Overview Effect

We think: Oh, that’s just blue sky. And all of a sudden, as though you whip a sheet off you when you’re asleep ... - William Shatner

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

Just because you're paranoid doesnt mean this industry is not gonna make you feel that way for the rest of your life .... https://t.co/zJW8CtAIcp

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

Another buzz kill thanks to objective research. But this on your label and smoke it, along with the permanent loss of IQ points....
https://t.co/kqrOYSxgCS

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

A promising sign of recovery after bad policy missteps at the state level: Cowlitz County expects drug court to remain stable as district court plans to start its version https://t.co/aPGrmlUxVG via @the_daily_news

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

Ha! Remember the silly hand-wringers opposed to legalizaing reefer because they said it would cause madness? Thank goodness we didn't listen. Our booming video game industry can pay the taxes for the public health consequences https://t.co/Ib8sjDuZOF

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

Public health versus industry-backed lobbying. Who wins?
"For young men aged 21-30, they estimated that the proportion of preventable cases of schizophrenia related to cannabis use disorder may be as high as 30% ..."
https://t.co/kjmpxgEB4D

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

A nuanced and non-political perspective from the University of Washington. The homelessness problem cannot be solved with affordable housing alone.
https://t.co/AEKCuevjGn

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

This is what it looks like when false political narratives finally give way to hard realities. Like Seattle, Bellingham is finally putting data over politics.
https://t.co/P7xMpEH1jC

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

This is Seattle progressivism and it's response to the issue of environmental equity.
https://t.co/pNCIcoIODP

[Emily Brooks @emilybrooksnews]

Rep. Kevin Hern — a McDonald’s franchisee — brought Ronald McDonald and Grimace to the Capitol today for a Franchise Caucus kick-off meeting today

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

The streets are no place for those with grave disability. Untreated psychosis is not a civil right https://t.co/Tee4FZAbnl

[Bad Baltic Takes @BadBalticTakes]

Today we remember the March deportations.

On 25 March 1949, the Soviet Union resumed its mass deportations in the Baltic states, mostly targeting women & children. Even babies, pregnant women, and separated children were snatched in the night, packed into cattle wagons, and dispersed across remote parts of Russia in labour camps where they faced hunger, cold, and brutality. Many died on the way or shortly after arrival. Some were even settled in nuclear testing fallout zones.

The first wave of mass deportations took place in 1941 after the Soviet Union - in collusion with the Nazis - had first invaded & illegally annexed the Baltic states. The main aim then was state decapitation.

This second wave was much broader, named Operation Priboi (Breaker’). It was mostly targeted at rural communities, ultimately aimed at breaking society and national identity, while providing more hard labour inside Russia.

Around a quarter of the population fell into the Soviet category of ‘undesirables’. However, the snatching was chaotic. Many families were taken randomly just to fill quotas when the listed family couldn’t be found. Some were taken for just having similar names to those listed. Some local collaborators just wanted to settle scores.

Deportations also continued regularly outside of these mass waves.

It’s estimated that about 200,000 were deported just from the occupied Baltic states & a further 6 million forcibly transferred in total by the Soviet Union, mostly based on ethnicity (either by removing entire ethnic groups or targeting ‘undesirables’ specifically within ethnic groups).

Even the Soviet Union eventually denounced its own mass deportations. They were described as “monstrous acts” by Khrushchev & “terrible felonies” by the Supreme Soviet in 1989.

I’m not gonna do the usual screenshotting of bad takes here. The bigger problem is how little the world has learnt about it at all to even have any takes. That’s how history repeats, as we see in the mass deportations that Moscow has resumed in Ukraine today. It’s one part of Russia’s genocidal war that the world finds difficult to comprehend. Some media reports even repeat the nonsense characterisation of it as ‘evacuations’. But mass deportations are key to understanding how Russia intends to consume captured territory. It’s delusional to think you can achieve any peace by giving up on lands and lives already stolen. Every inch of territory consumed only emboldens it to consume more.

But hope remains. The Soviets quietly praised themselves for carrying out the mass deportations in the Baltics. But, many historians argue these crimes were also a major political mistake. They deepened opposition to occupation. The topic was heavily censored but people never forgot. That anger eventually spilled out into the open during the Singing Revolution in the Baltics, leading to the restoration of the modern, independent, vibrant, fully restored states we live in here today.

In the Baltics today, candles will be lit, names of victims will be read out, and displays will fill public squares. Unfortunately, we are no longer just remembering history but all those in Ukraine facing it today.

Join us - in any way you can - to remember the mass deportations and help consign this brutality back into history.

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

@not_florida @BrandiKruse Sorry for judging you based on your snarky tweet. For a pro-Davison voter, your indignant reaction to her post was surprising, given the ocean of anti-prosecution and anti-Davison snarkiness that dominates Seattle's Twitter-sphere

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

@Sea_Crosswalks Yes, the North Rainier Neighborhood Plan is a case in point. The vision of a mixed use and mixed income town center with small business development was the plan. The City Council and planners ignored it. Take a look at the town center now.

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

@not_florida @BrandiKruse Says the guy who himself is too reluctant to praise the success of a Seattle crime control policy effectively implemented by officials he never would have voted for

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

The dividends of a vacuous City Council that politicized the nuance of community policing : small urban businesses owners must fill that vacuum by hiring their own private security. A city where economic opportunity is unaffordable
https://t.co/2ikQTOmGsY

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

W are judged by how we treat those who are the most vulnerable and in need https://t.co/cWsYY2ongS

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

RESEARCH WEEKLY: Arrests of Individuals with Co-Occurring Substance Use and Mental Health Disorders https://t.co/zRvyMG7N67

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

https://t.co/OI8yt33EHP

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

Millions proposed for mental health resources for Seattle students https://t.co/nJ54dpc0Qt

[Overview Effect @OverviewAffect]

The Washington Post: A Seattle psychiatric nurse reckons with the city's most vulnerable.
https://t.co/GZMuz55CtA