Amrita Party dissolves for 2022

 

After making only a token effort thus far on the 2022 campaign trail, the Amrita Party has announced its permanent dissolution and will not be seeking seats in the 52^nd Congress. The Party released a communiqué full of COVID-19 cliché phrases such as “out of an abundance of caution”, “we’re all in this together” and “it is with a heavy heart that the Amrita Party is closing operations permanently”. Holding 78 seats, the Amrita Party was the second-largest caucus in the 51^st Congress, behind only the Social Democrats’ 96 seats.

The Amrita Party was established in 2001 as the voice of Amma’s Patrienish devotees with Amma as House leader in Congress, representing the Precinct of Arboria. The party was generally liberal-progressive, reflecting the political views of the vast majority of Amma’s western devotees in the macro-world (notwithstanding that conservatives, Republicans, and even die-hard supporters of Donald Trump go for Amma’s darshan too!). During its twenty years, the Amrita Party can boast of some major achievements in Patria that will continue the party’s legacy in 2022 and beyond:

• 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.

Where does the Amrita Party’s demise leave the 78 members of the caucus? They will continue to hold their seats in Congress until their terms expire on June 30, 2022. Some will sit as independents for the remaining six months of the 51^st Congress term of office, while others will call themselves IAM – Independent Amrita Members – and hope for enough write-in votes or for the Amrita Party to remain printed on their precinct’s ballot so that they have a puncher’s chance of retaining a seat in the 52^nd Congress. But they shouldn’t count on many write-in votes. Most of the voters/devotees who cast ballots for Amrita in 2018 will gravitate to the Chakra Party, Greens or Social Democrats. But don’t assume that all Amrita voters are liberal, leftist or progressive (see reference to conservatives also going for Amma’s darshan). A fair number of Amrita voters will go for the SRM in 2022. 

The fact that Amma could not set foot outside her ashram in Kerala or hug her millions of devotees, let alone visit Patria because of COVID-19 is a convenient whipping boy for the Amrita Party’s demise. On the right-wing talk stations such as POKX-648, SRM’ers and National Unionists were gloating that Amrita had run its course, is now a spent force and the Amma gravy train (or hugging train) has come to a halt.

Not exactly the message from Amma that Patria hoped to hear.

Visit Patria’s capital city – where Delta and Omicron are streets!

 COVID-19 travel restrictions got you down? Do you want to visit someplace where you don’t have to wear masks indoors, don’t have to be tested or quarantined on arrival, and don’t have to produce a vaccine passport along with your regular passport? Someplace where bars, restaurants and other indoor gathering places are not subject to capacity limits and other restrictions? Consider a visit to Patria! The following visitor’s guide to Castoropolis is based on one of Patria’s old long-defunct Geocities web pages dating from the Clinton administration.

 Patria's capital city and its largest city, Castoropolis -- known in Sanskrit as Kashipura -- contains features of other capital cities planned and built from scratch in the modern era, such as Washington, Brasilia, Canberra, and New Delhi - particularly in its radial street layout in which the Capitol is the central hub, wide boulevards and diagonal connecting streets, and central green space or "Common". It is centered on the Island of Castoropolis, a nearly round island in the St. Joseph River - which has since been officially renamed Naya Ganga or New Ganges.  In the years following the Dharmic Revolution of 1989-90 many Anglo-sounding names of places and streets in Patria have been Sanskritized. But just as in India, where English street names in New Delhi and Bombay have been replaced by Hindi or Sanskrit names and even the name of Bombay has been changed to Mumbai, the new names have generally failed to catch on despite the best efforts of the government. In the text that follows, all official Sanskrit re-namings are indicated in [square brackets].

