In an unheroic age, Putin, Trump and Netanyahu are sick parodies of great men | Simon Tisdall | The Guardian

Today, three contemporary anti-heroes command global history-altering influence. Their messianic views, immense egos, disregard for truth, joylessness and cold-hearted inhumanity single them out as headline hooligans of an unheroic age. Step forward Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump – the riders of the storm, the three witches of a hexed, unhappy, warring world.

Then there is Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister. His insistence on keeping occupation troops in Gaza is blocking a ceasefire deal. Last week, he launched a lethal “re-invasion” of the West Bank. He aches to invade Lebanon, too. More than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died in Gaza since the 7 October Hamas massacres. Like Putin, Netanyahu is accused of crimes against humanity.

Trump, the US presidential hopeful, is a different kind of monster, one who tried to murder American democracy. He prefers ducking out to invading, as in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Venezuela and North Korea. Trump won’t stand with Europe, Nato, Ukraine, Japan or Taiwan. But he’s a killer all the same, witness his 2020 assassination of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani. Trump was re-indicted last week for his 6 January 2021 coup attempt.

All three lie habitually, careless of honesty or honour. They exploit biased media, thrive off corrupt practices and employ bully pulpit rhetoric to get their way. Like ranting demagogues of old, Trump can skilfully rally a rabble. Netanyahu just shouts and threatens. Putin tends to smirk, snarl and snivel and hide when things go wrong, as in the region of Kursk right now…

Source: In an unheroic age, Putin, Trump and Netanyahu are sick parodies of great men | Simon Tisdall | The Guardian

‘This was a terrible idea’: the incident that broke Republicans’ DeSantis fever | Ron DeSantis | The Guardian

In the end, it wasn’t culture war feuding over restricting LGBTQ+ rights, thwarting Black voters or vilifying immigrants that finally broke Republicans’ DeSantis fever in Florida.

Nor was it his rightwing takeover of higher education, the banning of books from school libraries, his restriction of drag shows, or passive assent of neo-Nazis parading outside Disney World waving flags bearing the extremist governor’s name that caused them to finally stand up to him.

It was, instead, a love of vulnerable Florida scrub jays; a passion to preserve threatened gopher tortoises; and above all a unanimous desire to speak up for nature in defiance of Ron DeSantis’s mind-boggling plan to pave over thousands of unspoiled acres at nine state parks and erect 350-room hotels, golf courses and pickleball courts.

The outcry when DeSantis’s department of environmental protection (DEP) unveiled its absurdly named Great Outdoors Initiative last week was immediate, overwhelming and unprecedented. The Republican Florida senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott penned a joint letter slamming an “absolutely ridiculous” proposal to build a golf course at Jonathan Dickinson state park in Martin county. The Republican congressman Brian Mast, usually a reliable DeSantis ally, said it would happen “over my dead body”.

Scores of Republican state congress members and senators, whose achievements during the more than five years since DeSantis was elected governor have been largely limited to rubber-stamping his hard-right agenda, lined up to denounce the projects. Many noted the plans had been drawn up in secret, with no-bid contracts destined for mysteriously pre-chosen developers outside the requirements of Florida law.

Thousands of environmental advocates and activists swamped multiple state parks on Tuesday in a day of action to protest against not only the ravaging of broad swathes of wildlife habitat, but DeSantis’s lack of transparency and intention to limit public comment to only one hour at each state park during meetings that would be held simultaneously.

By Wednesday, DeSantis’s initiative was in effect dead, as the governor, clearly chastened by the unexpected all-quarters challenge to his previously unquestioned authority, furiously back-pedaled at an awkward press conference in Winter Haven.

“They’re going back to the drawing board,” he said of plans he conceded were “half-baked” and “not ready for prime time”.

Desperately trying to pin blame elsewhere for a misadventure that was very demonstrably his own, he continued: “This is something that was leaked. It was not approved by me, I never saw that. It was intentionally leaked to a leftwing group to try and create a narrative.”

His implausible comment denying accountability hung out to dry his own inner circle, notably his communications director, Bryan Griffin, who barely a week earlier was enthusing on X about an “exciting new initiative of the State of Florida … expanding visitor capacity, lodging, and recreation options in state parks”.

Source: ‘This was a terrible idea’: the incident that broke Republicans’ DeSantis fever | Ron DeSantis | The Guardian

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