I Hate Speculators

Before the great real estate meltdown of 2008 there was the great real estate bubble. The bubble burst because of the greed of a few and it totally screwed over the need of many. The greed of a few inflated properties. Housing prices soared and went through the roof. And then the bubble burst. The carnage of the American homeowner was not a pretty sight to behold. It was a heartbreaking sight. People lost their homes and the landscape of empty foreclosed on suburbs stretched from shore to shore. Housing prices plummeted and many families ended up in apartments ( which now saw their rents double and triple because of supply and demand ), with relatives or homeless.
And now the damned speculators are back. I HATE them. I should not wish them in hell and yet they have created hell for the America dream. Their greed is making it so the average middle class family can not afford to buy a home. Here is how it works. A speculator buys a house. Sometimes they put in a few bells and whistles, a few cosmetic repairs. But they aren't interested in fixing any foundation issues, any plumbing or wiring. Naw… they want to make a quick buck. So they "flip" the house. You can spot them on Zillow. Look for last sold. Ok, so maybe it was sold last 20 years ago. That is not a speculator. But the ones sold 2 months ago sure as heck are. They jack up the price and then sit like a fat little toad to see if they can grab a sucker to help fund their greed.
Speculators who ruined our economy? They're back… Damn, I HATE speculators.

The Hippie Temptation and me

I have not posted here in FOREVER! But here goes. I hope to start posting a few more comments about a lot of things that have been going on in my life which has been turned upside down in a lot of ways. Ok, about today. It was 47 years ago today that "The Hippie Temptation" aired on CBS. It was narrated by Harry Reasoner. It was allegedly about hippies but it was a very biased one sided point of view ( a pointed head point of view if one must know, a pointed square head at that ). I, being a hippie, did not want to have anything to do with it. And oh yes I was asked and I said NO when the CBS film crew approached me and wanted to film me. When I said no the camera man who had asked me got snotty and said in a snide voice "Why not?" Well I told him why not! The Diggers ( a service organization in the Haight ) had gone around to the communes in the Haight the day before and had told everyone not to cooperate with CBS because the piece on hippies was going to be a one sided smear job. And time proved that right. I think I also might have mentioned the term "yellow journalism" in my little speech to the camera man. Ok, ok. I DID mention that term and his face contorted with hateful rage. I guess he must have decided he had to film the smart aleck little hippie girl who had the nerve to say the piece of yellow journalism he was part of was yellow journalism. Imagine that! So yes I was filmed though certainly without my permission and without any cooperation on my part. I kept putting my hands up in front of my face so I wouldn't be filmed. In spite of that CBS managed to get 2 seconds of footage though if one views it they can see my hands coming up to block my face! Soooo on August 22, 1967 "The Hippie Temptation" airs on CBS. And there I am, live and in color, during a segment on the Grateful Dead. They spliced that footage in because I had not been filmed at a Grateful Dead concert ( this is not to say I didn't go to Grateful Dead concerts, I went to lots of them after this incident ). I had been filmed at a Country Joe and the Fish concert. So there I was with my blonde 18 year old hippie face with flowers painted on my face, black eyeliner sketching the roses and inside of them was filled in with red lipstick; Maybelline and Revlon if you are that curious. And the footage has been shown a gazillion times world wide since then! Not just in the infamous piece of disinformation and propaganda known as "The Hippie Temptation" but in lots of other places as well. World wide. CBS has made a bucket load of money and it is on my bucket list for CBS and I to come to a settlement where I can have a bucket load of money from them now and in the future for past and any future usage. So I went over to twitter and in honor of it being 47 years ago today I posted 47 beautiful or gnarly or whatever tweets to CBS.
I hope they are reading those tweets and get in touch with me. It is MY face. I think I should have the right to say where it is shown ( it was shown on America's Most Wanted and I was NOT amused ) and be paid for it as well. That would be only fair and just. Not that life is necessarily fair but one can always hope and dream and pray.