 Orientation:

Castoropolis was established as Patria's permanent capital city by act of the First Congressus Patriaë in 1818, only a few months after Independence, while Congress met in the temporary capital of Hammond, Caesarea. In the 1820s the new city was planned and built with obvious inspiration from the plan of Washington, DC designed by Pierre L'Enfant.  The Federal District of Castoropolis, whose boundaries are co-extensive with the city itself, is entirely surrounded by several cities, towns, and suburban sprawl in the Precinct of Caesarea.  The original area of the Federal District of Castoropolis consisted only of the Island of Castoropolis.  By the turn of the 20th century the city's built-up areas had expanded beyond the limits of the island and so in 1917 an act of the 25th Congress incorporated into the Federal District several towns and villages in the Precinct of Caesarea on the east side of the Naya Ganga. One town, Crozier Heights, fought the annexation and remains part of Caesarea. Crozier Heights is an upper-class enclave, like Toronto's Forest Hill or Montreal's Westmount, home to much of Patria's Jewish community.

The Capitol building, which houses the Congressus Patriaë, is the central focus of Castoropolis. Located only a few metres east of the geographic centre of the Island of Castoropolis, its dome and rotunda are very similar in appearance to the United States Capitol.  Extending west from the Capitol is Castoropolis Common [Bhavani Bagh], a large central park. In fact, Castoropolis Common is not unlike New York City's Central Park, offering a large open field for concerts, numerous recreational facilities, wooded areas, and secluded spots for doing yoga. In the 1970s and 80s the Common served as a hangout for drug dealers, muggers, rapists, homeless bums and other assorted sleaze, and travelers were advised to visit during daylight hours only, but it has since been cleaned up, thanks in part to the Federal District government that was led by the law-and-order National Union in the 1990s and early 2000s. A gridiron pattern of residential streets is superimposed on the radial/diagonal plan.  Streets running east and west are numbered (beginning with First Street, one block north and south of the Capitol and the baseline streets: Crozier St. East [Shankaracharya Marg] and Justice St [Dasharath Marg]), while streets running north and south - with the exception of four major arteries - have Greek letters (beginning with Alpha Street one block east and west of the Capitol and the baseline street: Schaefer St [Shakti Marg]), continuing until Omega Street. The island is divided into four quadrants, relative to the Capitol: North West, North East, South West and South East, similar to Washington, DC. Thus there may be as many as four intersections of , for example, Sixth and Gamma Streets:  NW, NE, SW,  and SE.

Downtown area

The map above details the central business district at the western end of the Common. St. Joseph [Radha-Krishna] Station handles mainly local commuter trains; most inter-city rail traffic runs out of Union [Mahasabha] Station, a neo-Gothic rockpile (à la Bombay's Victoria Terminus) located at 4th and Vermont [Vaikuntha Marg] NW.  Hector [Hanuman] St. was once the capital's truly slimy side, in the last century teemng with hookers, pimps and drug dealers.  The Hector Hotel, at Hector and 4th St. SW, used to be a notorious whore-house before it was renovated and became a guest house for visiting swamis, swaminis, sadhus and sadhvis (Hindu holy men and women). If you find a couple of churches but don't see any Hindu temples marked on this map, there's a reason for it: this map dates from 1976, long before the Dharmic Revolution.

Central/midtown area

The map above details the eastern end of the Common and the many government buildings surrounding the Capitol at the centre of the Island of Castoropolis.  Many of the government buildings, such as the Treasury Dept., Post Office Department and Library of Congress, are massive monuments of Art Deco kitsch, built in the 1930s as make-work projects during the  Depression. Both the U.S. and Russian Embassies are conveniently located a few blocks east of the Capitol. The Canadian Embassy is at 200 Theta St. NW.  Crozier St. East [Poorva Shankaracharya Marg], a wide boulevard extending east from the Capitol to the former Executive Mansion (now Shanti Mandir, a Hindu temple) on the eastern end of the Island, is the main ceremonial parade route for Inaugural parades, Rathyatra (the annual Parade of Chariots) and other Hindu ceremonial processions.

Public Transit

Castoropolis Metro (Subway) 
The capital's first subway line was opened in 1918 as a special project to mark Patria's centennial year. The system has grown over the past 100-plus years to four lines and over 150 stations.

