Shouldn’t that be, “Party of personal responsibility my ass elephant”?
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You could make a case that celebrities have been getting “cancelled” for as long as there have been celebrities. Sinead O’Connor after protesting the Catholic Church in her 1992 SNL appearance, Hollywood celebrities being blacklisted as suspected communists during the Red Scare, Fatty Arbuckle after facing dubious accusations of rape and manslaughter, etc.
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True, though I was referring specifically to pointing out a single case to silence the sorts who are currently decrying “cancel culture” as a rampant scourge on society. For those purposes, I like The Dixie Chicks to put the argument back on the sorts who define it that way. It never solves the issue or convinces anyone but it usually ends the conversation, which is really the best I can hope for most days.
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“Woke!”
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I believe he’s had over 30 doping violations during his career! A USA Today editorial lays out a few of his excuses and I’m now thinking that the former president learned his tactics from Baffert.
And in the last couple of years, his critics have had plenty of ammunition in a spate of positive drug tests — all of which Baffert has been able to muddy up enough to avoid becoming a pariah.
When it was revealed a year later that Triple Crown winner Justify had tested positive for a tiny but illegal amount of scopolamine after winning the Santa Anita Derby, it was blamed on jimson weed contaminating his feed.
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Well he’s absolutely correct, insofar as “cancel culture” is just a whiny synonym for “facing consequences for one’s shitty behaviour”.
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Why wouldn’t it be?
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I don’t know what he’s thinking, but this was 100% because of Socialism.
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Because we have the alternative of being compassionate towards animals and not forcing them to do dangerous unhealthy things for our entertainment?
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I suspect over the past year, he’s either gotten worse at cheating, or they’ve gotten better at testing. My bet is on the latter. I’m sure he’s figured out over the years exactly how long before a race he has to stop the steroids to avoid detection, but now they have more precise testing and it’s screwed him up.
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If he’s really innocent Sid Halley will sort out his problems in no time!
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It’s them dang librul horseracing judges legislating from the bench.
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Or maybe he’s just making it clear that “cancel culture” is actually just “consequences culture.” Next I expect to see some criminal defendant use the defense that it’s just cancel culture trying to put him in jail for all those people he murdered.
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Yes, but the real culprits will send a down-on-his-luck punter to beat Sid with an obscure bit of tack. Do we really want that on our conscience?
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The last horse race I will ever watch was the 2008 Kentucky Derby, in which the second place finisher broke both her front ankles as she crossed the finish line and was euthanized on the spot. What’s the point? How about having the party and drinking the whiskey and wearing the hats but not breeding the animals into grotesque forms that really only exist to win a race so their offspring will be more expensive?
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I’ve ridden English (hunter-jumper) off and on for over 40 years, watched a lot of horse racing, and voraciously read about both - esp re: history.
The numerous deaths of racehorses at Santa Anita forced its closure, and the investigation of many trainers on a grand scale. None of that had ever happened before.
It is obscene that the American Jockey Club (horse racing’s “governing” body) still allows horses to be given any drugs. Nowhere else in the world is even a single drug allowed for racehorses, and deaths are vanishingly rare. [Running on dirt tracks is another obscenity - it’s much too hard on young horses’ legs - most countries run their horses on turf and have few to no dirt tracks at all.]
Racehorses’ owners have little input re: much of their animals’ care. The trainers alone are responsible for the horses’ treatment - and their treatments. Trainers order the drugging, even if they’re not the ones who push the plungers. That said, owners can always take their horses to a different trainer!
baffert has many things against him, besides his being a RWNJ. He’s always come across as a jerk in general to me, and he has confirmed my suspicions innumerable times. Here are some just off the top of my head:
Some racing group [NYRA?] came up with “Go, Baby, Go!” as their advertising slogan years ago, and when baffert’s horse was nearing the finish line, he shouted, “Go, baby, go!” much to my disgust. He’d never yelled anything like that during races.
When the first ever female trainer entered a horse in the Kentucky Derby, of course a press conference was held. She sat down at the table provided for the trainers, where baffert had already parked his ass. She didn’t even have time to get settled before mr b said something so offensively sexist that she grabbed her drink, got up, and walked away. He kept at her, “Oh, c’mon back! It was just a joke! Where’s your sense of humor? C’mon!” etc etc. He tried his best to make her look like the bad guy, and later issued one of those nopologies that bigots like him keep handy.
Combine just the two above examples with his unrelenting drugging of the horses in his care, and you get a world class asshole.
ETA: Justify should have been disqualified for the Derby, as well as the other Triple Crown races. baffert cheated, and drugged him, too. Funny that former guy bitches now, when a known cheater won the lot during his tenure.
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Darn cancel culture, sneaking onto his land and drugging 14 of his horses just before a series of races! Does their infamy know no bounds?!
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It’s one of the oldest-known human pastimes, for one.
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Damn. Even the Houston Astros haven’t blamed ‘cancel culture’.
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