Following the DNC held in Milwaukee from August 17th to 20th, the 2020 RNC was also held for four days, from August 24th to 27th. The choice of dates was a smart one for the simple reason that the media had to put more attention on covering the on-going RNC than following up the post-DNC conversations. So would the general public including me in spending our time. Trump has TV experience and he certainly knows how to use it in the RNC by hiring TV program creators (For example, Sadoux Kim and Chuck Labella associated with the Apprentice). The pandemic limited the DNC and RNC in the same way, but the difference was like Hollywood movie production versus a low budget documentary. Of course, Trump may have cunningly used the White House and DC backdrop for special effects, but that has always  been the privilege for an incumbent. Trump treated this event as a talent show and he is the Talent-in-Chief. The sequence of two party national conventions has always become been the challenging party first and the incumbent second since 1956. In view of the advantage the incumbent party has, perhaps the sequence should be determined by  draw and be set at least ten days apart.
 
The Republican Party had selected Charlotte, North Carolina for its convention site. Due to COVID-19, the RNC had restricted to 60 delegates per state (plus 36 convention staff) to attend the first day in Charlotte (originally planned for 2500 attendees). Then the RNC was moved to Jacksonville in next three days conducting a virtual convention with speakers mostly delivering from Andrew Mellon Auditorium or White House. The Republican Party has decided to retain the 2016 platform thus reducing the necessary meetings needed at the convention (DNC had caucus meetings in Milwaukee). This may be RNC’s second smart decision made before the  Convention, it not only reduced quite a number of in-person meetings but also eliminated any bickering on issues which essentially allowed President Trump to focus on elaborating his fulfillment of his last campaign promises which he surely did in his acceptance speech. The voters would have heard and gained more and better familiarities on RNC’s policies and issues than on DNC’s platform proposals. (furthermore Trump’s deeds have been scrutinized for nearly four years by the media) So the contrast of DNC and RNC can be viewed as one defending (Trump’s) performance and one convincing (Biden’s) ability - a comparison we voters must pay close attention.
 
The four-day RNC agenda is themed by Land of Heroes, Land of Promises, Land of Opportunities and Land of Greatness, respectively. RNC filled each Day with speakers and promotional video stories relevant to the theme. The RNC speaker list contains political figures and famous people (as had DNC’s list) including the following: Sen. Tim Scott (KN)(SC), Rep. Steve Scalise (LA), Matt Gaetz (FL) and Jim Jordan (OH), Gov Nikki Haley (SC), Donald Trump Jr., and others. (Day 1) First Lady Melania Trump(KN) , Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, Sen. Rand Paul (KY), Governor Kim Reynolds (IA), Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez (FL), AG Daniel Cameron (Ky), f-AG Pam Bondi (FL), Eric and Tiffany Trump and others (Day 2), VP Mike Pence(KN) and Sara Pence, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (TN), Joni Ernst (IA), Gov. Kristi Noem (SD), Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY), Lee Zeldin (NY), A. Dir. Natl Intell Richard Grenell, Lara Trump and others (Day 3), President Trump (KN), Sec. of H.U. Ben Carson, Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY), Tom Cotton (AR), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (CA), and Jeff Van Drew (NJ), Ivanka Trump, former-Mayor Rudy Giuliani (NY) and others. (Day 4)
 
One must give credits to the Trump family in the speaker list who all had given  great speeches in support of Donald Trump. Melania delivered a fine speech from the White House Rose Garden while the President watched, a speech by far better than her 2016 speech. Although Trump’s sons spoke very well but his daughters showed more charisma, Ivanka, an experienced speaker gave a moving and impressive speech to introduce her father on the acceptance night and Tiffany, a fresh college graduate delivered a fine account of her father’s accomplishments. Sure, these speeches may have had speech writers’ polishing, but the sincerity and emotion can not be created by words alone in a public speech. In 2016, many Americans voted for Donald Trump because of his fine family, in 2020, I personally believe that they will still be many voters casting their votes for Donal Trump for the same reason despite of books published defaming him.
 
Donald Trump loves to give speeches at campaign rally. He flew to Charlotte on the first night of RNC after it completed the nomination and gave a long and enthusiastic speech. The effect is quite positive despite the CNN, MSNBC and others pouring cold water on his speech with fact checks. His acceptance speech was also long and dynamic aided by the staging at the White House providing an ambient perfectly suited for delivering a ‘Keep America First’ speech boiling people’s patriotic blood. Comparing Trump’s speech with Biden’s speech, I would say that Trump sure has solidified his base voters far more than Biden has on his. As for the undecided voter population, no one could predict the result, but if energy, enthusiasm and choreographic ability would mean anything in moving mass, the RNC sure had outdone the DNC. Of course, the post-convention activities may undo some of the impact, Trump had won in 2016 despite of the mainstream media siding with his opponent. Can Trump win again? We will try our best to make an analysis here.
 
