Sign in

matthewlarson11.bsky.social

@matthewlarson11.bsky.social
329 followers 370 following 0 posts
PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Paul Graf @paulginva.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
This is the most articulate and impactful piece I've read regarding the Pentagon's planned livestreamed execution of Nidel Hasan. Please read it.
The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket

WE COUNT THE ENEMIES WE KILL. WE RARELY COUNT THE ONES WE CREATE.

Nidal Hasan was a patient on my floor in the surgical trauma ICU at Brooke Army Medical Center.

I wasn't there when he arrived. I had just left for my deployment to Mosul, Iraq. But the nurses and doctors who cared for him were my peers and my friends, and I know exactly what that required of them, because every one of us had done some version of it before. Before anyone tells me what strength looks like, understand what that work demands.

I have cared for a drunk driver who wiped out an entire family and landed in our ICU himself. I have cared for gang members who shot up a block while children were stepping off a school bus, then ended up on our unit with bullets of their own. I have kept alive people who murdered their own families and failed at taking their own lives. And in Iraq, I saved the lives of the very enemy fighters who had just tried to kill us and miraculously survived our response.

Every one of those patients got our best. Not because we felt anything for them, but because of who we were. You set aside anger, grief, prejudice and every personal feeling you have, because a life in front of you is a life in front of you. That's the oath. That's the duty.

So when Hasan came through those doors, my colleagues did what we had always done. They preserved the life of a man who murdered thirteen people and would have killed them too, given the chance. He killed those men and women in one of the very same buildings many Soldier's like myself have been in when I was stationed at Fort Hood.

He is alive today because they did their jobs. That was not sentiment. It was a hard, tangible expression of the values this country claims to stand for. Our principles had to mean something even when the person benefiting from them had violated everything we believed in.Now the Pentagon plans to livestream his execution by firing squad on Dec. 3, and our leaders apparently believe turning his death into a public spectacle will demonstrate American strength. I think it demonstrates how little they understand the enemy they claim to be fighting. We kept Nidal Hasan alive, now our leaders want to make him a martyr.

Hasan walked into Fort Hood expecting to die. He believed his death would be rewarded. At his trial, he called no witnesses and offered no defense, and his own court-appointed lawyers worried he was seeking execution. He failed at martyrdom once. Now we're about to hand it to him, in high definition, for every extremist with an internet connection to replay, manipulate and celebrate.

We supply the footage. They supply the meaning.

Long after the politicians finish congratulating themselves, that video will still exist. Their moment of bravado becomes somebody else's recruiting material for decades. And this failure to think past the immediate display of power reaches far beyond one execution. We count the enemies we kill. We rarely count the enemies we create.

Look at the school in Minab, Iran, where multiple investigations attributed the strike that killed more than 100 children and their teachers to us. You cannot bury people's children beneath the rubble of their classrooms and expect a speech about American intentions to decide how they remember you. No denial brings those children home. No claim of good intentions makes their parents forget whose weapons killed them.If those were our children, we would remember for the rest of our lives.

We would demand accountability. Many of us would want vengeance.

We would tell their stories to the next generation. We know this because we did exactly that after September 11.

Why do we imagine other people love their children less, grieve less deeply, or remember less clearly?

We have developed a horrifying talent for creating more terrorists than we will ever stop. We inflict suffering, evade responsibility, and then act as though the anger that follows came out of nowhere.

Think back to the first time you saw one of those al Qaeda videos of an American being beheaded. Remember the sickness in your stomach.

Remember the rage. Remember thinking that only savages would film a killing and send it out for the world to watch. Now ask yourself what the rest of the world will see when the camera is ours.

Terrorist organizations stage executions for the cameras. Authoritarian regimes make death a public spectacle to feed fear and rage. Watching our own leaders reach for those same tools should force us to confront how much of ourselves we are surrendering in the name of defeating them.

The line separating us from the people we condemn has to live in our conduct. A flag cannot hold it for us. Neither can a uniform, a title, or a declaration that we are the good guys.

On that ICU floor, on a bloody street in Mosul, and in trauma bays across this country, people like my colleagues hold that line every day under circumstances most will never face. They keep monsters alive because their duty and their humanity are bigger than their hatred of what those monsters have done.Execute him if that's the sentence. But do it the way a confident nation does; quietly, lawfully, and without giving him the stage he always wanted. Let him be forgotten.

I expect our leaders to show at least as much discipline as the nurses who had to care for him.

They keep telling us they are defending what makes America different. Every day, they make that difference harder to see.

Robert W. Burns III is the editor and publisher of The Space Coast Rocket, an Army veteran and a retired trauma nurse. The views expressed in this column are his own.

CBS News @CBSNews

The U.S. military plans to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, the ex-Army major who was convicted of the 2009 killing of 13 people at Fort Hood, when he faces a firing squad on Dec. 3, a Pentagon official said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier Thursday the Pentagon planned to make the execution public.

Hasan's case could mark the military's first execution of an American service member since 1961.

