The CIA and FBI have declared that Russia was hacking into our election.  Trump is denying that this has happened.  I don't know how he thinks that he has more info than the CIA.  I guess maybe he got direct info from the KGB!  This from a man who before the election claimed that the election is rigged.  Some people cannot even be gracious winners.

I don't know if Russia's meddling changed the election result.  But I am sure computer espionage goes on all the time from both sides.  I don't see any difference between that and spy planes from both sides trying to get secrets from international waters.  I think this is a wake up call that should not have been needed.  We should know that foreign governments are going to hack us.  We are probably hacking them as well.  The danger is that eventually someone is going to hack into water supply system, banking system, power grid etc, causing widespread chaos.  Can the government prevent these attacks?

Rick Perry for Sec. of energy?  This is the same guy who wanted to eliminate that agency when he was running for president.  He did forget the name of the agency during the debate.  So maybe he will forget to show up if he is confirmed.

Once again it is time for my AAAAA (Angry Asian Absolutely Accurate Assessment) of Big Ten bowl games.  I have Maryland, Northwestern, Nebraska, Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin winning and Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa and Penn State losing.  So the prediction is 6-4.  I think Ohio State has a better defense than Clemson and will win a very close game.  I do think that if anyone can somehow upset Alabama it would be Watson of Clemson who may go wild running and throwing.  I don't think Barrett of OSU is as likely to do that.  Washington's passing game is the best of the four but defending the pass is Alabama's strength and I don't think Washington can stop Alabama's running game.  So I pick Alabama to win it all.  Not really going out on a limb here.

The Rose Bowl is going to be very interesting.  Both USC and Penn State have improved dramatically since the beginning of the season.  But I think USC has more talent.  In fact despiting getting beat badly by Alabama in the beginning of the season, I think right now USC would give Alabama the toughest game.  I think they are the second best team in the country right now. 

Dr. Sammy Lee has passed away at the age of 96.  Awhile ago I had name the 10 best Asian athletes I knew.  I did not name athletes from sports which are dominated by Asians.  Since diving is dominated by China, I did not think of putting any diver on the list.  In retrospect that was an error on my part.  Dr. Lee was not only the first Asian American to win a gold medal in the Olympics, he did it when public pools did not allow nonwhites to us the facility.  So not only did Dr. Lee shot down the stereotype of Asians not being good athletes, he did it while being discriminated against.

At 5 foot 1 inch, Dr. Lee was short in stature but he cast a giant shadow.  He won two gold medals plus a bronze.  He graduated from medical school while training and serving in the army.  He is like our Dr. Roger Bannister.  After retiring from diving competition and the army medical corp, he coached numerous Olympic level divers.  Among them were Bob Webster who also won two gold medals and Greg Louganis, probably the greatest diver in history.   Both Webster and Louganis stated that Dr. Lee was not only their coach but their mentor in life. 

So rest in peace Dr. Sammy Lee.  You have been and always will be an inspiration for us.

As in life, the death of Fidel Castro invokes controversy.  Many in Miami are celebrating his death while some others mourn it.   There are condemnation of him from leaders.  But there was also admiration such as that expressed by Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada.  Trudeau called Castro a great leader for his people who improved literacy and healthcare in Cuba.  While it is true that for a third world country, Cuba did accomplished a lot under Castro in terms of education and healthcare, it is wrong to simply admired him for these accomplishments.  If you are going to mention the good, you must mention the bad.  Castro was a brutal dictator who killed many of his enemies.  Like many dictators, he also ran the country's economy to the ground.  So I have a lot of trouble with Trudeau's eulogy of Castro.

On the other hand, Marco Rubio and other conservatives not only criticized Trudeau but also criticized Obama for not mentioning the crimes that Castro committed.  The difference is that Obama did not call Castro a great or even good leader for his country.  He did not list Castro's accomplishments like Trudeau did nor expressed any admiration.  He simply mentioned that this is a passing of an era and that the American people look forward to work with the Cuban people to improve relationships.  It is similar to the statement made by president Ford upon the death of Mao Zedong.  There is no point to rehashing the negative on a day that someone died.  It would not help China-U.S. relations by calling out the failures and crimes of Mao.  Nor does it help Cuba-U.S. relations going forward by mentioning the failures and crimes of Castro.  I think both Ford and Obama did the right thing.

I understand that there are many people who are happy to see Trump get elected.  I can understand the people who hated Clinton and voted for what they think is the less of two evils.  But there are people who are gleeful that Trump won.  Among them are David Duke and the white nationalists movement.  On the international front there are also supporters of Trump.  Among them are Putin, Kim Jong-Un  and Robert Mugabe.  I am not saying that Trump is like any of these people but you have to wonder why they are so happy that he is elected.

Romney met with Trump to supposedly discuss about Romney becoming secretary of state.  I had said in the past that I would be ok with McCain or Romney becoming president because they are honorable men.  If Romney takes a cabinet position in Trump's administration, my opinion of Romney will take a big dive.  After all he called Trump a fraud and that Trump will lead to trickle down racism.  This is a person he is willing to work for?  After Trump called him a disaster candidate and that Romney would have knelt down if Trump had asked him to?  Come on Mitt, have a little backbone.

Saw Trump on 60 Minutes tonight.  He was less bombastic than he ever was.  Perhaps the realization that winning the election is the easy part and that he now has to govern.  He had spent 90 minutes at the White House with Obama.  A meeting that was supposed to last 15 minutes.  He called Obama a good and intelligent man.  Maybe that is just political talk but I suspect that deep inside he knows that Obama is intelligent and that he has done a good job in his 8 years.  Maybe Obama even lectured him on some issues.  Trump probably realizes now that being bombastic and bullying will not get the job done.

There are some issues that Trump already is showing signs of backing down before he even takes office.  There is no chance that he will appoint a special prosecutor to try to put Clinton in jail as he said he would during the campaign.  He will not try to take away gay rights that have been won in the courts despite his promise of appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court.  Even with Obamacare he is softening.  He says he will not take away the right of coverage for people with  preexisting conditions.  Of course how are you going to cover these people if then you don't have a mandate for everyone to buy in?  The two highlights of Obamacare go hand in hand.  If you keep one and not the other the costs will skyrocket.  And by keeping some of Obamacare, you are not really repealing it altogether are you?

Some of the positions that he has not back tracked are also will not be doable.  He will not be able to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it.  With control of both houses of Congress, he certainly can enact tax cuts as he promised.  But if he has cuts such as 35% for the middle class and decrease of business tax from 35 to 15% then he will be in such deficit that he will not be able to rebuild the infrastructure and increase military spending.  Mitch McConeel already said that rebuilding the infrastructure is not a priority.  Of course it will not be:  there will be no money for it.

I am sure more promises made to the conservative, blue collar workers in the rust belt will not be kept.  There is no reason for the liberals to be out protesting.  Trump's supporters will have buyers' remorse soon enough.

As promised I am writing a blog on election night.  I am too angry to write much but I am keeping my promise because I am sure our next president will not.

It looks like America has elected a snake oil salesman.  I guess the majority buys the rhetoric that Trump will build a wall and Mexico will pay for it.  The majority is also naive to believe that he will bring manufacturing jobs from abroad when his own company outsources to China and other places.  So if you believe all this nonsense, I have ocean view property in Cleveland I want to sell you.


I do know the sun will rise tomorrow.   As an immigrant, like all those who came before me, I will survive this crazy man's "leadership".  Unlike Trump, I believe the strength of this country is people like me who came from elsewhere and prosper in this country, not people like him who blame immigrants for the troubles of this country.  Just wake me up in four years and we can vote him out of office.

Just as Clinton was beginning to get over confident, the FBI served notice that it ain't over till it is over.  The FBI revealed that it found emails in Anthony Weiner's computer that maybe related to the investigation of Clinton email earlier.  It seems weird that this comes out with just over one week left till the election.  It is reported that the FBI found these emails a few weeks earlier.  Supposedly they couldn't look into them because they only had warrant to look into Weiner's stuff, not those of his wife.  So why didn't they ask for another warrant earlier so they had time to look over the emails before announcing their existence to the public?  After they announced further investigation, they promptly got the authorization to look over those emails.  The only problem is that this will not likely be finished before the election.  So basically the FBI is putting itself in the election storm.

The Democrats are furious and they have a point.  If this happened to Trump, I am sure he would called this part of the rigged election.  I am not going to say that it is a conspiracy by Director James Comey to hurt Clinton.  He has a difficult job since if he kept this till after the election, the GOP would be upset.  But although he was appointed to the job by Obama, he was a registered Republican before office and he served as deputy attorney general in the Bush administration.  So it is easy to say that he would may want to help the GOP.  I doubt that is the case but he would have done better if he asked for the warrant right away after he found the email and may have been able to see if they revealed anything before announcing it to the world.  I think after all these time of investigating Clinton, unless there are new evidence that shed new light, there should be no announcement from a supposedly neutral agency like the FBI.

By the way, why would Weiner dare to share a computer with his wife? 

Clinton has a solid lead in the polls with just over 2 weeks left.  But you never know what will happen on election day.  So I am wondering what would happen if Trump wins.  Obviously he would have to name people to his cabinet.  So I am trying to think whom he would appoint.  Here are a few possibilities.

For the important job of secretary of state I think Trump would nominate Sarah Palin.  After all she can see Russia from her home and Putin will be Trump's biggest ally.   So it would be easy to send Palin over from her house whenever it is needed.

