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.

Patria rises for climate and MAPS

Usual leftist rabble out in force along with moral high-ground vegans at Patria's Rise for Climate rally.

Rise for Climate rallies were held today throughout the macro-world and in Patria as well. Thousands of people are rising up to tell their local leaders and Patria's newly-inaugurated 51st Congress they want a swift and fair transition to world no longer dependent on or addicted to fossil fuels. No more stalling, no more delays: it’s time for a fast and fair transition to 100% renewable energy for all. Real climate leadership rises from below. It means power in the hands of people not corporations. It means economic opportunity for workers and justice and dignity for front-line communities that are the hardest hit by the impacts of the fossil fuel industry and a warming world.

In Patria's capital Castoropolis, the Rise for Climate rally took place amid the downtown 1930s Art Deco monuments to free-enterprise capitalism (actually monuments to recovery from the Depression through make-work projects). The keynote speech of Patria's Rise for Climate rally included a plea to macro-world governments to ratify the MAPS (Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary) treaty, which was ratified by Patria in 2016, but so far by only one recognized country. Parvati, the award-winning musician, yogini, activist, author and founder of Parvati.org says of MAPS: “We no longer live in an era with the luxury to consider one isolated region separate from the whole. What happens in the Arctic affects us all. We must safeguard the Arctic Ocean and its rich biodiversity, before it is too late. Protecting the fragile Arctic ecosystem keeps our entire planet cool, and our weather patterns and global crop growth in balance. This must be an urgent priority for everyone on Earth.”

To state the obvious, climate change affects everyone who shares this planet, including Patria-First SRMers, National Unionists, US Republicans and other right wing super-patriots. But it is virtually needless to mention that the crowds at these rallies swung overwhelmingly left. Way to the left of Patria's Social Democrats, Canada's NDP or the US Democratic Party. You could even spot Trotskyites and Socialist Workers waving red hammer-and-sickle flags, apparently unaware that the Soviet Union voted itself out of existence in 1991.