Ave Atque Vale - 52nd Congress passes into history

 

As Patria Post issued a World Cup 2026 commemorative stamp, and the Inauguration of the Fifty Third Congress only days away, the Fourth Session of the 52nd Congress (4·LII 2025-26) - indeed the entirety of the Fifty Second Congress - adjourned sine die early this morning following a marathon all-night sitting in order to pass and ratify Patria's fiscal 2027 budget.

Following is the text of the final message of the 52nd Congress

Hon. Member, Caesarea (SRM)

Madam Speaker Pro Tem, the House having ratified Patria’s fiscal 2027 budget, with your permission I rise to deliver the final Ave Atque Vale message of the Fifty Second Congress. Together we have shared, together we have grown over the past four years and as the time comes for the Speaker to bring down the gavel for the final time, together we remember a Congress that was elected during the slow recovery from the fear-mongering and government overreach of COVID-19, for which no one in the macro-world, from Dr. Fauci to the petty tyrants who enforced lockdowns, business closures and cancellations of virtually all public gatherings, has yet been brought to justice or held accountable for the spike in alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, depression, anxiety, suicide, personal bankruptcies, shuttered businesses, children’s learning deficits and school dropouts. For who? For what? For the sake of a bad flu season? As the 52^nd Congress began its term of office, Patria said NO to lockdowns, NO to the great reset. And now, four years later, know this: if the macro-powers that be attempt to gin up another fear-fueled pandemic out of a few unfortunate cruise ship passengers succumbing to Hantavirus or a resurgence of Ebola somewhere in Africa, if they attempt to bring back lockdowns, mask mandates and a dodgy vaccine, Patria will say NO and fight tooth and nail. To quote the Who, “We don’t get fooled again!”

In September 2022, only days before the First Session opened: “The Queen is dead, long live the King!” as Patria paused to pay its respects to a beloved macro-national Queen who reigned for seven decades and to hail the new King Charles III.

In 2023 as international travel once again became safe (not that it wasn’t safe during the years of the so-called pandemic), representatives of Patria and this Congress once again visited the macro-world. On the last day of 2023, the flag of Patria proudly flew over the backwaters of Kerala, raised by the Colonel-in-Chief of Patria’s 108^th Battalion.

 In January 2024, from Cochin to Kanyakumari, Patria fulfilled the almost three decades-old promise of Premyatra II. A special address delivered at Amma’s Amritapuri ashram concluded by praising Amma’s marvelous feats and unparalleled achievements as an environmentalist, chancellor of a major university, representative of Hinduism to the world at large, spiritual mother of millions, and so much more: kritvambike tat prakaroti kanya. Which other goddess can do that work?

 While Patria did not endorse Kamala Harris in the 2024 US presidential election, Patria is not surprised that Donald Trump returned for a second term of office. To the American people we say “Trump is your problem. You elected him, you live with him!” As Patria watches the failed gerontocracy of Donald Trump’s second administration unfold from its safe place in the micronational world, one can only wonder how much better off both the macro- and micro-world community would be had Kamala prevailed.

Fortunately the electorate in Patria has a much broader choice than America’s binary red and blue wasteland. A vote for a third party in the US is little more than a wasted vote. But in Patria, there is not only a third party, but a fourth, fifth, sixth… and even more parties, several of which hold only a single seat. Patria has gone so far beyond the two-party system that virtually no vote is wasted and almost any party can be elected and hold seats in this Congress and the Precinct legislatures. But even in this vibrant multi-party democracy, the major parties have failed to deliver on their slogans and campaign promises.

 The SRM says “bring it home!”, but what has actually been brought home over the course of these four years? Many members of this Congress, SRM and others, regularly  practice yoga, attend satsangs and temple functions, sing bhajans and chant mantras, but do they ever look about them right in their backyard? Have they really brought home compassion and dharma? Do ordinary citizens who live hand-to-mouth on dwindling incomes, who struggle to put food on the table and gas in the tank really benefit from performative displays of Hindu religiosity? How many jobs have been created by doing Lakshmi Puja for Diwali? How have Durga Puja and Navratri celebrations helped to end violence against women? Can anyone chant their way out of runaway inflation, a stagnant economy, flat-lining job growth, skyrocketing fuel prices and endless wars in the macro-world?

 National Unionists say “law and order!”, but where is such obedience to the law and respect for police authority in Patria’s capital city? It takes only a short walk along the streets of downtown Castoropolis or a ride on the Castoropolis Metro to know that urban decay, filth, crime and graffiti have proliferated unchecked. This is not acceptable. The failure of local and precinct governments to re-institutionalize mentally ill and drug addicted homeless street people must be reversed. For decades we have known that deinstitutionalization is a failed policy. This is not acceptable. Judges hand out lenient sentences, or no jail time at all, to violent criminals and repeat offender street thugs, while murderers and rapists roam the streets free on bail while awaiting trial. This is not acceptable. The proliferation of graffiti must stop. Beautiful architectural heritage buildings, including some of the finest Art Deco, defaced by spray paint-wielding punks. This is not acceptable. Yet the main solutions proposed by the National Union, along with banning the sale of spray paint, are restoring the death penalty and public flogging of petty lawbreakers. Again, this is not acceptable. Even in red-state America, most death penalty advocates concede that executions have little deterrent value. Who really thinks that whipping a few graffiti artists and shoplifters in the town square for all to see will deter any young punks? Patria can do better and the NU can do better as well going forward into the new Congress.

