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!