Wall Street is Ready and Willing -- standing by to steal

[JDPriestly]

our Social Security dollars.

Sit down and breathe deeply.

This afternoon -- the very day of Obama's speech, I, as a retired person, received an ad from a company with which I have a tiny annuity that I started in a retirement program when I worked for a nonprofit many years ago.

It is headlined:

"Overcoming insecurity:

How to prepare for the uncertain future of Social Security.

Concerns over the future of Social Security have been in the air for years. What is going to happen to Social Security? For now, that's anyone's guess. While Congress continues to debate the issue, you may want to take steps to help prepare financially in light of the uncertainty."

I'm not going to tell you what company it was. It is tiny and unimportant.

Now this letter was not printed today or last week. It has been planned for months, you can bet on that. And that means to me that this squeeze on seniors and baby boomers has also been planned for a long time.

Obama planned this. He is a Wall Street mole. He has got to leave office. We need to ask him to resign now. Middle class Republicans don't want to be cheated of their Social Security benefits any more than we do.

Johnson was so shamed that he had to opt out of a run for a second term. Why shouldn't Obama? We have a whole list of candidates who are honest and trustworthy. Let's just pick one of them. Bernie Sanders comes to mind, but he is just one of a number of excellent possibilities.

We can make up for a lot of money with sheer manpower and work. What do you say? If we start now we can clean up Wall Street and get Main Street back to work.

[pnwmom]

1. Obama isn't a "Wall Street mole."

But let's pretend that he is. Which Democrat would have better success working against a Republican House filled with Tea party crazies? And which Democrat is planning to run?

Howard Dean isn't asking Obama to resign. Neither is any other top Democrat. They're probably glad they're not in Obama's shoes.

[JDPriestly]

2. We have to persuade someone to run.

I'm on Social Security. When they finish with us, they will go after the veterans next.

[pnwmom]

4. Who do you think would be more likely to beat the Republican in 2012?

And have coattails long enough to pull in a majority in the House and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate?

There's not a single candidate planning to run now, and no one can win without a campaign organization and plenty of money.

Better to spend your efforts doing everything you can to help Democrats win back the House and increase their majority in the Senate.

[JDPriestly]

5. My Representative is one of the most reliably progressive in the House.

I would like to see Feinstein replaced with someone younger and more progressive. I think 2012 would be a good year to get her out.

But I do not see another Obama term as acceptable for the country. He isn't up to the job. There are some skeletons in his Chicago closet that will probably be coming out and scaring away voters in 2012 -- including one involving Morgan Stanley, the Chicago parking revenue and possibly but not definitely Obama's own Chief of Staff who just happened to be the brother of the mayor and on the staff of the company that cheated Chicagoans out of a lot of parking meter revenue.

Frankly, I think that Obama is not the shoo in for another four years that a lot of DUers think he is. I seriously think we need a good challenger not just because I personally am very disappointed in Obama, not just because I will not personally vote for him because of his failure to defend Social Security and Medicare, but because I just think there is too great a risk that he will not be re-elected.

So we need a better Democrat, one with a very clean record -- someone like Bernie Sanders -- to step forward and just talk with common sense to the American people.

[pnwmom]

8. It doesn't matter what we NEED. There is no other Democrat who is preparing

to step forward, and we're halfway through 2011.

Your efforts should be going toward success in the House and Senate. Obama is going to be the nominee in 2012. If there were important skeletons in his "Chicago closet," Hillary would have tossed them out long ago.

[kenny blankenship]

3. Speaking of Wall St. - now is probably a great time to invest in peas and catfood!

And home surgery kits.

[JDPriestly]

7. Especially cat food. You are so right.

And don't think the cat food thing is a joke. When I lived in the UK in the early 70s, I followed a very elderly woman in the line at the grocery store. She was stocking up on about enough cat food to feed a person for a week. And sure enough, when it was my turn to check out, the clerk told me with a shocked look on her face that the elderly woman bought the cat food to eat herself.

[dkf]

6. The stupid thing would be to plan for retirement relying primarily on social security.

What kind of bad advice are you giving young people anyway?

[JDPriestly]

9. It is equally stupid to think that you can save enough on your own

to replace Social Security or even supplement it in a meaningful way. Interest rates right now are about 1.3%, and once you retire, you have to invest very cautiously.

How many 90 year olds do you think are capable of handling an investment account. I think that just balancing a check-book or dealing with a credit card is too much for many a far younger person.

Social Security is and should remain the mainstay income for retirees. Seniors are very vulnerable to fast-talking scammers even if they are fortunate enough to have saved money during their working lives.

Try raising a family and maybe sending a kid to college on an average salary and then come and talk to me about how to plan for retirement. Some are lucky enough to stay healthy and keep a job until they are 70, but most are not.

And Wall Street, as many of us learned in 2008, cannot be trusted.