Castoropolis and Caesarea Railways
Castoropolis and Caesarea Railways (CCR) provide suburban commuter rail service throughout the greater Castoropolis region, between downtown Castoropolis and Hammond (the capital of Caesarea) and even into the neighboring Precinct of Antioch, using EMU and DMU trainsets, as well as bi-level electric locomotive-hauled trains.

Castoropolis Transit (CT) buses serve all areas of the Federal District and the surrounding cities in Caesarea. Most CT bus routes provide direct connections with the subway. Above, a Canadian-built General Motors "New Look" bus, #5708, lays over at the end of Route 1, Adelphi-Philidor in 2002. The New Looks (also known as "Fishbowls") have since been retired.

Local print and broadcast media (Don’t forget to bring your radio!)

 AM Radio stations: On Nov. 23, 1978 AM radio stations in Patria, as in many other countries of the world (except in the Americas) shifted from 10 kHz to 9 kHz spacing. The old 10 kHz frequency is indicated in square brackets.

PCRC, 531 kHz (ethnic, variety) [530]
PCGE, 595 kHz (Hindu) [590]
POKX, 648 kHz (right-wing talk) [650] (formerly Patria's major top 40 rocker)
PHTN, 792 kHz (Ramrajyavani-II) [790]
PMC, 846 kHz (news, talk, information) [850]
PRCC, 918 kHz (Ramrajyavani-I) [920]
PTE, 1017 kHz (Hindu) [1020]
PTCN, 1071 kHz (Ramrajyavani-III) [1070]
PMBC, 1152 kHz (all sports) [1150]
PHN, 1251 kHz (liberal-left talk) [1250]
PVOG, 1350 kHz (Christian, brokered ethnic) [1350]
PKBY, 1404 kHz (Nostalgia/MoYL) [1400]
PECR, 1512 kHz (business news) [1520]
PGBS, 1557 kHz (ethnic) [1560]

FM Radio stations:
PHUP, 88.1 MHz (educational/public, Hindu University of Patria)
PNIT, 88.9 MHz (educational/public, Patrienish National Institute of Technology)
PUC, 89.7 MHz (educational/public, University of Castoropolis)
PCCC, 90.5 MHz (educational/public, City College of Castoropolis)
PGBS-FM, 91.3 MHz (adult contemporary)
PMC-FM, 92.5 MHz (classical, jazz)
PREM, 94.9 MHz (new age)
POKQ, 96.1 MHz (hot hits)
PRCC-FM, 99.1 MHz (Ramrajyavani-IV)
PPIX, 103.7 MHz (rap, dance, hip hop)
PMBC-FM, 104.9 MHz (C&W)
PCGE-FM, 106.7 MHz (classic rock)
PRKO, 107.9 MHz (oldies)

Ramrajyavani-I : popular music, news, information, documentaries, English/Patrienish; Ramrajyavani-II: Hindu devotional music, Sanskrit; Ramrajyavani-III: all-news; Ramrajyavani-IV: classical music, drama, poetry, arts.

Television stations (analog, over-the-air):

PRCT, channel 2 (Doordarshan-I); PMC-TV, channel 5; PGBS-TV, channel 12; PLIS, channel 15; PCET, channel 46 (public broadacsting); PQAL, channel 57 (Doordarshan-II).

Doordarshan I: news, sports, entertainment.  Doordarshan-II: Hindu devotional channel.  U.S. cable channels such as CNN and MTV are widely available in Patria.

Daily newspapers: The Akashic Record, (pro-Hindu), Castoropolis Chronicles (left-wing paper of record, cf. New York Times or Washington Post), The Spectrum (right-wing tabloid, cf. Toronto Sun or New York Post), Ramrajya Dharmika Patrika (Sanskrit), Novítæ Dínaë (Patrienish).

