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!"

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.

Congress adjourns at mid-term, invokes Sheetala's blessings to cure COVID

As the Fifty First Congress adjourned for the summer recess at the midpoint of its term, the Arati to Sheetala (click on above) was sung in temples throughout Patria as the Inner Realm continues to seek her blessings in order to find a cure for COVID19.

Patria is doubling down on herd immunity and COVID dissident voices as the Annual Message to Congress was delivered and the Sergeant-at-Arms brought down the gavel to declare closed the Second Session of the 51st Congress (2·LI 2019-20) and call lawmakers to return to the Capitol on September 21, 2020 for the Third Session (3·LI 2020-21).

Following is the transcription of the Annual Message:

Om Durga Uma Lalitha Bhavanye Namah. With the Divine Mother’s blessings and at the lotus feet of Amma Sri Karunamayi and Amma Amritanandamayi, the Fifty-first Congress has come to the midpoint of its term. The Second Session actually passed quite a bit of legislation and held some key debates from September 2019 until the first week of March 2020. And then the lamps went out all over the world, as the corona virus gripped both the macro- and micro-world in fear of another 1918 flu pandemic. Yet over the course of the Second Session, while the corona virus has proliferated throughout the macro-world, there have been only a few mala’s worth of serious cases of COVID-19 in Patria that required hospitalization and fewer than 108 mahasamadhis that were directly attributable to the virus. For the vast majority of Patrienish citizens who contracted it, COVID-19 turned out to be little more than a mild flu, if they had any symptoms at all.

For several weeks in March and April, as a lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was imposed, Patria’s economy ground to a near halt. But the lockdown was called off not only because COVID-19 failed to become the deadly killer that the fear-mongers had predicted but because the social, economic and mental health costs of indefinite layoffs, furloughs and forcing almost everyone to stay at home as if under house arrest were far worse than the disease itself. Here on the floor of Congress, it was argued by the Social Democrats and SRM opposition alike that the goals of keeping the economy out of recession and allowing citizens to resume their everyday activities far outweighed the need to cower at home out of fear in order to feel safe from a disease that was having almost no effect on much of Patria. As Congress and the 13 Precincts declared an immediate end to the lockdown, the following points were made in favor of re-opening the economy:

• How many children should starve in order to make you feel safe?
• How many families must go bankrupt in order to make you feel safe?
• How many business owners should lose everything they've worked for in order to make you feel safe?
• How many people are you comfortable with committing suicide from hopelessness and financial ruin in order to make you feel safe?
• How many women and children should be victims of domestic violence in order to make you feel safe?
• When so many are trapped indoors, deprived of their usual exercise at their local gym, YMCA or other fitness facility, how many cases of heart disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes are you willing to tolerate in order to make you feel safe?
• How many cases of alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, anxiety and PTSD do you find acceptable in order that you feel safe?
• How many people have to lose their jobs, their life savings, and most important precious time with their family and loved ones they will never get back in order to make you feel safe?

Also, remember this – if the macro-world TV news had never told you to be afraid of this virus, you wouldn't have. You likely would have gone about your life as usual along with everyone else. You likely would have thought that this was just another type of flu. So remember, citizens of Patria and the macro-world alike, that all your fears and panic exist because you were told by the mainstream media to live in fear and panic, because you can’t spell pandemic without panic. Patria will not live in fear and panic. Patria will say “kevál estí grippí” – it’s only the flu. Patria will let the virus run its course among healthy citizens who are at low risk of serious or potentially fatal complications, while protecting those who are at high risk, particularly seniors in nursing homes and anyone with pre-existing health issues or weakened immune systems. Patria will advocate reasonable common-sense precautions such as frequent hand washing, while aiming towards the goal of herd immunity in defiance of the “experts” and “our betters”.

A little over a month ago, Patria had only four words to say to the COVID-19 Thought Police and fear-mongers: I DO NOT CONSENT. To that message, one more can be added: I do not consent to wearing a mask in public places. Unless you are actually sick, caring for someone who is sick, or work in a hospital, masks are of dubious value. Not wearing masks can be Patria’s simple act of civil disobedience, Patria’s answer to the so-called experts and authority figures. If the fear-mongers are correct and a second wave of COVID-19 really does happen later this year or early 2021, and should any precinct legislatures or city mayors attempt to impose another lockdown for the sake of the tiny one percent or less of the population actually at risk, Patria’s second wave will be a wave of satyagraha – non-violent civil disobedience inspired by Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., but for the most part leaderless resistance. Know this. There will be non-violent pushback to any kind of authoritarian government overreach. SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS.

