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Matthew Cooper

@mattizcoop.bsky.social
1.2K followers 401 following 127 posts

Executive Editor-Digital at Washington Monthly Journalist, Human

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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The @timothynoah.bsky.social in the @newrepublic.com in the wake of @cortellessa.bsky.social 's TIME interview with the president. Donald Trump, Poet Extraordinaire newrepublic.com/article/2161... via @newrepublic.com
newrepublic.com
Donald Trump, Poet Extraordinaire
You might think the president’s disjointed ramblings are cause for concern. But maybe this is the rebirth of a free verse superstar.
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Lynda Carter @lyndacarter.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Our music and our memories are being wiped out. AMERICA built this city. Not a president. Join us!
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Fascinating from @timothynoah.bsky.social You’ll Never Guess Who’s Saving the Sistine Chapel of the New Deal newrepublic.com/article/2155... via @newrepublic.com
newrepublic.com
You’ll Never Guess Who’s Saving the Sistine Chapel of the New Deal
A Freedom Caucus veteran just pushed a bill through a House committee that grants a reprieve to the Cohen Building. Go figure.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Lovely obituary for my brother in the New York Times. Jonathan Cooper, Who Made Violins the Old-Fashioned Way, Dies at 76 www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/a...
nytimes.com
Jonathan Cooper, Who Made Violins the Old-Fashioned Way, Dies at 76 (Gift Article)
Renowned for their supple tone and range, his instruments were admired by world-class musicians like Mark O’Connor and Alison Krauss.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The Lost Journalistic World of 9/11: The mainstream press wasn't perfect. But before the era of “hot takes,” information silos, steep budget cuts, and ugly charges of “fake news,” it had strengths that we need now. By me in the @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social washingtonmonthly.com/2026/09/10/t...
washingtonmonthly.com
The Lost Journalistic World of 9/11
The mainstream press was far from perfect. But before the era of “hot takes,” information silos, steep budget cuts, and ugly charges of “fake news,” it had strengths that we need now.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
My big brother, Jonathan Cooper, died yesterday. His hospitalization last week came as a shock to us all, and we're devastated. More to say in the coming days about the violinmaker, fiddler, father, guitarist, surfer, entrepreneur, and performer on day one at CBGB's.
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Brad DeLong @braddelong.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
For eighty years the free world’s security ran on a single hub, and everyone knew who it was: the United States. What the Viking Alliance is building is the first credible answer to what happens if that hub is captured from within by a combination of grifters, neofascists, and chaos monkeys... 1/
braddelong.substack.com
The Viking Alliance Is Coalescing: CHART OF THE DAY
NATO is getting a second locus of initiative, and Washington’s power is no longer automatically multiplied to the strength of a billion by NATO, but finds its leadership of the alliance now contested.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Not good
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
This chart will figure prominently in a future historian's best-seller, "Self-Destruction: The End of the American Era."
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
This @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social piece by the ever-insightful Mike Lofgren is prescient. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/08/07/d...
washingtonmonthly.com
The Disintegration of the U.S. Military Under Trump and Beyond
Russia’s woes in Ukraine reflect its autocracy, corruption, and dismal choices. Sounds like the Pentagon under Pete Hegseth.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Purple state whisperer. www.wsj.com/opinion/josh...
wsj.com
Opinion | Josh Shapiro Shows Democrats How to Win
He’s far ahead in the most important swing state. As 2028 nears, pay attention.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Fauci Agonistes: It’s Time to End the Republican Witch Hunt washingtonmonthly.com/2026/08/01/f...
washingtonmonthly.com
Fauci Agonistes: It’s Time to End the Republican Witch Hunt
The right danced a jig of joy over Dr. Anthony Fauci’s invoking the Fifth Amendment before Rand Paul’s Senate Homeland Security Committee. The Kentucky Republican knew in advance that Fauci would give...
