Alligator Alcatraz: High Name Recognition, Low Approval Among Florida Voters

Pensito Editors

Alligator Alcatraz (ABC News)

In advertising, a catchy name makes all the difference, and so it is with Alligator Alcatraz, Florida’s newest and cruelest immigration detention center located on the edge of the Everglades.

A new poll by the Florida Communications and Research Hub found very high name recognition for the migrant center that opened in July, with 89% of respondents saying they were aware of the facility and 45% saying they had heard “a lot” about it.

But about 43% of respondents held a negative view of the center — 35% strongly negative. That compares to 34% who like the project and just 18% who strongly favor it.

Unsurprisingly, Republicans are more likely to approve of the detention center, with about 56% of GOP respondents having a positive view and 32% expressing strong support. About one in five GOP voters holds an unfavorable view.

Also unsurprisingly, 74% of Democrats view the center unfavorably, with 65% strongly disliking it.

About 47% of voters unaffiliated with either party view it unfavorably, compared to 32% who approve.

Predictably, Republicans and Democrats say they have heard different coverage of the facility. About 22% of Republicans say most of what they have heard about Alligator Alcatraz was positive, while 46% said the coverage was mixed. But 65% of Democrats and 43% of unaffiliated voters say the coverage they remember has been mostly negative.

Blue Rose Research surveyed more than 3,200 voters in web panels July 25-27. Pollsters report a 1.7% margin of error in the results.

Trump’s Magical Maths

Buck Banks

Pensito Illustration

We know Donald Trump plays fast and loose with the facts,
But it seems he’s added “fantastical figures” to his lying act.
He’s going to lower drug prices by 1,500 percent,
Which means we’ll get paid to take free medicaments.
Trump’s concept of pricing and percentages is — to be kind — “inexact.”

Our Fascist Idiocracy: July 31, 2025

Pensito Editors
“Sentence first – verdict afterwards!”

Off with their heads! Self-avowed white nationalist Laura Loomer, the former internet troll, has become a self-appointed shadow personnel director for the Trump regime. On Tuesday, she targeted Jen Easterly’s West Point appointment, accusing the former Biden official of betraying Trump, conveniently omitting Easterly’s Bush-era résumé. Later that day, she bragged about ousting FDA vaccine chief Vinay Prasad — despite his ties to RFK Jr.’s MAHA movement. Prasad’s real crime? Insufficient fealty to Trump.

Cruelty is the point. MAGA South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace says she enjoys binge-watching videos of Trump’s ICE goons kidnapping gardeners, fruit stand vendors and hospital workers, shoving them into vans and disappearing them into concentration camps. Interviewed on Fox, she said “I can think of nothing more American today … and we all have Donald J. Trump to thank for it.”

Replacement theory. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has been quietly hijacked by anti-DEI crusaders now cosplaying as equity champions. Current and former staff describe the new leadership as white, male and thoroughly uninterested in civil rights — aside from weaponizing the term against itself. One ex-supervisor summed it up: “They’re just white, straight, male DEI hires.” MAGA has exhumed Jim Crow and set him free inside the DOE.

What was he doing to the horse? Ultra-MAGA huckster Rep. Tim Burchett showed up to the Campbell County Rotary Club nursing a busted rib after being kicked by a horse. He started his remarks with an attempt at levity: “I broke a rib, spent a little quality time in the hospital. I remember when they wheeled me in, I told the staff that was very attentive, I said, to quote Ronald Reagan when he got shot, ‘I hope all y’all are Republicans.’ They all laughed, and I tried not to laugh to try to keep from crying.”

She learned from the worst. Among his many bad traits, Donald Trump is notorious for not paying his bills – particularly the charges he racks up while campaigning in small cities across the country. Turns out his chief spokesliar followed his lead during her own failed campaign for office. Karoline Leavitt, now White House press secretary, left her failed 2022 campaign buried under $326K in debt — most of it stemming from illegal donations she hasn’t returned. Her committee, Karoline for Congress, hasn’t raised a nickel in months, and the FEC confirms she burned through the cash long ago. OpenSecrets reports there’s nothing left.

Democracy dying in darkness. The U.S. just landed on a global rights watchlist, thanks to Trump-era crackdowns that echo El Salvador and Kenya. A report by the international non-profit Civicus cites military showdowns with protesters, censorship creep targeting journalists, and Palestine-related activist witch hunts. The country’s civic space? Officially “narrowed”—a polite euphemism for “democracy on life support.” International watchdogs now lump the U.S. in with authoritarian peers.