Amrita Party missing in action on Campaign 2022 trail

 As the race for Patria's 52nd Congress heats up, amid the bevy of campaign posters and broadcast ads from the Social Democrats, SRM, Chakra Party, National Union, Green Party, Jungle Party, etc., the Amrita Party has been conspicuously absent from the Campaign 2022 trail. There are rumors that the Amrita Party will re-brand, re-name itself or even dissolve completely as due to COVID-19 the Party's namesake is unable to travel outside India or even set foot outside her hometown ashram in Kerala. Holding 78 seats, the Amrita Party is the second-largest caucus in the 51st Congress. If the party were to disappear, that would leave a lot of seats up for grabs and a lot of Amma devotees scrambling to find another party. Some will be attracted to the SRM's call for renewed Hindu Dharma. Others will find the Chakra Party's emphasis on government through yoga and meditation more to their liking. Some sitting Amrita Party members might try to run as independents, depending on whether their home Precinct allows write-in votes on the 2022 ballot.

2010 Amrita Party campaign poster. Will they campaign at all in 2022?

Notwithstanding Patria's Hindu identity in the three-plus decades since the Dharmic Revolution, Christmas in Patria is a public and government holiday. Patria tries as much as possible to avoid the excess over-commercialism and keep Christ in Christmas (old slogan "We keep Krishna in Janmashtami, you can keep Christ in Christmas"). Patria Post's 2021 Christmas stamp features original artwork by Georgetown, ON artist Eric "Magoo" Kohlfurst.

Neither left nor right: minor and fringe parties hold Patria’s balance of power

Thanks to proportional representation, minor parties play a key role in Patria and a vote for one of the pint-size parties is almost never a wasted vote. A coalition government, whether led by the Social Democrats, SRM or even the Chakra Party, usually can’t be cobbled together without the support of at least one such party. When a two-thirds majority is needed for ratification of many pieces of legislation, and even for the bills that can be passed with a simple 50% majority, one vote here and one vote there from a fringe or nutbar party can be crucial.

Patria’s Green Party and Libertarian party need no further explanation, as they share the policies and platforms with their macro-national Green and Libertarian counterparts.

The Lilith Party is a party of radical feminists, as hard-left as they come. Real “womyn” only, born with real vulvas and a full set of xx chromosomes. Trans women should steer clear of them. TERFs don’t come any more TERF than the Lilith Party.

There are a few single-issue parties, such as the Chastity Party and Family Values Party whose platforms are pretty much self-explanatory. They have no real raison d’être other than promoting socially conservative causes for the few who actually care about such things as advocating modest dress for women or banning public displays of affection. Local parties that appear on the ballot in only one precinct, such as the Pottsylvanian Alliance and Lazurian Independent Party, exist mainly to represent the interests of Pottsylvania and Lazuria respectively and try to get the precinct a better deal from Castoropolis. Like Canada, Patria’s version of federalism also includes transfer payments or economic subsidies from the federal government in order to help close the gap between the rich precincts such as Caesarea and the poorer ones such as Fredonia.

 

The fringiest of the fringe parties is arguably the Jungle Party, whose leader is the noted sports talk show host Jim Rome. The typical Jungle party voter is an unemployed or minimally employed 30-something male living in his parents’ basement, playing online games, eating leftovers or junk food, and with no girlfriend to speak of. But the party has apparently drawn men who might otherwise vote National Union.

Single-seat “parties of one” are not unusual in Patria’s Congress. In 2018 the Pottsylvanian Alliance, Lazurian Independent Party, Patriots’ Union of Nova Columbia (PUNC, usually pronounced as acronym), Peoples’ Party, Reconstruction Party and Popular Front of Caesarea took one seat each.

Patria’s Right: Hindu nationalism and Patria first

 

Patria’s rightists and conservatives, unlike their counterparts in the US, steer clear of tired old social conservative shibboleths such as banning abortion, advocating abstinence and pre-marital chastity, and keeping women in the kitchen (if not barefoot and pregnant). Even old-school Reagan-style economic conservatism (aka trickle-down theory) goes over like a lead balloon in Patria. Patria’s right is a dissident, populist right, not unlike their dissident, populist counterparts on the left (see previous blog entry). The platform of the SRM, Patria’s leading rightist party, could best be described as a combination of Narendra Modi and Donald Trump.

