Matt Eckel
@matteckel.bsky.social
Survey researcher, adjunct instructor (JHU), wargamer. He/him. Love DC. Would love a rep and two senators to go with it.
Inglorious Basterds treatment for the Corps of Colonial Marines, culminating with the burning of Washington.
If you were a despotic president, what movie would you force Hollywood to make? I want to see Quentin's Star Trek movie or maybe Kill Bill Vol 3.
November 25, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Inglorious Basterds treatment for the Corps of Colonial Marines, culminating with the burning of Washington.
Reposted by Matt Eckel
As I told @newrepublic.com, "Once last week, twice today, ICE has picked me up and thrown me on the ground. Honestly, it doesn’t compare to what our neighbors who are trapped inside the Broadview processing facility are going through. They’re committing crimes against humanity there."
I’m a Congressional Candidate. I Was Assaulted by ICE.
An interview with Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old Democratic House candidate in Illinois, who was violently thrown to the ground twice at a peaceful protest in Illinois on Friday morning.
newrepublic.com
September 20, 2025 at 1:40 AM
As I told @newrepublic.com, "Once last week, twice today, ICE has picked me up and thrown me on the ground. Honestly, it doesn’t compare to what our neighbors who are trapped inside the Broadview processing facility are going through. They’re committing crimes against humanity there."
Reposted by Matt Eckel
statehood for DC on demand and without apology. If you live outside the district and care about democracy, a thing you can do is to decry the actions of the federal government under Trump to senators and representatives and urge them to support statehood for DC and withdrawal of Trump's forces there
August 18, 2025 at 7:20 PM
statehood for DC on demand and without apology. If you live outside the district and care about democracy, a thing you can do is to decry the actions of the federal government under Trump to senators and representatives and urge them to support statehood for DC and withdrawal of Trump's forces there
It is very poetic that on the latest BTB from @iwriteok.bsky.social about Eichmann there’s an ad transition joking about how Mitsubishi didn’t flee Berlin at the end of the war (they were far away doing… other things) which then immediately cuts to an ad for Mercedes-Benz.
July 11, 2025 at 10:24 PM
It is very poetic that on the latest BTB from @iwriteok.bsky.social about Eichmann there’s an ad transition joking about how Mitsubishi didn’t flee Berlin at the end of the war (they were far away doing… other things) which then immediately cuts to an ad for Mercedes-Benz.
Which side are you on? youtu.be/tpTP3XCqGLA?...
Blue Highway - Union Man
YouTube video by bunsonh
youtu.be
May 2, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Which side are you on? youtu.be/tpTP3XCqGLA?...
Reposted by Matt Eckel
Just a reminder my hex-and-counter game, Arete: The Battles of Alexander the Great, is now on 3 platforms: iOS, Android, and Steam (PC and Mac)!
iOS: apps.apple.com/us/app/arete...
Android: play.google.com/store/apps/d...
Steam (PC and Mac): store.steampowered.com/app/3570700/...
iOS: apps.apple.com/us/app/arete...
Android: play.google.com/store/apps/d...
Steam (PC and Mac): store.steampowered.com/app/3570700/...
May 1, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Just a reminder my hex-and-counter game, Arete: The Battles of Alexander the Great, is now on 3 platforms: iOS, Android, and Steam (PC and Mac)!
iOS: apps.apple.com/us/app/arete...
Android: play.google.com/store/apps/d...
Steam (PC and Mac): store.steampowered.com/app/3570700/...
iOS: apps.apple.com/us/app/arete...
Android: play.google.com/store/apps/d...
Steam (PC and Mac): store.steampowered.com/app/3570700/...
I'm old enough to remember when the mainstream narrative around Obama's election was that the U.S. had become a "post-racial society."
this thing zack is quoting here is completely deranged
I was 28 in 2016 and this is an insane characterization of what growing up as a white man in my cohort was like. Demonstrative of how out-of-touch the cultural right is with actual American life www.theredneckintellectual.com/p/right-wing...
April 30, 2025 at 5:08 PM
I'm old enough to remember when the mainstream narrative around Obama's election was that the U.S. had become a "post-racial society."
People just inventing whole decades of history to get mad at, completely divorced from anything that actually happened.
I was 28 in 2016 and this is an insane characterization of what growing up as a white man in my cohort was like. Demonstrative of how out-of-touch the cultural right is with actual American life www.theredneckintellectual.com/p/right-wing...
April 30, 2025 at 5:07 PM
People just inventing whole decades of history to get mad at, completely divorced from anything that actually happened.
