Sunday Morning Coming Down

Difficult does not mean impossible.  I have been in more than a few conversations about people not wanting to work.  Lately the reason given for people not wanting to work is that they are making more money in the latest round of COVID 19 UI. Moving right along, if you had a business that went out of business after getting a PPP loan you are not the only one.  Other businesses were able to hold on, some barely and others were better placed to survive.  Maybe they didn't need the money and some were crooks. If you are a landlord and you are having trouble collecting rent, the multiple choice answers for not getting your rent are, a) my tenant stopped looking for a job, b) where my tenant worked went out of business or has downsized, c) schools have not reopened, d) UI payments are too high.??   At long last, Florida’s state government is accepting applications for more than $800 million in federal emergency rental assistance funds designed to help struggling...

BB explained that some of the hay must have been contaminated by jimson weed and that a groom peeing in a horse's stall after taking a cold medicine caused another positive, and "salon pas" still another positive test and small amount of a cream for skin aliment left a tiny amount an allowable/ unallowable drug still in the horse's system.   And you believe the CDC's mask rules are a mess? The fans of Bob Baffert and D. Wayne Lucas are of the opinion that the Kentucky Derby test result were so tiny that it had no impact on the race result. All of the above may be true, and human nature being what it is still wondering.

The name of the drug which screwed up at least two Triple Crown races this year is Otomax.  It treats otitis in pets which is an inflammation of the ear and apparently dermatitis infections on a horse's coat. You need a vet's prescription and the label clearly says the product contains betamethasone which can be prescribed must be completely out of the horses system on race day. So out of an "abundance of caution" they continued to use Otomax, believing it would be out of the system by race day.  It's been reported that might take a few days.  Who knows for sure?  And in retrospect a small amount of betamethasone showed up in the post race test. Obviously, the Baffert stable of  owners wants to win and Baffert produces winners in the biggest races. Reviewing his behavior regarding Justify, a Triple Crown Winner, Charlatan, Gamine, and now Medina Spirit is troubling for Bob Baffert.  Sports need good stories and this is not a good story. Some will minimize t...

Horse Racing is a sport to some, a gambling platform for some, an entertainment venue, a rural farming enterprise, a business, a job, and a way of life. During this pandemic horse racing has had to fight for it's survival.  And just yesterday, the most famous personality in the sport of kings was busted for running a horse in the Kentucky Derby, that won, and was subsequently disqualified for having a drug in his system that could be a performance enhancer of sorts.  The party's involved have not been convicted but the drug showed up in a post race drug test. Is this a big deal?  For a sport and an industry that depends on gambling to survive, this is a huge problem.  Nobody makes you go to the races and bet on horses.  It's a voluntary activity, it can be thrilling and dangerous at the same time.  Some horses like to run more than others.  Some horses run faster than others.  Some jockeys are better than others and some trainers are better than...

Caitlin Jenner has spoken out about homelessness in California.   I've never experienced being homeless but I've lived in some affordable housing that was old and somewhat dodgy with roommates and I've also lived through some extended periods without electricity.   Working in downtown Miami I had the experience of running the gauntlet outside the Miami Rescue Mission which was near where I parked my car in a guarded parking lot on a daily basis. Key West, Florida was also a place with a shelter for about 150 people.  It was a one stop sort of place with related social services. Living in South Florida or Southern California could be an escape from really cold weather up north or a  bet that the living is easier outside, in the South. It's usually a combination of things that lead to homelessness.  Drugs or alcohol don't help but it's easy to get a record if you use drugs or drink to excess.  Eventually whatever support system you might have had ev...

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.."   Janis Joplin sang it, Kris Kristofferson wrote the lyrics with Fred Foster in 1969.  Six months since the general election we are still hearing complaints about a stolen election from folks who voted for the incumbent. I believe voting should be easier from getting registered all the way to casting your ballot. Various states are trying to fix "problems" from the last election that didn't exist.  The days of hanging chads is over in Florida.  People completing their ballots and mailing them in or depositing them in a drop box should not have an impact on whether the votes are counted and the technology exists to allow voters to track their votes. But I digress: over the last year and several months this country has experienced over 560,000 deaths and spent trillions of dollars and has only recently gotten the number of new cases below 50,000 cases per week and deaths hovering at about 500 per week. ...