All hail the return of The Yes Men!  Their new movie, The Yes Men Fix The World, starts screening this Friday in the UK, and premieres in the US this month on HBO.  If you’re new to the corporate-punking hijinks of Mike and Andy, here’s a bit of what they do:

They have an unusual hobby: posing as top executives of corporations they hate.  Armed with nothing but thrift-store suits, the Yes Men lie their way into business conferences and parody their corporate targets in ever more extreme ways—basically doing everything that they can to wake up their audiences to the danger of letting greed run our world.

 
The Yes Men In Reuters

In what can only be seen as increasing economic desperation on the part of Americans to raise cash any way they can, Tupperware, Mary Kay Cosmetics and Avon are having a banner year:

NEW YORK, July 31 (Reuters) - The Tupperware party is back and Avon is calling again, ushered in by the U.S. recession.

In the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, women are selling everything from eyeliner to food containers to make extra cash—boosting profits at companies such as Avon (AVP.N) and Tupperware (TUP.N).

The flexibility of such work means that women, even with existing jobs and kids to care for, are taking on direct sales work in increasing numbers.

Food container-maker Tupperware, whose latest quarterly profit beat expectations, said its sales force rose 4 percent this quarter year on year.

Tupperware’s popularity exploded in the 1950s as women of the post-war generation sought empowerment and independence through selling, and the recession has rekindled the spirit of the Tupperware party for a new generation.

Tupperware parties and Avon ladies are back in US by Edward McAllister

By the end of 2009, the unemployment benefits of over 1.5 million Americans will run out.

Take a look at the linked map. Is this not one of the most frightening things you’ve ever seen? Notice how the map highlights areas that are the most densely populated urban centers of the country (i.e. where the vast majority of the country lives). These areas already have over 10% unemployed among their residents (and as we know, freelancers are not counted in this tally, so areas like NYC and Los Angeles are probably twice as bad as they look!). Clearly the long-term outlook for finding a job is becoming worse and worse. One in ten people going into the desperation zone at the same time might have a slightly detrimental effect on the other 90% of the population. What do you think?

And anyone cherishing Pollyannaish thoughts that things will turn around again anytime soon (“They always do!”) is simply not looking at the bigger picture. Or stupid.

This is the way things are now.

Absent another debt orgy, an economy with a GDP that is 70% based on consumer spending is fucked. There has been much touting from the Obama administration of how the stimulus spending stopped the free fall and saved the economy. I think it slowed the pace of the free fall, but saved the economy? Puh-leeze! There is no saving this economy. If by “saving” they mean “reflating” the same asset bubble that allowed an increasingly impoverished and indebted population to live like kings for a few years on credit cards and home equity loans, I think it’s safe to assume they can forget about THAT. 

States like California, Ohio, Florida, New York and Michigan are fucked unless the government extends unemployment benefits again. And again. And again and again, because the old way of life is not coming back.

Prolonged Aid to Unemployed Is Running Out

Related:

Michelle Malkin is officially the dumbest Republican talking head on TV. Period.

Powerful new ad from Health Care Can’t Wait and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee PAC. Sign the petition!

Public Health Care NOW!

UPDATE: Senator Nelson calls Michael Snider, the fellow in the ad

Cake Wrecks recently held a “dead Lenin cake caption contest.”   I say, “Cake eaters of the world unite!”

Thanks Paige!

What happens when a journalist runs afoul of shrill Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly and his marauding army of right wing viewers? Rick Perlstein found out when Newsweek published his think piece on Sarah Palin’s future in the Republican Party. Even before O’Reilly’s show ended that night, Rick’s inbox filled up with hateful and ignorant emails. Rick’s original piece is here and his post-Factor essay on the results is here. Rick Perlstein is the author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America.

I loathe Sarah Palin probably about as much as Peggy Noonan does. The mere sight of her renders me apoplectic. The sound of her voice makes my flesh crawl. Even reading something that she said makes me want to throw up. I can’t stand her. But that doesn’t mean I want to see the last of her. I’m not masochistic, although I’m hoping she runs for President in 2012 and that she wins the nomination.

Why? Because it’s the fastest way to end the Republican party as a national political force, as The Daily Beast’s Michelle Goldberg writes:

Ever since she pranced into the limelight last summer, Sarah Palin has been making liberals like me crazy. She embodies almost everything loathsome about the modern Republican Party?

If the parliamentarians in South Korea get this riled up over media reform, I’m left to wonder what a Battle Royale over universal healthcare might look like on our own Senate floor.  I got my eye on you, Baucus.  You look like a podium crasher!

Debate Ends With Massive Brawl in South Korean Parliament

Richard Metzger speaks with author and environmental activist Derrick Jensen via Skype from his home in Northern California. Derrick is the author of thirteen books including “Endgame” and “How Shall I Live My Life.” From the interview: “The industrial economy is killing the planet and we need to shut down the industrial economy using any means necessary because the most important thing is a living planet. The people who come after are not going to care if we voted, they are not going to care if we were violent or non-violent, they’re not going to care if we were nice people, they’re not going to care if we recycled. They’re not going to care if we wrote books or whether we did interview programs, what they are going to care about is the health of the planet. What they are going to care about is whether they can breathe the air and drink the water, because we can all have some great fantasy about how we want things to be in the future, but if you can’t breathe the air and drink the water, it doesn’t matter.”

Recorded at Mahalo Studios.

Special thanks to Jason Calacanis and Alex Miller.