For secretary of treasury, Trump will nominate his accountant.  Trump has avoided paying income tax for so many years thanks to his accountant's understanding of the tax code loopholes.  So if he wants to increase revenue to the treasury he needs his accountant to close all these loopholes.  Sort of like hiring a hacker to protect your secrets in the computer.

For homeland security Trump would appoint Rudy Giuliani.  He would stop and fritz all Muslims, blacks and Hispanics in the country. 

For secretary of transportation Trump will appoint Chris Christie.  Look for bridge closings in all the states that did not vote for Trump.

For secretary of defense Trump will nominate Dick Cheney.  If he can shoot his friend in the face imagine what he would do to the enemy!

Trump will nominate judge Aaron Persky to the Supreme Court.  Judge Persky is the one who gave a  Stanford athlete only 6 months for sexual assault.  Trump figures he should hedge the bet.  Bill Crosby, for one, will agree with the choice.

Trump will also want to appoint some ambassador posts.  Paul Ryan, John McCain and Jeb Bush will certainly be called upon to fill the posts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran.

Forget about his hand on the nuclear button.  These appointments are scary enough.  Well, at least Ryan, McCain and Bush will not accept.

With the problems Trump has had in the past couple of weeks, he is hoping that WikiLeaks will help him out with revelations of Clinton's email.  But so far I don't see anything in these emails that makes Clinton look bad for moderate voters.  For example, Clinton is revealed to have private and public positions on many issues.  Trump would say that this makes Clinton dishonest.  But he must know this is the art of negotiation since he thinks he is the master at it.  You tell publicly something that you know can't pass but you eventually compromise to what you wanted privately.  In the email she also disagreed with Sanders and Warren, which may anger supporters of those two.  But do moderate people really want the ideas of those two to become laws?

In fact all the talks about Clinton's speech to Wall Street and bankers, the speeches revealed that Clinton warned them about behaving badly and that they are losing the public trust.  Those seem to be good messages on behalf of the American people.  Ultimately, it seems that Clinton wants to have a moderate Democratic party.  One may not agree with her the definition of moderate, but I believe that trying to be moderate is way better than taking extreme positions on either side.

Trump's behavior this week is that of a child bully.  He said his accusers are lying.  He said that Bill Clinton said and did worse things.  He calls those who take back endorsements weak and disloyal.  He says that the election is rigged.  He says the media is is out to get him.  He is like the guy on the basketball court who calls foul on every play and when he is losing takes the ball home (even if the ball was not his).  The question after the election is that can reasonable Republicans like Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney and John Kasich take back the ball (the party) from Trump.

After the debate tonight, I am thinking of not bothering to watch the final debate.  There is very little substance to the debates and so much yelling and screaming.  I think they should have let the audience asked all the questions and when someone does not answer the question but veer off to talking points, the questioner should be able to yell at Trump or Clinton to get back to the question.  I think an audience questioner would be able to get the candidates to answer the question better than the moderators.  It was boring to watch and frustrating to see that this election is fought in the gutters.

Trump had to stop the bleeding from the tape scandal this week.  In the beginning he comes across as not being contrite at all.  By saying Bill Clinton was worse, he only appealed to the base.  Nobody else should think that that was a good excuse.  After that he settled down and did much better than the first debate.  But I don't think the debate is going to help him win back any voters he may have lost this week.  And the comment that once he is in office, he would prosecute and jail Clinton comes off as something a third world dictator would do.  But of course he can only be a dictator and fire everybody he doesn't like.  He can never function as a leader of a democracy.

I don't think the debate changed any minds tonight.  So any change in the polls in the next few days will be more related to the tape scandal than what happened tonight.  It will be interesting to see if and how much the polls change.  I find it ironic that the guy in the tape with Trump is a cousin of George and Jeb Bush. 

Recently Congress voted to let families of 9/11 victims sue the Saudi Arabia government in U.S. courts.  Obama vetoed the bill but Congress over rode the veto with almost overwhelming bipartisan support.  Within one day after the override, Congressional leaders expressed remorse about the bill saying some of it was poorly written so that it exposed American soldiers to charges in foreign courts.  I find this shocking.  They wrote the law and Obama had told them it was a bad law and then they voted again to override his veto and then immediately they saw the fault in the law?   Is Obama the only intelligent person in our federal government?

Under sovereign immunity people cannot sue foreign governments.  While this law seems to protect bad guys, it actually helps the U.S. the most.  The U.S. government and military operates all over the world.  So without sovereign immunity the U.S. will be more likely than any other nation to be charged with crimes by foreign citizens.  For example, any time we make a mistake and hit civilians with a drone strike, people theoretically can sue the U.S. if there was no sovereign immunity.  In the case of 9/11 even if families are allowed to sue the Saudi government, it is unlikely they can win.  The 9/11 Commission had said the the Saudi government had no direct role in the attack.  So the Saudis would use that in their defense and the families would have to come up with their own evidence.  So while everyone has sympathy for the families, this is an obvious political move on the part of the politicians.

It would have been easy for Obama to sign a bill that has such overwhelming support from both sides of Congress.  But it would also be wrong.  Obviously Obama is not up for reelection so he can do what he think is right.  But it is amazing to me that so many politicians can cave to the pressure on this.  But even more amazing, people like Mitch O'Connell said afterward that Obama is partly to blame because he did not bring the leaders of Congress to discuss this before the override.  I am just thankful the blame Obama game will end soon.  I am not thankful, however, that whoever takes over for him will be as intelligent as the members of the present Congress.

Tomorrow is the first debate.  It will be on about the same time as DWTS.  There are some similarity between the two.  First neither candidate are stars just like DWTS contestants are mostly has beens or never weres.  Also the better dancer doesn't always get more votes.  In this case, Clinton will be better versed in policies and has more experience like the better technical dancer.  Trump will, however, be a better showman.  So will he get more votes than the better technician?  But this election is about the less of two evils.  So in terms of DWTS it will be like Rick Perry vs Tom Delay.  It maybe difficult to stomach.

So Donald Trump finally admits that Obama was born in the U.S.   But he claims that Hillary Clinton started the whole thing.  So for all those people who followed Trump's birther argument. it should be clear that Trump is either a liar or a follower of Clinton whom he calls a liar.  So a follower of a liar is still a liar, isn't it?  The whole thing is racist anyway.  None of those people came out against George Romney or Ted Cruz from running for president even though both were born outside of the U.S. for sure.  And for those who believe that Trump will build a wall and the Mexicans will pay for it, I have some ocean front property I want to sell you for cheap!

The terrorists attack over the weekend will help Trump as he is the master of stroking fear.  The truth is terrorism kills way less people in this country than ordinary murder that our own citizens perpetuate on ourselves.  Stop admitting Muslims from coming as Trump suggested will not stop terrorism but exacerbate it.  The alleged terrorists over the weekend grew up in this country and are citizens.  By singling out Muslim immigrants will only inflame those already in the country and lead to more attacks.  The truth is the national security team has done a good job after 9/11 stopping major attacks.  The lone wolf from this country is almost impossible to stop.  Any disgruntled person can make a small bomb and set it off or get a AK47 and shoot people.  There are things we can do to minimize the chance of someone being disgruntled and attack.  But inflaming a whole religious or ethnic group is not one of those things.

It has been 15 years since 9/11 already?  Time really flies.  I remember when that day happened there was a lot of fear that our way of life will be changed forever.  Thankfully it has not come to that.  Sure, there has been some attacks on our soil but I think there is less death due to terrorism than due to road rage since 9/11.  And don't get me started about our own gun violence.  As far as the fear that it will crippled our economy, I think we have to worry more about bankers, Wall Street and insurance companies than terrorists for that.  Even the emergence of ISIS as a global threat can be traced to our stupid invasion of Iraq.  So don't fear the terrorists, fear what we do ourselves.  And the only way that terrorists win is that we change our way of life.

I see Hillary Clinton almost fainted today.  I am sure Trump will jump all over that.  Then I hear that she was diagnosed with pneumonia couple days earlier.  I am sure her doctor advised her to rest for at least a week while taking her antibiotics.  Obviously she did not follow the order.  I see this all the time, people don't take the doctor's advice seriously.  Pneumonia is not a mild illness to sneeze at.  People die frequently from this, particularly people over 65 which Clinton is.  So I hope she skips events over the next few days to recover.  Then she should get her flu and pneumonia shots if she did not get them already.  If she does not follow instructions and ended up in the hospital, Trump will jump even higher over that!

The high price Mylan pharmaceutical charges for EpiPen has sparked outrage.  EpiPen prices went from about $90 to over $600.  Just like the banking industry and Wall Street, I say it is time for stricter regulations.  I believe in capitalism but I also believe that capitalism without regulations would be simply greed and chaos.

There is always the argument that price control will lead to decrease in research and development.  But in this case, Mylan is a company that bought out the right to make EpiPen which means it did no research in making this product.  The medicine itself is extremely old and sells for a couple bucks each dose.  So mainly you are paying for the delivering system which is not a great invention.  Basically at $90 a pop, Mylan would be making a great profit already.  At $600 it is just plain greed.  Mylan is mainly selling generic drugs, so I think its R and D department is not causing it much money.  Even biotech giant Amgen is spending much of its money buying out small companies or their patents and in advertising and lobbying.  The expenses for R and D of these drug companies are vastly exaggerated.

