Flags of the 13 Precincts and Federal District

Today is Flag Day in Patria. It was on January 25, 1973 that the 39th Congress ratified the Flag Act specifying the technical standards (proportions, official shades of red and blue) of Patria's simple tricolor flag that had been in use since 1818. But did you know that each Precinct has its own flag? Like Patria's national flag, they are all so simple that even a child can draw them!

Failed policies, failed hopes: RIP Jimmy Carter

 

"AVE ATQUE VALE"

Flags across Patria are flying at half-mast today to mark the passing of former US President Jimmy Carter at age 100. Carter’s admirable record of humanitarian work in the 44 years since Ronald Reagan sent him back to Plains, GA is a matter of record. As an elder statesman, Mr. Carter was second to none. Nonetheless, he goes down in the annals of the United States presidency as a failure, overmatched in office and not up to the job. Wasn’t the hostage crisis such a blast? Particularly his bungled attempt to rescue the hostages in Iran. Failed polices, failed hopes all around. By any yardstick, there was crappiness, if not outright failure during the Carter years: crappy cars, crappy fashions, crappy economy, crappy music, even crappy sports for fans of certain teams. Of course, Mr. Carter was not responsible for the crappy cars or music during his administration, but when it comes to “crappy sports” he will not be forgiven for his misguided decision to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics. 

The Carter Administration (Jan. 20, 1977-Jan. 20, 1981) is forever intertwined with Patria’s awful Forty-First Congress (XLI Con. Pat. June 30, 1978-June 28, 1982). Four failed and wasted years of stagnation, foundering, malaise and little in the way of growth, both in the USA and in Patria. 

At some point in 2025, Patria Post will issue a Jimmy Carter memorial stamp. In the meantime, here’s the 2025 definitive (regular issue) depicting a well-known and well-loved scene from the Ramayana.

At the midpoint of the 52nd Congress

 The Second Session of Patria's 52nd Congress (2·LII 2023-24) adjourned for the Northern Hemisphere Summer recess, following the traditional Annual Message delivered by the Speaker Pro Tem:

Om Sri Maha-rajñyai Namaha. With the Divine Mother’s blessings, the Fifty Second Congress has reached the midpoint of its term of office. 

Patria respects tradition, and one of the oldest traditions in this Congress is that the final act of the session be the ratification of the budget for the year to come. Just moments ago, this House ratified Patria’s fiscal 2025 budget in which, as in previous year’s budgets, billions of rupees are committed to public transit improvements such as purchasing new vehicles, repairing roads, bridges, railways and other transportation infrastructure, strengthening the network of electric vehicle charging stations and other incentives intended to reduce dependence on – or should we say – addiction to fossil fuel. When it comes to public transit in Castoropolis and Patria’s other major cities, this Congress is committed to going beyond the traditional state of good repair (what usually passes for such in Toronto) in which the current, often inadequate, level of service is patched up and maintained as is. Rather, we will move towards bringing about real improvements in cleanliness of vehicles and stations, on-time performance and other positive changes that even the most casual rider of buses, streetcars and subways cannot help but notice. 

Twenty eight years after the first Premyatra in December 1995 and on this day six months ago, this Representative of Patria embarked on Premyatra II. From Cochin to Kanyakumari, a most fantastic voyage, of which the main focus was Amritapuri, the home of the former House Leader of the now-disbanded Amrita Party. Among the highlights of Patria’s visit to South India was a special address to a joint session of the Lok Sabha and Congressus Patriaë on Jan. 10, 2024. After brief visits to Madurai, Trivandrum, Kanyakumari and Cochin, the final day of the Premyatra culminated in the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. At Amma’s ashram, Patria’s famed 108^th Battalion raised the Patrienish Tricolor over the backwaters of Kerala as the Battalion’s Colonel-in-Chief Hanuman took the salute. The Amrita Party has dissolved, but Amrita’s legacy continues, affirming the special relationship between the Inner Realm and Bharat Mata. 

