It’s Triple Crown season, and once again controversy is afoot — or rather, a-hoof.

After the gallant win of little Medina Spirit in the Kentucky Derby, news broke that the horse had tested positive for Betamethasone, a steroid used to treat inflammation but banned on race day. throwing a cloud of suspicion on trainer Bob Baffert. The trainer of TC winners American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018) — who was also involved in a banned substance charge that was ultimately dismissed — Baffert has denied the allegations, claiming foul play, sour grapes and “cancel culture” were behind them. (More on “cancel culture” in a bit.) Turns out the anti-inflammatory was in an antifungal ointment that was being used to treat Medina Spirit’s dermatitis. But what Baffert knew and when he knew it remains subject to question.

We’ve moved on from the trial of the century — involving former President Donald J. Trump’s second impeachment— but the fallout continues. The “magnificent seven” Republican senators who voted with the 50 Democratic senators to convict have faced blowback at home. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the Illinois Republican who voted to impeach Trump and is crusading for a Republican Party devoid of him, has been shunned by family members, one of whom, a literal Karen, sent his father a $7 certified letter in which she stated that Kinzinger was “a disappointment to God.” (Does she have him on speed dial?)

Perhaps most interesting is the clash of those Homeric heroes (not), Trump and Mitch McConnell, a face-off four years in the making that began when the Senate Minority Leader, like Odysseus, tried to navigate between the proverbial rock and a hard place, voting not to convict to try to appease the Republican base but then offering a blistering rebuke of Trump’s behavior before, during and after the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol to try to woo back skittish Republican donors.