I Endorse Sen. Kamala Harris for President; Sen. Warren Is 2nd

I happened to catch Senator Kamala Harris' (D-CA) entire speech in Oakland, California as she announced her run for president of the United States on MSNBC. I was very impressed with her speech, her warmth, her humanity, her charm, and her knowledge of the important issues facing America. If the only rap on her is that she's successfully prosecuted criminals and put them in prison, I don't consider that baggage.

Until I heard Sen. Harris' speech, I put Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) first and Sen. Harris second because I want an expert on Wall Street and the corruption of Wall Street banks to be president. Both senators fit the bill. Both are attorneys and both are aware of Wall Street corruption. Sen. Harris has prosecuted banks and Sen. Warren knows which banks desperately need prosecution.

Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, is threatening to play spoiler because he's thinking of running as an independent. Democrats are freaking out and thinking Schultz is going to garner enough votes to get Donald Trump reelected in 2020. That would be an absolute crime. It helps, though, that Schultz has no agenda, no message, and no political experience.

As for his benign management style? I used to buy Starbucks drinks with my son, when he still lived in Iowa City, in a Starbucks corner of the Hy-Vee on First Avenue and Muscatine Avenue in Iowa City. The "Starbucks" employees wore Starbucks aprons and looked for all the world like Starbucks employees. I asked them who paid them and they said, "Hy-Vee."

So none of the benefits touted by Starbucks accrued to them, not Starbucks health insurance for full-time and part-time employees because they were Hy-Vee employees. The Starbucks garb worn by Hy-Vee employees seemed dishonest to me and I was not charmed by the deception. I began by tipping them generously because I felt sorry for them and because I'm a generous tipper anyway when I get good service. But then I stopped going there for coffee. It didn't feel right.

"Sixty Minutes" interviewed Howard Schultz this past Sunday. He came from a very poor background and his father kept losing jobs. Once his father assaulted him while Howard was taking a shower when he was about 15 and beat him to a bloody pulp. He remembers seeing the blood wash down the drain with the water of the shower. His mother was his guiding light. He's sad that neither parent lived long enough to see him become a billionaire, starting with 11 shops selling just coffee beans at the beginning to 30,000 Starbucks shops around the world (I wonder if the Hy-Vee shop counts).

I admire his success after his brutal, impoverished childhood. I empathize with his suffering, but I still hope he doesn't run as an independent and help Trump get reelected. I can't imagine a greater disaster for our country.