On the front lines of the culture wars, let it be known that Patria will not cave in the face of woke mobs, particularly when it comes to so-called “trans rights”. Trans women are not real women, no matter how much the drugs and surgery make it seem so. Trans women have rights to public accommodations in hotels, trains and the like, even a right to “gender-free” single-occupancy public restrooms, but in Patria they do not have the right to be accepted as real women. Violence against trans women will never be tolerated and the cowards who perpetrate such violence will be vigorously prosecuted. But know this: in Patria trans women will never play competitive high school or collegiate sports against real biological women. Nor will real women be required to share locker rooms and other intimate or safe spaces with these mutilated former men. In order to achieve these goals, this Session passed the SAAB Act – Sex Assigned at Birth, not the Swedish car. The fight against the acceptance of trans-folk may not be the hill everyone in Patria wants to die on, but it sends the message to our friends in the macro- and micro-world alike: notwithstanding the sizeable number of Social Democrats and other leftist or progressive parties in this House, Patria is not woke and will never be woke! Let it become the call letters of a new radio station: PINW, Patria Is Not Woke. 

At the University of Castoropolis, University of Caesarea, University of Lazuria and at other campuses across Patria, “Free Palestine” encampments have sprung up, in what is the largest student movement since the creation of the SRM in the 1960s. Patria joins the macro-national movement calling for an end not only to the current war but also to Israel’s almost 60 year old occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. For many years Patria has called for the establishment of a free and independent country of Palestine. Patria supports the hoary old “two-state solution” that has long been rejected by Organized Jewry and the Israel right-or-wrong lobbies in the US. Hamas is not our enemy. Israel is not our ally. Nonetheless Patria says this war has to end now, as does the occupation and Israel’s decades-old subjugation of the Palestinian people. Israel has a right to exist, but only within the borders that existed prior to 1967. Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorist attacks but does not have the right to go to war against every man, woman and child in Palestine and to kill civilian non-combatants in violation of international law. Let Organized Jewry hate Patria. They can call Patria’s legitimate condemnation of Israel “antisemitism”. They can call Patria’s small Jewish community “self-hating Jews” for not being Zionists and not supporting the Israeli war machine right or wrong, but know this: Patria must be a safe place for Jewish anti-Zionist and dissident voices such as Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now. Patria rejects Israel’s assertion that the government based in West Jerusalem since 1948 acts as the voice of and in defense of all Jews worldwide. If Mr. Netanyahu intends to bomb Gaza to the Stone Age, Patria’s Jews say “NOT IN OUR NAME!” If the IDF storm troopers are committing genocide, ethnic cleansing and other war crimes in Gaza, Patria’s Jews say “NOT IN OUR NAME!” If the Jewish lobbies in the US attempt to conflate the spiritual practices of Judaism with the bloodthirsty nationalism of Zionism, Patria’s Jews say “NOT IN OUR NAME!” More than forty years ago, Congress passed a resolution recognizing an independent State of Palestine. From one unrecognized by First World powers state to another, can I get a “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!?” 

As the midpoint of Patria’s Congress always occurs amid the US presidential election campaign, Patria says NO to both Sleepy Joe and Donald 2.0. While Mr. Biden might be fit to serve as a ceremonial head of state like the President of India, his cognitive decline has only grown since 2020 and is such that he is unfit for the job of President of the United States. Would you fly on an aircraft captained by an 81 year old pilot? Would you undergo surgery by an 81 year old surgeon? Of course you wouldn’t. Mr. Biden is simply TOO BLEEPING OLD! The less said about Mr. Trump and his legal predicament as a convicted felon, the better. Both are too old to handle the duties of the office and have serious age-related cognitive deficiencies. These two failing old men are one of the main reasons that Patria has enacted an age limit of 70 for all elected federal and precinct public offices. America’s Founding Fathers did not intend to establish a gerontocracy. For that matter, neither did the Preceptors of Patria in 1818. Patria does not endorse any candidate in November 2024, but Patria does believe that Americans should consider voting for a third party candidate such as RFK Jr. or Jill Stein. 

Under the power vested in me by the Constitution of Patria, I declare closed the Second Session of the 52^nd Congress, and call this Congress to re-assemble here on Monday, 16 September 2024, in order to open the Third Session of the 52^nd Congress.

Patria's Jews say "FREE PALESTINE!"

Raising the flag over Kerala's backwaters

 On Dec. 31, 2023, Patria's famed 108th Battalion raised the flag over the backwaters of Kerala.

As part of an unofficially-recognized state visit to India in January 2024, Patria established a presence at Amma's Amritapuri ashram that culminated in the delivery of a Satsang (speech with a spiritual message rooted in Amma's teachings) in the presence of Amma and an assembled crowd of devotees from all over the macro-world.