I think it would be the interest of industry to go along with some sort of reviewing board or price commission.  It would be similar to utility boards and commissions.  For some people medicines are as important or more important than utilities.  If this is not done I think eventually there will be such a outcry that we will have socialize medicine where prices will be totally controlled by the government. 

I had written something about a high school football player who refused to stand for the national anthem years ago to protest the Iraq war.  So I thought that my view is known here already.  But now I think I had written to the local paper and not the blog.  So I will comment on Kaepernick.  I thought the high school player was going to become a better citizen than his buddies who may stand for the anthem but never thought about anything after the game other than finding their girl friends.  So I believe that Kaepernick would be a better citizen than most of the other players whether I agree with him or not.  The flag is a symbol of our freedom and maybe the most important thing it stands for is our freedom to speak our mind.  So Kaepernick has the absolute right to not stand.  Same with Gabby Douglas not holding her hand to her heart. 

But I also wrote that the flag did not send our army to Iraq.  Also today it is not the flag which cause the unjustifiable killing of innocent people by rogue cops.  The flag represents our desire to form a better union, with liberty and justice for all.  We are not there yet but the flag symbolizes our efforts to get there.  So if I were to council the high school kid and Kaepernick, I would tell them to respect the flag even if you don't have to.  Rather than refusing to stand up for the anthem, stand up to those who done wrong.  As an athlete, Kaepernick has a forum.  He can make a difference by contributing money, meeting with police leaders, politicians, community leaders etc. 

To those people who say that Kaepernick should be shut down.  I say that is exactly what the flag does not stand for.  Are we going to act like North Korea and Iran?  Those countries would make it a crime not to solute their flag.  You don't have to agree with Kaepernick but you should defend his right to say what he believes.

To a lighter note (although not much lighter), LBOAYM calls attention to his favorite show, DWTS again.  I did hear about Lochte going on the show but I did not know others until LBOAYM provided the info.  Well, I am going to root against Lochte, not only because his behavior in Rio.  I also saw a clip from 2008 where his sister went on some talk show and trashed the Chinese.  She must have used the word chink a dozen times!  Add that to some stupid comments his mother made about Lochte's sexual behavior, I think it is not an accident that this ugly American incident occurred.

I think Laurie Hernandez is great but too young to be on the show.  I think Shawn Johnson was even older when she went on and won.  I will be a homer and pick Calvin Johnson.

I am not going to make any prediction about college football before a game is played.  I don't think you should have preseason polls.  How can one judge when everybody had graduations and freshmen coming in?  If someone started outside of the poll and won every game, it may still not get into the playoffs.  But if someone started no.1, lose a game early, it probably still climb back into the playoffs.  It is unfair.  SI actually had Michigan finishing in the top 4.  That is absurd even if I hope that it is true.  Harbaugh is good but he is not a miracle worker.  It will take another three years for that to happen, I think.

Donald Trump called the Clinton Foundation "the most corrupt enterprise in political history".  Of course Trump is wrong.  This is the "foundation" of democracy:  money buys access.  If there is no access to Bill or Hillary Clinton, why would anybody donate millions to their foundation?  For example, if you want to donate a million to fight aids in Africa, you can give it directly to an organization on the ground such as Doctors Without Borders.  You don't have to channel the money through the Clintons.  It is expected that if you are a big donor you will get to meet with Bill and/or Hillary.  So unless you get a direct favor from them that is illegal, I don't see anything different than the usual practice in politics.  Donald Trump bragged about the Clintons going to his wedding because he gave them money.  So if he is accusing them of accepting bribes, then was he bribing them?

The Supreme Court basically agree with me that money buys access in Citizens United.  It said that "ingratiation and access" were "not corruptions".  Essentially, it means that people with a lot of money have more "free speech" than other people.  I mean, do you think that a corporation donates a huge amount of money to a candidate because he would be good for the country?  The donation guarantees at least access but often more than that, such as a vote.  Since this is the game that is always played in Washington, I don't see any legal problem with Clinton meeting someone who has donated to their foundation.

Of course, no legal problem does not mean no political problem.  Once again, the Clintons get into an unnecessary problem because of the appearance of impropriety.  I am sure it was her plan to run for president even back when she was secretary of state.  So she should have limited her access to donors even back then.  And certainly once she announced her candidacy, she should have cut her tie to the foundation as she has said she would do once she became president.  As I said before, the Clintons are such smart politicians, I am surprised they keep making these unforced errors.  That is why people are suspicious of them.  It is lucky for her that her opponent is Donald Trump.

Now that the Olympics are over, it is time for my medal awards.   First, the bad ones. 

The Ugly American award:  bronze goes to all the golfers who boycotted Rio due to zika virus.  This medal is shared by the American golfers with those from other countries and some tennis players as well.  Silver goes to Hope Solo, enough said about her.  Gold goes to Ryan Lochte and friends.  I am sure everyone knows what they did to embarrass the U.S.  Lochte is especially guilty because he is a veteran of the Olympics and thirty two years old.  I would give a 18 year old rookie a pass on this but not someone who is so experienced in international travel and supposedly a leader of the team.

Most disappointed countries:  Bronze goes to Brazil.  As host nation it should get a bump in medals.  While it did get 7 golds compare to 3 in 2012, the total medal count only increased from 17 to 19.  This is way below expectation.  They were favored to win women beach and indoor volleyball and failed.  They were favored in women soccer once the U.S. was eliminated but they didn't even get a medal.  They did salvaged some pride with men volleyball and most important a pk victory over Germany in soccer.  Silver goes to Russia.  Not unexpected since they were banned from track and field and lost athletes in other sports, they finished with 26 less medals.  Gold:  China.  Twelve less gold and 18 less medals overall than 2012.  They were terrible in gymnastics winning only two bronze in team and no individual medals.  They also did worse than expected in shooting and badminton, two sports that supply reliable medals.  In swimming they only got one gold medal:  Sun Yang in the 200 free.  He did not even make the finals in his specialty, 1500 free.

Now some good awards.

Most happy countries.  Bronze goes to Singapore.  It won its first gold ever and only its 5th medal of any kind.  Joseph Schooling beat Michael Phelps in Phelps' last individual race.  I am sure that thrilled the country to no end.  Silver goes to Japan.  It only improved from 7 to 12 golds but it finally beat rival China in men gymnastics.  And surprisingly it got silver in the 4x100 relay in track.  It actually beat the U.S. in sprints!  And they were even with Jamaica until Bolt took over the last leg.  China was supposed to contend in this race but Japan ended up stealing the thunder.  But it is shocking that two Asian teams can be contenders in a race that they were never remotely close in the past.  Gold goes to Great Britain.  In 2012 GB finished third in the medal standing behind the U.S. and China.  People said that was due to a big home field boost.  This year they got about the same amount of gold and overall medals even though they are not the host this time.  They in fact beat China 27 to 26 in gold for second and only 3 less than China in total medal.  I think that is a great achievement for the Brits and partially made up for its loss to Iceland in soccer.

Top individuals:  Bronze goes to Katie Ledecky.  What a talent, she is taking over for Phelps as the face of U.S. and world swimming.  Silver goes to Simon Biles, probably the greatest female gymnast of all time.  Gold goes to Usain Bolt. Unbelievable, nine for nine.  The best ever in his sport.

Special award goes to U.S. female athletes who help the U.S. beat London's haul of medals by 17.  I think Title IX helped women athletes become dominant in the world stage.  They outclassed the men in glamour sports such as swimming, track and field and gymnastics.  Even in basketball, they were more dominant than the NBA all stars that make up the men's team.  While the rest of the world is catching up to a certain extent to the NBA, the gap seemed to be widening in women basketball.  In four years, we may not win baseball in Tokyo but I am confident that we will win softball!

Having complained about golf being in the Olympics, I will now complain about the sports added for 2020 and give my suggestions of what sports to be included instead.

The sports to be in 2020 are baseball/softball, surfing, sports climbing, skateboarding and karate.  I have already dismissed karate as being another fighting sport.  Since Judo is Japanese and Tae Kwon Do is similar to karate, I don't think karate should be added.  It was also picked ahead of wushu which is the official name for kung fu, the Chinese martial art.  Kung fu is in fact the original martial art so if anything should be ahead of karate.  Surfing and skateboarding are sports which western nations have advantage.  Sports climbing is also the case, although if they climb actual mountains without equipment then maybe serpas from Nepal may win.  Baseball is popular not only in the U.S. but also in Asia and Latin America so it is alright to be included again.  Softball balances out baseball for gender purposes so had to be included.

My picks to be included are sepak takraw, kabaddi and chess.  Sepak takraw is a cross between badminton and soccer.  Teams kick ball over net about the height of badminton net.  The game is popular in southeast Asia with Thailand, Myanmar being powers, although South Korea is pretty good also.  Kabaddi is a contact sport for south Asian countries.  The powers are India and Iran.  So give these countries a chance for medals!  If money is an issue for building venues, then chess is your sport.  You just need a large library!  The top three nations are Russia, China and the U.S.  Not too many sports where all three are contenders.  But others such as India, Ukraine, Armenia, Israel, Philippines, Norway, England, Cuba are competitive.  While it is a sport of the mind, endurance is essential here.  The only problem is that it is not much of a spectator sport.

