Kamala Harris is in the race

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was marked by many events around the nation as people paid homage to the leading civil rights icon in American history. Before there was a “Be Like Mike” ad campaign, there was a “Be like Martin Luther King, Jr.” social movement. Many people, old and young, cite King as their inspiration to do good and be of service to society.

Also happening on Monday was the Twitter announcement by California Senator Kamala Harris that she is running for president, no doubt inspired by her parents and Dr. King. She is not the first to declare, nor is she even the first woman to declare in this campaign for the Democrats’ 2020 presidential nomination. But she is the first African-American woman since Shirley Chisolm to run for president and unlike her courageous predecessor, Kamala Harris is considered a strong contender.

Already the Democratic field is filled with strong women: Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Hawaii Congressman Tulsi Gabbard are in it to win it. Any one of these four women would be a vast improvement over the dunce in the Oval Office today. Harris starts her day early and always has; Trump on the other hand doesn’t get to his office until 11 a.m.  Obviously her work ethic would be a great improvement.

But Harris also reads and is a copious note-taker, a habit formed when she was a lawyer, serving as a prosecutor and California Attorney General. Regardless of her political and social views, that alone makes her a far better choice for president than the current one.

In her announcement Harris said, “Today, the day we celebrate Dr. King, is a very special day for all of us as Americans, and I’m honored to be able to make my announcement on the day that we commemorate him.”

Both of her parents are educators and participated in the civil rights movement, so she has a very progressive pedigree.

Her campaign slogan is “For the people,” a nod to her days as a prosecutor when she represented the people in court. In her campaign video the senator said, “The future of our country depends on you and millions of others lifting our voices to fight for our American values. That’s why I’m running for president of the United States. I’m running to lift those voices, to bring our voices together.”

This is where she stands on the issues:

• She supports the Paris Climate accord and roundly criticized the president for pulling out of it. She opposed the lifting of Obama-era fuel efficiency standards by Trump.
• She supports free college education for most Americans at public colleges and universities. Students from families with incomes of $125,000 or less would be eligible.
• She supports a ban on assault-style weapons and high capacity magazines.
• She supports Medicare For All.
• Harris supports DACA and opposes the wall. She does not call for abolishing ICE, but says the agency should be re-examined. She is definitely opposed to family separation at the border and has introduced legislation that would reunite families that were separated at the border.
• She is Pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, and supports the rights of transgender people.
• Harris wants to lower taxes for low and middle income people and restore the tax rates of corporations and the uber wealthy to what they were before the Trump/GOP tax cut bill.
• Legalization of recreational use of cannabis.
• And of course she wants to reopen government without extra funding for Trump’s border wall.

On Sunday Kamala Harris will make an official announcement in her hometown of Oakland, CA.

I'm running for president. Let's do this together. Join us: https://t.co/9KwgFlgZHA pic.twitter.com/otf2ez7t1p

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 21, 2019

The top photo is a YouTube screenshot of Senator Harris during a stop
at her Alma Mater, Howard University, in Washington, D.C.

Tim Forkes

Tim Forkes started as a writer on a small alternative newspaper in Milwaukee called the Crazy Shepherd. Writing about entertainment, he had the opportunity to speak with many people in show business, from the very famous to the people struggling to find an audience. In 1992 Tim moved to San Diego, CA and pursued other interests, but remained a freelance writer. Upon arrival in Southern California he was struck by how the elected government officials and business were so intertwined, far more so than he had witnessed in Wisconsin. His interest in entertainment began to wane and the business of politics took its place. He had always been interested in politics, his mother had been a Democratic Party official in Milwaukee, WI, so he sat down to dinner with many of Wisconsin’s greatest political names of the 20th Century: William Proxmire and Clem Zablocki chief among them. As a Marine Corps veteran, Tim has a great interest in veteran affairs, primarily as they relate to the men and women serving and their families. As far as Tim is concerned, the military-industrial complex has enough support. How the men and women who serve are treated is reprehensible, while in the military and especially once they become veterans. Tim would like to help change that.