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.

“Rise up, push back” against COVID mandates as Congress begins session

 After sitting for an hour or two in the early afternoon of Inauguration Day, June 30, the new Fifty Second Congress adjourned for the traditional summer recess. Recess time ends today as Congress members return to the Capitol to begin the First Session (1·LII 2022-23), postponed one day in memory of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen’s state funeral was held on the day Congress was scheduled to re-convene, Sept. 19. Patria paid its respects to the greatest modern macro-national monarch and her 70 year reign.

 On the order paper for the First Session is a call to “rise up and push back” should any government attempt to re-impose mask mandates, vaccine passports, school closures, lockdowns and other COVID-19 restrictions. As duly noted, the time for government overreach has passed, the measures were of very little practical use to stop COVID’s spread and online school likely caused many children irreparable damage. Learn to live with it. As Patria has been saying since 2020, kevál estí grippí – it’s only the flu (or a bad cold).

 RIP Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Patria rejects carbon tax as Congress adjourns

The First Session of the Fifty First Congress (1·LI 2018-19) adjourned for the [northern hemisphere] summer recess after protracted burn-the-midnight-oil debate on whether Patria should adopt a carbon tax. In the end, the tax was rejected thanks to heavy lobbying by the SRM and its conservative allies. Nonetheless, Patria remains committed to a made-in-Patria version of the Green New Deal.

As traditional, before the Speaker of the House whacked the gavel on the dais and the Sergeant-at-Arms blew the vuvuzela to declare the session closed, the Annual Message to Congress was delivered, as follows:

Sarvamangalya mangalye shive sarvartha sadhike, sharanye tryambake Gauri, Narayani namostute. With the Divine Mother’s blessings and at the lotus feet of both Amma Sri Karunamayi and Amma Amritanandamayi, the Fifty-first Congress has come to the end of its first year in office.

In keeping with Patria’s traditions and congressional protocol, the last act of the First Session took place just moments ago – the ratification of Patria’s fiscal 2020 budget. As a partial sop to the SRM and economic conservatives, and in order to keep the price of fuel affordable, particularly for anyone who prefers to drive rather than use public transit, this budget does not include a carbon tax. Such a tax, that would have added at least 12 Patrienish Rupees to the price of a litre of petrol but likely would do little – beyond a symbolic or virtue-signalling value – to protect the environment and would only force those in Patria who can least afford it – seniors, low-wage earners, families struggling to make ends meet, and small mom-and-pop businesses – to pay for the over-consumption of the US and other First World macro-powers, was voted down in this House albeit by a slim margin. Nonetheless, in order to encourage use of public transit, the budget includes increased funding for Castoropolis Transit and local transit authorities to purchase new vehicles, expand service and upgrade transit infrastructure.

  

Rather than impose another tax on those who can least afford it, this Congress believes that a better way to address climate change and help clean up the pollution caused by our addiction to fossil fuels is “make the polluters pay”. The costs of environmental remediation must be paid by the Big Oil plutocrats and the CEOs of amoral transnational corporations who have a far greater responsibility for runaway pollution and greenhouse gas emissions than single mothers or small businesses.

Carbon tax or no, Patria supports a peaceful, healthy planet and a made-in-Patria version of the Green New Deal that will move the economy away from dependence on fossil fuels and non-renewable energy. Since 2016, Patria has supported MAPS. In memory of Darcy Belanger – one of the leading movers of the Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary treaty, who lost his life in the Ethiopian Airlines B-737 Max crash in March of this year – Patria will redouble its commitment to MAPS. This treaty will keep military activity and commercial exploitation out of the Arctic Ocean waters and it is Patria’s hope that through Parvati and her team of dedicated devotees of Amma, more real-world macro-national governments will sign on to MAPS.

  

Along with Canada, Patria will pursue a ban on single-use plastic products such as straws, cutlery and shopping bags. These products are rarely recycled or re-used and while they may be easier and cheaper in the short term, they have long-term consequences for the environment. They already have been banned in a number of Patria’s cities and precincts. In 2020, this Congress will enact a Patria-wide ban. Be prepared now: if you drink from a straw, get a metal one. Bring your own cloth bag to the supermarket. Serve your family picnic or barbecue with real forks, not plastic ones. Friends of Patria, keeping needless plastic waste out of landfills and oceans is not rocket science.