Ballroom dancing was considered but did not get voted in.  I say if they let people play defense, ie, interrupt other couples from making good moves, then it should be in.  I would be a very good defensive player since I frequently run into other couples!

The Olympics have somewhat overshadowed the election campaign here in the U.S.  But Hope Solo;s remarks after the U.S. women's soccer team lost to Sweden on penalty kicks reminds me of Donald Trump.  Solo complained that the Swedes played like cowards.  Trump complained that if he was to lose in Pennsylvania, the election must be rigged.  Both are such sour grapes.  The Swedes played the way an underdog was supposed to play.  The U.S. was a better team and the only way Sweden had a chance was to play defensively.  This is the strategy any soccer team would use when facing a team with superior talent.  There is nothing cowardly about it. 

Trump is complaining about rigged election even before the election.  There is no evidence of that and he seems to be preparing for excuses before hand.  Both Solo and Trump are like spoil children who whine when thing don't go their way.  They are extremely poor representatives of America.  Hope Solo was reprimanded twice in the past, once for complaining about the coach not playing her and then worse yet the second time for domestic violence.  It is time to leave her off the national team.  Of course Solo is only an athlete.  But Trump is running to be the leader of the free world.  We cannot let that happen.

Did anyone notice all those round dark marks on Michael Phelph's arms and shoulders.  Those are cupping marks.  They are suddenly popular with western athletes as a treatment for sore muscles.  This is a treatment from Chinese medicine.  I am glad it is being recognized as an effective treatment.  Ironically, I didn't see any of the Chinese athletes using it in Rio.  Given the U.S. has a big lead in medal counts, maybe China should have a taste of its own medicine!

Now the conventions are over it seems that the role of the two parties have reversed.  The GOP is the party that always talk about American exceptionalism and the great military.  This time Trump and his supporters talk about what a mess the country and our military are in.  By saying that he will make America great again, he implies that America is not great now.  This gives the Democrats the opportunity to grab the flag and say America is already great and the military is great.  So will see if the country wants to go with the over optimistic side or the over pessimistic side.  Trump did get a big bounce out of the convention despite all the gloom and doom so maybe this is the year nothing makes sense and doesn't matter what you say.  Will see after the polls this week and see what kind of bounce Clinton will get.

As the Olympic is approaching I will have to say again that golf should not be in it.  In the past I said that golf is a sport that involves a lot more luck than other sports.  For example, even when Tiger was at his peak, he would win less than 25% of the time.  A journeyman can beat him in any tournament.  That is not the case with most sports.  Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt probably win over 90% of their races at their peak.  And if they don't win, somebody like Justin Gatlin or Ryan Lochte would.  So I don't think we would likely get a "true" champion in golf at the Olympics.  Now most of the top golfers are dropping out due to the Zika virus concerns.  It seems to me these guys are just too rich.  Winning a gold medal have very little meaning to them.  Everybody worries about their health but people in not well known or not rich sports are going to show up.  This is their one chance for fame and they are not going to let a virus stop them.  Given the attitude of golfers, let's get rid this sport and put in another where the athletes are more appreciative of their opportunity.

Both Trump and Clinton went with the safe choice in selecting their running mate.  Pence is a lot less controversial choice than Gingrich or Christie.  Kaine is a better choice than Warren or someone close to Sander's ideology.  Trump had to shore up his conservative base and Pence helps with that.  But he does not help in attracting independents.  Clinton is betting that she does not need someone like Warren to shore up the left base and Kaine will be more palatable to the independents.  Also Virginia is a battleground state and Indiana is on the GOP side.  So I think overall Kaine helps Clinton more than Pence helps Trump.

Again this week it will not be worthwhile to watch the Democratic convention.  They will be blasting Trump as the GOP blasted Clinton last week.  From the summaries I watched last week, it seems that it was more fear provoking but very little substance.  I doubt the Democrats will bring more substance this week.  I do think if they use "celebrities", they can come up with someone better than Scott Baio!  I am also sure they are not going to be missing their top politicians like the GOP missing out on the Bushes, Romney, McCain and even the host governor Kaisich.  One person that I thought would have showed up was Sarah Palin.  She was a big Trump supporter and blasted Ryan and Cruz on Trump's behalf.   She is a Tea Party favorite.  I wonder why she was not there?

More bad news out of Baton Rouge today as 3 more cops were killed by someone with an assault weapon.  As I said before, I don't have good solutions.  I do want to suggest that there maybe some hope if all of us would put ourselves in someone else shoes.  It should be obvious to the black community that most cops are good people and they have a very dangerous job.  They are the only ones protecting the community.  So they should be treated with respect and cooperation.  The rap songs that talk about killing the police and no snitching are wrong.  Telling the authorities what you know about criminals is not snitching, it is protecting your neighborhood.  On the other side, the police should understand why minorities are afraid of the police.  So the code of silence among the cops have to be stopped as well.  It is not snitching if you are reporting abusive cops.  It is doing your job.

An example of someone not putting himself in someone else shoes is Rudy Giuliani.  He said that the saying "black lives matter" is racist itself.  He does not get that the movement of black lives matter does not mean other lives do not matter.  It is a call to attention a particular problem that has to be addressed.  Giuliani cited several statistics about blacks killing blacks, whites or blacks killing cops etc that were way off base.  He said that if stop by the cops, just be respectful and that is it.  Obviously he doesn't have a son that has been stopped dozens of time by the police even though he has no criminal record and then was shot like Philando Castile was.   Giuliani cannot put himself in someone else shoes.

Then we have Royce Mann, a 14 year old, who wrote and performed his poem "White Boy Privilege".  This young man recognizes that he has privileges that minorities and women do not have.  He goes on to say that he feels lucky and would not want to exchange places with someone else.  He is right.  As a white upper or upper middle class male he does have advantage over most of the people in the country.  The only issue I have is that a poor white kid is not privileged.  A poor white kid does not get affirmative action for college.  While derogatory terms to describe minorities and women are frowned upon, the term white trash is not being condemned when used by comedians and others.  But overall Royce is correct that being  a white male is still an advantage overall.  Donald Trump would not have gotten to where he is today if he was born black and poor.  Royce is able to put himself in the shoes of someone else.  He is much more insightful than Giuliani!

Not a  good week for race relations in America.  Two more black men killed by the police that seemed unjustified.  Then the killing of 5 policemen in Dallas by an apparent deranged man bent on killing white cops.  All so senseless.  I don't have solutions here, just to offer my view of things.

First, as I said before, if police killing black men are so frequent today, how frequent was it when there was no cell phones to capture these incidents.  You would think that racists cops know that the likelihood that they are being filmed is so much higher today that they have to pull back.  I think some, if not most of the time, it is not racism but stereotyping of black men as being dangerous.  So some cops overreact and lead to unnecessary violence.  I think better training may help decrease  some of these incidents.

The killing of officers in Dallas appear to be the work of one individual.  This had nothing to do with the protest itself.  This killer just used the protest as an excuse and an opportunity.  So the protests are still justified.  But if I was a leader in the protest movement, I would hold off a few days to mourn the officers and let law enforcement have a chance to take a breath.  I think all those good guys who are protecting us deserve a break.

The killer was a veteran and had no criminal record.  He had no terrorist connections.  So no background check would have stopped him from purchasing a gun.  That is why there is no reason to allow anyone to buy assault weapons.  Those are not used for hunting or sports.  They are just killing machines.  If the NRA say that law abiding citizen should have the right to buy these weapons, I say this guy was law abiding until he killed the officers.  He would have been stopped by the police before so many were killed or injured if he only had a hunting rifle.

I wonder about using a robot bomb to kill the killer.  I take the police's word that it was the best way under the circumstance.  But I think we need to look into this farther to see if trying to wait him out would have worked.  I don't mourn the loss of this guy but at the time it was not definite that he acted alone so having him alive was important.  Also using this to kill a civilian citizen is opening a Pandora's box from which there is no return.

Fireworks today in the NBA.  Shockingly Kevin Durant seeks independence from OKC.  He will sign with the Warriors, creating a Big Four with Green, Curry and Thompson.  This is the formation of USA, the United Stars of America.  The only weakness I see is that they have no center, having to get rid of Bogut to afford Durant.  The Spurs give themselves a chance by getting Pau Gasol to combine with Aldrige and Leonard to try to overpower the Warriors.  I don't think it will work since Warriors often played without Bogut on the floor, going with small ball anyway.  Durant is no center but he did lead OKC in rebounding.  So I see GS returning to the finals against Cleveland.  You never know how it will turn out since superior talent doesn't always win.  But odds are Big Four beats Big Three.

I expected Durant to stayed with OKC since they were so close to beating GS.  If GS wins it all next season, how much credit would Durant get?  If Durant had stayed and beat GS, he would have been the king.  I guess he felt that if you can't beat them, join them.  Also with his injuries in last couple of seasons, he may feel that the window is closing.  If he gets injured, OKC would have been done.  But if he is injured for a couple of months, GS still would still get the number one seed and possibly win.  The other thing is, if GS wins next season, Durant can opt out and join Westbrook again in OKC to try to win one of their own!