Reposted by Matt Eckel
I suspect that all selective universities could still break even just teaching and abandoning research. The federal money pays for research, which has expanded a lot. It would be a horrible tragedy if the money went away, and what it would mean is the end of scientific research and many hospitals.
This framing is nuts, and the assumption is that public funding for a public good is somehow untoward and illicit. “The schools took the money” and became “warily beholden to the whims of politicians in Washington.”/1
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/u...
How Universities Became So Dependent on the Federal Government
For decades, universities got billions in federal dollars for research. The relationship was mutually beneficial, until President Trump decided it wasn’t.
www.nytimes.com
April 19, 2025 at 1:57 PM
I suspect that all selective universities could still break even just teaching and abandoning research. The federal money pays for research, which has expanded a lot. It would be a horrible tragedy if the money went away, and what it would mean is the end of scientific research and many hospitals.
Reposted by Matt Eckel
Right, there's no longer interstate travel even for verifiable citizens. The Constitutional Crisis continues apace.
BREAKING: A U.S. citizen born in Georgia has been arrested for entering Georgia as an “unauthorized alien.” During a hearing in Leon County, his mother presented his birth certificate and Social Security card, but the judge said she had no authority to release him.
April 17, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Right, there's no longer interstate travel even for verifiable citizens. The Constitutional Crisis continues apace.
Reposted by Matt Eckel
vance is a detestable liar and an open enemy of the constitution. the central load bearing factual claim here is completely false and even if it wasn’t the constitution contains two explicit guarantees of due process
jd vance just tweeted this
"What process is due" the fucking constitution
"What process is due" the fucking constitution
April 16, 2025 at 3:47 AM
vance is a detestable liar and an open enemy of the constitution. the central load bearing factual claim here is completely false and even if it wasn’t the constitution contains two explicit guarantees of due process
Reposted by Matt Eckel
April 11, 2025 at 5:01 AM
Reposted by Matt Eckel
My heart goes out to every international student in the United States. Foreign students have helped make American universities the best in the world. Without them America will suffer.
April 6, 2025 at 11:33 PM
My heart goes out to every international student in the United States. Foreign students have helped make American universities the best in the world. Without them America will suffer.
Reposted by Matt Eckel
In the ancient world, there were several ways that a city could be "sacked" by hostile invaders. Not all sackings involved the city being essentially leveled as in Carthage in 146 BCE or Jerusalem in 70 BCE. My understanding is there was also the concept of a light sacking.
March 20, 2025 at 6:25 PM
In the ancient world, there were several ways that a city could be "sacked" by hostile invaders. Not all sackings involved the city being essentially leveled as in Carthage in 146 BCE or Jerusalem in 70 BCE. My understanding is there was also the concept of a light sacking.
Reposted by Matt Eckel
I have a new report out with @carnegieendowment.org on the current state of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 project, highlighting areas of achievement but with an argument for greater bottom-up accountability to curb its excesses (spending and otherwise).
carnegieendowment.org/research/202...
carnegieendowment.org/research/202...
Vision 2030 in the Home Stretch: Clear Achievements yet Limited Accountability
Vision 2030 has made undeniable progress in building a Saudi economy that can “live without oil”—but with five years to go, the program is in danger of enriching elites while overlooking the needs of ...
carnegieendowment.org
March 11, 2025 at 1:48 PM
I have a new report out with @carnegieendowment.org on the current state of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 project, highlighting areas of achievement but with an argument for greater bottom-up accountability to curb its excesses (spending and otherwise).
carnegieendowment.org/research/202...
carnegieendowment.org/research/202...
Today’s BTB from @iwriteok.bsky.social on Versailles is a lot of fun. Also reasonably sure when “Denmark” comes up it’s meant to be The Netherlands.
March 4, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Today’s BTB from @iwriteok.bsky.social on Versailles is a lot of fun. Also reasonably sure when “Denmark” comes up it’s meant to be The Netherlands.
Reposted by Matt Eckel
For MSNBC, I wrote about the JFK Library's temporary closure and what it made me realize about Trump's fixation on the Kennedys:
He's haunted by the specter of a predecessor he can never eclipse and has an animus toward anything that bears Kennedy’s name.
/1
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
He's haunted by the specter of a predecessor he can never eclipse and has an animus toward anything that bears Kennedy’s name.
/1
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
comparison.is
February 20, 2025 at 5:51 PM
For MSNBC, I wrote about the JFK Library's temporary closure and what it made me realize about Trump's fixation on the Kennedys:
He's haunted by the specter of a predecessor he can never eclipse and has an animus toward anything that bears Kennedy’s name.
