Patria's official website relaunched

https://ammasbaby.wixsite.com/patria

As a #Patria200 bicentennial project, Patria's new official website has been relaunched and is going live. Please update your bookmarks  and click on to the link above.

This site replaces the old patria.zxq.net site, which became infested with malware. Do not visit the site as it could be harmful to your phone, tablet or PC. It may be blocked by your antivirus software anyway.

Although the new site will contain some material that has been migrated pretty much verbatim from the old zxq.net domain and even from the late 1990s Geocities site, there will be some new content added in the months to come, particularly as Patria's Fifty-First Congress election day (April 21, 2018) and Inauguration (June 30, 2018) draw near. But for now, the site is under construction and consists only of a single page. Please be patient as Patria's Webmaster has only Geocities-era webpage creation and design skills left over from the Clinton administration.

Patria Post rolls out #Patria200 issues

Although snail-mail and the hobby of stamp collecting are declining as much in the micro-world as in real-life countries, Patria Post is not waiting for the calendar to flip to 2018 in order to get into Patria's bicentennial spirit. Several new stamp issues were released today containing the #Patria200 hashtag.

Note that most Patria Post issues are non-denominated "forever" stamps. The "1" is not a denomination of one Patrienish Rupee but represents the rate for a standard first class letter even as postal rates increase year after year. The current rate in Patria for a first class letter weighing up to 30 grams is RsPat. 27, but Patria Post will likely ask Congress for yet another rate hike in 2018.

Patria Post also re-issued in "forever" format an old definitive (regular issue) depicting Sri Sarada Devi.

#Patriavotes2018 - the race for the 51st Congress

As the Fourth and final Session of the Fiftieth Congress (4·L 2017-18) is well underway, Patria is hitting the Fifty First Congress campaign trail along with the 2018 bicentennial celebration (see above for Patria Post's first bicentennial stamp issue). Here in a nutshell is what you need to know for Patria’s upcoming election:

Election Day: April 21, 2018 (Third Saturday in April). April 14 in Fredonia. Advance polls in other Precincts beginning on or about April 12, 2018.

Inauguration Day: June 30, 2018

What’s at stake: 333 seats in Patria’s 51^st Congress (LI Con. Pat.), elections for Precinct legislatures and local city, county or demi-precinct councils in some of Patria’s 13 Precincts and the Federal District of Castoropolis (FDC). There is also an upper house in Patria, like the US and Canadian Senate or UK House of Lords, but its members are selected by the Precinct legislatures, not by direct popular vote.

How members of Congress are elected: Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP). As in Israel, lists of candidates are prepared by each party and seats are awarded in proportion to the percentage of votes received in each precinct. One-third of the seats (111) are filled by local candidates winning a plurality in their electoral district or riding. MMP, as in Germany, New Zealand and many other countries, is an idea whose time has come in Canada but will likely never happen thanks to Justin Trudeau’s broken 2015 campaign promise of electoral reform.

Congressional apportionment per precinct:

Caesarea – 61 seats

Federal District of Castoropolis – 38

Nova Columbia – 36

Lazuria – 27

Centralia – 25

Aeolia – 24

Arboria – 21

Antioch – 19

Ambrosia – 17

Canardiere – 16

Mauretania – 15

Pottsylvania – 13

Haldimania – 12

Fredonia – 9

Term of office: Four year term ending June 30, 2022.

Vote counting: paper ballots counted by hand. No hanging chads. This ain’t Florida 2000!

Follow on Twitter @Patriavotes2018 – a Twitter account devoted exclusively to the 2018 election campaign. Non-election tweets from Patria will be found @Patria1818, which you should also follow if you’re not already. Hashtags: #PatriaVotes2018 and #51stCongress, along with the #Patria200 hashtag for Patria’s bicentennial in 2018.

Following is some basic background information on Patria’s many and varied political parties. Numbers in [ ]’s indicate the number of seats held in the 50^th Congress.

Amrita Party [68]

“Embracing Patria”, “Love and serve”, established in 2001 as a party for Amma’s devotees with Amma as House leader in Congress, where she represents the Precinct of Arboria. Generally liberal-progressive, reflecting the political views of the vast majority of Amma’s western devotees in the macro-world (notwithstanding that conservatives and even supporters of Donald Trump go for Amma’s darshan too!). Merged briefly with the SRM (see below) in 2006 and is rumored to be merging with the Social Democrats (q.v.) for 2018.

Among the highlights of the Amrita Party's achievements since 2002:

• Inclusion of Amma's teachings and bhajans (devotional songs) in the curriculum of many of Patria's elementary schools.
• Opening of a branch of the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) hospital in Patria.
• Establishment of a campus of the Amrita University in Patria.
• Establishment of a permanent Amma ashram in Patria, in Karunanagar, Caesarea, easily accessible via the Caesarea Coast Line of the Castoropolis and Caesarea Railways (CCR).
• Addition of Amrita Television to all basic cable TV services in Patria.

Standard disclaimer: The Amrita Party of Patria exists only in the unrecognized country ("micronation") known as the Inner Realm of Patria (Antarbhumi Ramrajya) and has no connection whatsoever with the MA Center, Mata Amritanandamayi Math, Amma Canada, or any actual Amma-related organization in any recognized country of the world.