Jeremy Lin is in a good place, joining his old mentor in Brooklyn.  He will have the ball in his hand so he can do what he does best.  He has a great partner for pick and roll in Brooke Lopez, so his stats will be good next season.  I predict 18 points and 8 assists per game.  Are you ready for Brooklinsanity?  But there is absolutely nobody else who is decent on the team unless they get somebody from free agency and Claris Lavert is better than advertised.  The Nets also lost Thaddeus Young.  So if they improve 5-6 games, it will be better than expected.  Happy Fourth to everybody!

Though not a complete surprise, it is still shocking that Britain has voted to get out of the EU.  If the people who voted for this think this will make Britain a greater nation, they are sadly mistaken.  Most economists believe that the exit will hurt Britain economically,  London will decrease in stature as a financial center and Britain will have a much less leadership role in Europe.  Scotland and Northern Ireland, who voted to stay in the EU, may now want to break away from the UK.  If that happens, can they even call themselves the United Kingdom when there are only England and Wales left?

Most of those who voted for exit are older, non college educated people.  I think globalization have not been kind to them.  But economically this move will back fire as less free trade will makes things worse for everybody but worst for Britain itself.  I think the stock market crash of Friday is a temporary thing since nothing economically have happened since the vote.  But in the long run there will be more recession in England, Europe and world wide.  There is also the problem of other countries wanting to get out of the EU.  I think nationalism is on the rise with immigration and refugee problems.  If other countries follow Britain we may see end of the EU altogether.  I wonder if Europeans remember their history of almost nonstop wars among themselves till end of WWII?  So no matter what they think of organizations like the EU or UN, the truth is that we have had a lot less wars since formation of international organization.

Donald Trump is banking on the same demographic of older, less educated white male to carry him to victory.  But the percentage of this group is a smaller segment of our population.  I think in the future the exit will prove to be a bad thing so that similar movement due to nationalism will not succeed here.  But who knows?  Nobody thought Trump had a chance in the first place.  Even now, after acknowledging that he had not thought about the exit vote 2 days before the vote itself, then congratulating Scotland for voting to exit (they voted overwhelmingly to stay), I don't think his backers will ever think Trump is a lightweight as a political leader.

Cleveland wins NBA title.  I think they deserve to win.  To come back from 3-1 down and win 3 in a row with 2 of them on the road against a team that set the all time regular season wins, is tremendous.  James and Irving were just great in the series.  I don't think you can use Green's absence in game 5 as an excuse.  Green played fantastic in game 7 and GS still lost.  Nor can you use Bogut's injury or that Curry might not have been 100% since being injured against Houston as excuses.  Cleveland didn't have Irving and Love last year!  But one should not diminish the accomplishment of GS in the past 2 seasons.  Seventy three win is still seventy three wins.  Everybody tried to adjust to the Warriors' style and it will be interesting to see if GS will adjust and add more muscles in the lineup to rebound better against bigger teams such as OKC and of course, Cleveland.

Ichiro breaks Pete Rose's all time professional hit record.  Rose has a legitimate point in that if they count Japanese stats then they should count Rose's minor league stats since minor leagues are also professional leagues.  But I think it is fair to celebrate Ichiro's accomplishment.  And I believe that Ichiro did not get this hit record because he spent 7 seasons in Japan but DESPITE spending 7 seasons in Japan.  The first season Ichiro played in MLB, he was MVP.  And he has been great since then till maybe the last 3 seasons.  I think if he started in MLB, he would have been a great hitter in those 7 seasons of his professional career.  Since the Japanese league plays almost 30 games less than MLB, it is reasonable to think that he would have had more hits during those first 7 seasons playing in MLB than in Japan.  What is really amazing is that at age 42, he is hitting well over 300 right now!  Is he the hit king?  That is debatable.  I am not sure Pete Rose is the hit king either.  I mean Ty Cobb, whose hit records Rose beat, had a way higher batting average than Rose.  They all play in different eras, under different circumstances.  All I know is that there was a big deal when Rose broke Cobb's record and there is not much noise about Ichiro breaking Rose's record.  Whatever Rose think, I believe there should be celebration for Ichiro's accomplishments.

The Supreme Court ruled against American Samoans who sought American citizenship at birth.  A law that was adopted in 1900 says that people born in American Samoa will be considered "nationals" who own allegiance to the U.S. but  are not citizens with the right to vote and hold public offices.  It seems to me that it is absurd to expect someone born in a U.S. territory and is expected allegiance to the U.S. but are not given citizenship.  This makes American Samoa more like a colony than a territory to me.  I was born in Hong Kong which was a British colony and I was not a British citizen and did not have the rights of a British citizen.  So it seems to me the American Samoans are in the same boat.  I did not feel loyal to Britain then and I don't know why the Samoans would feel loyal to the U.S.

So Trump thinks if he was president and did not let any Muslim in then these type of shootings would not happen.  When it was pointed out the shooter was born in the U.S., then he says that his parents would not have been here so he would not have been born here.  By that logic, we should not have allowed Tim McVeigh's parents in the country so he would not have been born here.  And we should have banned the parents of the guy who shot students at UC Santa Barbara a couple years ago.  The lists goes on and on and pretty soon we will have only Native Americans left!

The biggest mass shooting in U.S. history 0ccured today, killing 50 people.  This appears to be a lone wolf attack.  This is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to prevent.  There will be a lot of finger pointing:  against the FBI for investigating him but not watching him, how he got access to so many weapons, and of course the GOP will blame Obama.  But really, with so many possible suspects, so many people with mental health issues, such easy access to assault weapons and internet access to radicalization messages, I don't think it is possible to prevent a single person or a husband/wife team, such as in San Bernadino, from causing such a tragedy.

A person was arrested in LA today with lots of weapons heading toward a gay pride parade.  There are not much detail but it appears someone tipped law enforcement and that is why this person is in custody.  So I think it is reasonable for us to expect the government to foil big plots involving multiple people from causing a terrorist act.  But I think we all have the responsibility to keep our eyes open and report anything suspicious if we are going to stand a chance of foiling lone wolf attacks.

Sadly, Mr. Hockey has passed away.  I still consider Gordie Howe to be the greatest hockey player of all time.  Wayne Gretsky may have a lot more goals and points but they played in different eras and with different styles.  Certainly Gretsky would agree that Howe was much tougher than he was and opponents feared Howe a lot more.  Howe played most of his NHL career in which there were only 6 teams.  Talent was much more concentrated back then.  Howe scored over 100 points only once, after the NHL had expanded to 12 teams.  He was, I think, 42 years old then.  Can you imagine how many points he would have scored if the league was diluted to 12 teams when he was in his prime? And who else can play professionally with his sons?  So rest in peace, Mr. Hockey, the Greatest of All Time!

I am not a fan of boxing but somehow Ali, who died this week, was the first athlete other than C.K Yang that I remembered.  The first I heard of Ali was when he was still Cassius Clay.  I remembered hearing over the radio in Hong Kong that a man called "Strange Luck", the translation of Clay in Chinese had beaten Liston whose name started with the Chinese sounding name Li.  I did not know the significant of that bout only that it was big news in Hong Kong. 

The next I heard of Ali was when I had already migrated to the U.S. and this man was defying the U.S. government and refusing to go into the army.  I thought at the time he was a bad guy for refusing to serve his country.  Even years later after I began to have doubts about the Vietnam war, I still thought he was a coward.  I thought this because by that time I was old enough to register for the draft.  All I knew then was that I was too chicken to fight.  I thought Ali probably thought the same as me.  So this religious objection was just a way to justify his fear of going to war.  Of course I was chicken both ways.  I didn't want to go but I was too chicken to protest, fearing people will call me a coward and disloyal.  So I registered.  But if my number had come up, I would have gone to college, medical school and get as many deferment as I can.  The war ended before I was drafted, but I certainly was not brave.  Was Ali brave.? Well, people say he was.  It is hard to say but he was braver than me in that he was willing to take a stand.

I remember his fights with Frazier.  I always felt that he went over the line with his trash talk against Frazier.  So even though I liked Ali's style a lot better than Frazier's, I was neutral in their fights.  Then in 1974, I thought Foreman was going to destroyed Ali.  But I remembered standing in a lounge in my college dorm that night when about ten black students running into the lounge, shouting that Ali had won.  Since Foreman is also black, I was very surprised by the reaction.  I began to understand that Ali was not just a boxer, but a cultural icon.

As with all famous people who died, tributes are pouring in.  The Greatest Of All Time, is the most frequent description of Ali.  I am not sure he was the GOAT in boxing.  One can argue for Joe Louis or Rocky Marciano as well.  Interestingly enough they did two computer analysis of Marciano fighting Ali many years ago.  One was done in the U.S. and one in the UK.  At that time, white establishment was still weary of Ali in the U.S.  The results:  Marciano won in the U.S. and Ali won in the UK.  But certainly among world wide sports figures in my lifetime, only Pele maybe more well known throughout the world than Ali.

I always thought that Ali as a young man was too brash.  Unlike MLK, I don't think he was much help for the civil right movement by aligning  with the Nation of Islam.  I did not consider him a role model.  But as he got older, he came across as a kinder and gentler soul.  He was also courageous in his fight against Parkinson.  We like to think of our heroes as perfect or superhuman.  They never are.  Ali was not perfect or superhuman.  But he was a great athlete who was also loquacious.  He was a great cultural icon and he made us think.  Rest in peace, Champ.

