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.