After reviewing the two parties’ conventions, some mainstream media reactions and a few Organic views, I may make the observation that Trump’s strategy is focusing on his claims and showing he has delivered his campaign promise, ‘Keep America First’ and ‘Make America Great’. He will dwell on this big picture and not on the details and tactics by showing that he has won the trade wars against a few nations including our allies. He will correlate the economy (before pandemic) to his tax cuts and deregulation effort to get corporations and jobs back. He will show his strategy of getting our allies to pay defense cost while we beef up our military. He will show by acting tough (before too late) we may still get our way externally and manage the unrest internally. He has picked China as the target to highlight and visualize his ‘Keep America First’ and ‘Make America Great’ playbook regardless whether his accusations against China were true or not. Meanwhile the Democratic Party is denying his claims by faulting his tactics and focusing on details, especially his lies. The fact that the Democrats were silent on China policy is implicitly endorsing Trump’s choreographed big picture screenplay.
 
Can American voters tell that Trump’s ‘Keep America First and Make America Great’ strategy may fail because of his tactics being too far from the norm and too low beneath the justice? Or Trump knows himself to apply the brakes in time and change his tactics. Nation destiny and world affairs are not like real estate business, bankruptcy is not an option. Trump should be smart enough to know that (keep calling Xi and Putin friends) but does Biden know that? It is not apparent from his silence on China policy and his ignorance on Trump’s big picture screenplay. How should we, especially Chinese Americans, select the next American President, then? I will deal with the question in the next column!

 
The human society is under an unprecedented test by the COVID-19 pandemic on top of numerous natural disasters such as earth-quakes, floods, even grasshoppers and man-made turmoil such as violent riots, massive protests, never ending vicious military confrontations and wars. The U.S. as the richest nation and the only superpower in the word has been leading the world for the past eight decades, but today, the U.S. leadership is being questioned not only by the third world, other developing and developed countries but also by Americans themselves subconsciously if not openly. From sociology point of view, one wonders what has happened to American society and American leaders? Why is America losing her esteem in leading the world? The answers may be correlated with some statistical data, but a clearer picture may be described by adjectives based on broad observations. The author attempts to diagnose the American society which is inevitably driving the U.S. including her elected political leaders to today's status. Hence, the article is entitled, American Society Is ‘S.A.F.E.’ But Failing, which will be explained below.
 
‘S.A.F.E.’ Is a group of adjectives collected under their initial letters for describing American societal phenomena. ‘S’ represents 'sore, sad and sinking'. ‘A’ represents 'anger, aching and anxious'. ‘F’ represents 'fair, fear and fending'. And 'E' represents 'equal, egoistic and evil'. We shall explain how these adjectives may describe American society to create a picture which may be responsible for the status the U.S. is in, losing respect and esteem on the world stage and crumbling and ineffective in dealing with our domestic issues. The American economy has been stagnant for years in terms of per ca-pita GPD, the society wealth gap has been continuously widening for decades, the racial discrimination and inequality issue have become more pronounced. Our foreign policy seems to be driven by legacy beliefs and ego never accepting reality. Let's see how 'S.A.F.E.’ describe our society!?
 
First, let’s look at the composition of American society. It is for sure an immigrant society consisting of the White (majority and principal initial settlers), the Black (the second largest minority behind Hispanics and most discriminated group perhaps next to the remaining <2% American Indians), and the Yellow-Brown (including the Mexican, Chinese and Indian immigrants). The sentiments of the Whites can be adequately described by ‘Sore’, ‘Sad’ and ‘Sinking’. The U.S. was dominated by the Whites in every aspect ever since they demolished the American Indians. They were the ones followed the world industrial revolution, created the large if not the greatest independent nation. The Whites dominated the economy, agricultural and technological industries and excelled in science, arts, sports … all arenas. Today, they feel 'sore' because their domination has gradually being eroded by the Blacks and the Yellow-Browns. The sore loser feeling is of course accentuated in the middle- and lower class-Whites, white and blue collar workers. Some Whites are still dominating the ultra rich sectors of American society, but more Whites felt 'sad' when they saw the American society losing her economic power, directly translated to losing buying power. The social programs paid by their tax dollars have not improved the harmony in their society - filled with social problems such as drugs, crimes, poverty, and riots. The recent 'George Floyd' incidence triggered Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement which made some Whites more 'sad'. Overall, even including the so called top 0.1% or 1 %, the Whites have a 'sinking' feeling, the U.S. is 'sinking'.
 
The Blacks in the U.S. was liberated from slavery and given voting right in 1865. That was 155 years ago yet today the Blacks are still the worst performing minority group comparing to Whites and Yellow-Browns, Asians and Mexicans, in terms of their median household income (2017 data: Asians $81,331, Whites $68,145, Hispanics $50,486 and Blacks $40,258.) Furthermore, the black community exhibits more crime rate which compounded the societal discrimination against the Blacks. Of course, the Blacks felt 'angry' when they experienced discrimination; this anger can easily explode if a specific incidence (as seen in the latest police brutality case) was against a Black, criminal or not. This type of conflict persisted to today since the slavery era despite of numerous legislation enacted to eliminate discrimination and to elevate equality. Some Blacks who succeeded academically and economically often have an 'aching' feeling when facing the Black's issues; their successes in contrast to the large number of Blacks living in ghettos made them feel painful and hopeless. Thus, among Blacks, there is a great anxiety, hoping for an instantaneous change. But that seems not possible judging on the 155 years of slow social progress in the black race in the U.S. In the third world, Africa, drastic progress had been made in both economic and politic arena post WW II. This social phenomenon adds another provocation to the American Blacks. Even though the U.S. had a black President, it did not ease the 'angry, aching and anxious' sentiments of American Blacks.
 
The Asian minority group in the U.S. came from different national origins but by the color of their skin and similar cultural background they were bonded loosely as a minority group. The recent Asian immigrants did not experience the severe discrimination the earlier Chinese immigrants had in the 19th and early 20th century. The Asian community generally felt the American society being ‘fair’ enough with abundant economic opportunities. With their respect for education and character of diligence and thrift, the Asian group made significant progress socially and economically despite of their lack of interest in politics. However, this ‘fair’ feeling or sentiment has been replaced by 'fear' feeling in recent years. Why? The colonial discrimination against Asians has vividly returned. The Hong Kong violent riots received endorsement from the U. K. and the U.S. and was praised as Human Rights movement in contrast to the BLM movement exploded worldwide treated more as a violence than human rights demand (sadly petering out just like previous movements). The trade competition between the U.S. and China is escalated unfairly beyond economical level to other domains. Chinese scientists are unfairly singled out as potential spies. The civilian company Huawei was unfairly sanctioned from U.S. market. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attempted to cancel all Asian student visas (F1 and M1). All these unfair and prejudice policies have converted ‘fair’ to ‘fear’. As a result, Chinese (and Asian) communities are organized and armed themselves to 'fend' violence. 'Fending' for themselves became necessary even though most Asians were basically peace-loving people.
 
Freedom and equality are two principal American values. Freedom more than 'equality' can be guaranteed by laws. Even the U.S. constitution prescribes all men are 'equal', the social and economic inequality prevails in the U.S. society. The White dominated America exhibits her superiority through her 'egoistic' manners. 'American Exceptionalism' and 'Make America Great Again' are 'egoistic' slogans appealing to American 'ego'. The American foreign policies carried out with American 'ego', unfortunately created 'evil' deeds, punishments, sanctions and wars. More such deeds were done, more 'evil' the U.S. appeared to the world. Sure, the superior military strength of America prevented retaliation or revolt against the U.S. but nevertheless the 'evil' image of the U.S. was looming. With the rapid rise of China and the weakening of the U.S. economy and even in technology, it is no surprise that the U.S. is showing signs of 'failing'. Yes, if we could not honestly reflect on why our society is disintegrating and make corrections, then America society will be 'S.A.F.E.' but failing for sure! 
 
Ifay Chang. Ph.D., Inventor, Author, TV Game Show Host and Columnist (www.us-chinaforum.org) as well as serving as Trustee, Somers Central School District.
 

The COVID-19 pandemic broke out all over the world, statistics now showed that there were 17.6 m cases world wide with over 679k deaths reported. The U.S., Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa are the top five infected nations. The death score of this pandemic disease has already surpassed several previous pandemic such as Spanish flu and Swine Flu with death toll at 675K (1918-1920) and 12,469 (2009-2010) respectively.

Human has progressed significantly in science and medicine up to 21st century. Yet, this COVID-19 has caught humans in surprise exposing human’s shortcomings. Even though China succeeded in applying rapid and harsh ‘city quarantine’ measure to combat her first pandemic outbreak city, Wuhan, and successfully suppressed the spread of the pandemic, this corona virus had sprang out all over the world with different ‘strains’. Because of the reaction speed and control measures applied differently, the pandemic spread was very rapid in the above world statistics. The pandemic is causing severe impact on the world economy and giving a harsh stress test on the healthcare system and their medical facilities in every country. Although China has stopped the pandemic early and gradually returned her industry and commerce to normal, she is still mindful of a second wave to return. There is still possibility of virus entering from abroad, for example through imported seafood and goods as well as foreigners coming from abroad. So China cannot relax on her precaution and prevention measures for another pandemic breakout.
 