If a second Great Depression is foisted upon us because of the corona virus, Patria is prepared to weather the storm. Amid the declines in the stock market, both Wall Street and the Castoropolis Stock Exchange, the Patrienish Rupee is still the most stable micronational currency. When the lockdown was abandoned in mid-April, trillions of rupees were saved that would have been paid out in unemployment benefits and business bailouts, and instead will flow back into the economy from the pockets of consumers. This has not gone unnoticed in the last act of the Second Session that took place earlier today, the ratification of Patria’s fiscal 2021 budget, albeit paused for three hours so that members of this House could listen to Jungle Party leader Jim Rome’s Smack-Off XXVI on PMBC-1152. Congratulations to the Smack-Off winner, Leff in Laguna.

Patria is not a safe place for status quo dishwater-dull moderates. Patria is not a place for incremental change or “nothing will fundamentally change” centrists. In the remaining two years of this Congress’ mandate, Patria must remain a safe place for dissident voices, for liberals who have been red-pilled to some extent by COVID-19, for populists who despise the elites, for politically incorrect iconoclasts and for those who thumb their noses at the leftist Thought Police while at the same time advocating a made-in-Patria progressive democratic socialism in which the violent thugs of Antifa and the discredited rabble who destroy statues of great leaders and monuments to our proud heritage are not welcome.

Far be it from Patria to endorse any candidate in a macro-national election, particularly for the US presidency. Nonetheless, Patria still “feels the Bern” and believes that honorary Patrienish citizen Bernie Sanders would have won in 2016 and should be campaigning for re-election today rather than being on the losing end of a battle with the Democratic National Committee, Wall Street plutocrats and the establishment powers that be. Joe Biden is the Hillary Clinton of 2020 and it will probably not end well for Sleepy Joe. Biden’s cognitive abilities have declined to the point where he is unfit for the job. His rambling, incoherent sound bites are not “gaffes” but clear displays of senility showing that he belongs in a retirement home, not the White House. American citizens living in the Inner Realm should not endorse the zero-sum binary game of US politics in which Republicans and Democrats are locked in a virtual duopoly, but should instead mail in their absentee ballots for a Third Party candidate such as the Green Party or a write-in vote for Bernie Sanders.

As Congress adjourns for the summer, let us pray: Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu and let us offer pranams to Mother Sheetala, who cures all infectious diseases. Jai Sheetala Mata!

Under the power vested in me by the Constitution of Patria, I declare closed the Second Session of the 51^st Congress, and call this Congress to re-assemble here on Monday, 21 September 2020, to open the Third Session of the 51^st Congress.

Greta, Green New Deal on order paper as Congress begins new session

Hey Greta, come visit Patria!

The Fifty-First Congress returned from summer recess to open the Second Session (2·LI 2019-20) with a made-in-Patria version of the Green New Deal on the order paper, despite the rejection of a Carbon Tax on the last day of the First Session only moments before adjournment on June 21.

Patria also extended an invitation to climate activist and Aspergirl Greta Thunberg to visit the Inner Realm, although it is unlikely that the Swedish teenager will actually do so (even if Patria were a real country) unless she could travel to Patria by sailboat or other non-carbon emitting means of transport.

On the first day of the new session, Patria Post issued two new stamps depicting scenes from the Ramayana as an ongoing exhibition ‘Sita and Rama: The Ramayana in Indian Painting’ is taking place at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Note that the stamp illustrating Rama’s coronation upon returning to Ayodhya is a high-value (RsPat. 50) definitive, while the stamp illustrating how the chipmunk got its stripes from Lord Rama though devoted service while building the bridge to Lanka is a “forever” non-denominated stamp good for the standard First Class letter rate.

"Jill not Hill" as Congress recesses at mid-term

Patria's 50th Congress (2·L 2015-16) reached the midpoint of its term of office. As Congress adjourned for the summer recess until September 19, 2016 (3·L 2016-17), the traditional Annual Message to Congress was delivered. Although Patria does not endorse candidates in macro-national elections, the address includes an unofficial endorsement in the US presidential election. And it's not Hillary!