 Drawing from the concept of Hindutva, as propounded by Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the SRM campaigns hard for Patria’s identity as a Hindu micronation. Virtually all SRM campaign posters (see above) and television ads feature Hindu gods and goddesses. From Donald Trump, the SRM borrows the slogan “Make Patria Great Again” as it pushes for Patria First economic policies, particularly discouraging imports by imposing tariffs on imported goods, and encouraging manufacture of all consumer goods in Patria – the Swadeshi movement advocated by Gandhi in the fight for Indian independence.

Note that SRM is almost never spelled out in full. The party’s official Sanskrit name is Swadeshi Ramrajya Mahasabha. Originally known as the Spiritual Regeneration Movement, the SRM has its origins in the 1960s hippie counterculture heyday, borrowing the name from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s transcendental meditation organization, but didn’t become a mainstream party until Patria’s 1989-90 Dharmic Revolution, at which time it was a left-leaning, liberal party. 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 sharp turn to the right and revived the SRM with the initials standing for something new. 

Throwing in its lot with the SRM in any rightist coalition is the “big dogs, tough men” National Union. “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-19th 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, equated owning a big dog such as a pit bull or Rottweiler with being a real man (“cats are for pussies”) and has pushed every right wing law and order issue such as bringing back public executions, broken windows policing and even racial profiling for public safety (“when black males stop committing a disproportionate number of crimes, police will stop profiling them”). They may win only a small number of seats – their 21 seats in 2018 was considered a good showing – but National Unionists always seem to make the most noise on the campaign trail, even if violent crime is not a serious issue in Patria, bringing back the death penalty would be unconstitutional, and a lot of strong macho men are cat owners. The National Union may as well be called “Patria’s Proud Boys”. Note that the real US-based Proud Boys organization does not exist in Patria and would not be welcome should they attempt to launch a made-in-Patria chapter.

A typical National Union campaign poster.

Patria's Left: for the worker, not the wokester

 

Friends of Patria know this, but as Election Day 2022 is less than six months away it bears repeating: Patria may be liberal or progressive, but PATRIA IS NOT WOKE! The Social Democrats (along with their leftist allies such as the Chakra Party and the Greens), who hold a plurality of seats in the 51st Congress and who hope to repeat that success in the 52nd Congress, focus primarily on improving the lot of working people, increasing union representation in the workplace, ensuring that the rich pay their fair share of taxes, supporting public broadcasting, re-building the infrastructure, and in general being the anti-establishment Old Left in the picture above, the one driving the 1971 VW bus.

Over the course of Campaign 2022, the Social Democrats will run on slogans such as "Progress not PC", "say NO to cancel culture" and "for the Worker, not the Wokester". The SDs steer clear of the so-called culture wars such as teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) and "canceling" any dead, white Anglo-Saxon who did something which may have been acceptable in their lifetime but does not conform to today's politically correct orthodoxy, such as by removing their name from educational facilities or destroying their public statues and monuments. It should be noted that cancel culture  extends to living persons as well and is not even limited to Anglo-Saxons or White people (note that the Aunt Jemima brand of pancake mix and syrup is still available in Patria).

Virtually all parties represented on Patria's 2022 election ballot agree that CRT is a toxic indoctrination that does little except teach Blacks to hate Whites and Whites to hate themselves, and should never be taught in Patria's schools. The initials should stand only for Cathode Ray Tube.

The US Democratic Party would do well to follow Patria's Social Democrats rather than getting suckered by Republicans into fake culture wars.

Campaign 2022: Patria adopts an old song from Rhodesia

Video courtesy of Youtube.