I had the privilege of attending the 50th anniversary of the election of William Soo Hoo as mayor of Oxnard last night.  Soo Hoo was the first Chinese American mayor in the state of California and possibly the whole U.S.  At a time his family was still not welcomed to live in certain parts of the city, it was a tremendous accomplishment to be elected.  He paved the way for and mentored subsequent mayors of Japanese and Hispanic descents in Oxnard.  I had the honor of meeting his widow Angela who at 87 years old is still extremely vibrant.  I also met his sister Irene who is 95 years old!  Irene was a ballroom dancer and she still move amazingly well on the floor.  My wife and I were thrilled to dance with her.  She is an inspiration for us to keep moving.

The keynote speaker for the evening was John Chiang, the treasurer of California.  Chiang had just announced his entering the race for governor in 2018.  It was mostly a speech honoring Soo Hoo and what he means for Asian American politicians.  He did talk a little about the economy of California.   It is too early to know if he ideas and policies match with what I think for me to fully support him.  But I think his fiscal policies as former controller and now treasurer were reasonable.  He was also a very good speaker so that he will at least pass the eye ball test.  The question is:  can he beat Gavin Newsom, the early front runner?   Newsom has  a lot of support within the Democratic party.  As a former mayor of SF where he courted the Chinese community, he may also get a lot of the Asian votes from Chiang.  But in California, the top two moves on from the primary to the general election regardless of party.  So if Chiang can get second place, he has a chance against Newsom.  The reason being a lot of independent and Republicans don't like Newsom for his extreme liberal views.  So if the choice is between Chiang and Newsom, they may go for Chiang.  It is early but it will be interesting.

While we are all surprised that someone like Trump has become one of the two final candidates who will be our next president, there are examples of him in other parts of the world.  Trump's rhetoric  against foreigners and Muslims are also used by politicians all over Europe.  In fact the platforms that made him successful here has been even more successful elsewhere.  Conservative populist parties have already won power in Poland, Hungary and even Denmark.  Elsewhere opposition parties with same agenda are gaining against established parties.  Even in Britain, there is the threat of leaving the European Union because of the fear of immigration, terrorism and lose of control of its own economy. In Asia, the Philippines have elected  Rodrigo Duterte who is called the Trump of the East.

The only exception to this pattern recently is the election of Sadiq Khan to be the mayor of London.  The pressure is on him to decrease the number of Asian youths leaving London to fight for terrorist groups.  That is not the usual job description for a mayor.  I am worried that terrorist group will actually make London a even more likely target than it already is.  If an attack occurs under his watch, the right wing extremists will blame him.  There will be more opposition against immigrants which will lead to more youths becoming possible recruits for terrorists.  The cycle may not be stoppable.  So the best of luck to Sadiq Khan.

I have no idea who Trump or Clinton will pick as vp.  I am sure Trump will not pick Rick Perry, who expressed interest, or Sarah Palin, who is attacking Paul Ryan on Trump's behalf.  Perry will probably forget who he is endorsing by next week.  Palin's threat to unseat Ryan in his district is laughable.  Ryan is very popular back home and Trump lost Wisconsin.  So I am sure he is safe there.  He will probably come to some understanding with Trump later but is helping GOP candidates in tough election fights to stay away from the negative effect of Trump.

Another caveat for GOP voters who think that a business executive will help the economy.  Did they not know that Herbert Hoover was a CEO before politics?  What happened during his presidency?  George Bush was also a CEO before politics and I am sure everybody remember how things were 8 years ago!  And if we think rich business people make great presidents, then maybe we should elect Bill Gates or Warren Buffet who are way more successful than Trump.  Carlos Slim would then help Mexico become a rich country!

Congratulations to Leicester City for winning the Premier League championship!  The ultimate underdog story with discarded players and 5000 to 1 odds before the season started!  It is also owned by a Thailand conglomerate and has a Japanese striker in the starting lineup!  It gives hope to the Detroit Lions, Chicago Cubs and LA Clippers of the world!  Happy Mothers Day to all Moms!

The GOP gathered in California this weekend and of course Donald Trump is the focus of attention.  There were protests outside and rhetoric inside that reminds one of 1994 when Pete Wilson helped push through Prop. 197 that prevented illegal immigrants from getting government services.  The GOP won that battle but the activism that followed has led to decrease in Republican influence in California.  While acknowledging that Trump is the likely nominee, the GOP leaders must fear that this will lead the party to even more irrelevance in the state after this November.

Trump, of course, keeps going on the attack on immigration while in California.  He blames illegal immigrants on murders and rapes.  He even say they are the cause of the drug epidemic.  I am pretty sure that even if there was no illegals in the state, the Hollywood stars will be able to get their recreation drugs of choice!  Prescription opioid abuse is rampant in this country but I know of no doctor or pharmacist who is an illegal immigrant.  They certainly don't run the drug companies that sell the opioid without keeping track of them.  Of course, Trump believes that Mexico will build a wall for him and that will keep out the illegals.  If he is so versed in the drug trade, does he not realize that the drug cartels have been quite successful digging tunnels to bring in the drugs?  I am sure they can build tunnels to bring in illegals and skirt whatever wall Trumps thinks he can build.

It looks like Trump and Clinton are going to be the nominee of their respective parties after tonight's primary results.  With Trump sweeping all five states by big margins, I don't see how the GOP will be able to deny him at the convention even if falls short of the majority.  It does not seem like any strategy Cruz, Kasich and the establishment tries has work at all against Trump.  I guess there are a lot of angry Republicans out there.  They just want to punch out the established politicians.  I don't think Trump can beat Clinton.  But if he does win, I say to those angry Republicans:  Be afraid of what you asked for!

San Francisco police officer Jason Lai was found to be sending racist text to fellow officers and others.  This is really appalling.  Even if Lai himself had not been victim of prejudice, I am sure he had family members who were victims.  So now he is in a position of power, he looks down on other people?  Having just witnessed the Peter Liang situation, I am wonder what this is going to do in recruiting of Asians in law enforcement and if this hurt the good Asian cops out there.

Officer Peter Liang was sentenced to 800 hours of community service and five years of probation today after judge Danny Chun reduced his manslaughter conviction to criminally negligent homicide.  A few weeks ago I wrote that Liang should not have been charged with manslaughter and that he was made a scapegoat for all the previous shootings and beatings by police officers.  I also did not think he deserved anywhere the maximum of 15 years for manslaughter.  I thought that by assigning Judge Chun to the case, he would get a long sentence since it would look bad for an Asian judge to go easy on a convicted Asian officer.  Turns out I was wrong.

I am not sure that criminally negligent homicide sounds a lot better than manslaughter but apparently it gives Chun more leeway.  I have not heard anything about riots in New York.  Maybe they are too busy voting for Trump and Clinton!  I had wrote that Liang deserved to be punished but maybe only for couple of years in jail.  He got off much better!  I would totally understand if blacks are upset over this sentencing.  Either Chun is very courageous and want to do the right thing or he is biased.  I am not sure.  Now, I also read that the prosecutor asked for probation and community service and no jail time.  So if that is the prosecutor's belief that Liang deserved no jail time, then why go for the manslaughter conviction?  Is this all a show that the government won't let officers get away with it but still protect the officers?  I am happy for Liang that he doesn't have to spend years in jail but I feel badly for the Gurley family that the justice they thought was within reach was taken away.

On the cover of the Time magazine I got this week is my name and the fact that I owe $42,998.12.  This is the amount that every American man, woman and child would need to pay to erase the $13.9 trillion U.S. debt.  There were a few pages inside devoted to how we got here.  But there wasn't any good solution from the author that I can see.  Forget about the presidential candidates.  Independent analysis found that the policies of the remaining candidates, if enacted, would increase the debt and/or decrease the GDP.  I am no economist but I understand that economists believe that debt as a percentage of GDP becomes dangerous if over 90%.  We are at 73.6%, according to the article.  So it is not panic time yet, but it will be if we don't do anything about it.

The argument from the GOP is cut spending.  The argument from the Democrats is raise taxes.  Neither by itself will work as demonstrated by the analysis that none of the candidate's policy would work.  And there are tons of arguments about what to cut.  Also our tax codes are ridiculous with millions of pages that even accountants have trouble understanding.  I propose that we do an across the board cut of 5% and an increase of 5% taxes. To reach the 5% increase, we use a flat tax with no loopholes or exceptions.  We then calculate the flat tax rate that would give 5 % more total than we get now. 

Of course the above will never get passed in real life as both sides will be against it.  One more thing that I feel strongly about is that we have to find a way to get rid of all those off shore accounts.  Money going into those accounts are worse than any domestic spending for our bottom line.  For example, a person on welfare gets his check will likely use all of it in the domestic economy.  This money will circulate, creating more economic activity and taxes.  The money in a Swiss bank account does not circulate here and taxes are avoided.  So cleaning out these accounts is more important than any budget cuts we can make.  Of course again, this will never happen.

The Panama Papers revealed hundreds of thousands of offshore shell companies in 200 countries.  There was more info than Snowden's intelligence leak.  While it is not shocking that dictators and wealthy individuals hide money in untraceable account, the enormity uncovered from the records of one law firm in Panama is amazing.  The prime minister of Iceland has already lost his job over this.  Although people like Putin and the king of Saudi Arabia are not going to lose their jobs, I think there are going to be world wide consequences.  One of which is the confidence in the capitalist system which allow this. 

