#Epstein

Journalist Edward R. Murrow used his platform on CBS to criticize the witch hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.

This is what real journalism should do — hold power to account, not capitulate to it.

Ursula K. Le Guin - Author Ursula K. Le Guin was author of 21 novels, 11 volumes of short stories, 4 collections of essays, 12 children’s books, six volumes of poetry and 4 of translation.

The next newsletter, on October 21st, will bring with it news of the winner of this year's Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction!

If you'd like to sign up, you can do so at ursulakleguin.com

A Welcome from Theo Downes-Le Guin One of the great pleasures of my work as literary executor is the sense that we are creating a community around my mother’s writing and ideas. If I’m honest with myself, however, I know that this community already exists. Any time two people read the same book, and that book resonates with them, the potentiality for a community exists, and the chance that destiny will throw those two readers together increases exponentially. This is why text is a great tool for subversion, resistance, and revolution. So at best, I am slightly hastening this coming-together.

Ursula’s dear friend, moral compass, and tech mentor Vonda McIntyre had the foresight to set up early accounts for Ursula on Twitter and Facebook, to discourage impostors. We didn’t do anything with the accounts until after 2018, because Ursula had no interest in the style of communication that socials demand. After she died, things changed. As part of my grieving, I wanted to talk and write more about her, to as many people as possible. (I also learned, over the time, that this is my job description as executor.) Instagram, because it is image-based, allowed me to share glimpses of her life without crossing the line of privacy and intimacy.

Over the years, and with the deft guidance of my colleague Molly Templeton, we have created a tone (and a respectable following) on social media that my mother would have tolerated, if not embraced. I am certain that if she had ever jumped on Twitter (now, for us, Bluesky), she would have treated it as she treated her blog—a one-way channel that idiosyncratically alternated between intimate musings and fiery analysis of the political and ethical failings of society. I miss those tweets that never were. But it is not my job to try to simulate them—I’m not her, we have what she wrote, and we are fortunate for that.

In any event, social media was never an Ursula thing. A newsletter, though—that’s an Ursula thing. I tell you this with authority, because among many grueling tasks immediately after she died, I was responsible for reviewing her inbox, to make sure no email went unanswered. In so doing, I found a window into the breadth and depth of her email reading—which included a lot of newsletters! She was no stranger to unsubscribe buttons, couldn’t abide a messy inbox, so I know what I found there was of value to her (and no, I can’t tell you; that does cross a line).

Something new from this corner of the internet: a newsletter! It will be irregular, not too frequent, and full of Ursula-related news. The first one, which went out last week, contains a note from Theo Downes-Le Guin, explaining a bit of the why and the wherefore. Here's part of that note.

It's a pretty big deal that the NYC Bar Association--one of the most prominent and respected bar associations in the country--is accusing the President of ordering the "unlawful summary execution," i.e. murder--of civilians in violation of US and international law. www.nycbar.org/press-releas...

bsky.app/profile/isth...

ICE PSA - bsky.app/profile/isth...

Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline People over Papers was removed by Padlet, the platform it was built on, yesterday.

Identifying public officials isn't "doxing." People have the right to know who is working for their government. Nor, for that matter, is it "radical left-wing terrorism." So it's frustrating to see platforms caving to these bad faith characterizations. www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/06/1...

No corruption here, folks! Totally normal stuff the deputy director of the CIA(Michael Ellis) just demoted the acting general counsel and decided to make himself the top lawyer while still being the No. 2 in charge.

Nothing to see here, just one guy running both the agency and the legal department. Checks and balances? Never heard of ’em.

This is how democracies die: not with tanks in the streets, but with bureaucrats quietly merging power in the dark. The CIA’s No. 2 demotes the top lawyer, installs himself, and answers to no one. It’s not “efficiency” — it’s capture. And it’s exactly how autocrats operate.

Beachfront home of South Carolina judge, ex-senator burned to ground, injuring 3 Ex-senator Arnold Goodstein, along with two additional people, were rescued by several neighbors and paramedics from a marshy, remote area behind the home after jumping from the fist floor.

No indication yet from major media that the FBI has any interest whatsoever in investigating this apparent attempted assassination of a well-known judge openly targeted on social media by the far-right activist—Harmeet Dhillon—currently calling herself Assistant Attorney General of the United States

They literally went to the supreme court about specifically this, and got permission to racially profile minorities, fucking Kavanaugh wrote that it was fine if minorities got stopped by the gesthapo, and they should have their papers if they don't wanna be sent to the camps

Love this. Superbly done. Please send this far and wide. @donwinslow.bsky.social

Northmoor Road - Wikipedia

Seriously?

I was today years old before I figured out that Schrödinger's Cat only lived two doors down from the Tolkiens in Oxford.

What the freckity frack?! 😅

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northmo...

Claim: 10 cars rammed ICE
Truth: No cars rammed ICE

Claim: She boxed ICE in
Truth: ICE boxed her in

Claim: She shot a rifle at ICE
Truth: She did not have a rifle

Claim: ICE returned fire
Truth: Only ICE fired

Claim: She drove herself to the hospital
Truth: Paramedics found her

So let it be written, so let it be done.

My Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters have been "living" (if it could be called that) and dying there forever, and we have been praying for them and their neighbors for decades (since I was last in Jordan in the '80s as a teenager). I learned it was about people worth standing up for!

Mooncakes!!! <3

Serious question: What's stopping the State of Illinois from arresting Stephen Miller & charging him with incitement?

The Senate didn't confirm him. He's just a guy.

At some point, the states MUST use their authority to prosecute, because the federal government certainly will not.

Turkish Witness: Israeli Forces Dragged Greta Thunberg Across Deck, Forced Her to Kiss Israeli Flag. She's been detained TWICE in 4 months for delivering baby formula. 450 activists. $3.8B US funding. Here's what happened.

Turkish Witness: Israeli Forces Dragged Greta Thunberg Across Deck, Forced Her to Kiss Israeli Flag.
open.substack.com/pub/50501/p/...

Congratulations!

I've decided that today is "Sparkly Saturday", so your timeline has been blessed by David Tennant in sparkly gold headphones!

Pass 🌟 it 🌟 on 🌟!

Oregon, joined by California, ask Judge Immergut for a second temporary restraining order--this one barring redeployment of federalized California National Guardsmen into Oregon. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Bilbo wearing a helmet and scale mail armor that's too big for him

#Tolkientober

Armor

hawaiian shirt aria doodle 🥺🥺🥺

The House of Representatives has not held a vote since September 19th to avoid releasing the Epstein records. My opponent Ann Wagner hasn’t said thing about any of it. Enjoying her free vacation while the government is shut down.

A white mug with the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction logo holds a spray of lavender next to a stack of the eight books shortlisted for this year's prize: North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher Remember You Will Die by Eden Robins The City in Glass by Nghi Vo Archangels of Funk by Andrea Hairston The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera The West Passage by Jared Pechaček Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson

We're thrilled to present the shortlist for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction: