoppers put their purchases on their credit cards. To make matters worse…1/3 of 2023 Christmas shoppers have still not paid off last years’ purchases. Now, take the total spent this year, then subtract all the returns, then the interest that will be paid for the credit card purchases…crap, the economy is in horrible shape and people are racking up debt that can never be repaid. So ask yourself this…What is the natural outcome to this situation?

Think through the whole economic situation very carefully.

Terrorism –

We started out 2025 with two instances of terrorism…Las Vegas and New Orleans. DHS released a report that states that terrorism threat in 2025 will be “high”. The primary threat will come from Islam, cartels & gangs, radical left-wing groups, and to a much lesser degree fringe right-wing individuals. However, some terrorist actions will be masked. China and Islam have infiltrated thousands of military age men into the US; expect these individuals to perform acts of terror that may not be initially recognized as legitimate terror activities…call some of those acts ‘soft’ terror.

Remember that China hacked a long list of telecommunications companies last year as well as the United States Department of the Treasury. Acts such as these could be classified as ‘soft’ acts of terrorism or conversely “acts of war”. 2025 will see a substantial increase in this activity.

Along with the obvious individual casualties of terrorism is the cost associated trying to prevent terrorism. While no exact figures are known, estimates place the costs at about $50billion – $75billion per year in preventative measures. And those figures don’t include losses of time and productivity.

DeepState Coup –

Many good folks are celebrating the election of Trump as President, and they are expecting a massive turnaround in the country. I too am glad Trump was elected…a miracle in itself. As for the turnaround…don’t hold your breath. Granted Trump won…but do you think the Democrats simply will roll over and give Trump everything he asks for? Do you think the radical leftists will take a nap for the next four years?

The DeepState will not take his win laying down and rolling over. Many government agencies have already held strategy meetings on how they will undermine Trump’s agenda. That is the case even for the Department of Defense…and especially at the DOJ and FBI.

After Trump’s first election the DeepState actually began coup operations against Trump led by the FBI, DOJ, and even the CIA. What do you think they are doing for his second term? Worship at Trump’s feet and lick his boots?

The DeepState is planning, has been planning, on how they intend to thwart Trump’s agenda…or stop Trump himself. Think about this…the second terror attack in the US for 2025 was a suicide bomber in Las Vegas outside of a Trump-named building in a Tesla truck. Do you think there is any coincidence considering Trump choosing Elon Musk (Tesla head) to work at dismantling government agencies? Yeah, reports from the FBI already stated there is no connection…yeah, uh huh.

Is there a connection between the two terror attacks? Yup, both ex-military. Interesting, eh?

The DeepState is actively planning and working towards its goals…and that ain’t good for Trump or the US citizenry…and especially not good for the Constitution…or what’s left of it.

State of the World –

As we start 2025 you have to look back at the state of the world as we ended 2024. China is actively threatening Taiwan, South Korea government is in a shambles, Africa is a disaster, there are problems in Romania, France, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen; and Canada is a mess with a radical leftist as its leader and in complete political turmoil. And you gotta love Mexico…run by cartels.

Then you have the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. In Gaza alone it is estimated that the number of deaths is approaching 50,000…with no functioning hospitals left. The following graphic gives you an idea…

AI (Artificial Intelligence) –

This is a weird category to be sure; I am including DeepFake in this category as well. I’ve written about AI and DeepFake over the last several years…but it now hit a new level of concern.

We saw some use of DeepFake usage during the 2024 campaign, but not nearly as much as I expected. AI on the other hand was used extensively, mostly potential voter analysis and media targeting. Be aware that as the DeepState ramps up its anti-Trump coup we may see more of DeepFake. As for AI…the growth of AI capability is exponential…every month. According to some industry experts it is on the verge of being uncontrollable. AI can already out think and out perform humans in almost every category…especially in the medical and research fields. Think about that one for a minute.

As for DeepFake (which uses AI technology)…it is about to cross a crisis threshold in a major category. First off let me share that last month I watched a video where two current media stars were in a bar with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.; both of whom have been dead for 3+ decades. The video was dated late last year and showed all to be interacting with each other in real-time. Yup, all 4 were AI generated and interacting as if they were alive at the same time in the same place. If you concentrated and knew what to look for you could pick up some very subtle clues that it was AI generated DeepFake…but man it sure looked real. And it was entertaining…that is the concerning part…appealing in content.

