I realized while writing last week's post that I've subscribed to a ton a newsletters in recent days, so I figured today I'd make them into a list. There's no particular order here and I don't read every single missive that lands in my inbox, mostly I dip in and dip out.
The Progress Report: The Progress Report bills itself as, "an independent and proudly left wing media project produced by Progress Alberta." Aside from CBC Radio One's programming, it's probably the best source of news I have for what's going on here in Alberta.
You can find the Progress Report here.
Foreign Exchanges: I learned of Derek Davidson through Chapo Trap House and his newsletter has fairly high utility value. Every week there's a short This Day in History section followed by a section rounding up overseas news, generally with one paragraph per country. This week covered news in: Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Israel-Palestine, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, India, Myanmar, North Korea, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Democratic Republic of Congo. It reminds me a lot of Gwynne Dyer's schtick, which is one of the highest compliments I can bestow, as I've been reading Dyer's column for longer than anyone else, probably close to twenty years now.
You can find Foreign Exchanges here.
Welcome to Sullyville: This is freelance writer Dan '@Bro_Pair' O'Sullivan's newsletter, which recently migrated from Substack to ghost as a protest against Substack's profiting off of alt-right writers. The word I associate with Dan is 'righteous.' He has an interesting sense of morality and he applies it to himself as much as he does to anyone else. It's probably going to drive him insane one of these days––it's certainly driven him off twitter more than once. Dan's at his best when he's writing about literature. He has a great taste in books, especially old noir and his account has probably exposed me to more good books than any other twitter account, save for maybe the War Nerd's.
You can find Welcome to Sullyville here.
Courthouse Stories: Freelance journalist Anne Brocklehurst recently relaunched her newsletter which had been laying dormant for several years and I'm glad I never thought to unsubscribe in the meantime. Currently she's doing a series called She Said, He Said about a rape trial that didn't make the news. I haven't had a chance to read it yet but I'm looking forward to it. Brocklehurst has a great eye for details and is careful to explain court procedures for those of us who aren't familiar. I believe she's based in Toronto.
You can find Courthouse Stories here.
The Time of Monsters: Jeet Heer's newsletter. I know a lot of my twitter mufos dislike him and he can be a bit exasperating but I've always appreciated him. The newsletter is still quite new but I think it'll be worthwhile. Heer's able to harness the nerd's power of pedantry to give background and context to current affairs, and I think this will be a better format for him than his interminable twitter threads. Recent posts cover the reactionary international, vaccine imperialism, Tucker Carlson's homophobia, and a lament for the blogging era.
You can find the Time of Monsters here.
Immigrants as a Weapon: Former eXiled journalist Yasha Levine's newsletter uses the author's background as a Soviet Jewish immigrant to America to explore current issues in immigration. There was a great post recently on the police attack on Camp Echo Park Lake, a homeless camp that's become something of a Hooverville (Bidenville?) in Los Angeles, near the author's home.
You can find Immigrants as a Weapon here.
SHuSH: Kenneth Whyte's diatribes against libraries (he wants them to be privatized because he believes they take money away from authors) have always made me cringe when they pop up on twitter, but I have to admit I've otherwise come to enjoy his well-informed reports from the publishing industry and I wouldn't know about his newsletter otherwise. Recent missives have delved into the Blake Bailey/Philip Roth biography shambles, the Penguin-Random house acquisition of Simon and Schuster, and recent changes in the exploding audiobook market. That said, it's still great fun to dunk on him for his dumbass library threads.
You can find SHuSH here.
Carl Beijer: Definitely an acquired taste. You have to know who Carl Beijer is ('are?' is it still a collective?) to get anything from this. Mostly it's short missives on socialism that are too long for twitter but probably only relevant to people deeply immersed in the discourse.
You can find the Carl Beijer newsletter here.
That's all for this week, thanks for reading.
