What happened to all those “green shoots” we heard about? Joblessness continues to drag down the economy and the government is doing its damnedest to make things worse:

Shadow Stats founder John Williams has just announced that he sees no way for America to avoid a hyper-inflationary depression.

Demand for new workers in America continues to collapse.

Moody’s is predicting banks will remain unprofitable for the 2010 fiscal year.

The Obama administration is actually implementing a program to encourage the short selling of homes by troubled borrowers.

Unemployment has risen in 30 states.

Sales tax rates hit are at record highs as states and municipalities struggle to make ends meet.

The proposed Illinois state budget is based on borrowing billions of dollars from the government.

Detroit is looking at a plan to de-populate parts of the city and de-industrialize, turning other parts into farmland.

Needless to say, this looks less like green shoots and more like a slow slide into second world status. Are you prepared?

And you thought communism was dead? Think again:

A senior People’s Liberation Army official has just penned a book calling for China to aggressively act to dethrone America as the world’s superpower. Other P.L.A. officials have stated that war with the United States is not only inevitable but in their country’s interest.

C.B.S. has video of a Pentagon worker selling secrets to Chinese spies.

Vladimir Putin is calling for development of a new long range strategic bomber to upgrade Russia’s military capability.

FARC and ETA terrorists have been coordinating with the Hugo Chavez government according to a Spanish court. They even targeted Columbian president Eribe for assassination during his visit to Spain.

Narco-violence is so bad in Mexico that the U.S. closed our consulate. The Gulf Cartel is not only shooting it out with Mexican military, but photos in this post (graphic, be warned) show that they actually fly banners on their vehicles identifying themselves as Cartel soldiers.

Uruguay has elected former Communist insurgent Jose Mujica President. Aside from Hugo Chavez and other Red dictators the swearing in was attended by Hilary Clinton, who pledged her support to the Marxist dictator in training.

Violent leftists rioted on the Berkley campus over tuition hikes. There are unconfirmed rumors that many of the rioters were not even students.

The head of the International Monetary Fund is calling for a new reserve currency to replace the dollar.

The Fabian Socialist Labour Party has been infiltrated by Jihadists. This seems to be news to the British.

Supposed “Patriot” and known grifter Alex Jones was on state run Russian television promoting an anti-American conspiracy theory that coincidentally is being promoted by leftist rags like The Palestinian Telegraph and the Communist Party run Pravda. It’s almost like he’s a communist plant…

Lefty ne’er-do-well Daniel Johnson thinks we Americans are living under the “tyranny” of the Bill of Rights. I’m not kidding.

Here she is stoners! Tonya Marie Stalwick is looking for love and has profiles on all the “420″ sites  so you can get in touch with her between toking up and passing around Ron Paul agi-prop. Never mind that she’s a new mother who lives in a trailer with a drunken slattern of a mother and is a registered sex offender. She’s “cool” and no one has the right to judge her. From C.S.N.:

Tonya’s a single mom raising a small child. Tonya’s also a big marijuana fan. She belongs to quite a few “420″ websites, where she is usually known as “Rockinitbarefoot.” 420 is a subculture term for potheads. On Tonya’s MySpace, she shows photos taken during a roadtrip with her friend. Her infant son came along for the ride, too. The photos show one of the women smoking something that doesn’t quite look like a Camel or Marlboro.

On August 27, 2002 Tonya Marie Stalwick of Butte, Montana was sentenced to 2nd degree criminal sexual conduct –qualifying her for entry on the Montana Sexual or Violent Offender Registry.

Her registry lists her offense as Criminal Sexual Contact in the 2nd degree which happened in Minnesota. Here’s a link to the law but I’ll nutshell it for you. She either molested a child or forced someone to have sex with her or someone else. But I’m sure she’s pretty mellow. She just needs more pot.

This is who you meet when you get high. Scumbags and weirdos. Which brings me to her Youtube channel. Want to see family time in the Stalwick household?

Yes, that’s Tonya’s mother and yes this does explain everything.

But I’m sure all you pot heads out there are really much different than this cretin, so give go get her!

A blog called Islam, Islamism and the Far/Hard Left has an excellent deconstruction of Tariq Ramadan’s call for non-Muslims to “learn about” Islam and all its wonders. I think a simple perusal of the news of the day provides a much better view of Islam and how it interacts with non-Muslims than anything Ramadan would recommend and there are sources much more trustworthy than Ramadan that will help you understand Jihadism:

Jews are fleeing Malmo Sweden. Read this article to understand how bad things are in Europe due to the leftist/Islamist alliance. (h/t Brad Thor, author of the excellent thriller The Apostle)

Jews are being attacked by gangs of Muslims in France.

Via Gateway Pundit here is United American Committee video of a pro-Hezbollah/pro-Iraqi “Resistance” rally held in Paris. After the rally a McDonald’s and several cars were set ablaze:

Muslims are beginning the rape Jihad in Toronto.

N.T.A: “Najibullah Zazi, a 25-year-old former Denver airport shuttle driver, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support to Al Qaeda.”

Saudi family held Catholic maid captive for three years.

Bangladeshi maids beaten and raped by Saudi employers.

Transvestites are being exterminated by Muslims in Turkey.

Five Muslim soldiers are suspected of trying to poison their fellow recruits at Ft. Jackson.

Hezbollah has an extensive presence in Latin America, and they are threatening attacks on America if Iran is attacked.

Former 60s playboy Ian Dallas is now the leader of a world wide Islamist hate cult called Murabitun Worldwide Movement which among other things calls for the end of the “Jewish dominated” Western world to be replaced with Islamism. He is now calling for Sharia law in London. He has supporters in Stormfront and other White Nationalist movements.

Pakistani textbooks teach children to hate Hindus.

Dallas C.A.I.R. leader deported for supporting terrorism.

A Dutch town pays tribute to a Muslim gang to keep them from causing trouble.

For comparison, here’s video of angry Coptic Christians protesting in New York. No fires were set after the protest even though they have a legitimate grievance. By grievance I mean they are being exterminated in Egypt while the world does nothing:

Odd how stark the difference is between the behavior of middle eastern Christians and Muslims of any stripe. Despite what Mr. Ramadan claims I think we in the West understand Islam completely.

Thanks to Religion of Peace for several links.

A lot of people think of TEOTWAWKI as a single catastrophic event. I call this the zombie apocalypse scenario, where you go to bed one day and wake up in a world of complete chaos the next. Obviously this is more of a fantasy than reality, as real world examples of economic collapse (like Argentina) and natural disasters (like Katrina) show that no matter how bad things get there is no situation in which there is not nominal government authority. Your pipe dream of making a living looting empty stores will never happen.

TEOTWAWKI as simply The End of the World as We Know it has already happened. Our lifestyles of cheap credit, plentiful food and American decadence are over and most people haven’t even realized it:

Suburban homelessness is at record levels, and the new homeless comprise former blue and white collar workers:

ROOSEVELT, N.Y. – Homelessness in rural and suburban America is straining shelters this winter as the economy founders and joblessness hovers near double digits — a “perfect storm of foreclosures, unemployment and a shortage of affordable housing,” in one official’s eyes.

“We are seeing many families that never before sought government help,” said Greg Blass, commissioner of Social Services in Suffolk County on eastern Long Island.

“We see a spiral in food stamps, heating assistance applications; Medicaid is skyrocketing,” Blass added. “It is truly reaching a stage of being alarming.”

The federal government is again counting the nation’s homeless and, by many accounts, the suburban numbers continue to rise, especially for families, women, children, Latinos and men seeking help for the first time. Some have to be turned away.

“Yes, there has definitely been an increased number of turnaways this year,” said Jennifer Hill, executive director of the Alliance to End Homelessness in suburban Cook County, Illinois. “We’re seeing increases in shelter use along the lines of 30 percent or more.”

In a perhaps related note Minneapolis wants to limit the amount of time people can park at a rest stop to six hours.

Large retailers are cutting the number of brands they carry. Even Wal-Mart! Stock up on your favorite toothpastes now!

Pennsylvania man dies waiting for ambulance … for 30 hours. He made 10 911 calls:

Snow-covered roads, poor communication and a 911 center deluged with more than double the average number of calls during last week’s crippling snowstorms combined to cause Mr. Mitchell’s long wait, city officials said.

Ambulances were dispatched three times on Saturday, Feb. 6, to the couple’s home in the 5100 block of narrow Chaplain Way, but couldn’t get there because of the snow. Paramedics twice asked whether Mr. Mitchell could walk to an intersection, even after he told them that he could not because he was in too much pain.

Emergency vehicles were within blocks of his home three times — once so close Ms. Edge could see the ambulance lights from her porch — but did not make contact with him. They finally reached the home on Sunday morning, Feb. 7, but Mr. Mitchell was already dead.

Even A.B.C. is now running stories on how the debt will cripple our nation with tax increases and spending cuts that “aren’t even imaginable.”

China is dumping our treasuries.

The Kansas City Fed President is warning that our debt is unsustainable.

Crow Nation tribal members held a Tea Party where they called on the tribe to break from the federal government.

Credit card holders are facing “crippling” rate increases.

L.A. is set to lose thousands of jobs and will have its credit rating downgraded making it harder to borrow money.

Texas is challenging the E.P.A.’s greenhouse gas emissions ruling.

The U.S. almost had a failed treasury auction. If you only read one link, read this one.

The strengthening dollar is going to hurt our export market, thus our recovery.

Don’t expect to wake up to TEOTWAWKI. The decline of our lifestyles as we knew them started last year and in all likelihood will continue to do so no matter what plans either party comes up with. Are you prepared to live through that?

h/t Drudge and Survivalblog