Several years ago something was brought to me attention of grave concern. Parents I knew told me of a situation with a child of theirs. I was asked if there was anything they could do to stop the problem and have the photos removed from the Internet. That is not my area of expertise and I referred them elsewhere. However, it did get me thinking…and worrying. I began a very unscientific investigation/process/experiment that has lasted off and on since then. What I found is really disturbing.

Over the course of 3 or 4 years there has been a notable change occurring in pictures of people, including children appearing on the Internet. A significant growing percentage of these pictures found through major search engines with ‘safesearch on’ are now AI generated. Originally, 3 – 4 years ago, it was pretty easy to spot the AI pictures. However, the last 4 – 6 months the AI generated pictures are becoming almost indistinguishable from ‘live’ or ‘real’ pictures of real people. Several pictures have taken me 30 minutes or so to finally label them AI.

Here is the problem…AI programs are scanning millions of pictures per week of real people whose pictures appear all over the Internet…especially social media sites. They are using these images to ‘train’ their AI software in producing AI images of ‘fake’ people. But it gets worse…as an off-shoot of this process software is now available to take the image of a person from a picture on a social media website and create an AI generated picture of that person…in any setting they want. And some of those settings are potentially graphic in nature.

Here is my warning…I know many people/families love to post pictures of their family, including their children. And, teenagers and young adults post their lives on the web to stay in touch with friends. The dark side of this is two-fold; 1) those pictures are being used to train AI for DeepFake, 2) pictures of anyone on the web, including children, can be used to generate the kind of material that would be wholly inappropriate, and in some cases illegal. I would strongly suggest that you not post pictures of your children on any social media or other similar website…and consider taking existing pictures down.

Personal Note –

The Friday before Christmas we hosted a party at the glamstead. We had a full house, lots of great food, and some wonderful friends with us. We even had a few new community folks show up and join in the festivities. However, someone brought an uninvited guest. By Saturday afternoon I was in bed with some kind of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). It beat me up fairly badly for a couple of days. On Sunday afternoon, my wife went down with it really hard. I was functional enough, more so than my wife, to take care of her all of Christmas week. Ten days into it we felt notably better but a cough hung on until day 16 for both of us. We are now in the third week and still suffering from an occasional dry coughing spasm.

Why am I sharing? To explain one reason I haven’t posted anything in the last 3 weeks…mostly. I have also been working on a series of articles…the topic…”What Can I do?” That is without a doubt the most asked question I get. It started out as an easy read single article. It is now a 7-part encyclopedia. But I will tell you this…it touches on a wide range of answers. The articles also provide an extensive list of resources and provides additional resource material as well. I will start posting the series on Tuesday. My intent is to post an article of the series each day…provided that something urgent doesn’t come up.

Also, I am following my own advice. Over the last month I have been hardening the glamstead. I have installed a new steel combo-lock door to the utility room (infrastructure), installed motion detection lights, driveway alarms, and a new heavy duty driveway approach and gate. I would suggest to everyone consider how you might ‘harden’ your home to make it more safe and secure.

Summary –

Folks 2025 has started out looking really bad. Honestly…I think it will only get worse generally speaking. Not only have we seen two terror attacks so far in 2025…but think about this…in November Tennessee state law enforcement officials held a press conference wherein they announced that the Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua (TdA) is now operating openly and freely in every major city in Tennessee. Why hold a press conference? Only one reason…they weren’t getting the attention of, or the necessary help from, the Governor of Tennessee. In the press conference they stated that they didn’t have the resources or manpower to stop TdA. And Tennessee is not alone. TdA is national threat.

The Biden economy is bad…really, really bad. And actions taken by the Biden Administration since the election were designed to intentionally further degrade the US economy. Why? To lay the ‘crash’ blame game at Trump’s feet.

The world is literally on fire right now. And the two main culprits at this point are Israel (war in the Middle East) and the United States (Ukraine/Russia war). We have never been closer to a nuclear war than right now. We are flirting with WWIII so closely that you can hear the guns being loaded and the missiles fueled.

You folks are amazing and truly wonderful people. I see you have your head screwed on right and understand the situation in the world today. I am so very grateful for each of you who come here…and everything you do for your families and communities.

It has never been more important, more urgent, more critical than now to prepare….please do so.

Pray, Plan, Prepare, Practice and be Peaceful.

 

P.S. Yeah, sorry…not such a short form SitRep after all.

 

 

 2009 - 2025 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved
No reproduction or other use of this content 
without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
No legal, economic, or financial advice is given, no expertise to be assumed.
See Content Use Policy for more information.