An old Rhodesian patriotic song from the 1970s, when the country now known as Zimbabwe was a maverick White-ruled state under the late and very unlamented Ian Smith, has re-surfaced in Patria as a popular (or populist) patriotic song intended to rally supporters of the Patria-first SRM as well as the old-left Social Democrats for the upcoming 2022 election. With a few small tweaks in the original lyrics, here is the made-in-Patria version:

 Here’s the story of Patria, a land both fair and great.

Since 1818 an independent state.

It never has been recognized by any government.

No foreign aid’s been gotten or ambassadors sent.

Chorus:

‘Cause we’re all Patríenish and we’ll fight through thick and thin.

We’ll keep our land a free land, stop the enemy coming in.

We’ll keep ‘em north of the New Ganges till that river’s running dry.

And this mighty land will prosper, for Patríens never die!

 

They can call us a fake nation, they can shout their words of hate.

But the cost of keeping this land free can never be too great.

Doing yoga and singing bhajans are the things that we hold dear.

And this land and all its bhaktas will never disappear.

 

We’ll preserve this micronation for our next lifetimes too.

Once you’re Patríenish no other land will do.

On the path of Sanatan Dharma with Amma at our side.

And if we have to go alone, we go alone with pride! 

(repeat chorus 2 times).

Disclaimer: Patria does not endorse the former and horribly racist regime in Rhodesia. This is just a cool song, too cool not to adopt and share. Note the Rhodesian motto: SIT NOMINE DIGNA (May it be worthy of the name).

Election Day in Canada, election season in Patria as Congress returns from summer recess

On the day that Canada holds its 44^th federal election since 1867, Patria’s Fifty First Congress returns from summer recess to begin the Fourth Session (4·LI 2021-22). Patria will not endorse any party in Canada’s election even if the Social Democrat House Leader and honorary Patrienish citizen Bernie Sanders has thrown his support to the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh.

Although some campaigning has already taken place, the opening of the Fourth Session marks the de facto start of the 2022 election cycle and the race for the Fifty Second Congress. Although perhaps not the front-runner with election day some seven months away on April 16, 2022 (with many Patirenish citizens voting via advance polls and mail-in ballots beginning in March or even February 2022, that date is actually the conclusion of  "election season"), the SRM is particularly out in front with election campaign posters, billboards and broadcast media ads, going hard on the slogans TAKE BACK THE ECONOMY, PATRIA FIRST and MAKE CHINA PAY (i.e. for the cost of the pandemic). The Chakra Party has also launched its campaign with the slogan “the Inner Voice of Patria”.

SRM are front-runners at least for campaign posters.

Chakra Party also out early with its 2022 slogan.

Near the top of the Fourth Session order paper is a renewed vow not to impose vaccine passports or mask mandates. Masks will be optional in Patria, though recommended to be worn in certain circumstances such as by those who are actually infected with COVID-19 when not in isolation. Vaccines are freely available and highly recommended, but getting a COVID jab and presenting paper or electronic proof of it in order to enter a gym, eat at a restaurant, attend a sports event, or gain entry to other public places will never be mandatory anywhere. Patria remains committed to achieving herd immunity, protecting those at high risk and learning to live with COVID like the seasonal flu.

With Navratri just around the corner, Patria Post issued a stamp depicting Devi Saraswati.

"Patria is not woke!" is the take-away as Congress adjourns

The Third Session of the Fifty First Congress (3·LI 2020-21) adjourned for the summer recess at 11:23 PM local time today. The Sergeant-at-Arms brought down the gavel immediately after the traditional Annual Message to Congress was delivered by the Speaker Pro Tem. The message ended with a reminder that despite being generally progressive and liberal on social issues and economic policy, with a plurality of seats held by Social Democrats, Patria is not "woke".

Following the the text of the Annual Message to Congress:

Mr. Sergeant-at-Arms, members of this House, fellow Citizens of Patria, on this day we rise to acknowledge that with the Divine Mother’s blessings, the Fifty First Congress has reached the three-quarter mark of its term.

 In keeping with Patria’s traditions and congressional protocol, the last act of the Third Session took place just moments ago – the ratification of Patria’s fiscal 2022 budget that – with support from all parties – will include almost a trillion rupees earmarked for keeping Patria’s transportation infrastructure in a state of good repair. 