The following is the transcription of the Annual Message:

Om vighna nashinyai namah. Adorations to the Mother who destroys all obstacles.  As the Second Session of the 50^th Congress began, so it ends: with salutations and prostrations at the Divine Mother’s lotus feet. With Her blessings, the Fiftieth Congressus Patriaë has reached the midpoint of its term of office.

Over the course of the Second Session, as had been the intention on Inauguration Day two years ago, a more liberal Patria has taken root. A Patria that has let go of the “safe place for social conservatives”, “modest dress for women” and other tired, lame cliché slogans and is open, ready and willing to be completely restructured around the Positive Possibilities that were first elaborated by the Amrita Party, Chakra Party and others in 2010 and that took root in Canada during this session when the election of Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister swept away the dark ignorance of the Harper era. While on the topic of Positive Possibilities, it is worth noting that Parvati’s new song I am Light that debuted in March continues to sell well and gain radio airplay in Patria.

As per tradition, the final act of the session was the ratification vote of Patria’s fiscal 2017 budget. This budget, passed just minutes ago, contains funding for the usual social programs, from free lunches for grade school kids to subsidized tuition for university and college students, that economic and paleo-conservatives, National Unionists and US Republicans decry as “socialism” and “tax and spend” handouts. But even National Unionists travel by train and wish to do so safely; thus the budget also includes sufficient funding to maintain and upgrade Patria’s passenger rail infrastructure, including the installation of Positive Train Control on all trains – from lowly milk-runs to the superfast express trains that link Castoropolis with the precinct capitals. 

The budget also notes that the Reserve Bank of Patria will take appropriate measures if necessary to prop up the Patrienish Rupee, should the value of Patria’s currency be dragged down along with the British Pound Sterling following the decision in the United Kingdom yesterday to withdraw from the European Union. Patria, of course, did not endorse either the “Leave” or “Remain” side in the UK referendum, but does support the right to self-determination and independence of Scotland and Wales, as well as micronations within the United Kingdom such as Sealand. 

Patria generally does not endorse candidates or parties in foreign or macro-national elections. But over the course of the Second Session, as America votes in November and US citizens in Patria take the necessary steps to register and obtain absentee ballots, Patria has been enthusiastically and fervently supporting the campaign of Bernie Sanders for the Democratic Party’s nomination as the next President of the United States. Although the window of opportunity has virtually run out for the Senator from Vermont as Hillary Clinton has now clinched – or should we say rigged – the party’s nomination, Patria nonetheless unofficially endorses Mr. Sanders should he decide to run as an Independent or Third Party candidate. Failing the opportunity to “Feel the Bern”, Patria will unofficially endorse Jill Stein of the Green Party and the battle cry of “Jill not Hill!” (or hashtag #JillnotHill) will reverberate throughout the Inner Realm going forward into the Third Session.