  

As the Fifty-first Congress moves into its second year, Patria remains both democratic socialist and politically incorrect. Yes, this is possible. Patria is committed to democratic socialist ideals such as a living wage, single-payer health care for all and low-cost post-secondary education or apprenticeship training. At the same time, Patria says NO to the Thought Police, Cultural Marxists, self-righteous high-horse Social Justice Warriors and others who seem to proliferate on the so-called “woke” left doing everything humanly possible to destroy Patria’s constitutionally protected rights of free speech, open debate, freedom of association and lawful assembly for the purpose of peaceful protest. In Patria, in the 51^st Congress, the dissident and populist left can find a home. It is a home that Bernie Sanders would recognize but one that may not be friendly to easily-offended overly-sensitive snowflakes. It is a home where there are no so-called safe spaces and trigger warnings on college campuses. It is a home where physical assault by gutless cowards is a crime but not hurt feelings caused by lawful citizens exercising their constitutional right of free speech. And it is a home where the violent masked thugs of Antifa are not welcome, no matter how much they claim to be on “our side” or to be “progressives”.

  

In the First Session, Patria had a simple four-word answer to all the tired old horses that left the barn years ago and all the failed policies of ages past that keep getting trotted out and can’t seem to die: “we have moved on”. To the social conservatives who have not stopped trying to re-criminalize abortion, keep women in their place at home, bring back “1950s family values” and re-make Patria into a micro version of Red-State America: “we have moved on”. To dishwater-dull middle-ground centrist neo-liberals who cling to the status quo or at best “incremental” change: “we have moved on”. And to all those tired canards and lame proposals, many of which are leftovers from the last century, that will keep being dragged out over the next three years of this Congress or in the 2022 election campaign particularly by National Unionists, such as raising the drinking age to 25 or imposing dress codes and curfews on kids: “we have moved on”.

  

As heard earlier today on AM 1152 PMBC, Patria congratulates the winner of Smack Off XXV: five-time Smack Off winner Brad in Corona. While the Jungle Party is only a small player in the 51^st Congress, Jim Rome’s credo rings loud and strong throughout Patria: Have a take, don’t suck!

  

Finally, Patria congratulates the Toronto Raptors. Earlier this month the Raptors became the first team based outside the United States to win the NBA championship, in six hard-fought games against the heavily-favored defending champion Golden State Warriors.

And so the time has come; let us make a pledge to meet in September. As is traditional, this session is adjourned with a brief prayer, and a moment of silent reflection for those who have lost their lives during the course of this session as a result of war, terrorist acts, hate crimes or other senseless violence from Pittsburgh to Poway, Christchurch to Colombo:

  

Lokah samasthah sukhino bhavantu. Asato ma sad gamaya. Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya. Mrityor ma amritam gamaya. Hari Om.  Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

Under the power vested in me by the Constitution of Patria, I declare closed the First Session of the 51^st Congress, and call this Congress to re-assemble here on Monday, 16 September 2019, to open the Second Session of the 51^st Congress.

(the House adjourned at 11:55 PM local time)

On this last day of the congressional session, Patria Post released two new stamp issues, depicting both Ammas.

51st Congress in session as summer recess ends

The Sergeant-at-Arms sounds the vuvuzela to summon Patria's Congress into session.

Patria's Congress returns from the summer recess that began on Inauguration Day shortly after the Inaugural Address/Speech from the Throne, as the Sergeant-at-Arms blew the vuvuzela and the Speaker Pro Tem whacked the gavel and proclaimed "under the power vested in me by the Constitution of Patria, I declare open the First Session of the Fifty-First Congress" (denoted 1·LI 2018-19).