Amritavarsham 70 on order paper as new session of Congress begins

 The Sergeant at Arms sounded the vuvuzela and the Speaker of the House swung the gavel in the traditional ceremony that opened the Second Session of the Fifty Second Congress (2·LII 2023-24). One of the first items on the order paper: Amritavarsham 70, Amma’s 70^th birthday celebrations which will take place October 2 and 3, though Amma’s actual birthday is Sept. 27. Patria Post has issued a commemorative stamp to honor the celebration, with a value of 70 Patrienish Rupees. 

Patria Post also issued a stamp in memory of Tina Turner, who passed away in May 2023. The illustration on the memorial stamp bears witness to Ms. Turner’s practice of Buddhism.

Patria is “where woke goes to die” as Congress adjourns

 The First Session of the Fifty Second Congress (1·LII 2022-23) adjourned for the summer recess at 10:13 PM (local time in Patria). The Sergeant-at-Arms brought down the gavel immediately after the traditional Annual Message to Congress was delivered by the Speaker Pro Tem. The speech doubled down on the message that has been propagated over the past three years of COVID and post-George Floyd racial reckoning: PATRIA IS NOT WOKE.

Following is the text of the Annual Message to Congress:

Om Sri Matre Namaha. With the Divine Mother’s blessings, the Fifty Second Congress marks one year in office. 

Earlier today, this House ratified Patria’s fiscal 2024 budget – traditionally the last act of Congress on the final day of the Session. As in previous years, this budget includes the necessary appropriations to build and improve Patria’s transportation infrastructure, support education from grade school to graduate school, maintain national defense in all branches of the military and fund new law and order initiatives. “Defund the police”? Not happening. Not at a point when crime – particularly violent assaults committed by mentally ill psychopaths who belong in institutions, not on the streets – is out of control. Indeed, you do not have to be a National Unionist to agree that there must be a stronger police presence on Patria’s streets and particularly on Castoropolis Transit buses and subways. 

In the past year, Patria has continued on its maverick path of progressive economic and social policies while rejecting the usual leftist orthodoxies, political correctness and of course “wokeness”. Again, say it loudly and say it proudly: PATRIA IS NOT WOKE! To paraphrase Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Patria is where woke goes to die. 

Why is Patria not woke? Because no objective and informed citizen of Patria can fail to at least question, if not completely reject, premises the American-style leftists and self-proclaimed progressives relentlessly promote:  

Human civilization is unsustainable. We are running out of fossil fuel. Burning fossil fuel will destroy the planet. Renewable energy is clean. Renewable energy is the only acceptable option. White people are inherently racist and enjoy unwarranted privileges. Math and the hard sciences are racist and male-dominated. The nuclear family is oppressive. People can choose their genders. Men not named Jean Drapeau can have babies, or can at least turn themselves into women through drugs and surgery. Not to mention that women can have penises. 

Each of these premises is not only false, but, had they been accepted, would have wreaked destruction on Patria. 

Yet these foundational lies inform every manner of mainstream public communications, from news, entertainment, education, and public policy debate, to social media discourse and search engine results. The truths that must replace these lies, in similar fashion, constitute the foundation of a resistance:  

Humanity can flourish. Fossil fuel does not create an existential threat to the planet, and though it is wise to use it efficiently and not needlessly waste it, there’s plenty of it. Renewable energy is not cleaner or more sustainable than fossil fuel or nuclear power. White people are not inherently racist. Providing equal opportunity to earn success in a colorblind society is the only equitable way to allocate privileges. Math and the hard sciences are not racist or sexist. The nuclear family with a father and a mother is the optimal way to raise children to become healthy, happy and productive adults. Sex is immutable and binary. Women give birth to babies, and men father babies. 

Is that clear enough? It is a relief and a breath of fresh air to hear anyone in Patria explain that we’re not all about to die in a climate cataclysm caused by human activity, that there are plenty of energy resources of which electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines are only a part, that prosperity is an eminently possible choice, that Patria has created the most inclusive society in the history of the world, and that it’s OK to be white, black, brown, or whatever, it’s OK to be colorblind, it’s OK not to want trans women playing competitive sports against real biological women and it’s OK to have a traditional family and teach traditional values and norms to your children. 

Wokeness – though usually associated with liberals and the left – has never been progressive in the slightest. It wants to fight discrimination with discrimination. It relies on coercion, censorship and cancellation to defeat its opponents. Its obsession with race only pits working-class people against one another. It does virtually nothing to improve the lot of ordinary citizens of all races, sexual preferences and genders. And that is why the divisive woke ideology has been rejected by the Social Democrats and all of Patria’s progressive parties. 

As the First Session rises for the summer, this House recalls the so-called “For You” or “Flashdance” summer forty years ago, the last mad fling of the Cold War in Reagan’s first term. Nonetheless the 42^nd Congress left Patria in a better place than it found it. Why such hedonism? Why such a lacking of spiritual or at least inward focus at this time in 1983? Just four words: it filled a need. 

This Session also has four words for those in both the macro- and micro-world who are unable to wean themselves from wearing masks (even when alone outdoors!) and continue to live in fear of a respiratory virus that did not justify the unaccountable, dictatorial, draconian measures taken almost everywhere in the macro-world three years ago and has now become a “learn to live with it” inconvenience like the seasonal flu or common cold: just let it go. Or we have moved on. Patria awaits the “Covid Nuremberg”, when those who advocated and enforced lockdowns and mask mandates will be tried for crimes against humanity or at least be called to account for children’s learning and social skills deficits, undetected and untreated cancer and other non-COVID diseases, spikes in domestic violence, drug abuse and alcoholism, small businesses that permanently shuttered, the proliferation of depression, anxiety and other mental health issues and the tragic rise in suicides directly attributable to the lockdowns. 

In previous years Congress would adjourn with a congratulatory message to the winner of Jim Rome’s Jungle Party Smack-Off. But this year’s 29^th edition of the Smack-Off is a week away, on Patria’s National Day no less. Good luck to all participants in Smack-Off XXIX as Patria will be listening on PMBC-1152 or on other AM radio stations on June 30. Speaking of which, let us note one of the key pieces of legislation passed by the First Session: Patria has ensured the survival of AM radio in all cars and trucks, whether gas or electric, by passing its version of the AM for Every Vehicle Act that is making its way through the US Congress with bipartisan support. 

Until we meet again in September, the House adjourns with a brief prayer: 

Twameva mata cha pita twameva

Twameva bandhushcha sakha twameva

Twameva vidya dravinam twameva

Twameva sarvam mama deva deva.

 

Kayena vacha manasendriairva

Buddhyatmana va prakriteh swabhavat

Karomi yadyat sakalam prasmai

Narayanayeti samarpayami.

 Under the power vested in me by the Constitution of Patria, I declare closed the First Session of the 52^nd Congress, and call this Congress to re-assemble here on Monday, 18 September 2023, to open the Second Session of the 52^nd Congress. 

HUMAN INTELLIGENCE DISCLAIMER: the preceding message was prepared, edited and delivered without the use of Chat GPT or other artificial intelligence.

Also today, Patria Post issued a commemorative stamp in memory of Baba Hari Dass, on his hundredth birth anniversary.

Patria mandates AM radio in every vehicle, gas or electric

AM is not going away on car radios in Patria

 A bipartisan coalition in the United States Congress has introduced the AM for Every Vehicle Act – legislation that would require federal regulators to mandate AM radio in all new vehicles, whether traditional internal combustion or electric powered. The bill was likely inspired by Patria’s own version of the Act, which the 52^nd Congress ratified virtually unanimously today in a rare Saturday sitting. Only a handful of members voted “present” or abstained. 

Patria echoes US Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) who says “for decades, free AM broadcast radio has been an essential tool in emergencies, a crucial part of our diverse media ecosystem, and an irreplaceable source for news, weather, sports, and entertainment for tens of millions of listeners. Carmakers shouldn’t tune out AM radio in new vehicles or put it behind a costly digital paywall.”

“If Elon Musk can afford to buy Twitter and send rockets into space, surely he can afford to hire some engineers who can find a way of shielding the radio in a Tesla from interference caused by electric motors”, the Social Democrat House Leader said as Patria’s AM for Every Vehicle Act was ratified, while the SRM House Leader added “to state the obvious, AM radio is critical to public safety and could literally save your life by providing emergency information that will get through in the event of any power outage or disaster that takes down the internet and knocks out cell phone service”.