Of course Patria strongly hopes to see a woman someday be elected President of the United States. Perhaps Elizabeth Warren in 2020. Or Tulsi Gabbard  in, say, 2032. But not Hillary Clinton in 2016. Over the course of the primaries and caucuses from New Hampshire in February until California early this month, we often heard that Ms. Clinton is more “experienced”, having served as a Senator and Secretary of State as well as First Lady. Indeed, she does have quite an impressive resumé. But in 1856, James Buchanan had also served as a Senator and Secretary of State, as well as United States ambassador to Russia, and turned out to be arguably the worst President ever, who did virtually nothing to prevent the impending Civil War. We heard that Ms. Clinton “got more done” during her tenure in the US Senate, when in fact she managed to pass only three inconsequential pieces of legislation, such as renaming a post office. Compare this with some of Bernie Sanders' accomplishments over more than two decades in Congress – from treating autism in the military to getting tough on child labor and exposing corruption in the military-industrial complex – which he achieved by building unusual but effective coalitions with Democrats and Republicans alike. We heard that Ms. Clinton is more “practical”, “pragmatic” and has “more realistic goals” than Mr. Sanders. But America and indeed the macro-world can do better in 2016 than baby-steps pragmatism and “incremental” change. Know this: no one has ever changed the world by being practical, sticking to realistic goals or maintaining the status quo. Such a world, where those in roles of leadership are unable or unwilling to create real change, would offer little more than a dull, beige existence. It would be a world where Mahatma Gandhi would have become a moderately successful trial lawyer, Nelson Mandela would have died in prison and Martin Luther King Jr. would have been preaching to the Ebenezer Baptist Church choir. Finally, we heard that in the upcoming election in November, we must hold our noses or put on blindfolds and vote for Ms. Clinton as she is the “lesser of two evils”. Not only is this an extremely tired, lame cliché (as everyone knows, the lesser of two evils is still evil), but Patria could make a good argument that Ms. Clinton is more evil than Donald Trump. Mr. Trump is simply a blustering, overweight buffoon, like the late former Mayor of Toronto Rob Ford, who would make America a laughing stock rather than great again. But at least Mr. Trump is not a tired old member of the status quo Republican establishment like Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney. Ms. Clinton is not only as establishment and status quo as it gets but is an amoral billionaire who can earn more money for a single dinner party or speaking engagement than Mr. Sanders earns in an entire year, a one-percent plutocrat and corporate shill whose principles are dictated by those to whom she is beholden: the Wall Street corporate suits and banksters, Big Oil, Big Pharma, the prison-industrial complex and the war machine of the military-industrial complex. Even one of the Koch Brothers has come out in favor of a second Clinton administration. Ms. Clinton claims to be “liberal” or “progressive” but supported Barry Goldwater in 1964 while Bernie Sanders was marching on the front lines of the civil rights movement. She has constantly flip-flopped on issues such as same-sex marriage and has done virtually nothing to advance the cause of true liberalism or progressive democratic socialism. She has never met a war she didn’t like and counts among her close friends and confidants the tired old Cold Warrior Henry Kissinger. If your loved ones who joined the military and deployed overseas have returned to America in body bags, with missing limbs, or a lifetime of battlefield trauma, you can blame her support of George W. Bush’s war in Iraq. If your job has disappeared, offshored to Mexico or China, and you are unable to find a meaningful job that offers even half the wages of your old one, you can blame her support of NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. If you have been needlessly incarcerated for a petty, non-violent crime – or even no crime at all – you can blame her support of the failed war on drugs and the private prison industry.

With the belief that America can and must do better than either Mr. Trump or Ms. Clinton, as Jim Rome’s Jungle Party Clones await Smack Off XXII on July 1, and as Patria says lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu in memory of those who passed away earlier this month – Muhammad Ali, Gordie Howe and the 49 lives brutally snuffed out in Orlando, Florida – let us wrap up the work of this session. Going forward into the second half of the 50^th Congress and towards Patria’s bicentennial celebrations in 2018 let us move beyond our preconceived notions and attachments and open to the wonders of life. Gone, gone, beyond in the words of the Buddhist Sutra: gate gate pāragate pārasamgate bodhi svāhā!

Om Sri Gurubhyo Namah. Hari Om.

Under the power vested in me by the Constitution of Patria, I declare closed the Second Session of the 50^th Congress, and call this Congress to re-assemble here on Monday, the 19^th of September 2016, to open the Third Session of the 50^th Congress.

Jill Stein - Patria's unofficial endorsement to succeed Barack Obama as US President.

Mother Meera's silent blessing opens new session of Congress

On the day designated by the United Nations as the International Day of Peace, the Second Session, Fiftieth Congress (2·L 2015-16) opened without the traditional Speaker of the House banging the gavel on the dais or the Sergeant-at-Arms blowing the Congressional Bugle (more like a vuvuzela left over from the 2010 World Cup) to summon lawmakers into the House. In keeping with the Peace Day theme, the session was declared open with a silent blessing by Mother Meera, an incarnation of the Divine Mother like Ammachi and Karunamayi. But unlike the two Ammas, Mother Meera does not hold office in Patria such as Governor-General or House Leader of the Amrita Party. She also does not sing bhajans or speak publicly, but gives darshan in total silence. So there was no Speech from the Throne to open the new session. And no Ammachi hugs either.

I don't always visit Patria. But when I do, I open a new session of Congress. Stay bhakti, my friends!

On the Second Session's order paper are more of what conservatives and US Republicans love to demonize as "tax and spend" programs. And there will likely be some attempt to prop up the Patrienish Rupee, which - like the Indian Rupee and Canadian Dollar - has been falling against the mighty US buck. But there will be no endorsement of any party or potential Prime Minister (i.e. Stephen Harper, Thomas Mulcair, Justin Trudeau, or even Elizabeth May's Green Party of one) in Canada's federal election on October 19.

