The Kamala Harris presidential candidacy

[em2nought]

You don't want to see a picture of me Holman.

[Sorry. I deleted my "give us a selfie" post because I decided it personalized things too much.]

No problem.

[waitingtoconnect]

The Obamas have endorsed Harris, and with perfect timing to make Trump look even more stupid after his "bUt ObaMa hASn'T eNDorSeD hER" excuse for backing out of the debates last night.

Maga: why did he wait so long to endorse her.. too late that means he supports trump.

This election cycle is a real roller coaster. First Biden is the media’s anointed one, then Trump isn the anointed one, now Kamala is the chosen one…

Now jd Vance is no good and he’s going to be fired by trump…

[em2nought]

Since then I think I've noticed an uptick in people wondering if so many sources promoted that lie for so long what else might be a lie.

Serious question - why do you care about honesty when you support a candidate who claims babies are being executed after they're born (false). Or claimed that 20 million immigrants entered the country last year (false, not even close). Or dozens of other claims that can be easily fact-checked and debunked?

Do you actually believe Trump is telling the truth, and the entire rest of the world is lying to you about the "facts," or do you just not care when he does it?

I'm seriously trying to get into the mindset of someone who believes stuff that can easily be fact-checked with just a few seconds of effort.

Yes, PLEASE answer that as honestly as you can. I would love to know so I can get possibly get some context into my Dad's brain since I have been dying to ask him this (but it always elevates to yelling before we get there).

Give me a day to get back to this. I'm really tired at the moment.

[waitingtoconnect]

Kamala is too short to be president now apparently (she is five two).

Seems maga is calling for an apartheight regime; the Tall who are given all the rights and the jockeys who will be their servants

[Skinypupy]

Kamala is too short to be president now apparently (she is five two).

Seems maga is calling for an apartheight regime; the Tall who are given all the rights and the jockeys who will be their servants

Malcom Gladwell’s “Blink” talked about how 58% of male Fortune 500 CEOs are over 6’ tall, which is 4X the percentage of men who are that tall in the US.

Does being tall make someone a better leader? Enquiring minds want to know…

[Jaymann]

Grasping at straws (literally!).

[Holman]

How tall have women leading other representative governments been?

There have been quite a number of them in the post-WW2 world.

[Isgrimnur]

Angela Merkel is 5'5"

[waitingtoconnect]

They are just trying to find it what insult works with the electorate at large and not just the base.

[hepcat]

Since then I think I've noticed an uptick in people wondering if so many sources promoted that lie for so long what else might be a lie.

Serious question - why do you care about honesty when you support a candidate who claims babies are being executed after they're born (false). Or claimed that 20 million immigrants entered the country last year (false, not even close). Or dozens of other claims that can be easily fact-checked and debunked?

Do you actually believe Trump is telling the truth, and the entire rest of the world is lying to you about the "facts," or do you just not care when he does it?

I'm seriously trying to get into the mindset of someone who believes stuff that can easily be fact-checked with just a few seconds of effort.

Yes, PLEASE answer that as honestly as you can. I would love to know so I can get possibly get some context into my Dad's brain since I have been dying to ask him this (but it always elevates to yelling before we get there).

Give me a day to get back to this. I'm really tired at the moment.

I’d tell you to go lie down on the couch, but there’s a good chance J.D. Vance is way ahead of you on that.

[Jaymann]

Theresa May (2016 to 2019) – 5ft 6inches
Margaret Thatcher (1979 to 1990) – 5ft 5inches
Indira Gandhi - 5ft 4inches
Angela Merkel - 5ft 5 inches
Ireland's Michael D. Higgins: 5 feet, 3 inches
Scotland's Nicola Sturgeon: 5 feet, 4 inches
New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern: 5 feet, 7 inches
Vladimir Putin: 5 feet, 7 inches
Emmanuel Macron: 5 feet, 7 inches

[Kraken]

Does being tall make someone a better leader? Enquiring minds want to know…

Funny, I was just reading about that today. Does social status shape height?

he Maya people of Guatemala are among the shortest people in the world. Men on average hover a few inches above 5 feet and women a few inches below. But if they move to the United States as children, the Maya grow taller. That extra growth carries to the next generation: Maya children born to Guatemalan immigrants in the United States are roughly four inches taller than their peers in Guatemala, research by biological anthropologist Barry Bogin shows. Some of that gap disappears as children reach adulthood, but even then, Maya people in the United States are still taller than people in their native country.

