First off, our Kartik Krishnaiyer has written a piece on Governor DeSantis for The New Republic, one of the premier political & policy publications in the US for generations. Check it out.

With Vladimir Putin threatening, not only escalation of the war in Ukraine, but annexation of large swaths of internationally recognized Ukrainian territory, now is not the time to go wobbly. But increasingly, fears are abound that the US could in fact go wobbly in its support for Ukraine if the GOP gains a congressional majority in the November elections.

In every single vote for Ukrainian assistance to this point, an increasing number of GOPers have voted against the proposed packages. This is augmented by GOPers around the country increasingly scoffing at support for Ukraine, claiming that money should go to the southern border or some other effort. As Tucker Carlson and other pro-Russian forces on the right and far left converge in creating an “anti, anti-Putin” narrative (basically this attacks Russia’s opponents, be it Ukraine, NATO, President Biden, whomever, without defending Putin or Russia) the danger could not be greater. Concerns are legitimate that a Kevin McCarthy-led House, with a core of 50 or more pro-Russia GOPers in his caucus will not move on assistance in the future.

GOPers in Florida seem particularly fond of Russia for a variety reasons we’ve detailed on these pages in the past. With Roger Stone’s influence in Florida, the continued ties of Florida GOPers to Russian money and General Michael Flynn’s recent addition to the Sarasota Republican Executive Committee, Russia has a strong foothold in our state’s GOP.

Add to this, Governor DeSantis continued reluctance to divest from Russia and his insistence on attacking blue state governors and allied western nations such as Canada, Australia and France while avoiding discussion of Putin, speaks volumes as to where he sits on these issues.

Charlie Crist on the other hand was the driving force in shaming the state after several weeks to light up the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Ukrainian colors.

Sadly, the fate of the world may very well rest on November’s elections.

Palm Beach County Commissioner and former State Representative David Kerner, a Democrat has endorsed Governor DeSantis. Kerner who wants to be Sheriff of Palm Beach County in the near future is a former police officer. Kerner was always a nominal Democrat as a State House member and has shown his true colors as a political creature in aligning with DeSantis.

Florida GOPers are finding it in increasingly difficult to distinguish between “asylum seekers” who are protected under US and international law and “undocumented immigrants.” Florida’s CEO Jimmy Patronis took to Twitter to refer to the 50 migrants transported to Massachusetts as “illegal immigrants” while paying an ode to “Dear Leader” DeSantis. He’s far from the only GOP official trafficking in such sloppy conjecture about this matter.

Bottom line is this – whether you agree with people seeking asylum or not, they are not the same as the undocumented and conflating the two categories is fundamentally dishonest. Oh, and by the way the issues with asylum seekers crossing the border is largely down to loopholes in US law which the Congress hasn’t fixed. Instead of grandstanding or blaming President Biden, maybe Patronis and DeSantis can urge Marco Rubio and Rick Scott to take a lead on fixing this? Though Biden himself should be leading also on it and isn’t, clearly neither are the GOPers.