This is not just a problem in third world and communist countries.  I read where Switzerland and Hong Kong are one and two in hiding accounts.  But surprisingly, the U.S. is number three.  Lots of companies are set up in states such as Delaware and Nevada where the real head of the company is not on record.  The LA Times reported that gambling tycoon Sheldon Adelson bought the Las Vegas Review-Journal with a shell company registered in Delaware so that people would not know that he owned the paper.  I think we have to stop this type of dealings.  Otherwise there will be more anger over the system.  There may actually more call for socialism.  Bernie Sanders has already tap into this.  But if more revelation of tax cheating from the wealthy 1% come out, candidates like Sanders will be more successful in the future.  I believe that capitalism is the best economic system in history.  But I always said that capitalism without regulation is just chaos.  So lets try to have stricter regulations before the confidence in the system diminish significantly.

Well, now that FBI got someone to hack into the iphone of the San Bernardino terrorist without the help of Apple, I think we can conclude that nothing can be totally private.  Apple, having refused to help the government, now has egg on its face.  The world now knows that its products are not impenetrable.  For us consumers, if there is something we don't want anyone else to know, do not put it in computers, email, smart phones, icloud etc.

Scottie Pippen claims the 1995 Bulls would sweep the Warriors of today.  Total nonsense.  It is not really possible to compare generation to generation but to think that anyone of any era can sweep the Warriors is ridiculous.  I would not put the Warriors as the best of all time even if they beat the Bulls' record of 72 wins.  They would have to repeat the championship first to be in the conversation.  But I think they match up well with the Bulls.  I think the Big Two of Jordan and Pippen are better than Curry and Thompson due to superior size and defense.  But Draymond Green is better than Dennis Rodman, the Bulls number three.  Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut are better than Ron Harpper and Luc Longley.  So let say the top five are pretty even.  But the Bulls bench was very thin.  Toni Kucocic is good and Steve Kerr would be a bigger player today with the importance of the three point shot.  But there is practically nobody else any good beyond those two.  The Warriors has Andre Igudala, Speights, Ezelli, Livingston, Barbosa, Rush.  All those are excellent reserves and in case of Igudala, a former all star and playoff mvp.  I don't know who would win but I don't think the Bulls are better.  By the way, if they do play, will Steve Kerr devise a strategy to stop Steve Kerr?

Opening day for baseball is here.  I don't follow baseball too much anymore especially since I don't get Dodgers games on tv.  Time Warners tried to decrease the price of the Dodger games this season to entice Directv and others to opt in.  No taker so far.  I don't want to pay extra for local games even if this is Vin Scully's last season. Vin Scully himself has said he feels uncomfortable being used as a negotiation ploy in this impasse.  I will take Toronto to win the AL and the Mets to win the NL and the World Series.

There has been a lot of complaints about the lack of diversity in movies and television.  Certainly those complaints are justified.  But there is one complaint I would not make.  That is the lack of diversity in the shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.  I think those shows are trash.  I don't watch them and I don't want to hear about lack of Asians on them.  I mean, if you are Asian, do you want to see Asians on Jerry Springer?  I am sure that there are no Jewish, Muslims, Catholics groups who want better representation on these shows.  So why do we complain that there are not enough blacks, Asians or Hispanics on them?

On a show that is quite diverse, DWTS , it looks to be difficult to pick the winner this year.  I can only say that Geraldo Rivera is obviously the worst.  Although Von Miller was not best in the first week, I will stick with him as my pick to win.

Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.  I think it is a good choice.  He is a moderate, an intellectual and had been confirmed easily to the appellate court before.  As expected the GOP vow to deny him of even a vote.  In fact most GOP senators even refuse to meet with him.  So is he just a sacrificial lamb to the political process?  Maybe, but at 63 years old, this may be his last chance to get on the court.  So he is grateful to be given the chance.  And Obama cannot be accused of sending a partisan liberal to replace Scalia.

Most likely the GOP is going to not do anything until the election.  If Clinton wins, they may try to confirm Garland in a lame duck congress because Clinton may nominate someone much more liberal and younger.  I don't know if the GOP is going to suffer any political fall out from ignoring this most qualified candidate, but I think they could do much worse by being obstructionists.  If Garland is confirmed, the make up of the court will be similar to before O'Connor retired.  Garland and Kennedy will be the swing votes instead of Kennedy alone now.  But if Clinton wins, it will be a definite advantage for the Democrats.  In fact, I am not sure how Trump would select his nominee if he wins.  His choice may even be less palatable to conservatives than Garland!

Obama is in Cuba right now!  Again, his critics will roast him for siding up to a dictatorship.  I think it is the right thing to do.  So many years of sanctions and isolation have not made a difference.  I think engagement is the right thing to do. 

Well, Trump might not be stoppable after Tuesday!  If he beats Rubio in Florida and Kasich in Ohio then only Cruz will be left.  As much as I hate Trump, Cruz is worse in my book.  And to the GOP establishment, Cruz is not much better than Trump and so they might just give up in trying to stop Trump.  It looks like Rubio is going to lose Florida and so Kasich is the last firewall.  I voted for Obama in the last two elections but I think I could have lived with McCain or Romney winning.  In this election only Kasich is acceptable to me in the GOP side, so I am hoping he can stop Trump.  Kasich has been the adult in this election, as he likes to say.  I would agree with him.  I think if somehow he can pull off the big upset and get the nomination, he can win the general election.  Ohio is a big swing state and he can win there against the Democrats.  I think if Trump wins, he should ask Kasich be the vp.  I hope then Kasich declines.  I don't want anyone helping Trump win.

MSU should have been a one seed over Virginia.  But in any case they are in the same region so it doesn't matter as far as reaching the Final Four is concern.  Michigan gets a play in game which I think was fair.  They would been out without beating Indiana and by losing to Purdue they did not deserve to go in straight.  If they play Notre Dame, maybe they should play on the football field instead!  With the risk of jinxing LBOAYM, I think MSU is the best team in the field and is my pick to win it all.  My dark horse is Cal.

Chris Rock got some flack from Asians for bringing 3 Asian kids on stage at the Oscars to tell a stereotype joke about Asians being good at math.  It was not very funny and a rather lame joke at such a big stage.  But I am not bothered by it as some people such as Jeremy Lin are.  I can understand Lin's position since stereotype prevented him from getting a div. 1 basketball scholarship and being drafted into the NBA.  Some black people don't like the stereotype of blacks being good athletes because they believe that implies that blacks are then not smart.  Lin believes that saying Asians are good at math implies that they cannot play sports.  I can understand these worries. 

Personally, I don't get upset about these stereotype jokes.  If someone wants to make a joke about me being good at math, I don't mind at all.  To me it is only important and wrong if someone decides that an Asian is not given a chance to show what he can do on a court or in a field.  Same with the stereotype of the black athlete.  Who cares, as long as a black person is not denied to do anything he or she is qualified to do.

A follow up to last week's blog about the KKK endorsing Trump.  Instead of badgering Trump about disavowing the endorsements, the GOP should ask Trump why he thinks that he is so attractive to the KKK.  By the way, I think Romney's scathing attack on Trump is not going to hurt Trump.  After all, Trump's supporters are anti-establishment and who is more establishment than the last GOP nominee?

Apple refuses to help the FBI to hack into the phone of the San Bernardino terrorists.  Is Apple the protector of our privacy?  Well, I can understand their protests of government invasion of our privacy.  But I am not so sure their sincerity.   Eventually, Apple is going to lose in the courts even though it may go all the way to the Supreme court.  Personally, I don't see the difference between a phone or any place that you may hold something private.  The government can get an order to search your house, you work place, your safety deposit box, your mail etc.  So I don't see a criminal can keep anything private.  Apple has cooperated with China in the past under the notion of national security so I don't see why they wouldn't cooperate with our own government.  I think Apple is going to play their hand to the end because it gives them good publicity.  It is more self serving than being savior of our privacy.

I can't believe that Trump claimed that he doesn't know who David Duke is or anything about the white supremist movement.  He is either lying or he is too ignorant to be president.  If his opponents cannot make him pay for these remarks, he will become the GOP nominee.

My next blog was going to  be about officer Peter Liang.  But since LBOAYM brought it up, I decide to write about it now.  It deserves a separate blog and not just a comment from me.  In my opinion, if we never give a police officer the benefit of the doubt in a dangerous situation in the past, then Liang deserves to be tried and convicted.  But as has happened so often in the past, police officers have done much worse than Liang and got off free, then I find it hard to believe that Liang was charged and convicted of manslaughter. 

This shooting occurred in a dark staircase with no witnesses and video.  The bullet had bounced off a wall and hit the victim.  Yes, it was negligence but also bad luck.  Certainly, Liang had no intention of shooting the victim.  Compared that to recent cases where a cop can be seen on video shooting or choking somebody intentionally in broad day light.  I think there is no doubt that the prosecution tried to make this case as an example that they are no longer trying to help the cops.  If this is a true turning of the page for the justice system then the sacrifice of Liang maybe a good thing in the long run.  But since this happened in 2014 and since then I can't think of one white cop being convicted in 2015 for uncalled for shooting, I doubt this is a turning of the page.

I have said it before:  If these unjustified shootings or beatings are occurring in this age of widespread use of cell phone cameras, then can you imagine how often the cops were beating or shooting people in the past?  Well, in this case, there was no video and no witness.  So I would have to ask:  If Liang was white, would he have been prosecuted.  I think not.  Most likely the police would have said that the cop felt danger in the dark and shot a warning shot which bounced off the wall and killed the victim.  That would seem more acceptable to the white community than some of the other shootings.  So I don't think a white cop would have been even prosecuted.

