Patria's 52nd Congress - Inaugural Address

 

The following is the text of the Inaugural Address/Speech from the Throne delivered by the Speaker of the House in Castoropolis (Kashipura) on June 30, 2022.

Madam Chief Justice, Mr. Sergeant-at-Arms, distinguished guests, honourable members of the Fifty Second Congress, those who well and faithfully served in the Fifty First Congress, fellow citizens of Patria, Amma’s beloved children, all those gathered here in Kashipura on this auspicious noon hour on the 30^th day of June, let us open this new House of Assembly with salutations to Lord Ganesha Om gam ganapataye namah and the following prayer: Om saha navavatu saha nau bhunaktu, saha viryam karavavahai, tejasvi navadhitam astu, ma vidvishavahai. Om shanti shanti shanti. May we be protected together. May we be nourished together. May we all make a bold attempt. May our study be enlightening. May there be no hatred between us. May there be peace.

 On this day, we would be remiss not to acknowledge the centennial of radio broadcasting in Patria. One hundred years ago today, Patria’s pioneer radio station PMC, which had signed on only a few months earlier in 1922, broadcast the inauguration of the Twenty Seventh Congress.

 As we know, there is one less party seated in this House. The Fifty Second Congress regrets the demise of the Amrita Party, but thanks the Party’s members for their service to Patria since 2002. Patria will forever be grateful for the presence of Amma in this House over the past two decades, representing the great Precinct of Arboria. The Amrita Party’s legacy includes not only Amrita TV being available on all basic cable systems in Patria, an Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences hospital and a campus of Amrita University in Patria, but also – and most important of all – continuing Amma’s work as an environmentalist who leads from the front.

 Patria will listen to the argument that human activity has little effect on the Earth’s climate. There is certainly evidence that climate change took place in ancient times and in the Middle Ages when fossil fuels were virtually unknown. There is even evidence of climate change on Mars, certainly no fault of the Martians. But know this, whether caused by human activity or not, climate change is real, it is happening even as we meet here, and it affects the micro-world just as much as the macro-world. Therefore, micronations such as Patria have an environmental duty of care as great as any macro-national world power. In 2016 Patria ratified the MAPS treaty and Patria continues to advocate for the Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary, that safeguards the Arctic Ocean north of the Arctic Circle. In this single act of conservation, that advances all 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, MAPS protects our homes, food and water supplies, global immunity, economic balance, social stability, and world peace. It is not only the small Green Party caucus who will support Patria’s environmental initiatives in this new Congress. And there will be new initiatives along with the commitment in the previous Congress to reduce the use of plastics and disposable items. On the order paper: the fashion industry – whether made in Patria or imported fast-fashion from the usual suspects such as Bangladesh – must commit to textile recycling so that old worn-out clothing does not sit in landfills but is re-made into new garments, made and worn in Patria – not turned into industrial rags or exported to Africa. The internal combustion engine has enjoyed a nice run since the early 1900s, but a glance at the price of petrol is all it takes to know that now is the time for the micro and macro-world to break its unsustainable addiction to fossil fuel. As contained in Patria’s fiscal 2023 budget, ratified less than 24 hours ago as the last act of the 51^st Congress, Patria will offer subsidies, loans or rebates for purchase of electric cars and will appropriate sufficient funds in order to build the fast-charge network so that electric charging stations will become an even more common sight on our roads than the traditional filling stations. Beginning no later than 2024, Patria will mandate that the majority of Patria Post trucks and other government fleet vehicles be electric powered. Public transit buses will also transition from diesel to electric or hybrid electric. And finally, in another of Amma’s environmental initiatives that also uplifts the lives of females in the developing world, women in Patria will be encouraged to adopt reusable menstrual pads, such as those produced by Amma’s Saukhyam project.

 Along with these environmental initiatives, Patria is also committed to a fair and equitable workplace environment. Not only should every worker in Patria be guaranteed a living wage, topped up if necessary by the universal basic income that has been ratified in principle and will be implemented no later than fiscal 2024, the new Congress will spearhead legislation that will ensure across Patria a mandatory minimum of four weeks paid vacation, year-long paid parental leave, unlimited paid sick or disability leave, and a four-day work week so that Thursday becomes the new Friday.

