Welcome to The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc.
My name is Susan DuQuesnay Bankston. I live in Richmond, Texas, in the heart of Tom DeLay's old district. It's nuttier than squirrel poop here.
I am honored and privileged to know Miss Juanita Jean Herownself, hairdresser extraordinary and political maven. Since she does not have time to fiddle with this internet stuff, I type her website for her and you can read it if you want to. If you don't, she truly does not give a big bear's butt.
A lot of what I post here has to do with local politics, but you probably have the same folks in your local government.
This ain't a blog. Blogs are way too trendy for me. This is a professional political organization.
Really, really enjoyed Bob’s summation. My wife won’t feed her dog any of the ‘blends’ that come from some of the big pet food manufacturers. From breakfast cereal to pet food, it’s “buyer beware.”
1Watch this “binding agreement” that takes away your remedies following a product purchase to be put to the test in the courts. The outcome will be hilarious, except the General Mills contingent won’t be the ones laughing. I guarantee it!
2Of course, the Roberts Court would uphold the General Mills language as perfectly reasonable, while ruling Bob’s language as totally unenforceable as a violation of the Golden Rule. (Bob doesn’t have enough gold to make his own rules.)
3So ALEC is outsourcing now.
4There is a What-a-Burger north of Tyler with a sign on the door saying that entry to the premises means consent not to sue. I did not eat there.
5A little off topic, sorry. But if you missed the Borowitz Report today, you’ll get a big laugh out of his thoughts on Gov. Perry.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2014/04/rick-perry-hopes-combination-of-wearing-glasses-and-not-talking-will-make-him-seem-smarter.html
6General Mills is also planning on marketing Cheerios as GMO free which is fairly easy to do since there are no GMO oats. See, oats are naturally weed-resistant because they grow like weeds themselves. They’re so good at it that many people plant them as a cover crop to choke out weeds and reduce the need for things like Roundup. So making GMO-free oats is a piece of cake. They will need to be sure that they get only cane sugar which is another useful weed-like crop whereas sugar beets are subject to weeds and have been modified to not die when sprayed with common weed-control herbicides. I may end up buying oats from the feed mill and eating them hulls and all to get the extra fiber.
7Time for a boycott, I’d say.
8The plain, original cheerios are just oats, so no GMO. Read the label of all other cheerios, as many of them contain corn flour, which is usually GMO.
Isn’t it interesting that there is so much corn grown that it is finding its way into more and more products? And with the ethanol lobby so forceful (KOCH, anyone?) the corn doesn’t always get to those who want to eat it.
9Yeesh–General Mills apparently makes half the food in the supermarket. Nevertheless, I Googled for a list of General Mills products, and will be crossing them off my shopping lists. If enough people do the same, maybe we can convince other companies not to jump on this particular bandwagon.
10You think maybe we all oughta dig out our mama’s cookbooks and find out how to cook again? Matter of fact, I have a BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS cookbook bought with green stamps back when we first married that still has THE BEST gingersnap recipe in it. Do make it with whole wheat flour and blackstrap molasses and cook it a little slower, though because at 350 it will scorch. How about Quaker Oats? Are they still okay? Oh dear, owned by Pepsico. Sigh. Well. Supper time if I can still remember how to cook.
11VeeGee in VT – thank you. That’s hilarious.
12And the corporations get ever more brazen.
13Marge Wood, as a 21st century kind of guy (hint dudes, cook for her, especially when she has had a tough day, better yet if you know she has a tough day ahead, fix the coffee and a good breakfast. The flower on the tray is optional, if you haven’t been a man child that week) have contributed my grandparents recipes to those of Jane’s grandparents, plus we find our own recipes to share. We both have ‘regular’ careers and do some small scale ranching and farming. Enough for our own needs and to share with family and food banks. We pay particular attention to our seed sources and the most ecologically friendly crops.
Bang the gong, Marge Wood! Grass and water for the grass of golf courses is not a ecologically friendly plan. Until old duffers can quit eating meat and graze while golfing, it’s not a sustainable plan.