With a 96 member Social Democrat caucus, along with the SD's close allies: the Amrita, Chakra and Green Parties, the 51st Congress is the most left-leaning, "progressive" one ever elected in Patria's 200 years. It is always a crapshoot as to which pieces of legislation will be pushed to the front of the order paper, but residents of Castoropolis and Patria's other major cities can be assured that the representation of their city councils will not be cut in half by executive fiat only a few weeks before  municipal election day. It is also a safe bet that the 24 municipal governments that make up Greater Castoropolis will not be forcibly amalgamated into a single Megacity. Voters in Patria (even National Unionists) would have little tolerance for a Doug Ford or Mike Harris wannabe.

One year in office: 50th Congress adjourns for summer recess

The First Session of Patria's 50th Congress (1·L 2014-15) adjourned today, following ratification of Patria's fiscal 2016 budget. The traditional Annual Message to Congress was delivered as the last function of Congress immediately prior to the Speaker of the House banging the gavel and blowing the vuvuzela to declare the House adjourned for the northern hemisphere summer:

Om anavadyangyai namah. Salutations to the Divine Mother whose body is worthy of worship. With the Divine Mother’s blessings, the 50^th Congressus Patriaë has come to the end of its first year in office. This session ends as it began – at the lotus feet of Amma Sri Karunamayi. As the Speaker of the House, Amma Karunamayi has kept peace and order on the floor of Congress. As a sadguru, her teachings have been an inspiration on the path of Sanatan Dharma. As an incarnation of Mother Saraswati, her spoken words and songs have brought life and light to the soul of all Patria even as Stephen Harper’s henchmen or Canadian border security authorities, possibly acting on orders from Canada’s spy service, apparently turned her away as she was about to bless her Toronto children. Jai Karunamayi!

In keeping with Patria’s traditions and congressional protocol, the last act of the First Session just moments ago was the ratification of Patria’s fiscal 2016 budget. It is thus duly noted that over the course of this session, Patria’s economy has improved to some extent. By pure statistics alone, the unemployment rate has fallen even if the jobs that have been created are less than ideal: short-term, contract positions or joblets that only throw those who accept such positions back on the unemployment rolls in short order, while the so-called permanent positions are mostly sub-entry level, minimum wage and with little job security or possibility for advancement. To state the obvious, we are still very short of the full recovery that was promised in the election campaign of one year ago. But as we know, over the course of a quarter century since the Dharmic Revolution, Patria is committed to offering its citizens more than simply “recovery” or subsistence-level dead-end jobs, while cutting “waste” or “gravy” in order to appease the bean counters, elites and plutocrats. This is why the austerity of the 49^th Congress, presumably in response to the global economic downturn that began in 2008-09, proved to be such a failed policy. As Amma recently said, “if the economic advancement of a nation fails to ensure well-being and happiness to its citizens, it should be assumed that there is a serious flaw in the process”. Whether a superpower like the United States, an emerging power like India, or an unrecognized micro-state like Patria, a nation’s growth should be measured in more than the numbers of its gross domestic product. To quote the Amrita Party leader again, “money alone cannot ensure happiness, which needs ethics and cultural values. Otherwise, it would be like putting makeup on a dead body”.

Along with the trillion-rupee economic stimuli, funding for social programs and the other components of a compassionate, progressive realm, the budget ratified today also includes appropriations for the celebration of “Ramrajyavarsham 200”, Patria’s bicentennial celebrations in 2018. On this day, one of the official bicentennial logos for the local and national celebrations has been released (and is viewable above).

As the 2014 election campaign sent the message that Patria would no longer be a safe place for social conservatives, Patria has indeed turned away from Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan and other mostly imported-from-America voices that would have taken Patria back to the 1950s rather than into the second decade of the twenty-first century. The tired war horses and hoary talking points of the social conservatives, such as opposition to same-sex marriage or advocating modest dress for women, are fading from Patria’s public squares and AM radio airwaves. Those who continue to push for restricted access to abortion, marriage only between a man and a woman, or abstinence-only sex education in grade school will prove to be on the wrong side of history, in Patria at least.