 Social Democrats say “go forward!” and “progress with a purpose”, but other than enacting Patria’s universal basic income where is the forward progress? Billionaires and oligarchs are still not paying their fair share of taxes. A network of city-run grocery stores, such as proposed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, have yet to appear anywhere in Patria. Free public transit for everyone is little more than a pipe dream. Message to the SD caucus in the new Congress: you were elected as democratic socialists, not slightly left of centre liberals. Do not be afraid to put forward an agenda that so-called moderates and liberals would consider too radical. Eyes on the prize. Stay true to the principles of democratic socialism.

 The Chakra Party says “inquire within”, but despite some 36 years of following a yoga-based spiritual practice and claims of inward focus, have very many citizens found peace within? Has anyone meditated their way out of poverty? Has anyone’s yoga practice helped get them a good job? What is the Chakraite agenda, other than being mushy, aimless centre-leftists while advocating yoga in pre-school and mindfulness exercises in kindergarten?

 The Green Party says “for a sustainable Patria”, but one of the Greens’ environmental initiatives misses the big picture. Promoting the purchase of electric cars, while helping break the unsustainable addiction to fossil fuels, does not address the larger issue of breaking the even more unsustainable addiction to driving a personal vehicle, rather than walking or taking public transit wherever possible.

 One last time in this House, can I get a “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”? Patria’s Jews are not personally accountable for Benjamin Netanyahu’s war crimes. Patria’s Jews know that Judaism and the State of Israel are not one and the same. Jewish spiritual teachings and religious practices do not include or condone the bloodthirsty nationalism of Zionism concocted by Theodor Herzl in the 1890s and pushed since 1948 by the Israel-right-or-wrong lobby in the US. As the Social Democrats congratulate Avi Lewis upon his election as leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party, Patria will never conflate Jewish identity with the political ideology of Zionism and unconditional support for a genocidal apartheid state that claims to represent global Jewry. Not in our name.

 Over these four years and particularly during the 53^rd Congress election campaign, Patria became a battleground for petty culture wars, leaving many to wonder “is this really the hill you want to die on?” The NU campaigned hard on “BIG DOGS, NOT PUSSYCATS”, but are men who love cats instead of or more than dogs effeminate pussies? While the Lilith Party defends biological women and were the driving force behind the SAAB Act, are women’s athletics really threatened by a disproportionate number of trans women wannabes? Is the universal basic income the end of the work ethic as we know it? What really constitutes “Cultural Marxism”? Along with the other tired old issues trotted out by rightists and conservatives for decades such as the pushback against feminism, environmentalism, gay rights and abortion on demand. But Patria’s war on AI far transcends the tired, lame culture wars mostly imported from America.

 In this Fourth Session, Congress pushed back against the growth of artificial intelligence, particularly against the use of AI on broadcast media. As proclaimed during the World Radio Day celebration last February, “AI is a tool, not a voice”. As the Ramrajyavani network celebrates its 100^th anniversary in 2026, fake AI-generated songs and fake AI-generated voices will never be heard on Patria’s radio stations. AI must not be allowed to enter our schools. AI must be kept out from kindergarten to college, so that only human intelligence will be used for every lesson from basic arithmetic to differential calculus. The Social Democrats do not need to warn us that AI must not take jobs away from hard-working citizens and the Greens do not need to remind us that the environmental costs of AI data centers are unsustainable.

 The message will be reiterated in the Inaugural Address: NO AI IN PATRIA! No more AI slop. No more Victoria Goldiees. No more bogus AI-generated pictures and texts. The fight against AI is the fight of all fights going forward into the Fifty Third Congress and this is a hill that Patria is ready to die on, true to the last!

…………………………………………..

Speaker Pro Tem of the House:

If there is no more business to be brought forward to the attention of this House, I move that this Congress stand adjourned.  All in favor of adjournment, say “aye”. All opposed, let them speak now.

 Therefore, the motion is carried by voice vote.  In closing the Fifty Second Congress, I do so with the following prayers:

Twameva mata cha pita twameva. Twameva bandhush cha sakha twameva. Twameva vidya dravinam twameva. Twameva sarvam mama deva deva.

Asato ma sad gamaya. Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya. Mrtiyorma amritam gamaya.

Mantra hinam kriyahinam bhaktihinam janardana
Yat pujitam maya deva paripurnam tadastu me.

Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu.

Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

Under the power vested in me by the Constitution of Patria, I declare closed the Fourth Session of the Fifty Second Congress, and further pursuant to that power I declare the Fifty Second Congressus Patriaë adjourned sine die.