/1
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
He's haunted by the specter of a predecessor he can never eclipse and has an animus toward anything that bears Kennedy’s name.
/1
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Reposted by Matt Eckel
Trump's "plan" is both depraved and unworkable paulkrugman.substack.com/p/a-belgian-...
A Belgian Congo Plan for Ukraine
Plus a conversation with Phillips O’Brien
paulkrugman.substack.com
February 19, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Trump's "plan" is both depraved and unworkable paulkrugman.substack.com/p/a-belgian-...
Reposted by Matt Eckel
Can't say I'm exactly loving how very closely and specifically the mismanagement of Mars in it is paralleling the governance of my own country right now, but the current season of @mikeduncan.bsky.social's Revolutions, on the Martian Revolution of the 23rd century, just keeps getting better.
February 18, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Can't say I'm exactly loving how very closely and specifically the mismanagement of Mars in it is paralleling the governance of my own country right now, but the current season of @mikeduncan.bsky.social's Revolutions, on the Martian Revolution of the 23rd century, just keeps getting better.
Reposted by Matt Eckel
It is true that grifters and kooks introduced some unreasonable language and norms into liberal spaces, that you can find examples of this going back decades, even during the Civil Rights Movement, and that centrists intentionally sensationalizing this over the last decade has damaged the country.
The phenomenon of “leftist language policing” is 99% a product of centrists whining about it constantly. I almost never encounter it in real life and requests for vocabulary updates are typically non-binding guidelines for formal written documents.
This take is worth what you paid for it, but I think the language policing stuff has outsized political significance.
February 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM
It is true that grifters and kooks introduced some unreasonable language and norms into liberal spaces, that you can find examples of this going back decades, even during the Civil Rights Movement, and that centrists intentionally sensationalizing this over the last decade has damaged the country.
Reposted by Matt Eckel
OWNED is out today. The result of years of research into tech, media, the right, it traces how billionaires like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Marc Andreessen have used their wealth to influence the media to their ends.
I hope you check it out
I hope you check it out
Owned
A “devastating” (Nation) examination of how a cabal of tech-billionaires is colluding with once-idealistic journalists to create an entirely new media ...
www.boldtypebooks.com
February 4, 2025 at 2:06 PM
OWNED is out today. The result of years of research into tech, media, the right, it traces how billionaires like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Marc Andreessen have used their wealth to influence the media to their ends.
I hope you check it out
I hope you check it out
Reposted by Matt Eckel
Bummer for Eoin that his book on reactionary tech billionaires buying up media isn't more timely. If only it were "highly relevant" or "part of an unfolding and constantly worsening nightmare" you'd probably consider it an urgent read and preorder at this link. Oh, well. Too bad.
Final stretch and we're going to try to bump those preorders up even more—use the code for 20% off OWNED if you order today or tomorrow!
Only through the Hachette site: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/eoin-...
Only through the Hachette site: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/eoin-...
February 3, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Bummer for Eoin that his book on reactionary tech billionaires buying up media isn't more timely. If only it were "highly relevant" or "part of an unfolding and constantly worsening nightmare" you'd probably consider it an urgent read and preorder at this link. Oh, well. Too bad.
Reposted by Matt Eckel
Friends just shared this with me
January 30, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Friends just shared this with me
Reposted by Matt Eckel
The thing about “patriotic education” is that if you have to lie about America to love it then you probably don’t really love it. Ultimately their objection to the flawed universalism expressed in the declaration is the idea that the flaws were bad or that the universalism should be realized.
January 30, 2025 at 12:21 AM
The thing about “patriotic education” is that if you have to lie about America to love it then you probably don’t really love it. Ultimately their objection to the flawed universalism expressed in the declaration is the idea that the flaws were bad or that the universalism should be realized.
Reposted by Matt Eckel
"A broad group of prominent national and local Jewish organizations has sent a letter to President Donald Trump voicing stern opposition to his immigration policies and urging him to abandon plans for what they describe as “widespread persecution of immigrants.”
religionnews.com/2025/01/27/i...
religionnews.com/2025/01/27/i...
In letter, Jewish groups urge Trump not to enact 'widespread persecution of immigrants'
(RNS) — 'Please do not enact policies that would turn places of solace into places of fear,' the letter reads.
religionnews.com
January 28, 2025 at 5:13 PM
"A broad group of prominent national and local Jewish organizations has sent a letter to President Donald Trump voicing stern opposition to his immigration policies and urging him to abandon plans for what they describe as “widespread persecution of immigrants.”
religionnews.com/2025/01/27/i...
religionnews.com/2025/01/27/i...