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Fauci Agonistes: It’s Time to End the Republican Witch Hunt washingtonmonthly.com/2026/08/01/f...
washingtonmonthly.com
Fauci Agonistes: It’s Time to End the Republican Witch Hunt
The right danced a jig of joy over Dr. Anthony Fauci’s invoking the Fifth Amendment before Rand Paul’s Senate Homeland Security Committee. The Kentucky Republican knew in advance that Fauci would give...
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Quite a compliment! Thanks @gooznews.bsky.social !
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Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Thanks, WaMo, for relinking to @mattizcoop.bsky.social's incisive review of Nicholas Lemann's Returning (wwnorton.com/books/978163...). This goes to the top of the "must read" list for this child of an eastern European Jewish immigrant.
wwnorton.com
Returning
Compulsive, shattering, if not fundamentally disruptive, Returning emerges as one of the most important and searingly honest family sagas of our time., Returning, A Search for Home Across Three Centur...
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Why Conservatives Are Losing Their War Against The Odyssey. Splendid from @glastris.bsky.social of @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/07/22/c...
washingtonmonthly.com
Why Conservatives Are Losing Their War Against The Odyssey
Christopher Nolan’s moral sensibility, which conservatives claim to hate, is what makes his Odyssey film a masterpiece—and a blockbuster.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Trump’s Election Integrity Dud washingtonmonthly.com/2026/07/17/t...
washingtonmonthly.com
Trump’s Election Integrity Dud
Trump hardly proved the case against election integrity. He offered a word salad of incoherent complaints about elections.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Platner’s Conspiracy-Laden, Bitter Farewell washingtonmonthly.com/2026/07/08/p...
washingtonmonthly.com
Platner’s Conspiracy-Laden, Bitter Farewell
Platner Drops Out of U.S. Senate Race, Blames "Entrenched Forces" for Derailing His Senate Nomination
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Platner’s Conspiracy-Laden, Bitter Farewell washingtonmonthly.com/2026/07/08/p...
washingtonmonthly.com
Platner’s Conspiracy-Laden, Bitter Farewell
Platner Drops Out of U.S. Senate Race, Blames "Entrenched Forces" for Derailing His Senate Nomination
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Bill Scher @billscher.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
“Vermont is, I think, pretty close to Maine, and it managed to elect…Bernie Sanders, just fine, just like the voters in the Bronx and Boulder who fueled socialist victories in June. There’s no sinister conspiracy against Platner…” — @mattizcoop.bsky.social washingtonmonthly.com/2026/07/08/p...
washingtonmonthly.com
Platner’s Conspiracy-Laden, Bitter Farewell
Platner Drops Out of U.S. Senate Race, Blames "Entrenched Forces" for Derailing His Senate Nomination
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Jason Rabinowitz @airlineflyer.net · 05/07/2026
A $3 @mta.info subway fare and some good Q train timing can buy you one hell of a view of the July 4th fireworks and the Brooklyn Bridge light show! Huge shoutout to the train operator for slow rolling over the Manhattan Bridge and the conductor for announcing it.
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Anne S Kim @anne-s-kim.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
My piece today for @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social's weekly roundup talked about the narrowing vision of who belongs in America. Almost immediately, I got this email through my website (screenshot below), thereby proving my point. Happy 250, America.... open.substack.com/pub/washingt...
Screenshot of an email with an anti-Asian racial slur.
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Jack Rakove @jrakove.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
My thoughts on the day. I'd have liked the simpler title, "Is It the Fourth?" But editors get their own say on that. I do think that the close of Winthrop's sermon aboard the Arbella in 1630 sounds the right counterpoint to the aspirations of the Declaration. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/07/04/i...
washingtonmonthly.com
Independence Day, From Jefferson to Reagan to Trump
The 47th president has smashed norms, enriched himself, and even bungled cleaning the Reflecting Pool. But July 4 still survives.
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Washington Monthly @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Don't read Nicholas Lemann's "Returning" as a Jewish book, @mattizcoop.bsky.social writes, but as an American one: how, in a free country, we choose to wear our identities, and how the majority culture pushes back. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/06/11/t...
washingtonmonthly.com
The Return of the Native
Nicholas Lemann’s family history illuminates what it means to be Jewish in America and explains how we choose our identities.