 Forty years ago today, on these same Capitol steps, Patria marked the end of the “failed policies, failed hopes” of the Forty First Congress. Say what you want about the alcohol-fueled, hedonistic Forty Second Congress, but it at least served as a partial do-over or make-good for the failed Forty First. Let it be the intention of all who are old enough to remember the dark time, all the veteran Congress members who actually served in that House, to reach some kind of reconciliation with the failed Forty First Congress, acknowledge its legacy, be grateful for its few good experiences such as exceptional medium wave and shortwave DX catches and move on. Recall fondly or not, nostalgically or not, the excesses of the Forty Second Congress, but know that in 1986 it left Patria in a better place than it found it in 1982. And forty years from today, let it be said that the Fifty First Congress left Patria in a better place than it found it, COVID-19 or no.

 Patria calls on China to take responsibility for the pain and suffering they have foisted on the macro and micro-world alike, most likely through a biological weapon under development that was accidentally leaked from a lab. No macro-national leader has dared to say that China should pay reparations – not only to the families of those who died of COVID but even more to the loved ones of those who committed suicide during the lockdowns and those who died of cancer, heart disease and other non-COVID causes because the surgeries and treatments that could have saved their lives were cancelled or postponed indefinitely. But Patria has been saying it for more than two years. The geriatric ChiComms must pay the debt for their horrific crime against humanity, just as Germany continues to pay reparations to Holocaust survivors and the US may someday do for the African-American descendants of slaves. Can I get a “MAKE CHINA PAY?”

 Long before COVID-19 Patria said: “If we have to go alone, we go alone with pride”. And when the lamps were going out all over the macro-world in March 2020, Patria stood alone. Alone against the world, Patria adopted the Great Barrington Declaration. Alone against the world, Patria chose freedom above fear. Alone against the world, Patria considered COVID-19 little more than a bad flu season, comparable to the 1957-58 Asian Flu or 1968-69 Hong Kong Flu. Alone against the world, Patria adopted herd immunity as its primary means of keeping those truly at risk of serious illness safe. Alone against the world, Patria refused to impose lockdowns, vaccine passports and mask mandates. Alone against the world, Patria chose to protect those who were truly vulnerable, such as residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities, while allowing the majority of Patrienish citizens to continue living a normal life free of restrictions, free to protect themselves as they and their personal health care providers saw fit. Alone against the world, Patria placed personal responsibility and individual choice above government decree. And of course, almost alone against the world, Patria did not let the fear-mongers and lockdown-mongers win.

 Many macro-world liberals and progressives seem content with letting the pandemic – or should we say “panic-demic” – continue indefinitely, and keep the mask mandates and other restrictions on the books – even if self-imposed rather than by government fiat – permanently. But Patria’s message to the macro-world and micro-world alike is “COVID is over”. It is in the rear view mirror NOW! If not now, when?

 Patria chooses freedom over fear. Today, as in March 2020, and always. If not now, when?

Let us move from fear to love and be rooted in love. As Amma says, “my religion is love”. If not now, when?

Let us recognize that health care decisions such as how to protect oneself against a mostly mild but highly communicable disease are choices made between each citizen and his or her personal physician or health care provider, not mandates handed down by unelected, unaccountable public health officers and so-called “top doctors” such as Theresa Tam and Anthony Fauci. If not now, when?

Let us recognize that hugs and human contact are essential, pandemic or no. Self-care and self-love are essential, pandemic or no. If not now, when?

As Pride month concludes, let us affirm that Asexuals should be included and welcomed within the Pride movement along with their LGBTQ brothers and sisters, not looked down upon as simply failed heterosexuals, out of luck adult virgins or incels who have yet to commit violent crimes. If not now, when?

Let us support all forms of free speech and free expression, including unpopular and dissident voices. Let us never limit free speech to only the views that have been deemed acceptable by the elites, social media fact-checkers and our so-called betters. If not now, when?

Let us never teach our children, teens and young adults that any sex, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior. The First Session of this Congress should pass legislation that would ban so-called Critical Race Theory from all Patria’s publicly funded schools, colleges and universities. Let us never teach Blacks to hate Whites and Whites to hate themselves. If not now, when?

Let us significantly reduce the dependence on Chinese-made consumer goods. To the greatest extent possible, bring the manufacturing jobs back to Patria, or in the macro-world back to Canada, the United States, the UK and other first-world democracies. If it can be made in Patria, let it be made in Patria. Bring the jobs home. If not now, when?

