uncle bernard

She's a quack that has spent time as a direct advisor to Trump, the guy who is doing all this.

@jross just a harmless joke about feeding immigrants to alligators. nothing to see here. Take a look at this one: 65 million just so happens to be the entire Latino population of the US. Not illegal immigrants, but Latinos in general. This person has a personal relationship to Trump and she's openly joking about feeding an entire ethnic group to alligators. But yeah, the merch is all about "supporting policy."

And I didn't say everyone who buys it takes joy in pain. Just that those people are the intended audience.

The line was in the NY Post - a conservative paper.

Agree to disagree. I very much think the merchandise is geared to those who take joy in the deportations.

Do prisons usually produce their own merchandise? I'm not saying it's illegal. I just think it's extremely distasteful and clearly meant to rile up the base over deportations. The risk here is dehumanizing the people getting deported. You may think it's funny and cool to rep the "Alligator Alcatraz" shirt, but it's not funny to the person whose Grandma just got sent there. Just a matter of class. It's possible to believe in the deportation policy and not feel ecstatic joy at people getting their American Dream shattered.

Yes, that's what I'm saying. I admitted I was wrong and took ownership.

I read an article (in the Post or Times) that said that. Glad to hear they were wrong! As long as they are moving people through quickly, then I agree it is not a concentration camp. However, the merchandise being sold is extremely distasteful. Most of the people being deported are good people going through the worst time of their life. We shouldn't be celebrating that, even if you think it's right (not accusing you personally at all). Edit: It was this article and I slightly misread, so owning that. https://nypost.com/2025/07/01/us-news/first-photos-from-inside-alligator-alcatraz-reveal-bleak-digs-for-up-to-5000-migrants/ Here's the sentence: Opponents have slammed the scheme as inhumane, with one X user comparing footage of the site to “a concentration camp” and adding that they couldn’t see any air conditioning or vents inside the facility. coupled with: But government officials insist the site will have 24/7 air conditioning to survive the sweltering Florida heat and humidity. In the context of slightly misreading the first, I interpreted "will have" as "does not currently have." It's unclear whether those accusations are founded or not. Never say I'm not willing to admit I'm wrong!

There is debate whether it is air conditioned. Many observers had said it's not. Trump admin has said it *will* have AC which is not the same as it *does* have AC.

This should be obvious, but: The assumption that every Jew in the world supports and has an unbreakable alliance to the State of Israel is incredibly antisemitic. Jews don't have "dual loyalty." That's the oldest antisemitic trope in existence. No ethnic group is a hive mind. There is tremendous diversity of belief among the Jewish community. You'd think that, arguably, the sitting American politician most critical of Israel is himself Jewish would help people understand that.

I specifically said he doesn't condemn it, and he doesn't on free speech grounds (which Conservatives are supposed to support). "Intifada" is just the arabic word for "uprising." Until a year ago, it was the word the Holocaust Museum used to describe the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in their arabic translations. Like many words, it means different things to different people, and it's not the job of the NYC mayor, or any politician, to police speech in this country. He has said explicitly that he does not use the term himself and that Israel has a right to exist as a state with equal rights. His support among Jewish voters reflects his support among all voters - if you're young, you likely support him. The full numbers won't be clear for a bit, but estimates show he got 20% of the Jewish vote, most of it young. There's a pretty good chance based on those numbers, he won the majority of Jewish voters under 35. Young Jews have very different views on Israel than their parents and grandparents. It's not above criticism for them, and many feel the conflation of *all Jews* with Israel is itself anti-semitic. Most Jews in the world are not Israeli, yet so many people conflate the two without thinking. For his support among Jewish voters: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/democrats-americas-jewish-city-embraced-critic-israel-new-123316532 "Mamdani's success reflects the ideological realignment of many American Jews since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel that led to Israel's invasion of Gaza. Many Democratic voters, including Jews, have grown dismayed by Israel’s conduct in the war and are deeply critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That is especially true among younger, more progressive voters, many of whom have rejected the once-broadly accepted notion that anti-Israel sentiment is inherently antisemitic." "Aiyana Leong Knauer, a 35-year-old Brooklyn bartender who is Jewish and backed Mamdani, said the vote represented “New Yorkers, many of them Jewish, saying we care more about having an affordable city than sowing division.” “Many of us take really deep offense to our history being weaponized against us,” she said. “Jewish people all over the world have well-founded fears for their safety, but Jews in New York are safe overall.”"

Yeah, they're packing thousands of people, many of whom haven't had due process, into a camp full of cages in the middle of Florida summer. Generally, when you pack thousands of people into a camp for a political purpose (the majority of these people have committed the equivalent of a speeding ticket), while using it for political show, producing merchandise and making a joke about prisoners being eaten by alligators, yeah...I think that qualifies as a concentration camp. Like everything with Trump, the cruelty of the spectacle is the point. They could accomplish these mass deportations in a much more humane way (he still hasn't deported as many people as Obama), but the whole point is that his base gets off on the cruelty. You enjoy seeing people you don't like suffer.

"sometimes"

a place where large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities, sometimes to provide forced labor or to await mass execution. The term is most strongly associated with the several hundred camps established by the Nazis in Germany and occupied Europe in 1933–45, among the most infamous being Dachau, Belsen, and Auschwitz. All death camps are concentration camps, but not all concentration camps are death camps. The term concentration camp originates from the Boer Wars in South Africa where the English interned thousands of Boer civilians in guarded camps. They did not carry out mass executions, but many died from disease in the camps. A more appropriate comparison would be the Japanese internment camps during WWII. It's a mass detention camp, guarded by soldiers and barbed wire, with very unclear legal processes at play within. It's a very clear cut example of a concentration camp according to the actual definition. For most Americans, the concept of "concentration camps" is so strongly associated with the Nazi's that they aren't aware of the difference between a concentration camp and a death camp. This is not Auschwitz, but it's still a concentration camp.

He has tremendous support amongst young jews. He comes out of a political organization that is heavily jewish. He’s also never said a bad thing about jews. The mainstream party and media are being very slippery about this. They are trying to make him answer for what *other people* have said to make voters associate him with positions he doesn’t hold. He’s maintained that Israel has a right to exist as a state with equal rights. He’s said antisemitism is a major problem that needs to be addressed. He does not use the phrase “globalize the intifada.” All he’s said is he wouldn’t ban the phrase because it means different things to different people and the NYC mayor’s job is not to police speech. I’d love to see our 1A supporters on here explain why that’s wrong.

1 billion is 1000x more than 1 million, so no.

liquid IV or pedialyte will help with that hangover in the morning grandpa.

Where did he advocate the burning of "white biz"? The business that burned down wasn't even white-owned.

Are you coming out as a white supremacist?

Since I know it will come up in this thread his position on Israel is that it has a right to exist as a state with equal rights. Should be pretty non-controversial, but have fun arguing against it.

Been in NYC all week. Fantastic city. You’d think it was a warzone based on the way conservatives describe it. Mamdani won because he actually believes in something and presents a positive worldview that treats people equally regardless of race or religion.

you’ve created an entire world in your head that doesn’t exist

sorry i left you out. you definitely belong to the group described.

Anti-War Conservative: Against every war except the current one. I support complete nuclear disarmament, but that won't happen. The world would probably be safer if Iran had a nuke. Iran certainly would be. Number one lesson of the 21st century: You're only safe from the USA as long as you have a nuke. Ask Gaddafi.

a very moving portrait of @Scouts Honor and @Caveira as well.