SRM (Swadeshi Ramrajya Movement) [55]

“Bring the jobs home” “Make Patria great again” Small-c conservative Hindu nationalist, economic protectionist, social conservatives (e.g. pushing “modest dress” for women), Patria First. Inspired by and quite similar to Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India. Originally known as the Spiritual Regeneration Movement, the SRM has its origins in the 1960s hippie counterculture heyday but didn’t become a mainstream party until Patria’s 1989-90 Dharmic Revolution. After the 2006 election, Amma’s devotees merged the SRM into the Amrita Party. But by 2010 the SRM-Amrita coalition fell apart as economic conservative remnants of the old SRM bolted from Amrita (in large measure as a result of the 2008-09 economic meltdown), took a turn to the right and revived the SRM with the initials standing for something new.

 

Chakra Party [59]

“No gurus, just right”, “transformation not transcendence” yoga/new age liberal. Another party that has its roots in the 1960s hippie era but didn’t become established until Patria’s Dharmic Revolution, led by hippies and new-agers who never really left the 60s. Secular party for the “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) folks – mostly westerners who grew up with Judaism or Christianity – who do yoga and practice some kind of Eastern-based spirituality but steer clear of the H-word (i.e. Hinduism) or who do not identify as devotees of Amma.

National Union [26]

“Obedience and respect for authority”, “where a man belongs”, “testosterone in your balls, NU on your ballot”, the macho, populist, blue lives matter (“there’s no such thing as a bad cop”), law and order National Union has its roots dating from the mid-19^th century as a small-c conservative party. National Unionists once dominated Patria in the 1950s and 60s as a bland, centrist party like Ontario’s Bill Davis-era Tories. They should have died of irrelevance post-Dharmic Revolution, but since the 1990s the NU recast itself to become the leader in the men’s rights movement, thumbed its nose at soft-on-crime liberals and has pushed every right wing law and order issue, e.g. bringing back public executions, broken windows policing and even racial profiling for public safety. Always seems to punch above its weight, even if violent crime is not a serious issue in Patria.

Jungle Party [28]

“Have a take, don’t suck”, inspired by Jim Rome, a leading US sports talk radio personality who is heard in Patria as well as in the US and Canada on the CBS Sports network. The typical Jungle party voter is an unemployed or minimally employed 30-something male living in his parents’ basement, playing online games and with no girlfriend to speak of. But the party has apparently drawn men who might otherwise vote National Union.

Social Democrats [49]

“Go forward!” “Progress with a purpose”, old-line social democratic party from the macro-world, based on Canada’s NDP and currently inspired by Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn. A well-established workers’ progressive labor party since the 1930s, Social Democrats enjoyed a surge of popularity in 2014 and can likely expect to grow even more in 2018, riding the coat-tails (or Union-made in USA suit) of Bernie Sanders. Despite being an old-left democratic socialist party, the SD has little tolerance for politically correct busybody do-gooders, vegan moral high-grounders, social justice warriors, Israel as an apartheid state, so-called Cultural Marxism, “micro-aggressions”, “safe spaces”, the let’s-hate-Whitey common leftist belief that only White people – particularly White heterosexual males – can be racist, and snuffing out free speech (i.e. discussion of unpopular or conservative views) on college campuses. Closely aligned with the Amrita Party and rumoured to be merging with it as Campaign 2018 begins.

Green Party [13]

“Bikes not cars” Macro-world party that has found a foothold in Patria, particularly following Patria’s unofficial endorsement of the US Green Party’s candidate Jill Stein in the 2016 presidential election. Like the Green Parties of Canada, the U.S. and Europe, the Greens of Patria appear to be leftist, progressive, bike-riding, Birkenstock-wearing, tree-hugging environmentalists. But Patria’s Greenies have been outed as economic conservatives and even Ayn Rand-style free-enterprise capitalists disguised as politically correct left-wingers and moral high-grounders.

Libertarian Party [7]

Another party from the macro-world, trotting out the usual “less government, more freedom” mantra. The Libertarian party of Patria, like Libertarian Parties in the United States and Canada, is conservative on economic issues but very liberal on "free choice" issues such as legalization of drugs or abortion. There really is not much need for a Libertarian party in Patria, since Patria has become quite libertarian since the 1990s - decriminalizing drugs for all practical purposes, no restrictions on abortion, and strongly free-speech (in Patria, there are no laws criminalizing the propagation of hate speech such as Holocaust denial).

Fringe groups, one-issue parties, assorted nutbars [28]

A number of micro-parties or fringe parties such as the Chastity Party, Family Values Party, Lilith Party and Freedom Party get in thanks to no votes being wasted under proportional representation. Some of these fringe parties are one-trick ponies focusing on a single penny-ante issue, such as raising the drinking age to 25 or banning public displays of affection, and hold only a single seat in Congress.

It is possible, indeed quite likely, that at least one new party will come into existence during the 2018 campaign in the “fringe/nutbar” category above. The new party could even come out of nowhere to win more than one or two seats.