At the midpoint of the 52nd Congress

 The Second Session of Patria's 52nd Congress (2·LII 2023-24) adjourned for the Northern Hemisphere Summer recess, following the traditional Annual Message delivered by the Speaker Pro Tem:

Om Sri Maha-rajñyai Namaha. With the Divine Mother’s blessings, the Fifty Second Congress has reached the midpoint of its term of office. 

Patria respects tradition, and one of the oldest traditions in this Congress is that the final act of the session be the ratification of the budget for the year to come. Just moments ago, this House ratified Patria’s fiscal 2025 budget in which, as in previous year’s budgets, billions of rupees are committed to public transit improvements such as purchasing new vehicles, repairing roads, bridges, railways and other transportation infrastructure, strengthening the network of electric vehicle charging stations and other incentives intended to reduce dependence on – or should we say – addiction to fossil fuel. When it comes to public transit in Castoropolis and Patria’s other major cities, this Congress is committed to going beyond the traditional state of good repair (what usually passes for such in Toronto) in which the current, often inadequate, level of service is patched up and maintained as is. Rather, we will move towards bringing about real improvements in cleanliness of vehicles and stations, on-time performance and other positive changes that even the most casual rider of buses, streetcars and subways cannot help but notice. 

Twenty eight years after the first Premyatra in December 1995 and on this day six months ago, this Representative of Patria embarked on Premyatra II. From Cochin to Kanyakumari, a most fantastic voyage, of which the main focus was Amritapuri, the home of the former House Leader of the now-disbanded Amrita Party. Among the highlights of Patria’s visit to South India was a special address to a joint session of the Lok Sabha and Congressus Patriaë on Jan. 10, 2024. After brief visits to Madurai, Trivandrum, Kanyakumari and Cochin, the final day of the Premyatra culminated in the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. At Amma’s ashram, Patria’s famed 108^th Battalion raised the Patrienish Tricolor over the backwaters of Kerala as the Battalion’s Colonel-in-Chief Hanuman took the salute. The Amrita Party has dissolved, but Amrita’s legacy continues, affirming the special relationship between the Inner Realm and Bharat Mata. 

On the front lines of the culture wars, let it be known that Patria will not cave in the face of woke mobs, particularly when it comes to so-called “trans rights”. Trans women are not real women, no matter how much the drugs and surgery make it seem so. Trans women have rights to public accommodations in hotels, trains and the like, even a right to “gender-free” single-occupancy public restrooms, but in Patria they do not have the right to be accepted as real women. Violence against trans women will never be tolerated and the cowards who perpetrate such violence will be vigorously prosecuted. But know this: in Patria trans women will never play competitive high school or collegiate sports against real biological women. Nor will real women be required to share locker rooms and other intimate or safe spaces with these mutilated former men. In order to achieve these goals, this Session passed the SAAB Act – Sex Assigned at Birth, not the Swedish car. The fight against the acceptance of trans-folk may not be the hill everyone in Patria wants to die on, but it sends the message to our friends in the macro- and micro-world alike: notwithstanding the sizeable number of Social Democrats and other leftist or progressive parties in this House, Patria is not woke and will never be woke! Let it become the call letters of a new radio station: PINW, Patria Is Not Woke. 

At the University of Castoropolis, University of Caesarea, University of Lazuria and at other campuses across Patria, “Free Palestine” encampments have sprung up, in what is the largest student movement since the creation of the SRM in the 1960s. Patria joins the macro-national movement calling for an end not only to the current war but also to Israel’s almost 60 year old occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. For many years Patria has called for the establishment of a free and independent country of Palestine. Patria supports the hoary old “two-state solution” that has long been rejected by Organized Jewry and the Israel right-or-wrong lobbies in the US. Hamas is not our enemy. Israel is not our ally. Nonetheless Patria says this war has to end now, as does the occupation and Israel’s decades-old subjugation of the Palestinian people. Israel has a right to exist, but only within the borders that existed prior to 1967. Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorist attacks but does not have the right to go to war against every man, woman and child in Palestine and to kill civilian non-combatants in violation of international law. Let Organized Jewry hate Patria. They can call Patria’s legitimate condemnation of Israel “antisemitism”. They can call Patria’s small Jewish community “self-hating Jews” for not being Zionists and not supporting the Israeli war machine right or wrong, but know this: Patria must be a safe place for Jewish anti-Zionist and dissident voices such as Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now. Patria rejects Israel’s assertion that the government based in West Jerusalem since 1948 acts as the voice of and in defense of all Jews worldwide. If Mr. Netanyahu intends to bomb Gaza to the Stone Age, Patria’s Jews say “NOT IN OUR NAME!” If the IDF storm troopers are committing genocide, ethnic cleansing and other war crimes in Gaza, Patria’s Jews say “NOT IN OUR NAME!” If the Jewish lobbies in the US attempt to conflate the spiritual practices of Judaism with the bloodthirsty nationalism of Zionism, Patria’s Jews say “NOT IN OUR NAME!” More than forty years ago, Congress passed a resolution recognizing an independent State of Palestine. From one unrecognized by First World powers state to another, can I get a “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!?” 

As the midpoint of Patria’s Congress always occurs amid the US presidential election campaign, Patria says NO to both Sleepy Joe and Donald 2.0. While Mr. Biden might be fit to serve as a ceremonial head of state like the President of India, his cognitive decline has only grown since 2020 and is such that he is unfit for the job of President of the United States. Would you fly on an aircraft captained by an 81 year old pilot? Would you undergo surgery by an 81 year old surgeon? Of course you wouldn’t. Mr. Biden is simply TOO BLEEPING OLD! The less said about Mr. Trump and his legal predicament as a convicted felon, the better. Both are too old to handle the duties of the office and have serious age-related cognitive deficiencies. These two failing old men are one of the main reasons that Patria has enacted an age limit of 70 for all elected federal and precinct public offices. America’s Founding Fathers did not intend to establish a gerontocracy. For that matter, neither did the Preceptors of Patria in 1818. Patria does not endorse any candidate in November 2024, but Patria does believe that Americans should consider voting for a third party candidate such as RFK Jr. or Jill Stein. 

Under the power vested in me by the Constitution of Patria, I declare closed the Second Session of the 52^nd Congress, and call this Congress to re-assemble here on Monday, 16 September 2024, in order to open the Third Session of the 52^nd Congress.

Patria's Jews say "FREE PALESTINE!"