Alligator Alcatraz Isn't Just a Prison. It's a Mirror. And It's Asking Us: Who Are We, Really? [View all]

[babylonsister]

Alligator Alcatraz Isn’t Just a Prison. It’s a Mirror. And It’s Asking Us: Who Are We, Really?
by Thom Hartmann | July 3, 2025 - 5:47am

— from The Hartmann Report


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Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” (aka the “GOP Donor Fellatio Act”) contains a 13-fold increase in ICE’s budget, turning it into the largest single (secret, masked) police force in America, along with, in aggregate, close to $100 billion to build a new series of “detention facilities” all across America.

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What’s being built in the Florida Everglades, for example — what they’re calling “Alligator Alcatraz” — is not just another immigration facility. It’s a political prison engineered not merely to detain, but to humiliate, dehumanize, and broadcast terror.

It’s America’s first open-air symbol that our democracy is not just dying: it is being dissected publicly, cruelly, and with calculation.

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It’s surrounded by dense marshland, home to pythons and alligators.

“Let them try to escape,” Trump smirked at a recent rally. “They better know how to run from an alligator.”

This isn’t just cruelty. It’s performance. It’s state-sponsored sadism, broadcast as patriotism. DeSantis and Trump are now competing in a bizarre effort to show who can be more cruel.

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http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/thom-hartmann/114274/alligator-alcatraz-isn-t-just-a-prison-it-s-a-mirror-and-it-s-asking-us-who-are-we-really