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!