Matthew Cooper

@mattizcoop.bsky.social

Executive Editor-Digital at Washington Monthly Journalist, Human

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/

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.

braddelong.substack.com

“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...

Platner’s Conspiracy-Laden, Bitter Farewell

Platner Drops Out of U.S. Senate Race, Blames "Entrenched Forces" for Derailing His Senate Nomination

washingtonmonthly.com

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.

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...

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.

washingtonmonthly.com