Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 7h

It does... strain the imagination... at the moment.

Reposted by Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25

Animated Antic @animatedantic.bsky.social · 14h

Guillermo del Toro and Netflix have announced plans to form a new stop motion studio that will be both a studio and a school to push the medium forward and will develop plans to make Del Toro's next stop motion project after Pinocchio. I'm very hyped to see what this leads to!

11 170 790

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 8h

(Incidentally, I would really like to watch the new Bigelow film, HOUSE OF DYNAMITE. And I will. But I am fully aware that if anything is going to cause the suspended disbelief to snap, it will be any insistence that a competent government exists in our currently fucked reality.)

1 19

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 8h

Because they're twelve.

1 1 25

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 8h

It's just very tiring to play the game of 'do not touch the hot stove' with world governments.

In theory, world leaders would be the most capable thinkers.
With an ability to make decisions based on the best evidence and broad scopes.

Instead, I get to watch morons touch a hot stove.
Repeatedly.

2 11 76

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 8h

I am 80 to 90 percent sure I am not making this up. But at the moment I have no evidence on hand to back that.

If I have some time to sift around tomorrow I will see if I can find it. This might end up bothering me.

1

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 8h

Which is just a single example of just a staggering amount of parallels between our country and theirs that is fascinating and deeply saddening.

17

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 8h

The groups they accept under the table though, who are coming to their country and keeping their infrastructure intact, are groups from poorer neighboring countries that, naturally, they can pay less.

1 15

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 8h

There is only one group I have seen Japan actually petition to have move to the country and that's the Japanese population that immigrated to Peru around 1900.

It would appear that they are the only group the country seems willing to court, seeing it as repatriation bid and not mass immigration.

1 18

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 8h

I keep watching this play out with greater amounts of dread.

I was in London when the Brexit vote happened. And I knew then that if the mentality spread here we'd be fucked.

Now we're fucked and I'm watching the same ideas take up elsewhere and it's like waving your hands and screaming warnings.

1 11

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 8h

But it was something I had wanted.

I also think Japan is setting itself up for further hardship, whether they every accept that truth or not.
And that will break my heart.

2 31

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 8h

I try to make it a point not to be in a place I am not wanted.
It's a waste of my energy.

And I'm not naive. I was always aware that Japan has a long standing history of contention towards foreigners. And that even with permanent residency, I would never be considered anything else.

1 30

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 8h

There was a time in my life that I... would have really loved to have lived here. It wasn't going to be soon, but it could have been eventually.

But watching the Sanseito party gain bigger footholds. Seeing two anti-immigrant firestorms in a single month based on badly researched and biased news...

Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 9h

Japan’s far right is on the rise, alarming foreign workers. Nowhere is that anxiety more apparent than in the city of Toyota, where immigrants power the economy while facing political backlash.

Japan Needs Foreign Workers. Its Far Right Is Turning Against Them

In the city of Toyota, immigrants help power the economy while facing political backlash.

bloom.bg

1 2 50

Reposted by Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25

Zi @ziqqix.bsky.social · 11h

Been big into brush pen lately

Drawing of a falcon done in pentel orange/red brush pen

5 33 320

Reposted by Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 13h

My first thought was “wow I hope this guy didn’t give out his name because he could absolutely be charged” and yup, he is correct to stay anonymous.

This man’s account is shocking. His neighbors’ situation is shocking. The entire Chicago raid is shocking.

On the other side was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for his help.
"I wasn't planning on letting her stay, but I didn't know what the hell was going on," the man said of his Venezuelan migrant neighbors. But he quickly relented. The little girl was inconsolable and hid under his bed.
"I didn't want them to take her," said the man, who didn't want to be named because he fears he'll be targeted by federal authorities for his actions.
"I gave her my bedroom, and I just told her,
'Just stay there. Don't open, don't, shh, just stay quiet," he recalled telling the mom and daughter as he choked back tears.

160 2.2K 6.7K

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 12h

Oh.
Pequeño bebé.

Putin wouldn't play and the Gaza truce came in past the deadline, didn't it?

Cry more.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

White House blasts Nobel Committee for not awarding Peace Prize to Trump

A spokesman says the Nobel Committee placed "politics over peace" in awarding the coveted award to Venezuela's opposition leader.

www.bbc.com

1 4 36

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 12h

...which math was discovered by a man who swears it was divined to him by an angel...?

I tried googling it, but apparently 'math angel' is an LLM now.

1

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 13h

Oh, yeah. For sure. Total and complete solidarity.

1

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 13h

Please don't ever make the mistake of thinking I am smart.

If I say something that sounds smart it is because I am on my third consecutive day of a three hour sleep cycle, overdosed with fruit flavored caffeine, eyes burning, and weak to the devil.

Something is probably using me like a meat puppet

4 32

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 13h

Every single day, muttering to myself 'but this is A HEALTHY market!'

2

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 13h

I went when there was a Christmas Market, and yeah. That really topped it off.

1

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 13h

I would have also accepted:
'She'll put her tongue right through your face.'

1 2

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 13h

Respectfully.

1 1

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 13h

Friend, nobody is in control of nothing

1 1

Meredith McClaren at ROMICS Oct '25 @iniquitousfish.bsky.social · 17h

It's SO WILD!

6