Bitter economic pills as Congress adjourns at midterm

The Second Session of Patria's 49th Congress adjourned today for its summer recess (winter recess for our friends in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, etc.) with the traditional "State of the Union" annual message to Congress warning of some bitter economic medicine - aka European-style austerity - with no real promise of recovery. Note also an endorsement in the 2012 US presidential race.

The following is the text of the Annual Message to Congress:

Om premamritanandamayyai nityam namo namah. Adorations to the Mother who is full of divine love and immortal bliss.  With the Divine Mother’s blessings, the 49^th Congressus Patriaë has reached the midpoint of its term of office. 

 At the mid-term mark, we can say that Patria’s economy has improved marginally from this time a year ago when citizens of Patria were exhorted to take up smoking as a means of creating jobs and creating tax revenue. Certainly there has been some improvement since the annual message to Congress that was delivered on this day in 2009 or since the start of the GED [Global Economic Downturn] in late 2008. Nonetheless the economy has not improved enough so that the danger of sliding back into recession has abated. There is still a very real possibility of a double-dip recession in the upcoming quarter of this year, as has already happened in the United Kingdom, or even a full-blown Euro zone-style depression such as in Spain or Greece.

While voters in France and Greece have rejected austerity, in Patria the need to rein in government spending, cut the bloated bureaucracy, stop the gravy train dead in its tracks and reduce the burden of taxation is no greater than in the Euro zone, Rob Ford’s Toronto, or the Tea Party’s vision of America. Both the Positive Possibilities and Diet Coke Party coalitions know, as do most of the small independent parties, that in the remaining two years of this Congress’ term of office some bitter economic pills, such as cutting thousands of public-sector jobs and slashing the budgets of virtually every federal, precinct and local government department or ministry, must be swallowed in order to stave off a new great depression, the likes of which will make the 1930s seem like boom times. Austerity – or tapas, to use the Sanskrit term – is the price that must be paid in order to avoid a massive debt crisis that we, our children and our children’s children will be paying down for decades to come. Austerity is the short term pain for long-term gain so that Patria’s economy can truly grow, made-in-Patria will replace made-in-China, and an entire generation of college graduates will have a better future than unpaid internships, short-term contract jobettes, and minimum wage jobs as McDonalds burger flippers and Starbucks baristas, still living with mom and dad in their 30s, still paying off student loans in their 40s, and still unmarried and childless in their 50s, unable to bear the cost of settling down to raise a family thanks to decades of debt.

As the economy in Patria and in the macro-world failed to thrive in 2011 and 2012, this session of Congress witnessed the growth of the Occupy movement. Beginning on Wall Street, proliferating among the major cities of North America and Europe, it was not long before this rag-tag, unwashed, scruffy band of anarchists, leftists, stoners, unemployed and unemployable set up camp in Vivekananda Park, in full view of the Castoropolis Stock Exchange. Our message to the occupiers, should they return this summer, perhaps like in Quebec, using university students as pawns in their game: some of the “one percenters” you so despise got to be part of the one percent by marketing personal care products such as soap, shampoo and deodorant. Introduce yourself to these products, get a job, work hard, and become productive members of society. Even if your job pays only a minuscule fraction of what the average “one percenter” takes home, you will at least derive satisfaction from the simple acts of paying a mortgage, balancing a checkbook, filing an income tax return and other adult responsibilities.

 Only a few days ago, massive budget cuts and apathy to public broadcasting on the part of Canada’s ruling Conservative government forced the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to end Radio Canada International’s shortwave broadcasts after almost 70 years on the air. Nothwithstanding the extent of austerity measures, this Congress is committed to providing adequate funding so that Ramrajyavani may continue to broadcast to the world via shortwave radio, which is not an electronic relic or a refuge for nerds and luddites, but a cost-effective, easily accessible, virtually censorship-resistant method of broadcasting that has done yeoman service for nine decades, can reach parts of the world where internet access is restricted, unavailable or unaffordable, and will still be functioning even in times of natural disasters, extended power outages and internet censorship.

