2025 Off Year US Elections

They can be, sometimes, an indicator of things to come.

June 25, 2025

New York City Mayoral Race

Progressive Zohran Mamdani beat Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic Primary.  

Mamdani, who immigrated with his parents as a child from Uganda to the US, is a self declared democratic socialist.  He's a Shi'a Muslim. All of these things are setting off the populist far right.

Curtis Sliwa, founder of Guardian Angels, won the Republican primary for New York City mayor, but was unopposed.  He stands no chancing of winning the general election.

September 22, 2025

Texas

Texas has an election this year, and it includes a bunch of ballot propositions, which are:

• Proposition 1 (SJR 59): Texas State Technical College funding
• Proposition 2 (SJR 18): Capital gains tax ban
• Proposition 3 (SJR 5): Bail reform
• Proposition 4 (HJR 7): Water infrastructure funding
• Proposition 5 (HJR 99): Tax exemption on animal feed
• Proposition 6 (HJR 4): Securities tax ban
• Proposition 7 (HJR 133): Tax exemption for veterans’ spouses
• Proposition 8 (HJR 2): Inheritance tax ban
• Proposition 9 (HJR 1): Inventory and equipment tax exemption
• Proposition 10 (SJR 84): Tax exemption for homes destroyed by fire
• Proposition 11 (SJR 85): School tax exemption for the elderly or disabled homeowners
• Proposition 12 (SJR 27): Changing the State Judicial Conduct Commission
• Proposition 13 (SJR 2): Increased school tax exemption for homeowners
• Proposition 14 (SJR 3): Funding for dementia research and prevention
• Proposition 15 (SJR 34): Codifying parental rights
• Proposition 16 (SJR 37): Clarifying citizenship requirement for voters
• Proposition 17 (HJR 34): Property tax exemption for border security infrastructure

November 4, 2025

The kiss of death:

And so the demented New York octogenarian made it clear to thousands that they were going to vote for New York Democratic Socialist Mamdani.

New York has actually had a prior Democratic Socialist Mayor, David Dinkins, who served from 1990 to 1993.  Trump made minor contributions to the Dinkin's election campaign and reelection campaign, the latter of which failed.  The current mayor of Cheektowaga, New York, Brian Nowak, is a Democratic Socialist.

Trump made another post last night:

Early indications are that this election is going to be an utter disaster for the Republican Party, setting up a potential disaster next year, and causing those who wish to evade disaster to potentially start moving away from MAGA now.

Prop 50 will be on California's ballot, which may end up countering the anti Democratic moves of the Texas legislature.

Cont:

New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani won the race for Mayor of New York City, becoming the first Muslim to occupy that position, and the first Democratic Socialist since Dinkens to occupy it.

It's a generational change with Mamdani defeating two elderly opponents.

It's an important mayoral seat, but nobody who has occupied it has ever been President, and for the most part, its occupants do not rise further in politics.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger took the Virginia Governor's race, causing it to go from Republican to Democratic control.  She's the first female governor of Virginia.  Democrat Mikie Sherill took the Governor's race in New Jersey.

Democrats are going to take Texas' 18th Congressional District, Houston, but they already held that.

Proposition 50 passed in California.

The Democrats won everywhere they were running.  It's a dope slap in the face for Donald Trump.

November 5, 2025

So Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.

Zohran Mamdani.

Cont:

A race we weren't following was that for Virginian AG. T he race was won by Jay Jones.  Jones made headline news because some absolutely horrible things he said about another member of Virginia's legislature came to light.  They were awful.

Jones beat the Republican incumbent  Miyares, which suggest a pretty significant move away from the GOP in Virginia.  Jones is a practicing African American Catholic, which is interesting in various ways.

Notable in the races last night Hispanics began to pull away from the GOP.  Catholics had been attracted to the Republican Party for various reasons that I've noted here on numerous occasions, the principal one being that they're social conservatives as a rule.  The interesting thing here is that the GOP, which only recently attracted them, has treated them much like the Democratic Party treated ethnic minorities, which is to say to ignore them and more particularly, to offend them.  Merely being Hispanic is putting people in the target zone for ICE and the GOP has broken out into outright open feuds of race recently, with some figures in the pundit class being openly racist.  