As the social conservatives were in retreat in 2014-15, the law and order conservatives have also become increasingly irrelevant over the course of this session. Nothwithstanding the National Union’s unrelenting push for mass incarceration, longer prison sentences, three-strikes-you’re-out mandatory life sentences for repeat offenders and a return to the death penalty, resistance is growing in Patria to the US-style prison industrial complex, also known as the “new Jim Crow”, filling cell blocks with mostly non-white males who – in America at least – become a permanent underclass, denied the right to vote and often virtually unemployable long after their release from prison. This session has taken action to ensure that privately operated for-profit prisons, whose bottom line is a steady supply of small fry caught in the failed war on drugs, must not proliferate in Patria.

Along with banning private prisons, Patria has said no to the literal definition of a police state – a state with a visible police presence on the street, where the police forces of major cities and even suburbs constitute an unaccountable above-the-law armed force equipped with more deadly firepower than the real Army. Wearing a badge and carrying a gun do not make police officers above the laws they are tasked to enforce. The police must not become a privileged elite corps or gang of bullies accountable only to themselves. No one in Patria – and certainly not in America – should be naive enough to believe that “if you are not breaking the law you have nothing to fear from the police”, or that simply having white skin will protect them from being falsely arrested, jailed without charges, bullied, beaten or even killed in cold blood by rogue police officers.

Even as Congress adjourns, the Jungle Party caucus awaits its most anticipated day of the year: the 2015 Smack-Off. Much of Patria will tune in to the Jim Rome show tomorrow, in Castoropolis on PMBC AM 1152, or will listen via Jungle Insider, to find out if Mike in Indy and Chael Sonnen can defend their shared king of smack title and take home the winner-take-all $5000 cash prize, and if not, whether the new Smack-Off champion will be a previous Smack-Off winner such as Brad in Corona, a sitting member of the Jungle Party caucus or a potential representative in the election of 2018.

And so the time has come; let us make a pledge to meet in September. As is traditional, this session is adjourned with a brief prayer, and a moment of silent reflection for those who have lost their lives during the course of this session as a result of war, terrorist acts, disasters or senseless violence, from Nepal to Charleston, South Carolina:

Lokah samasthah sukhino bhavantu.

Asato ma sad gamaya

Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya

Mrityor ma amritam gamaya. 

Hari Om.  Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

Under the power vested in me by the Constitution of Patria, I declare closed the First Session of the 50^th Congress, and call this Congress to re-assemble here on Monday, 21 September 2015, to open the Second Session of the 50^th Congress. 

Back to school as Congress returns from summer recess

Patria's new 50th Congress has returned from post-inaugural summer recess to begin its traditional September-to-June session. As the Sergeant-at-Arms called out "The House shall assemble!" and the Speaker Pro Tem banged the gavel on the dais, the First Session, Fiftieth Congress (1·L 2014-15) was officially underway. A more liberal agenda on the order paper can be expected, given the Social Democrats' beefed-up representation and the National Union being reduced almost to fringe or niche status.

Along with the new session of Congress, a new academic year also begins. For incoming university and college frosh, most of whom were born in 1996, there are many things, such as VHS videos, electric typewriters and 35 mm film cameras, that they are too young to recall. Around this time each year, Beloit College, a small liberal arts school in Wisconsin, publishes a "Mindset List" providing a look at the cultural touchstones and experiences that have shaped the worldview of students entering colleges and universities in the fall. Following are some of the highlights of Beloit's Mindset List for the class of 2018:

• During their initial weeks of kindergarten, they were upset by endlessly repeated images of planes blasting into the World Trade Center.
• Since they binge-watch their favorite TV shows, they might like to binge-watch the video portions of their courses too.
• When they see wire-rimmed glasses, they think Harry Potter, not John Lennon.
• “Press pound” on the phone is now translated as “hit hashtag.”
• Celebrity “selfies” are far cooler than autographs.
• They have probably never used Netscape as their web browser.
• Hong Kong has always been part of China.

Read the full Class of 2018 Mindset List

First act of new Congress: summer recess

Nice inaugural celebration, Patria. See you in September!