14Marge, if you live in Texas you have HEB groceries…the absolutely best place to buy foodage. We buy their store brands, including oats, and have never been disappointed. At any rate, buy store brands and stay away from the big corporate labels.
15Ulp! I think General Mills bought out Post or was it the other way around? Anyhoo, store brand stuff has to come from some kinda supplier before it goes into the store-brand boxes and such. Puleez tell me that it ain’t the “irregular” stuff provided by General Mills!!! Lots and lots of international supermarkets opening in my area with tons of imported food to sell from places that haven’t diddly in the way of food and health inspection. Have bought rice in such places. It is definitely different from name brand rice; irregular size kernels of rice as compared to the high price domestic stuff, also an off-color but takes just as long to cook. Menus in our house are a compilation of cajun and Canadian. Imagine that!
16This was already tested in the courts in a previous case that went to the Supremes…and they said, Oh, yeah, sure, of course, consumers with the same problem can’t join their problems to sue as a class action, and so on….so I know darn well that “tested in THIS court” means “Corporations are more “persons” than the live, blood and bone kind–those merely exist to serve Corporations.”
17http://madvilletimes.com/2014/04/polisci-research-america-oligarchy-not-a-democracy/
This helps explain why korporate amerika gets away with stuff.
18e platypus onion, before the wacko-bird Tea Bag, Libertarian, John Birch Society, Koch addict Republicans wear us down, we need to give them the ultimate smack down in 2014. Vote, get out the vote and give President Obama a working Congress. It’s 21% with the 1% and their idiot sheeple 20%. We can beat that.
Kentucky is looking BLUE good. Mitch is being primary primed; he and Rand the plagiarist, only a doctor in his own self ordained world are at odds. The Democrats in the KY legislature spoke. Randy either gives up his Senate seat or his presidential aspirations.
Texas needs all our help. The boys are tripping, but the voters are hide bound stubborn. Wendy Davis and Leticia Van de Putte are the Texas Blue Future. Blog, donate, and vote with everything we’ve got to elect the ladies with a plan.
” korporate amerika” = Kochtopia. The Koch oligarchs make the Russian oligarchs seem humane.
19Marge: Green stamps! Haven’t thought of those for 50 years! Thanks for the memories…
20Hey PKM! Loved your comments. Matter of fact, loved all the comments. Here’s your latest tip: buy some good sharp cheddar cheese, the kind made by a co-op somewhere. Grate a coupla pounds up in a big dish. Mush up a bunch of pimientos or roasted sweet red peppers. Mix it all together with mayo or something similar, and that sweet hot mustard and some onion flakes. Mix and mix. Hooboy, that is good stuff. That goes way back in my memories to my little Aunt Lucy. And it can be stored in a glass dish with a lid in the refrigerator and isn’t labelled or in plastic or anything. Right now I’m going to go eat a piece of cornbread made in our kitchen with Texas-made corn meal. Last I saw, HEB was out of it; I gotta discuss that with them.
21The only thing I ever liked about General Mills was the portrayal of Betty Crocker in “The Public Burning” by Robert Coover. (Betty is born by bursting through the general’s head, much as Zeus gave birth to Athena.) I ate the occasional bowl of Cheerios as a child (I preferred Chex), but avoid all their stuff. That includes the organic brands Muir Glen, Larabar, Food Should Taste Good, and Cascadian Farms.
I’m glad to be a from-scratch cook; it serves me well. I’m writing a cookbook.
22Just to be clear: the arbitration clause would not apply if you are just a regular consumer. If you use the General Mills website to download coupons though, it might.
Arbitration absolutely sucks for a consumer. You have to pay the arbitrator, discovery is very limited, and the ruling is binding, and virtually impossible to appeal.
23First, these contracts are used all of the time. You can not open a brokerage account without agreeing to arbitration. Every cell phone contract has an arbitration clause in it. Every loan document that I have seen lately waive the right to jury trial.
Second, GM is backing off of this policy due to the backlash. You can shame a corporation that relies on consumer goodwill
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