This gets back for a moment to noting that Jones is a Catholic.  The populist far right is strongly Evangelical, and Evangelicalism has attracted a lot of American Hispanics.  But the nature of the Evangelicalism and MAGA has not been sorted out and now, in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, the pot is really boiling.  Quite a few on the populist far right have barely hidden contempt for women working, which most Hispanic women have to do by default.  Some MAGA pundits are openly racist with Nick Fuentes now openly going after J. D. Vance, a Catholic married to an Indian, on the basis that he's a "race mixer".

This doesn't explain last night's results overall, but it fits into it.  The price of things, a major factor in Trump's win, is now starting to be a major factor in a retreat from the GOP.  The brutality and lawlessness of the Trump administration is disgusting many people. The outright stupidity of some the things the Trump Administration says is taking a toll.  The Government shutdown is being blamed, rightfully, on the Republican Party.

The 2026 election is a long ways off but so far the Administration and MAGA's reaction to everything is to double down on it.  That probably won't change, but what might is the extent to which Republicans who don't have to go down with the ship begin to abandon it. Some already have.  Marjorie Taylor Green, who was a MAGA fanatic, now is an opponent, for example. Thune is suddenly, as of yesterday, sounding more moderate.

But you can't moderate a demented narcissist surrounded by sycophants.

Related threads:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 106th Edition A series of Zeitgeist predictions about New York City.

Labels: 2025 Off Year U.S. Elections, Donald Trump, Mike Johnson, New York, Politics, Predictions, Republican Party, Social Democracy, Socialism, Zeitgeist, Zohran Mamdani

Friday, October 2, 1925. Television.

The first television transmission was made in London.  The experimental broadcast was made by Scottish inventor John Logie Baird.

Spanish troops entered the Rif capital of Ajdir.

The Pact of the Vidoni Palace was signed at the Palazzo Vidoni-Caffarelli in Rome between the Fascist-dominated General Confederation of Italian Industry) (Confederazione Generale dell'Industria Italiana or CGI) and the Fascist-controlled National Confederation of Trade Union Corporations labor union.  It abolished all other unions, including Catholic and Socialist unions, and gave the government effectively corporatist control, on the fascist model, of labor.

200 feet of the roof on the western end of the Church Hill Tunnel, Virginia collapsed killing 40 workers.

La Revue Nègre featuring Josephine Baker’s comic Charleston opened in Paris. Baker became a huge success overnight.

Baker was an enormous talent.  Her shows of the era likely wouldn't have been legal in much of the United States due to the nudity or near nudity that they featured.

Last edition:

Monday, September 28, 1925. Senators meet with Coolidge.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Agriculture, baseball, Calvin Coolidge, Daily Living, Montana, Sports

Tuesday, August 5, 1975. Ford restores Lee's citizenship. South Africa enters Angola.

President Ford signed a Senate resolution restoring the citizenship of traitor Robert E. Lee.

South African forces drove ten miles into Angolan territory in reaction to the increased presence of Cuban troops in the country.

By Sam van den Berg - Image courtesy of Sam van den Berg, from Port Elizabeth, CC BY 2.5 za, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38327611

This is one of those news stories I can recall watching on the nightly news when I was a kid.

Fairfax County, Virginian K9 Officer Bandit was killed in the line of duty chasing a suspect.

Last edition:

Friday, August 1, 1975. The Helsinki Accords.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Angola, Angolan Civil War, Diplomacy, Europe, Finland, Helsinki Accords, Homo Erectus, India, It was because of World War Two, television

Monday, March 27, 1775. Choosing Jefferson as an alternate.

The Second Virginia Convention named Thomas Jefferson as an alternate delegate to the Second Continental Congress, replacing Peyton Randolph, who was then presiding over the Virginia House of Burgesses. 

Last edition:

Friday, March 24, 1775. Rushing toward war.

Labels: 1770s, 1775, American Revolution, Colonial North America, John Hancock, Virginia

Friday, March 24, 1775. Rushing toward war.

Last edition:

Thursday, March 23, 1775. Give me liberty. . .

Labels: 1770s, 1775, American Revolution, Civil War, Colonial North America, Dixiecrats, English Civil War, New Model Army, Patrick Henry, the spoken word, Virginia

Thursday, March 23, 1775. Give me liberty. . .

Patrick Henry delivered his famous speech in favor of independence at the Second Virginian Convention.  He stated:

No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free-- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

This stands in stark contrast, of course, with Edmund Burke's speech delivered in parliament the day prior. 

