Obama Orchestrates Outrage

It really doesn’t end, does it.

Featured in The New York Post on March 18:

"So now it appears that President Obama knew all about those AIG bonuses - in time to do something about them.

And how did he know?

Because Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told him about them - last Thursday, before AIG honchos disbursed $165 million in "retention" bonuses to many of the same folks who basically bankrupted the company last year.

So why, we wonder, was the president in such high dudgeon Monday regarding the payouts?..." Read more.

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And so, as my eyes scan the many headlines of the day, my mind recollects a verse from the 1975 song, “The World Upside Down” written by Leon Rosselson:

"…They make the laws to chain us well

The clergy dazzle us with heaven, or they damn us into hell

We will not worship the God they serve,

a God of greed who feeds the rich while poor folk starve…"

***

Flashback to January, 1649 (UK):
Gerrard Winstanley published the pamphlet, The New Law of Righteousness. In it he wrote: "In the beginning of time God made the earth. Not one word was spoken at the beginning that one branch of mankind should rule over another, but selfish imaginations did set up one man to teach and rule over another."

Shortly after publishing the pamphlet, Winstanley established a group called the “Diggers.” In April 1649 Winstanley, William Everard, a former soldier in the New Model Army and about thirty followers took over some common land on St George's Hill in Surrey and "sowed the ground with parsnips, carrots and beans."

Digger groups also took over land in Kent (Cox Hill), Surrey (Cobham), Buckinghamshire (Iver) and Northamptonshire (Wellingborough). Local landowners were very disturbed by these developments. In July 1649 the government gave instructions for Winstanley to be arrested and for General Thomas Fairfax to "disperse the people by force" in case this is the "beginning to whence things of a greater and more dangerous consequence may grow".

Reportedly, Oliver Cromwell said: "What is the purport of the levelling principle but to make the tenant as liberal a fortune as the landlord. I was by birth a gentleman. You must cut these people in pieces or they will cut you in pieces." Instructions were given for the Diggers to be beaten up and for their houses, crops and tools to be destroyed. These tactics were successful and within a year all the Digger communities in England had been wiped out.

***

The World Turned Upside Down (entire lyrics)

In 1649, to Saint George's Hill

A ragged band they called The Diggers came to show the people's will

They defied the landlords, they defied the law

They were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs



'We come in peace' they said, 'to dig and sow

We come to work the land in common and to make the waste-land grow

This earth divided, we will make whole

So it can be a common treasury for all'



'The sin of property, we do disdain

No man has any right to buy and sell the earth for private gain

By theft and murder, they took the land

Now everywhere the walls spring up at their command'



'They make the laws, to chain us well

The clergy dazzle us with heaven or they damn us into hell

We will not worship the god they serve

The god of greed who feeds the rich while poor men starve



We work, we eat together, we need no swords

We will not bow to the masters nor pay rent to the lords

We are free men, though we are poor

You diggers all stand up for glory, stand up now



From the men of property

The orders came

They sent the hired men and troopers

To wipe out the Diggers claim

Tear down their cottages

Destroy their corn

They were dispersed -
But still the vision lingers on



'You poor take courage

You rich take care

The earth was made a common treasury

For everyone to share

All things in common

All people one

We come in peace' -

The order came to cut them down



'We come in peace' -

The order came to cut them down

The above lyrics are chillingly appropriate for our times but, again, such is the problem with an administration that is based on narcissism rather than Truth.

Until America turns from being a God-less nation into a God-filled nation, we will continue to be upside down. God help us.

Prayer For One’s Country
Most merciful Jesus, I beseech You through the intercession of Your Saints and especially the intercession of You dearest Mother who nurtured You from childhood: bless my native land. I beg You, Jesus, look not on our sins, but on the tears of little children, on the hunger and cold they suffer. Jesus, for the sake of these innocent ones, grant me the grace that I am asking of You for my country.

-- from Sister Fautina’s Divine Mercy Diary (286)

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