Whether we voted SRM or not, let us proudly declare “PATRIA FIRST”! Say it loud, say it proud. Our Inner Realm, take it back! Our economy, take it back! The banner of Sanatan Dharma, raise it high! Always be asking these three Patrienish words: “estí buní Patríæ?” Is it good for Patria? If not now, when?

Nationalism is not something evil, not something to be feared, not even something that is the exclusive domain of rightists and conservatives. Either we have a country or we don’t. And if we do, and if Patria is something more than the name that goes on our coins, postage stamps and passports, something more than the team bearing its flag on the athletic uniforms we root for at sports events, then we must put it first, to love and serve, support and defend. Hence, Patria First! If not now, when?

No one ever complied their way out of government overreach. No one ever changed the world by being pragmatic or incremental. No one ever got nice things by being moderate or centrist. Let the multi-party composition of this House affirm that that Patria has no use for moderate milquetoast big-tent center-left and center-right parties such as Canada’s Liberals and Conservatives, the UK’s Labour and Tories and certainly not the binary bipolar wasteland of America’s Democrats and Republicans. Patria does not need some new political parties. Patria needs a generation of brave men and women who can fearlessly rise to face all threats to their collective interests. A generation steeled in their effort to realize their grand vision of a new nation. This gathering of the faithful — the true inheritors of Patria — will urge our people onward.

Know this: a nation run by bankers will never be out of debt. A nation owned by weapons manufacturers – what Dwight Eisenhower dubbed the military-industrial complex – will never know peace. A nation that allows only a small, mostly unelected segment of its citizens to write the laws and draft extra-legal mandates will never know justice. And if these elements own a nation’s media, its people will never know the truth.

In the 1960s the left was a major component of the counterculture, part of the revolution against the so-called establishment. Today it is the establishment, while the right is the vanguard of the anti-establishment. And in this new Congress, Patria looks to the right for the four Fs: Faith, Family, Freedom and Free Speech, while retaining universal basic income, extended paid maternity (or paternity) leave, subsidized child care, single-payer health insurance that includes dental care, vision care and pharma care, and the other progressive economic underpinnings laid down by the Social Democrats and the old, traditional, populist left that advocates free speech, open debate, freedom of association and above all, freedom of choice and bodily autonomy, be it abortions or vaccines, while giving no quarter for wokeism, intersectionality, critical race theory, hurt feelings of easily-offended snowflakes and of course the never-ending COVIDocracy of mandates and restrictions. Just as Pierre Trudeau said “there is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation”, Patria says there is no place for the state in the bodies of our citizens and the doctor’s offices of our nation. Just as the abortion rights pioneers said some half century ago, Patria says again: “my body, my choice”!

In Patria, citizens should not only be free to speak but to speak freely. Yet today in much of the macro world, free speech is threatened and has even gotten a bad name. How did free speech get such a bad name? How did free speech come to be seen as an enemy of civilization? Was free speech not supposed to be one of the noblest goals of the enlightenment, a touchstone for democracies worldwide? Yes it was. That is why the modern left hates free speech. Because the modern left in much of the macro-world is an authoritarian movement built around censorship. They would not accuse you of being against God or the government. Rather, they will say that your speech is a form of violence against some particular group of people. And therefore, you need to be stopped, in order to keep other people “safe”, in order not to hurt other people’s feelings. These leftist totalitarians alone get to decide what is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or even anti-science. But know this: not the democratic, traditional, non-woke left in Patria, not the Social Democrats, Greens, Chakra Party and the independent progressives seated in this House today. To those totalitarian killers of free speech and free thought who claim to be “progressive”, Patria says – to quote Greta Thunberg – “how dare you!”

And thus be it ever that Patria will stand as a maverick state that goes alone. Democratic socialist and not woke. Leftist – old-school leftist – and proudly standing for free speech, open debate, questioning of authority, defying the ruling class elites, and of course vehemently rejecting cancel culture. Progressive and politically incorrect. A so-called welfare state that accepts capitalism while obliging its billionaires and plutocrats to pay their fair share of taxes as well as direct a small part of their wealth towards making Patria a better place for those less fortunate. Proudly populist. Fiercely nationalist. No elites. No thought police. No safe spaces or trigger warnings. For the benefit of the working classes, not the woke elite. As George Orwell wrote in 1984 (the book, not the year), “if there is hope, it lies in the proles”. The proles, the ordinary working men and women of Patria, not the woke elite, who struggle daily to make ends meet, to put food on their table and fuel in their gas tanks, amid economic, social and environmental collapse. The proles care not one whit about which pronouns to use, whether trans women are bona fide females, whether they are ticking enough diversity, equity and inclusion boxes, or whether black lives matter more than all lives. The proles also say, as Greta says, “how dare you!”

Patria rose up in a spirit of defiance back in 1818, rose up again and reaffirmed Sanatan Dharma in 1989, rose up once more against the COVID totalitarians in 2020, and still we rise. No macro-world governments recognize Patria. No foreign aid given or ambassadors sent. No one wishes to travel on the path with Patria. And that suits Patria just fine. Indeed, we go alone with pride!

But of course we are not walking alone in this new Congress. The Lord – Krishna, Shiva, Devi, Allah, Yahweh – is at our side in whatever name and form is best suited to each citizen of Patria. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole Earth is full of His glory. Praised be the glory of God through all the world. Let Thy doctrine descend as the rain, Thy word distil as the dew. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, may Thy will be done, and may God bless Patria!

© 2022, LII Con. Pat.  The above text is an official transcription, preserved in the Archives of Patria.  Any re-broadcast, re-transmission or other use of the pictures, descriptions or accounts of this Inauguration ceremony without the express written consent of the Undersecretary for Protocol, Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Dharma of Patria is strictly prohibited.  Don’t fool with us, boy!  We will throw your sorry ass in the slammer!

Ave atque vale - 51st Congress adjourns sine die

 The Fifty First Congress passed into history on its final day in office, as the Speaker of the House brought down the gavel and declared the fourth session (4·LI 2021-22) adjourned sine die.

Bhagavad Gita at the ready for Inauguration Day oath of office.

On the last day of the lame-duck session, Congress ratified Patria's fiscal 2023 budget and passed a number of other motions including an affirmation that abortion will always be safe and legal in Patria.

Minutes prior to the final adjournment, the final message of the 51st Congress was delivered by the Acting House Leader of the now-defunct Amrita Party (one of only four Amrita Party members who didn't resign and abandon their seats when the Amrita Party was dissolved in December 2021). The following is the text of the final message:

Mr. Speaker Pro Tem, with your permission I rise to deliver the final message of the Fourth Session, Fifty First Congress. As I speak, I am surrounded by empty seats that belonged to members of the Amrita Party, who abandoned this House when the Party was dissolved in December 2021. Let all members of Congress, whether their terms are coming to an end as the Speaker’s gavel next hits the dais or are continuing to serve in the Fifty Second Congress-elect, acknowledge the legacy of the Amrita Party and the great things Amma’s children have accomplished in Patria over the course of the past two decades. Though there remains only a small rump of the Amrita Party’s remnants – only four members calling themselves IAM in the new Congress – Patria will continue to be held in Amma’s hands and bow at her feet. 

Before continuing further, on behalf of the Jungle Party caucus, I would like to congratulate Kaleb in Green Bay, winner of Smack Off XXVIII, who will serve as the Jungle Party’s de facto House Leader in the Fifty Second Congress-elect, as well as Iafrate, who finished a close second and will serve as Deputy Leader.

 The Fifty First Congress began so auspiciously with Patria’s 2018 bicentennial celebrations, but – along with the entire macro-world – was dragged into a dark place midway through the Second Session. But while much of the macro-world resorted to lockdowns and police state tyranny in March 2020, Patria would not play along. Patria did not give in to those who would take away freedom for the sake of a bad flu season. Proudly we can say that this Congress and the thirteen Precinct legislatures did not impose full-scale mask mandates, business and school closures, the colossal failure of online school, to say nothing of police state lockdowns. Patria stood alone against the world in March 2020 and still we stand, not giving in to fear, protecting those who need protection, while allowing COVID 19 to run its course among the healthy population. Patria has gone on record that if you want to wear a mask, that is fine, as they say “you do you” but as a means of curbing the spread of COVID 19 masks are nearly useless except in certain limited circumstances, such as those who are actually infected, at high risk, or whose work comes into contact with such cases. Let the powers that be hate us. Let the ruling class call us a fake country that enacts fake laws and follows fake science. Proudly we went alone in the 51^st Congress and proudly we will go alone in the 52^nd.