Of note, Donald Trump has proclaimed this day "as a day in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s speech to the Second Virginia Convention", and many of his supporters naively believe that they stand for the same propositions those who took the American Colonies into Revolution do, when in fact, they stand for the opposite.  You can find just such an example on the Campus issues blog that we link in here. Today's MAGA populists are direct heirs to Cromwell's Roundheads of the English Civil War, right down to following a radical Calvinist ideology, and even adopted the color, red, worn by what evolved out of the New Model Army.

Not that this is surprising.  Retrograde reactionary forces in American public life have long attempted to claim the Revolution as their own, from the Southern traitors of 1860 to 1865, to modern Dixiecrats.

Last edition:

Wednesday, March 22, 1775. Speech on Conciliation with America

Labels: 1770s, 1775, American Revolution, Colonial North America, Edmund Burke, United Kingdom

Friday, March 3, 1775. A British ship.

The Virginia Gazette alerted the citizens of James City County, Virginia that an armed British ship was at the ferry landing at Kingsmill.

And, by the way, Lent had already started in 1775, so those few Catholics in the country, and those Anglicans observing Lent, were in the Lenten season.

Last edition:

Thursday, March 2, 1775. Raising a stench.

Labels: 1770s, 1775, American Revolution, Colonial North America, Intolerable Acts, Rhode Island, Tea

Wednesday, February 22, 1775. The Augusta Resolves.

The Augusta Resolves were passed by the representatives of August County, Colony of Virginia, expressing support for the resistance to the Intolerable Acts.

Last edition:

Wednesday, February 1, 1775. Memorandum on Chatham’s Plan of Conciliation, [on or after 1 February 1775]

Labels: 1770s, 1775, American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin

Friday, January 20, 1775. The Fincastle Resolutions.

The Fincastle Resolutions were adopted by the fifteen elected representatives of Fincastle County, Virginia, which was on the frontier at that time.

Fincastle, Jan. 20, 1775

In obedience to the resolves of the Continental Congress, a meeting of the freeholders of this county was held this day, who, after approving of the association framed by that august body in behalf of all the colonies, and subscribing thereto, proceeded to the election of a committee, to see the same carried punctually into execution, when the following Gentlemen were nominated: Reverend Charles Cummings, Colonel William Preston, Colonel William Christian, Captain Stephen Trigg, Major Arthur Camp-bell, Major William Inglis, Captain Walter Crockett, Captain John Mont-gomery, Captain James McGavock, Captain William Campbell, Captain Thomas Madison, Captain Daniel Smith, Captain William Russell, Cap-tain Evan Shelby and Lieutenant William Edmondson. After the election the committee made choice of Colonel WILLIAM CHRISTIAN for their chairman, and appointed Mr. David Campbell to be clerk. The following address was then unanimously agreed to by the people of the county, and is as follows.

To the Honorable Peyton Randolph, Esq; Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, junior, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton, Esquires, the Delegates from this colony who at-tended the Continental Congress held at Philadelphia: Gentlemen, Had it not been for our remote situation, and the Indian war which we were lately engaged in, to chastise those cruel and savage people for the many murders and depredations they have committed against us (now happily terminated, under the auspices of our present worthy Governour, his Excellency the Right Honourable the Earl of Dunmore) we should before this time have made known to you our thankfulness for the very important services you have rendered to your country, in conjunction with the worthy Delegates from the other provinces. Your noble efforts for reconciling the Mother Country and the Colonies, on rational and constitutional principles, and your pacifick, steady, and uniform conduct in that arduous work, entitle you to the esteem of all British America, and will immortalize you in the annals of your country. We heartily concur in your resolutions, and shall, in every instance, strictly and invariably adhere thereto.

We assure you, Gentlemen, and all our countrymen, that we are a people whose hearts overflow with love and duty to our lawful sovereign George III, whose illustrious house, for several successive reigns, have been the guardians of the civil and religious rights and liberties of British sub-jects, as settled at the glorious Revolution; that we are willing to risk our lives in the service of his Majesty, for the support of the Protestant religion, and the rights and liberties of his subjects, as they have been established by the compact, law, and ancient charters.

We are heartily grieved at the differences which now subsist between the parent state and the colonies, and most ardently wish to see harmony restored, on an equitable basis, and by the most lenient measures that can be devised by the heart of man.

Many of us, and our forefathers, left our native land, considering it as a kingdom subjected to inordinate power, and greatly abridged of its liberties. We crossed the Atlantick, and explored this then uncultivated wilderness, bordering on many nations of savages, and surrounded by mountains almost inaccessible to any but those very savages, who have incessantly been committing barbarities and depredations on us since our first seating the country. These fatigue and dangers we patiently encountered, supported by the pleasing hope of enjoying those rights and liberties which had been granted to Virginians and were denied us in our native country, and of transmitting them inviolate to our posterity. But even to these remote regions the hand of unlimited and unconstitutional power hath pursued us, to strip us of that liberty and property with which God, nature, and the rights of humanity, have vested us. We are ready and willing to contribute all in our power for the support of his Majesty's government, if applied to constitutionally, and when the grants are made by our own representatives; but cannot think of submitting our liberty or property to the power of a venal British parliament, or to the will of a corrupt Ministry.

We by no means desire to shake off our duty or allegiance to our lawful sovereign, but on the contrary shall ever glory in being loyal subjects of a Protestant prince, descended from such illustrious progenitors, so long as we can enjoy the free exercise of our religion, as Protestants, and our liberties and properties, as British subjects.

But if no pacifick measures shall be proposed or adopted by Great Britain, and our enemies will attempt to dragoon us out of these inestimable privileges which we are entitled to as subjects, and to reduce us to a state of slavery, we declare, that we are deliberately and resolutely determined never to surrender them to any power upon earth, but at the expense of our lives.

These are our real, though unpolished sentiments, of liberty and loyalty, and in them we are resolved to live and die.

We are, Gentlemen, with the most perfect esteem and regard, your most obedient servant.

The resolutions interestingly expressed love for the Crown, while obviously drafted in the spirt of defiance against it.

Last edition:

Tuesday, January 17, 1775. Diligent attention in the use of arms.

Labels: 1770, 1775, American Colonial Militia, American Revolution, Colonial North America, South Carolina

Monday, November 7, 1774. The Yorktown Tea Party

You get the drill.  Residents of Yorktown boarded the British ship Virginia and dumped two half-chests of tea into the York River.

Last edition:

Thursday, November 3, 1774. Charleston Tea Party.

Labels: 1770s, 1774, American Revolution, Charleston South Carolina, Colonial North America, Tea

Tuesday, November 1, 1774. The Virginia boycott.

A boycott of British goods went into effect in Virginia.

Last edition:

Wednesday, October 26, 1774. The First Continental Congress concluded.

Labels: 1770s, 1774, American Revolution, Colonial North America, First Continental Congress

Monday, October 10, 1774. The Battle of Point Pleasant

The Battle of Point Pleasant (Battle of Kanawha, Battle of Great Kanawha) was fought between Virginian militia and Shawnee and Mingo warriors in what is now West Virginia.

It was the only major battle of Lord Dunmore's War.

Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, prevailed and took his forces into the Ohio Valley.

The action effectively concluded the war in favor of Virginia and the Crown.

Last edition:

Friday, October 7, 1774. The Massachusetts Provincial Congress.

Labels: 1770s, 1774, American Revolution, Colonial North America, Massachusetts

Tuesday, July 26, 1774. First armed move in Lord Dunmore's War.

British/Virginian forces under  Angus McDonald crossed the Ohio River to attack the Shawnee villages of Wakatomika.

Angus McDonald, former Jacobite, present commander of British forces, and later American revolutionary.  He'd die in 1778 from an overdose of Antimony potassium tartrate.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 23, 1774. A meeting in Savannah.

Labels: 1770s, 1774, American Revolution, Colonial North America, Georgia

Wednesday, July 20, 1774. A vote.

Patrick Henry. While he famously said "Give me liberty, or give me death", his death in 1799 was due to a severe bowel condition that afflicted him at age 57.

On this day in 1774 those eligible to vote in Hanover County, Virginia, which was far from everyone, met at the courthouse to elect representatives for the upcoming First Virginia Convention at Williamsburg.

Patrick Henry and his half brother John Syme were chosen, and presented with resolutions to carry to the assembly.  Syme was as close friend of Henry's and older than he was. He'd outlive him and die in 1805 at age 76.

Last edition:

Wednesday, June 22, 1774. The Quebec Act gains royal assent.

Labels: 1770s, 1774, American Revolution, Canada, Catholic, Colonial North America, Intolerable Acts, Protestant, Quebec, religion, United Kingdom

Blog Mirror: July 1, 2024 – Virginia Becomes 12th State in US and First in South to End Child Marriage

 

July 1, 2024 – Virginia Becomes 12th State in US and First in South to End Child Marriage

Friday, May 27, 1774. Heading towards revolution.

The Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, dismissed Virginia's House of Burgesses due to a resolution, prepared by Thomas Jefferson, calling for a Day of Fasting and Prayer being passed.  The cause for Virginia's concern over British reaction to the Boston Tea Party, and it came on the same day that the British Navy planned to blockade Boston's harbor in punishment for the same.

The heavy-handed British reaction was propelling things in the very direction that the British did not want it to go.

The members of the House did not go right home, but instead convened as an Association, at the Raleigh Tavern, where they called for a Continental Congress.

Juan Bautista de Anza completed his overland expedition from Tubac, Mexico to San Gabriel Mission, in modern Los Angeles, California.

The Reverend Robert Newburgh was accused by a private British soldier of the 18th Regiment of Foot, stationed in the Colonies, of beggary.  He would be acquitted in a trial in June. The story was bizarre as he had invited the charge in the first instance, and coached the private on how to make it, seemingly in an effort to overall clear his name as he became increasingly unpopular.  He'd seen three soldiers tried for gossiping.

The plan would fail, and he'd ultimately be arrested after his acquittal for being disruptive, although his being accused of an "unnatural crime", the one he'd been just acquitted of, was mentioned at the time.

To the extent that this story is illustrative of anything, it's partially illustrative of the harsh discipline in the British Army of the period, as well as the somewhat junior high atmosphere that existed in 18th and 19th Century armies.  Additionally, however, it's interesting as neither the terms "heterosexual" or "homosexual" existed at the time, those being modern constructs, the latter of which did not originally apply to those who might commit beggary.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, April 5, 1774. A growing rift.

Labels: 1770s, 1774, American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin, Colonial North America, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Thomas Gage

Thursday, March 20, 1924. Barbarity Codified.

Virginia's Racial Integrity Act and Eugenical Sterilization Act went into effect, seeing two vile trains of thought combine into legislation on a single day.

The former barred that if a person had a great-grandparent who was black, they were black, and were barred from marrying outside of that racial category.  The Pocahontas Clause" provided an exception for Native American heritage, sort of, in that if a person had 15/16th European heritage, they would be deemed white.

An emergency existing, this act shall be enforced from its passage.

Chap. 394. - An ACT to provide for the sexual sterilization of inmates of State institutions in certain cases. [S B 281]

Approved March 20, 1924.

Whereas, both the health of the individual patient and the welfare of society may be promoted in certain cases by the sterilization of mental defectives under careful safeguard and by competent and conscientious authority, and

 Whereas, such sterilization may be effected in males by the operation of vasectomy and in females by the operation of salpingectomy, both of which said operations may be performed without serious pain or substantial danger to the life of the patient, and

 Whereas, the Commonwealth has in custodial care and is supporting in various State institutions many defective persons who if now discharged or paroled would likely become by the propagation of their kind a menace to society but who if incapable of procreating might properly and safely be discharged or paroled and become self-supporting with benefit both to themselves and to society, and

Whereas, human experience has demonstrated that heredity plays an important part in the transmission of sanity, idiocy, imbecility, epilepsy and crime, now, therefore

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That whenever the superintendent of the Western State Hospital, or of the Eastern State Hospital, or of the Southwestern State Hospital, or of the Central State Hospital, or the State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded, shall be of opinion that it is for the best interests of the patients and of society that any inmate of the institution under his care should be sexually sterilized, such superintendent is hereby authorized to perform, or cause to be performed by some capable physicians or surgeon, the operation of sterilization on any such patient confined in such institution afflicted with hereditary forms of insanity that are recurrent, idiocy, imbecility, feeble-mindedness or epilepsy; provided that such superintendent shall have first complied with the requirements of this act.

 2. Such superintendent shall first present to the special board of directors of his hospital or colony a petition stating the facts of the case and the grounds of his opinion, verified by his affidavit to the best of his knowledge and belief, and praying that an order may be entered by said board requiring him to perform or have performed by some competent physician to be designated by him in his said petition or by said board in its order, upon the inmate of his institution named in such petition, the operation of vasectomy if upon a male and of salpingectomy if upon a female.

 A copy of said petition must be served upon the inmate together with a notice in writing designating the time and place in the said institution, not less than thirty days before the presentation of such petition to said special board of directors when and where said board may hear and act upon such petition [10]

—Virginia General Assembly, March 20, 1924

Finnair commenced commercial flights.