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Corby Kummer @ckummer.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Anyone with an instinctive dislike and suspicion of ultra-processed foods powerful new ammunition--a landmark special issue of @apha.org's Journal with eye-opening research led by Kelly Brownell and @aspenfood.bsky.social's Food Leaders Fellow Lee Miller. ajph.aphapublications.org/ultraprocess...
ajph.aphapublications.org
AJPH
American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) from the American Public Health Association (APHA)
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Antisemitism—Left, Right, and Growing washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/31/a...
washingtonmonthly.com
Antisemitism—Left, Right, and Growing
Criticism of Israel and its conduct is fair game. Conspiratorial delusions about Zionism are just antisemitism.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Five Big Changes Coming to Higher Education This Summer washingtonmonthly.com/2026/06/01/c...
washingtonmonthly.com
Five Big Changes Coming to Higher Education This Summer
If you have federal student loans—or plan to take them out—here’s what you need to know about the biggest changes to financial aid in decades.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Could the Tide Be Turning in Ukraine? washingtonmonthly.com/2026/06/01/c...
washingtonmonthly.com
Could the Tide Be Turning in Ukraine?
Kyiv’s growing long-range strike capacity showcases its growing military might and determination to end dependence on Western allies.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
The French Rejection washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/26/t...
washingtonmonthly.com
The French Rejection
If Macron’s defense spending debate is any indication, a “European NATO” is neither around the corner nor on the horizon
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Frank Figliuzzi @frankfigliuzzi.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
While we slept the DOJ deleted all press releases about charges against January 6 defendants: www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...
nbcnews.com
Justice Department deletes press releases on charges against Jan. 6 rioters
The Justice Department confirmed that it had deleted the press releases as part of “stripping DOJ’s website of partisan propaganda.”
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Washington Monthly @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Barney Frank's near political end in a sex scandal is a reminder of why Congress should pause before forcing members to resign, @mattizcoop.bsky.social writes.
washingtonmonthly.com
Be Thankful Barney Frank Wasn’t Pushed Out in 1989
Barney Frank’s near-expulsion in 1989 reminds us why Congress should punish misconduct carefully, and let voters decide when possible.
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Jill Lawrence @jilldlawrence.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Wise words and perspective on Barney Frank from my cousin @mattizcoop.bsky.social. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/21/b...
washingtonmonthly.com
Be Thankful Barney Frank Wasn’t Pushed Out in 1989
Barney Frank’s near-expulsion in 1989 reminds us why Congress should punish misconduct carefully, and let voters decide when possible.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
The @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social ran a cover story by the late Ted Turner, decrying monopolies. Timely still. RIP. My Beef With Big Media by Ted Turner. washingtonmonthly.com/2004/07/30/m...
washingtonmonthly.com
My Beef With Big Media
How government protects big media — and shuts out upstarts like me.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Precisely. The system seems to have worked. We’ll learn more as inquiries proceed.
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
All the details of this story back up my quick morning analysis: The security system worked exactly as designed. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/a-quick-an...
doomsdayscenario.co
A quick analysis of last night's shooting
So far, it appears the system worked as intended.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Trump’s Iranian Gambit: It Didn't Have to Come to This washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/28/t...
washingtonmonthly.com
Trump’s Iranian Gambit: It Didn't Have to Come to This
The president scuttled the Obama-era agreement to limit Iran's nuclear program, leaving us blind and with few allies.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
My tribute to Suzannah Lessard. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/03/04/t...
washingtonmonthly.com
The Architect of Empathy: Suzannah Lessard (1944-2026)
Our Suzannah Lessard, a celebrated author and progeny of Stanford White, had a tumultuous upbringing and a nuanced moral imagination.