 Forty years ago on this day, Patria moved on from the failed Forty First Congress. Today Patria moves on once again. Not from a failed Congress, but from one that rose up against fear, panic and oppression to say “enough is enough”. No masks, no lockdowns, no shuttered schools. This was not the 14^th century. COVID was not bubonic plague. It was not even the 1918 flu. Did anyone see bodies dropping dead on the streets and corpses stacked like cordwood on tumbrel carts as the driver called out “bring out your dead”? The macro-world powers that be attempted to immiserate, embitter and enslave the free world with lockdowns and isolation, with mandates and overreach by petty tyrants disguised as public health officers and “top doctors”. They attempted to control and re-set. For who? For what? To ratchet up fear of a respiratory virus with a 99-point-something % survival rate. For a bad flu season. And then after two years, when COVID began to wane they ratcheted up a new Cold War against Russia that has turned far hotter than the one against the former Soviet Union. But Patria would not play along.

 Patria of course condemns Russia’s brutal and unprovoked attack on Ukraine, but Patria will not join the neo-Cold Warriors in demonizing Putin and ginning up hate for the long-gone Evil Empire. Ladies and gentlemen, the Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991. Putin is not Stalin. Not Khrushchev. Not Brezhnev. Not even Yuri Andropov. Russia is not our enemy. Ukraine is not our ally, much as Patria offers the Ukrainian people its moral and spiritual support as folks everywhere are virtue-signaling by flying the Ukrainian flag or hash-tagging #standwithUkraine on social media. Patria must remain neutral in all macro-national conflicts that do not threaten Patria’s security. Patria’s defense budget – part of the fiscal 2023 budget ratified earlier today – serves for the defense of Patria, to repel an actual invasion or serious threat of same, but the Patrienish Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard will not fall in line with the US-led military industrial complex of endless wars that benefit only the weapons manufacturers.

 The men and women who have served in the Fifty First Congress and will serve in the Fifty Second Congress-elect are not elites. Not plutocrats. Not multi-millionaires. Not the so-called one-percent. For the most part they are ordinary citizens of the 13 Precincts and the Federal District. Their desire to love and serve, support and defend the Inner Realm has inspired their decision to seek elective office and has brought them here. Consequently this House is, and must always be not liberal, not conservative, but populist, reflecting the views of the grassroots, of the Joe Sixpacks and Sally Soccermoms, of the ordinary working people struggling to make ends meet, be it putting food on the table, putting clothes on their children’s backs, or putting gas in the car.

 Those who disdain Patria’s role in the micronational world, as a politically incorrect maverick state that goes it alone, as a democratic socialist nation that is not woke, as a land that proudly affirms Sanatan Dharma along with the Judeo-Christian western traditions as well as the “spiritual but not religious” folks in the Chakra Party, as a realm of free speech and free choice, as the only country on this planet that thumbed its nose at the COVID police – know this: Patria is doubling down on all of the above in the new Congress. Let the haters hate Patria’s lack of woke-ism. Let the elites despise Patria’s grassroots populism. Let the ruling class in America call Patria a land of conspiracy theorists. Let the ignorant ignore Patria’s legacy since 1818. Let the skeptics be skeptical that such a micronation can thrive and prosper. Patria will live on as it has endured for the past 204 years, fortis et liber, strong and free. They can call us a fake country. They can shout their words of hate. But as the song goes, the cost of keeping this land free can never be too great.

 As we bring down the gavel on the Fifty First Congress, as the Speaker Pro Tem leads the closing prayers, let us pause to remember the real victims of COVID as a result of the vast over-reaction since March 2020: those who committed suicide or seriously thought about it during the lockdown as they suffered intensely from economic devastation, isolation and depression, who were considered by the unelected, unaccountable public health authorities little more than collateral damage, as well as those who died amid these actions befitting a police state because their cancers went undetected, their surgeries were canceled or their treatments for non-COVID diseases were postponed indefinitely.

 The Amrita Party may be no more, but Patria has been blessed by Amma’s grace, by her presence. May it continue to be so in the Fifty Second Congress-elect. Om amriteshwaryai namah. Antarbhumi ramrajya ki jai ho!