This pandemic spread pretty broad and fast, but the effectiveness of the control measure varied in different time and at different place in quite different consequences. First, the standards of healthcare systems are different in each country. Second, the quality and quantity of medical facilities vary a lot. Thirdly, people’s attitude towards natural disease and personal freedom are tied with their culture and social custom. Therefore, even though the World Health Organization has suggested measures to deal with the pandemic, the world responded differently, some even showing non-cooperative attitude. Even today, there is still debate on wearing mask, useful versus violating human rights. However, from scientific point of view, when there is no vaccine, everyone may be a carrier without knowing it. The COVID-19 transmission can be via airborne as well physical contact and its life span can be from a few hours to days depending on the environmental hygiene, and weather condition. That is why the COVID-19 pandemic has become so rampant.
 
Human civilization has come a long way with great progress. Humans have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge about nature, even the universe. This Summer Mars is closest to earth from its orbit, thus the U.S., China and United Arab Emirates (UAE) all have scheduled their Mars exploration mission. But on Earth, we still struggle in battling the pandemic. Although humans’ average life expectancy is near eighty, but healthcare is still human’s shortcoming. Sickness, especially for seniors, is still our miseries. Even the richest nation on Earth, cannot meet the challenge of the pandemic. Hospitals were overwhelmed with patients exceeding their capacity, testing for the virus was
 a little too few and too slow, never mind getting vaccines in time. So this COVID-19 taught us a lesson and gave us a provocation: How will human civilization progress after the pandemic? What will our civilization looks like in the future?
 
The author would like to use a hypothetical blueprint to answer the above question, calling it ‘the clean space civilization’ (CSC). The clean space civilization may be imagined from the futuristic ‘space civilization’ (space living) but CSC is more down to Earth, realistic and realizable to deal with the challenges facing human race, such as environment, healthcare and pandemic problems. In the following, we will discuss what is the ‘Clean Space Civilization’ after a review of the problems facing human race.
 
Human civilization has made giant progress in many domains; for example on environment, humans have changed their life style, paying attention to recycling their waste, using sustainable energy, and caring about our natural environment and resources. But, we still have global warming and outbreak of pandemic diseases. Human healthcare has come a long way in treating diseases, reproducing human organs and replacing body parts. But, we are still unprepared in preventing pandemic disease. We simply don’t have a comprehensive strategy dealing with pandemic. Thus the human race has ever-increasing demand on healthcare, doctors, hospitals and medicines, a dependency now stronger than food supply. The ever-decreasing human birth rate in current human civilization is very much related to our vulnerability discussed above.
 
During last six months, the author has witnessed many events and our vulnerability caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The CSC is a hypothetical civilization useful for us to discuss the above question. What is the clean space civilization’? Simply put, it is a civilization where humans will make their living space and air absolutely clean and live in that environment. We can use three pictures to give us an idea what is a clean space. The first picture is the work environment of a semiconductor manufacturing factory, a clean room where workers wear clean suits working there. The second picture is the space station, a vacuum space where astronauts wear space suits working there (the universe).The third picture is the scene of pandemic control, from hospitals, testing stations, to air, ship, train and bus stations where workers wear ‘virus proof clean suits’ from head helmet to special shoes working there. From these three pictures, we can easily imagine, when humans are confronting the pandemic, it is very logical that humans will develop a ‘clean space civilization’ to deal with pandemic virus. Perhaps humans will realize that their clothing (suit) besides fitting and style, the most important consideration should be ‘clean’ that is it has filtering, disinfection, and virus prevention (even health maintenance) functions. When humans live in ‘clean space’, wear ‘clean suits’ to go out and work, then they will be safe from any virus infection. Isn’t this an ideal living without concern of virus (or sickness)?!
 
Humans’ ‘clean space civilization’ obeys the principles of economics. Clean space is compatible with environmental protection effort. CSC is effective for disease prevention including the pandemic type. When humans don’t get sick, the requirement on healthcare, hospital and medicine is naturally reduced. Humans evolving from Apes to today, from wearing no clothes to today’s various fancy apparel, their clothing design may be practical but certainly more for esthetics than for scientific, economic or disease prevention purposes. The CSC is not an imagination from science fiction, but a conclusion after witnessing how people lived under the pandemic and thinking through human living habits and social custom. During the pandemic, people must keep distance and mostly work at home which caused economic recession. If humans change their attitude, accepting the concept of ‘clean space’, ‘clean room’, and ‘clean suit’ and understand their real meaning and benefits, then humans are adopting CSC. In this civilization, humans can keep close interaction, only their environment is changed. Their clothing will be scientifically designed with esthetics in mind. It is entirely possible smart interior and clothing designers can integrate science, healthcare, practicality and esthetics to design proper living space and apparels for our ‘clean space civilization’.