Following the inaugural puja, oath of office, Inaugural Address/Speech from the Throne (q.v.), Congressional lunch and inaugural parade through downtown Castoropolis, the first act of the 50th Congress  - after the official administrivia of naming a House Speaker pro tem, acting Minister of External Affairs, Secretary of the Interior and other so-called cabinet positions - was to adjourn for the traditional summer recess. The First Session of the 50th Congress (1·L 2014-15) will convene on Sept. 15. Patria's Congress is strictly a September-to-June body, paralleling the school year. Congressional sessions during the months of July and August are extremely rare.

Inaugural Ball? Here it is!

Although a US-style formal Inaugural Ball had been part of Patria's previous Inauguration Days, there was no such event in 2014. It didn't seem appropriate to hold an Inaugural Ball in light of the 49th Congress austerity budgets, Patria's generally shaky economy, and an Inaugural Address than slammed "soulless plutocrats and amoral one-percenter privateers". Not to mention that it is an extremely uncomfortable event for Aspies, who likely wouldn't be able to find a date to bring to the ball and hate dressing up in formal attire. (BTW, the uniform of the day for the inaugural ceremony was satsang whites or traditional Hindu: saris for the girls, dhotis and kurtas for the guys.)

Stern economic warning as Congress adjourns

Summer is here! The First Session of the 49th Congress (1·XLIX 2010-11) adjourned at 11:26 PM Patrienish Local Time today with the Speaker Pro Tem banging the gavel (a 19th century tradition) and blowing the vuvuzela (21st century tradition).

The First Session was declared adjourned for the summer recess immediately following the delivery of the Annual Message to Congress, which is Patria's version of the State of the Union address, though much shorter than the US President's annual speech. The 2011 message warned that Patria's economy is tottering on the brink of a double-dip recession and pointed fingers at the usual suspects: Chinese imports, globalism, offshoring, banksters, and even non-smokers. If you scroll down to the last paragraph, note a grisly last-ditch nicotine-fueled solution to help grow Patria's economy.

XLIX Con. Pat.

Annual Message to Congress (at closing of Session)

June 27, 2011

Om Sri maha-rajñyai namah, chid agni kunda sambhutayai namah. Salutations to the Divine Mother, who is the Empress of the Universe, who was born in the fire pit of Pure Consciousness. With the Divine Mother’s blessings, the 49^th Congressus Patriaë has come to the end of its first year in office.

As we all know, this Congress was elected and took office in the wake of the Great Recession, arguably far worse economic times than the 1930s. One year later, Patria’s economy is still fragile and far from fully recovered. We have found convenient outlets for our frustration at the failed economy and the wholesale export to China of Patria’s once-thriving manufacturing industry: the rise of the Diet Coke Party’s grass-roots less-government populism, the surge of protectionism and anti-globalism spearheaded by the SRM, the growing push back against the barrage of cheap made-in-China consumer goods, and the push to make the Patrienish Rupee the micronational reserve currency of choice, ahead of once-hard but now-cratering currencies such as the US dollar, British pound, Japanese yen or Euro. On this day two years ago, citizens of Patria – at least those who still held jobs – were urged to “stimulate the economy by going out this weekend and purchasing a new car, an iPhone, a plasma TV, a laptop computer, a new washer and dryer, or any other big-ticket item”. That exhortation still holds, for just as in 2009, consumer spending, particularly on made-in-Patria goods and services, is still as close as it gets to being the single magic bullet that will cure the economy, bring the jobs home and prevent a double-dip recession.

In just a few days, the unemployment data, the number of new jobs created, and other economic statistics for Second Quarter 2011 will be released. If, as is likely, they show that the economy has shrunk during the quarter, and there has been little or no job growth, we are halfway to recession number two. But whether the economy has merely hit a short-term rough patch or is on its way to a double-dip recession, it is still our patriotic duty to defeat the downturn through continued consumer spending, thorough non-violent resistance against the G8, G20, World Bank, IMF and other one-world-government globalist cabals who won’t have Patria as a member, through peaceful protests against offshoring and globalism, through boycotting the slew of Chinese junk, and through the efforts of this Congress to impose tariffs on imported goods and build an impregnable wall of protectionism in order to save Patria’s industries and jobs.