11:00 AM Oct 9, 2026 570.9K Views
21292135 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 11/09/2026
Okay everyone. Here’s the YouTube interview with @jimmykimmel.com and @jamestalarico.bsky.social You know what to do. Watch it. Share it. Donate. Bury them. youtu.be/WLDE9LrGpNk?...
youtu.be
Jimmy Kimmel’s Interview with James Talarico That the FCC Doesn’t Want You To See
YouTube video by Jimmy Kimmel Live
4541897711181 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Amen to all this!! 👍👍👍
11769332427 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Matt Mitovich @mattmitovich.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Trent Crimm got OWNED.
1146 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Ricky Davila @therickydavila.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
President Obama couldn’t create a healthcare program without full scale condemnation. President Biden couldn’t forgive student debt without calls for him to be prosecuted. The orange felon covers up child sex crimes and bombs other countries and republicans are pleased.
291173410 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Wajahat Ali @wajali.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Every major talent that works for ABC and Disney should refuse to show up for work until Jimmy Kimmel is reinstated. Marvel movies need to shutdown. Ditto the sitcoms. Collective boycott. Corporations love money more than anything,& this will harm them and force them to do the right thing.
1075239107129 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
CAKE @thebandcake.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
A little math about that prison camp in Florida. $450 million per year for 3,000 people is $150,000/person per year.
The cost for one person receiving SNAP for one year is $2256, yet they're telling us that's too expensive.
threads.com/@unapologeticallyzae
815227718642 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Alex Kirshner @alexkirshner.com · 16/05/2025
this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...
Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, recently used my second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run, and that of my teammate in the 800-meter run, to malign Soren Stark-Chessa, the trans-identified athlete who finished first.

One of the reasons I chose to run cross-country and track is the community: Teammates cheering each other on, athletes from different schools coming together, and the fact that personal improvement is valued as much as, if not more than, the place we finish.

Last Friday, I ran the fastest 1,600-meter race I have ever run in middle school or high school track and earned varsity status by my school’s standards. I am extremely proud of the effort I put into the race and the time that I achieved. The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn’t diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race. I don’t feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points.

We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are.

Anelise Feldman
Freshman, Yarmouth High School
Yarmouth
357314539902 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Send it back to the states, right? Bullshit. We overturned the abortion ban at the ballot in November. I’m so sick of these jackasses. The people spoke. Move on.
31570551750 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
kevbo9 @kevbo9.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Today
0102 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Randi Mayem Singer @rmayemsinger.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
"They'll never cut Social Security" is the new "they'll never overturn Roe v Wade."
12676940018587 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
This is why you fight these cowards. The moment you stand up to them, they crumble. Homan has nothing. The Fourth Amendment is clear and I am well within my duties to educate people of their rights. He can threaten me with jail and call names all he wants. He’s got nothing else.
773714904226463 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Lincoln Arneal @lincolnvb.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Rookies and former Jayhawks took over the match for Omaha as the Supernovas earned their second sweep over Columbus during the past week. “I came in shaking. Luckily, I had Reagan and Kelsie there—my Rock Chalk girls,” first-year pro Toyosi Onabanjo said. hurrdatsports.com/omaha-supern...
hurrdatsports.com
Rookies, former Jayhawks power Supernovas to sweep over Columbus | Hurrdat Sports
Any nerves Toyosi Onabanjo had during her home debut quickly disappeared when she saw several familiar faces beside her.
091 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Godless Gardener @godlessgardener.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Let’s remove the DEI Electoral College!
321735 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
Tesla paid $0 in federal income tax last year. 2022: $0 2021: $0 2020: $0 2019: $0 2018: $0 Tesla reported $6.7 billion in profit in those years.
14015074118101 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Tesla earned $2.3 billion in the United States in 2024. You'd think it paid a lot in taxes, right? Well it paid precisely $0 in federal income taxes last year. You want waste and fraud? Look at what some big corporations and the rich are getting away with.
truthout.org
Tesla Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2024, Despite $2.3 Billion in Income
This brings Tesla’s average tax rate over the past three years to 0.4 percent.
14454740220200 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Yes, this administration is dangerous and cruel, but they are also shockingly dim and incompetent. Opportunities are everywhere. Make everything as hard as possible. Resist every demand. Refuse entry without a warrant. Don’t take the buyout. Their problem solving skills are 📉
359718808841135 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
Worth noting that McConnell refusing to whip votes to convict Trump at his impeachment trial (or vote himself to convict) is *why* we’re now in a position where Hegseth is the Defense Secretary. If McConnell is looking for the person at fault, he might want to consult a mirror.
859191873329 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
John W Dean @johnwdean.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
H/t George Conway — it’s perfect 🤣 from Olivia Julianna:
693362326356 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Your reminder that Republican billionaires rigged the Supreme Court and got away with trying to overthrow the government.
publicnotice.co
Jack Smith reminds us of the futility of truth in the Trump era
His final report closes the door on a once-hopeful investigation.
524077 0
Reposted by @matthewlarson11.bsky.social
Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
They aren’t going to find $2T in waste. They aren’t going to lower grocery prices. They aren’t going to fix immigration. They are however going to give themselves trillions in tax breaks, and pay for them by cutting Social Security and Medicare.
1311598592 0