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Washington Monthly @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Suzannah Lessard, one of the first editors of the Washington Monthly, died in January at age 81. @mattizcoop.bsky.social writes in memoriam.
washingtonmonthly.com
The Architect of Empathy: Suzannah Lessard (1944-2026)
Our Suzannah Lessard, a celebrated author and progeny of Stanford White, had a tumultuous upbringing and a nuanced moral imagination.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Trump’s Iran Strike: What It Says About Russia—and Us washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/28/t...
washingtonmonthly.com
Trump’s Iran Strike: What It Says About Russia—and Us
If Russia were stronger, this never would have happened. If Trump weren’t so authoritarian, he might not have risked it.
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Bill Scher @billscher.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
NEW @mattizcoop.bsky.social in @washingtonmonthly.com “sticking with the JCPOA … would have made sense. We’d still have our allies. We wouldn’t be alone, save for Israel.” washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/28/t...
washingtonmonthly.com
Trump’s Iranian Gambit: It Didn't Have to Come to This
The president scuttled the Obama-era agreement to limit Iran's nuclear program, leaving us blind and with few allies.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Me in the @washingtonmonthly.com washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/28/t...
washingtonmonthly.com
Trump’s Iranian Gambit: It Didn't Have to Come to This
The president scuttled the Obama-era agreement to limit Iran's nuclear program, leaving us blind and with few allies.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Terrific from @garrettepps.bsky.social in the @washingtonmonthly.com Amnesty Transactional washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/14/a...
washingtonmonthly.com
Amnesty Transactional
Donald Trump has stretched the pardon power beyond any precedent, turning a constitutional safeguard into a tool of personal abuse.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
"Venezuela and the Dawn of the Don-roe Doctrine." Very smart take from @markoskounalakis.com in the @washingtonmonthly.com washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/03/t...
washingtonmonthly.com
Venezuela and the Dawn of the Don-roe Doctrine
The U.S. assault on Venezuela and ouster of its president was a military success. But now for the hard part.
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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 03/01/2026
Bill Martin has been one of the most beloved and influential figures in the movement to retell Richmond's story. Over the weekend, he was struck by a vehicle and killed. His sudden loss has brought an outpouring of grief and shock from the community.
washingtonpost.com
He exposed the myth of the South’s ‘Lost Cause.’ His death shook Richmond.
William “Bill” Martin, 71, died Sunday, Dec. 28, a day after being struck by a car near the Valentine local history museum where he had served as director more than 30 years.
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Matthew Cooper @mattizcoop.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Lot in here from @justinbaragona.bsky.social including call sheets from next week’s unveiling of the new CBS Evening News.
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Peter M. Shane @petermshane.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
Not that I'm expecting it, but I explain in Washington Monthly why upholding Congress's power to create independent multimember agencies could coexist with the Roberts Court's other holdings on POTUS removal power and would enhance the Court's legitimacy. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/02/s...
washingtonmonthly.com
Save Humphrey’s Executor. Save the Supreme Court (Sort Of)
Overturning Humphrey’s Executor would gut independent agencies. The Supreme Court still has a principled way out.
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Washington Monthly @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
A modest proposal for how the justices can do the right thing and be true to themselves as they decide the fate of independent agencies. From @petermshane.bsky.social: washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/02/s...
washingtonmonthly.com
Save Humphrey’s Executor. Save the Supreme Court (Sort Of)
Overturning Humphrey’s Executor would gut independent agencies. The Supreme Court still has a principled way out.
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Paul Glastris @glastris.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
China’s predatory economy is the problem. Uniting with our allies to fight back is the only sensible response. Instead, Trump is undermining our allies, and hence we are losing. There was an alternative. /1 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/b...
nytimes.com
China’s Trade Surplus Climbs Past $1 Trillion for First Time
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Washington Monthly @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
On our podcast, @mattizcoop.bsky.social and @anne-s-kim.bsky.social go behind the scenes with Angela Kuefler, the pollster who helped engineer the historic victories of governors-elect Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill. washingtonmonthly.com/2025/12/03/h...
washingtonmonthly.com
How Democrats Won Virginia and New Jersey
The affordability message, national-security branding, and anti-Trump strategy that powered Spanberger and Sherrill to double-digit wins.
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