During the 2010 election campaign and one year ago on Inauguration Day, the Amrita Party, Chakra Party and several other parties represented on the floor of Congress spoke in grand and hopeful terms about living in I AM consciousness and being “open, ready, willing to be completely restructured around the Positive Possibilities”. But over the course of this session, attempts to open to the Positive Possibilities have largely failed. We are not being authentically ourselves, and sadly, due to the state of the economy we cannot be. In the face of soaring gas prices, shuttered factories, jobs offshored to China, India or the lowest bidder, worthless retirement plans and double-digit unemployment, there seems to be no way the members of this Congress and citizens of Patria can find their true voice, experience a true expression of life force, and tap into a sense of rooted, vital expansiveness. Doing so seems impossible, out of fear of losing what little financial security we have. For those who are still employed, all we can do to eke out a little existence in this economic wasteland is to be grateful we still have jobs, as poorly as they pay, as soul-destroying as they may be, as much as they encourage a phony culture of corporate conformity, and as much as they force us to check our true selves at the door, stuff down our joy, stamp out our true connection to who we are, and stay stuck in the realm of impossibilities as long as doing so pleases supervisors, co-workers, clients and customers while paying our bills and putting food on our tables. At best, a joyful, expansive life of real growth is a hobby to be enjoyed only on weekends, after hours and during what little vacation time our employers may deign to grant us.

Finally, there is a grisly, ghastly method of stimulating the economy and creating jobs, but one that might be considered as a desperate last resort to stave off the double-dip recession. Like Canada, the United States and most macronations, the government of Patria and the thirteen precinct governments take in a substantial amount of tax revenue from the sale of tobacco products. If people were encouraged to take up smoking or continue their smelly, disgusting habit rather than quitting, the flow of tax revenue into this government’s coffers would continue to fund social programs, public transit initiatives and infrastructure projects. Through nicotine addiction thousands of jobs would be created – not only in the tobacco farming and cigarette manufacturing industries, but steady, well-paying and virtually recession-proof jobs for florists, casket makers and funeral directors. The argument that smoking costs Patria billions of rupees in health care expenditures is a red herring. It is a generally known but politically incorrect fact that a 50 year old smoker who drops dead of a heart attack or lung cancer is less of a drain on the health care system than a 90 year old non-smoker bedridden in a nursing home or slowly dying of Alzheimer’s. Not to mention that the prematurely dying smoker does not drain the Social Security system of the old-age pensions that the millions of Baby Boomers who are now reaching retirement age are expecting to receive. Indeed, if we are so desperate to grow the economy, we should seriously consider smoking as our patriotic duty in the war against the recession, just as sending cartons of cigarettes to the troops overseas was “doing our bit for victory” in another war almost seventy years ago that virtually depended on nicotine for victory. If you don’t smoke, thank someone who does for helping to light up the economy. And if you are not willing to smoke your way out of recession, you should at least consider going out and buying a 40 ounce bottle of whiskey to enjoy responsibly or spending a Saturday night playing the slot machines. Along with the tobacco industry, Patria’s liquor stores and casinos are doing their part to fight the recession through the so-called sin taxes. This government needs the revenue generated by nicotine-addicted heavy-drinking compulsive gamblers in order to stay afloat. The practitioners of Sanatan Dharma, spiritual lifestyle and yoga sadhana did not bring Patria into recession, but neither are they helping to lift us out. It is too easy to point fingers at the banksters, greed-mongers and globalists in New York and London for dragging down Patria’s economy, when right here among us the yoga practicing, tea-totaling, tree-hugging vegan New Agers, buy-nothing renunciates and orthodox Hindus who don’t smoke, drink or gamble – let alone sufficiently spend on consumer goods – are not doing their fair share to bring Patria out of the economic doldrums.

As is traditional, this session is adjourned with a brief prayer:

Asato ma sad gamaya. Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya. Mrityor ma amritam gamaya.

Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

"Under the power vested in me by the Constitution of Patria, I declare closed the First Session of the 49^th Congress, and call this Congress to re-assemble here on Monday, the 19^th of September 2011, to open the Second Session of the 49^th Congress".