And in keeping with a new 51^st Congress tradition, once again this final day’s sitting was paused for three hours in order to listen to Jungle Party House Leader Jim Rome’s Smack-Off XXVII, broadcast on PMBC-1152. Congratulations to Smack-Off winner Brad in Corona, his sixth Smack-Off title. 

One major legislative achievement of this session is the elimination of the gerontocracy, such as seen in the United States from Joe Biden to Nancy Pelosi. This House has ratified legislation imposing a mandatory retirement age of 75 for all public offices in Patria, from rat catcher to Speaker of the House. 

In this Session of Congress, as in the Second Session, Patria has considered the COVID-19 pandemic – or should we say “panic-demic” – little more than a bad flu season, like the Hong Kong Flu pandemic of 1968. Remind us again how long we had to wear masks in 1968. Remind us again how many small businesses were shuttered and how many social, sporting and other public events were canceled in 1968. Remind us again how long we had to forgo hugs and human contact in 1968. Remind us again how many cases of cancer and other deadly diseases went undetected and untreated in 1968. Remind us again how suicides, domestic violence, alcoholism, drug abuse, personal bankruptcies, obesity and depression spiked due to extended lockdowns in 1968. Patria has consistently said NO to government overreach and over-reaction, NO to unelected public health officers wielding dictatorial powers, imposing lockdowns, social restrictions and mask mandates. Alone against virtually the entire the macro-world and even the micro-world, who believed we could extra-constitutionally and unilaterally impose freedom-destroying restrictions and ultimately vaccinate our way out of COVID, Patria adopted herd immunity, put into practice the “Focused Protection” approach of the Great Barrington Declaration and allowed daily life for healthy citizens to continue almost unchanged even before a made-in-Patria version of the AstraZeneca vaccine became available, along with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. From grade school to graduate school, from ABCs to PhDs, schools in Patria have remained open. Not one day of in-person in-classroom instruction has been missed because of COVID. Not a single restaurant has been forced to limit itself to take-out because of COVID. Patria’s small family-owned businesses have not only stayed open during COVID, they continue to thwart the plans of Costco, Walmart and the other big-boxers to expand into Patria. Have there been, and are there still, cases of COVID in Patria? Yes, and the vast majority of these cases are mild, only slightly worse than a typical seasonal flu that can be treated by resting at home. Have there been hospitalizations because of COVID? Yes, and there is not a single emergency room or intensive care unit in Patria that has been overwhelmed beyond capacity due to COVID. Have citizens of Patria died because of COVID? Yes, unfortunately. But virtually all of these deaths occurred among elderly people living in nursing homes, long-term care homes and the like, as well as those already in poor health due to underlying medical issues or compromised immune systems. Only in a tiny handful of cases was COVID the primary cause of death. 

Patria rejects the privatization of the war on free speech, the downloading of government-mandated censorship and cancellation of politically incorrect and dissident online voices to private sector gatekeepers – particularly the tech giants, internet providers and social media major players such as Twitter and Facebook. Such private sector censorship or deplatforming is an end-run around the Constitutions of both the United States and Patria that enshrine freedom of speech – not limited to freedom of speech in ones home or in the pre-internet paper media and public square – as the most fundamental human right. 

For those snowflakes and SJWs who complain of micro-aggressions, oppression or so-called systemic racism (which, unlike real systemic racism such as Apartheid or Jim Crow, has never existed in Patria), whose feelings may be hurt by words and pictures, know this: government can protect its citizens only against physical harm. Not against hurt feelings. For protection against the latter, one must grow a pair of testicles or ovaries, and recall what your parents and caregivers taught you as a pre-schooler to respond to name-calling bullies: “sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me”. 

As the Fifty-Second Congress campaign begins in earnest this summer even before the opening of the Fourth Session, as Patria prepares to vote in April 2022, know this: from Social Democrats to SRM, all parties in Patria say NO to cancel culture. NO to the Thought Police enforcing extra-legal speech and thought codes from college campuses to corporate boardrooms. NO to the violent thugs of Antifa, an openly Marxist organization that neither speaks for the majority of the Black community in the United States or in Patria, nor in any way, shape or form, represents their best interests. NO to PC virtue signalling. NO to critical race theory, white guilt and “equity” over equality. YES to free speech, free thought, open debate and ALL LIVES MATTER, not only the black ones. As the summer recess begins, as Campaign 2022 rolls out, as the #Patriavotes2022 hashtag appears on Twitter, don’t be fooled by the number of seats held by Social Democrats in this House. Patria may be leftist or socialist in economic policy, Patria may be progressive in social and environmental policy, but Patria rejects Cultural Marxism and is NOT woke! 

And let us stay un-woke when this House meets again in September. 

Let us pause to remember the lives lost by suicide as a direct result of COVID-19 lockdowns in Canada, the US, UK and elsewhere in the macro-world, and the hundreds, if not thousands, of North American First Nations children who died of disease, hunger or abuse in residential schools and were buried in unmarked graves across Canada. 

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 Third Session of the 51^st Congress, and call this Congress to re-assemble here on Monday, 20 September 2021, to open the Fourth Session of the 51^st Congress

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Campaign 2022 posters are beginning to roll out across Patria.

Election Day in Patria is April 16, 2022. As in previous election campaigns, you can follow the race for Patria's 52nd Congress on Twitter, using the hashtag #patriavotes2022

"New World, New Radio" the theme as Patria celebrates World Radio Day

 

Proclaimed in 2011 by the Member States of UNESCO, and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 as an International Day, February 13 became World Radio Day (WRD). Patria is not a member of UNESCO, as international organizations such as the UN want nothing to do with micronations and have constantly declined to recognize Patria. Nonetheless, World Radio Day is celebrated throughout the Inner Realm. The theme of the tenth annual World Radio Day is "New World, New Radio". 

Radio is a powerful medium for celebrating humanity in all its diversity and constitutes a platform for democratic discourse. At the global level, radio remains the most widely consumed medium. This unique ability to reach out the widest audience means radio can shape a society’s experience of diversity, stand as an arena for all voices to speak out, be represented and heard. Radio stations should serve diverse communities, offering a wide variety of programs, viewpoints and content, and reflect the diversity of audiences in their organizations and operations.

As part of World Radio Day 2021, Patria is celebrating 100 years of broadcasting. The first experimental radio transmissions in Patria took place in 1921. One of the first such broadcasts, transmitted on 360 meters (about 833 kHz), was the traditional All-Patria Football Federation soccer match between old rivals Caesarea United and Castoropolis FC. The success of this broadcast would lead to Patria's first officially licensed radio station, PMC in Castoropolis, signing on in 1922. In 1926, Patria's first radio network, the Voice of Patria, was created by Act of Congress. This public network would later evolve into Ramrajyavani and would flourish alongside a wide, vibrant range of privately-owned stations.

Ramrajyavani, the Voice of Patria since 1926.

In Patria, you will find old-school AM radio as it should be: full-service stations with locally-produced and locally relevant news, sports and current affairs programming. Music played by real announcers or disc jockeys (even if it's been years since they last jockeyed real vinyl discs) live in the station's studio - not voice-tracked. Much as in India, there are local stations in Patria that serve marginalized communities with news and information vital to the community's well-being.

Patria condemns Bell Media's recent mass layoffs of newscasters, program hosts and other staff at radio stations across Canada, including CFRB-1010 Toronto and CJAD-800 Montreal. Needless to mention the layoffs were partially blamed on that hoary old scapegoat, COVID19.

"More than ever, we need this universal humanist medium, vector of freedom. Without radio, the right to information and freedom of expression and, with them, fundamental freedoms would be weakened, as would cultural diversity, since community radio stations are the voices of the voiceless."

— Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of World Radio Day