Two years ago, the Inaugural Address proclaimed that “Patria must be made a safe place for social conservatives”. But Patria’s social conservative values do not particularly include those shibboleths so dear to Republicans in the US and right-wingers generally such as outlawing abortion – that tired old horse left the barn in 1973 – or banning gay marriages, or limiting grade school sex education classes to abstinence only. Patria’s social conservative values, however, do include modest dress for women. In Patria we believe women should dress with the dignity worthy of visiting a temple or tirtha [place of pilgrimage, e.g. Kayavarohan]. Though not by passing of legislation mandating formal dress codes such as in Iran, Patria will nonetheless continue to insist that women and girls avoid dressing like sluts and tempting men into violence and unwanted sexual advances, or at least luring men to believe that they are fair game. Patria will continue to advocate social conservative values in order to make this realm a safe place and a comfort zone for those men who chose to practice lifelong celibacy through monastic vows or those who have had celibacy thrust upon them by lacking in National Union-style traditional male macho or by being on the autistic spectrum and never being able to experience an intimate relationship. Patria commits itself to creating a safe community for such introverted, sensitive, socially lacking men in the remaining two years of this Congress.

During the second session, as Tim Tebow’s legend grew on and off the field, the former Denver Broncos and now New York Jets quarterback became a role model for Patria’s youth. Being so intensely grounded in his faith, proudly proclaiming his virginity, never uttering a four-letter word stronger than “gosh”, and maintaining a scrubbed, milk-fed, clean-cut appearance when out of his football uniform, Tim Tebow is a shining example of the social conservatism that Patria is seeking to instill. We can only hope that Tebow’s fundamentalist Christianity will not stand in the way of his being open to the unconditional love of the Amrita Party’s house leader and someday receiving Amma’s darshan.

Patria generally does not endorse candidates or parties in foreign or macro-national elections. But as America votes in November and US citizens in Patria take the necessary steps to register and obtain absentee ballots, Patria will, albeit rather unenthusiastically and with some reservations, endorse Barack Obama for a second term as President of the United States. Yes, the world’s most powerful economy has mostly failed to turn around. And for all the promises of “change” that have actually been delivered in the past four years, the Obama administration might as well be George W. Bush’s third term. The continued imprisonment of alleged terrorists without trial or charges and targeted assassinations of US citizens by drone missiles would even outdo Bush. Just as in 1980, a weak, dithering incumbent Democrat has bumbled away four years doing too little to repair a failing economy and deal with an ongoing crisis in the Persian Gulf. But to the Republicans in America and their supporters in Patria: this is not 1980, Barack Obama is not Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan is not walking through that door. Neither is Rick Santorum or Ron Paul. To many US Republicans, and true paleo-conservatives in Patria, Mitt Romney is a mediocre, uninspiring RINO – Republican in name only – who has little to run on except extreme wealth and a father who managed to persuade people to drive Ramblers and Gremlins. Romney is a dishwater-dull, bland near-centrist claiming to be a bona fide conservative, following in the tradition of Bob Dole in 1996 or John McCain in 2008. One can only wonder “is this the best the GOP can do”? At least Dole and McCain were decorated war veterans. It is a rather dismal choice that Americans face, particularly for economic and social conservatives, but also for liberals and progressives who are still awaiting the promises of hope and change.

 Om Sri Gurubhyo Namah. Hari Om.

Vishwa me shanti rahe. Let peace prevail on earth. 

Under the power vested in me by the Constitution of Patria, I declare closed the Second Session of the 49^th Congress, and call this Congress to re-assemble here on Wednesday, the 19^th of September 2012, to open the Third Session of the 49^th Congress.

Patria's 2012-13 budget: austerity is the word

At some point during the week of June 25-29, the Speaker of the House will bang the gavel, blow the vuvuzela, and declare the Second Session of the 49th Congress adjourned until September. In the meantime, Congress is sitting in a marathon session, debating and voting on Patria's 2012-13 budget. (The annual budget is usually the last major item on the congressional order paper, as Patria's fiscal year begins and ends on June 30.) As in much of the Euro zone, the key word is of course AUSTERITY. Budgets will be cut, programs will be chopped, services will be privatized, and tens of thousands of public-sector jobs will be sacrificed in an effort to stave off Recession Part Deux as the 49th Congress reaches the midpoint of its term of office. The mid-term message above is brought to you by the Patria-first economic hard-liners of the SRM and other parties that are part of the Diet Coke Party coalition. You heard it during the 2010 election campaign, and will likely hear it again in 2014. BRING THE JOBS HOME! BOYCOTT MADE-IN-CHINA!