I compare this to the collapse of Wall Street in 2008.  The only big shot from Wall Street who went to jail was a South Asian guy.  Well, unless you count Bernie Madoff.  But even then I say Madoff had to go to jail because he ripped off rich white people only.  Interesting enough the prosecutors in the South Asian's case were South Asians.  This way they claim that he was not tried because of his ethnicity.  Similar to the Rosenberg spy case where the judge was Jewish, Liang's fate is going to be decided by an Asian judge.  I see a pattern here.

I think the Asian community in NY did not start the protest early enough.  The big protests should have occurred way before the trial.  Asians also should have shown more support for Black Lives Matter.  Asians also should show more sympathy to the victim of this case.  One possible consequences of this is that it may decrease the number of Asians wanting to join the police.  Asians are way underrepresented in most police forces and this case will not help the recruitment of Asians into law enforcement.

So now we are down to Kasich vs Rubio in the establishment division of the Republican conference with the winner going up against Cruz of the Evangelical division and Trump of the anti-establishment division.  On the Democratic conference, Clinton is opening a solid lead over Sanders although that conference race is not over by any means.  Bush dropped out after another poor showing in SC.  I think now that his whipping boy Bush is out, Trump will attack Rubio because he doesn't think Kasich will be much of a threat.  Rubio is Trump's biggest threat since Cruz cannot even carry the evangelical heavy SC.

Trump actually backed down a little in his verbal fight with the pope.  I guess he doesn't want to lose the Catholic vote.  I agree with what the pope said about Trump.  But I am wondering if the pope is saying building a wall is not christian like, what about the wall around the Vatican.  Is the Vatican taking in any refugees from the middle east now or in the near future?  Isn't the church's policy against birth control help increase the population in third world countries and thus increase poverty and migration?  But overall, I like pope Francis and I think will make changes that will benefit the church and its followers.

The death of Justice Antonin Scalia must send shock wave to the GOP.  Scalia and Thomas are the two most reliable conservative votes in the Supreme Court.  If Obama is able to get someone through the Senate to replace Scalia, the liberals will be the majority in the Supreme Court.  So the GOP has to do everything to prevent Obama's nominee from getting confirmed.

The GOP does control the senate and so can prevent an Obama's nominee from getting confirmed.  But there is a big risk in this.  Most likely, Obama will nominate someone who had been confirmed with GOP votes in the past for appellate court.  This will force the GOP to renounce someone they had voted for in the past.  If there is no action from the GOP then the court will operate with just 8 justices for the year.  If there is a 4-4 vote then the decision from the lower court will stand.  This means that cases that would have been reversed if Scalia was still alive will not be reversed.  So the conservatives will lose some cases they would have won even if there was no new justice. 

The Democrats will denounce inaction on the part of GOP not to confirm.  GOP voters will be on the side of no action so that would seem to be a wash.  But I think the majority of independents will see the GOP as obstructionists here.  To go a whole year without taking action is just wrong to neutral observers.  Even if the GOP does not lose independent votes, the big fight over this is sure to get heavier voter turnouts in the election.  Since heavy turnouts usually favors Democrats as demonstrated in big turnouts in 2008, this will be problematic for the GOP.  With more GOP senators up for election than Democrats, a heavy turnout can possibly throw the senate to the Democrats.  I am sure Obama and his party is not counting the chickens before they hatch, but the possibility of losses in all 3 branches must be frightening to the GOP today.

Nice for Peyton Manning to probably end his illustrious career on top with a Super Bowl championship.  He must give thanks to his defense and to the Panthers for making all kinds of mistakes. 

The race for the presidency is like football playoffs.  In order to get to the finals, you have to win your conference.  And in order to win your conference, you have to win your division.  So basically Christie, Bush, and Kasich have to beat out Rubio to win the division of the establishment in order to have a chance to beat our Trump and Cruz for the Republican conference.  So with Rubio ahead, the other three are attacking him rather than Trump and Cruz right now.  So will see if that makes a difference in the NH primary this week.  Sanders and Clinton are in the Democratic conference finals already.

I am no fan of Fiorina but I think she should have been allowed to be in the last debate.  She would have been in the JV debate if not for Huckabee and Santorum dropping out.  I mean, if a JV team doesn't have enough players, it stands to reason that the one left over player should be moved up to the varsity.  It does not seem fair that we had 10 debaters before in the main event and now they can't accommodate a seventh debater.

Just watched a documentary on Vietnam called "Hearts and Minds".  It reminds me of the rhetoric of the presidential candidates who are saying they will destroy ISIS.  In particular, Ted Cruz, who said that he will "carpet bomb them".  This shows how little Cruz and others like him have a grasp of history.  The last time we carpet bombed somebody was in Vietnam.  That was totally unsuccessful.  Never mind that carpet bombing is borderline war crime.  The aim is to destroy an entire area, whatever or whoever is there.  In Vietnam, it was not military targets but an entire city like Hanoi.  That did not destroy the North Vietnamese army or the Viet Cong.  This will work even less against ISIS since they have no country and they are not even the majority in a city.  So if you carpet bomb  a city you won't destroy ISIS but will get more resentment and more recruits.

All these rhetoric of shouting I will destroy the enemy or make American great again are just rhetoric.  There are no reasonable strategy in this.  In fact there is a lack of understanding of the world outside America.  This remind me of General William Westmoreland, who commanded the troops in Vietnam.   He claimed that his counterpart in North Vietnam is fighting a war of attrition by sacrificing thousands of men at each battle.  He said that "The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does a Westerner...We value life and human dignity.  They don't care about human life and dignity."  I find this view racist.  Beyond that, this lack of understanding of other people led to our defeat in Vietnam.  I think some of these candidates will lead us into the same disaster if one of them is elected.

I would not go as far as Michael Moore who called it a racial crime and ethnic cleansing.  But I am shocked and appalled at what happened in Flint with its water.  I would agree that if this was happening in a rich suburb of Michigan or the state capitol, Lansing, this would have been resolved a long time ago.

There are a lot of blame to go around from what I can see.  First, you would think that if you are switching to a different source of water, the new source must be tested way before to be sure it is safe.  In this case there was lots of chloride in the Flint river water and it is corrosive to pipes.  That was not difficult science to understand.  When the residents complained of bad smell and color in the water, it was ignored.  Can't see that happening in Bloomfield Hills.  Then GM would not use the water because it was corroding engine parts.  If it is bad for engines, wouldn't someone figure that it was bad for pipes and people?  Then when finally the city council voted to go back to Lake Huron water, the emergency manager appointed by the governor vetoed the move.  Given the evidence at that point, how can he morally do that?  And at that point, nobody in the governor's office see the problem already?

There are probably more blame to go around but I only recently read about this.  I hope someone from Michigan can give more insight to this.

It looks like the sanctions against Iran will start to be lifted.  Iran has been fulfilling its obligations so far to dismantle its nuclear arms program.  There is no guarantee that it will not start the program in the future but this agreement has delayed Iran from getting a nuclear bomb for at least more than one year.  There are still skeptics, of course.  But if there was no agreement, Iran would have gotten the bomb by now and Israel may have attacked. So we have avoided that and if Iran goes back on its word, then attacking is still an option.

One plus as the result of the agreement is that at least there is a dialogue between the U.S. and Iran.  This led to release of four or five hostages today.  There was also the quick release of American sailors who wandered into Iran waters.  Somebody made a big mistake here and gave Iran an opportunity for propaganda.  But with sanctions about to be lifted Iran acted better than they would have otherwise and released the sailors by the next day.  The GOP candidates were screaming for Obama to act tough.  But what do they want to do?  Start a war over the capture of 2 boats and 10 sailors?  Obama and Kerry did the right thing by not escalating things and quietly negotiated for the release of the sailors.  Apparently some people mistake talking tough as being competent or smart.

It seems like everyday now I read that a Sikh is being attacked because some idiot thinks he is a Muslim.  Of course those idiots have no reason to attack a Muslim either since overwhelming majority of Muslims are not terrorists.  A Sikh bus driver in California was beat up recently.  Somehow he was able to prevent the bus from crashing.  Somehow the perpetrator has not been charged with a hate crime.  He was calling the driver a terrorist before attacking.  If that isn't a hate crime, I don't know what is.

More than a year ago I wrote about Cliven Bundy who owed the government a million dollars in fees and fines for grazing on federal land.  Now his son Ammon is the leader of a group that is taking over a federal building in a remote area of Oregon.  Previously I said that the government should approach the Cliven Bundy situation cautiously.  There is no need to turn this into another Waco.  But more than a year later that situation has not resolved.  Bundy still owes the money.  Now his son has seized this building and is not clear what his ultimate goal is.  Again, armed men are involved and are threatening law enforcement with violence if they try to getting them out of there.

I have no good solution to peacefully end this.  Apparently law enforcement has none either since  they still have not gotten the money from Bundy after all this time.  I am quite sure that anyone who owes the IRS a million but has no guns will be in jail already.  So is this going to lead to others who will just use threats of violence to ward off the government?  Is that what the Second Amendment is about?  I also wonder what the response would be if a group of armed black men take over a federal building?