Economists have long observed increases in height across immigrant communities worldwide. Improved nutrition and sanitation are the conventional explanations for such growth.

But Bogin, of Loughborough University in England, and other researchers think there’s more to it than just better health. Even wealthy children in Guatemala tend to be shorter than children who grow up in the United States. Moving a child from one society to another — even if their lifestyle doesn’t change significantly — shifts their growth trajectory to match that of children in their new community, Bogin says.

His proposal that height has a social component rests on evidence that genetics and nutrition can’t explain all variation in human height (SN: 5/13/20). It’s also based on research in behavioral ecology showing that the growth of many social animals adapts in response to members of their community, a phenomenon referred to as “strategic growth.” In species with rigid hierarchies, dominant members often grow larger while subordinate members stay smaller.

Strategic growth also drives growth in humans, Bogin proposed in 2021 in Human Biology and Public Health. His research suggests that height not only reflects a person’s perceived social status within their community, but also their society’s underlying political and economic conditions. For instance, height disparities are wider in highly unequal societies and shrink in more egalitarian ones. When people in highly stratified countries move to more egalitarian communities, they tend to grow taller, studies of Western countries suggest. Based on animal research, Bogin suspects hormones, including those released when the body is under stress, may modulate the social aspects of height.

The linked story delves deeper, if your inquiring mind really wants to know.

[waitingtoconnect]

You jockey sympathisers are always trying to use science to undercut the reality that the tall are closer to heaven and this blessed of God. In our tall-short political culture let us not forget Hitler came from the short not the tall.

And if the short are so great why do they lose at basketball all the time?

[waitingtoconnect]

You can’t really assess heights of world leaders from the past because people have gotten taller on average over time but here are the heights of ww2 protagonists.

Adolf Hitler Around 5’8″ (173 cm)
Winston Churchill Around 5’6″ (168 cm)
Franklin D. Roosevelt Around 6’2″ (188 cm)
Joseph Stalin Around 5’4″ (162 cm)
Benito Mussolini Around 5’7″ (170 cm)
Hirohito (Emperor of Japan) Around 5’4″ (162 cm)

[Victoria Raverna]

You jockey sympathisers are always trying to use science to undercut the reality that the tall are closer to heaven and this blessed of God. In our tall-short political culture let us not forget Hitler came from the short not the tall.

And if the short are so great why do they lose at basketball all the time?

So I guess those very religious voters should vote for NBA basketball stars to become their leaders.

[waitingtoconnect]

Kamala is so evil she executed her palace coup on Joe Biden annd made him out of the presidential race on national ice cream day! That’s just cold.

[Kraken]

Science thinks that social status and height are linked. Whether being tall gives one a leg up on leadership or whether people grow into leadership potential is fuzzy and varies across cultures (and species). But there are no known instances of us shorties having a social advantage.

Science has no opinion whether height makes someone a *better* leader and scoffs at the question.

I speak for science now, but my authority is suspect since I'm only 5'8". I have directed science to determine whether short people are smarter, or just smartasses.

[Victoria Raverna]

Maybe in the era where human don't know how to make someone look taller, a taller person has big competitive advantage to become a leader. Once someone invented standing on a soapbox, that competitive advantage is reduced.

[LawBeefaroni]

Every csuite I've worked for or interacted with has been notably taller than average. Except for women. Women in these roles, in my experience, aren't notably taller than average.


Granted, all anecdotal and a small sample size, but pretty striking.

[geezer]

Every csuite I've worked for or interacted with has been notably taller than average. Except for women. Women in these roles, in my experience, aren't notably taller than average.


Granted, all anecdotal and a small sample size, but pretty striking.

I’m a dead even 5’10, for what it’s worth (though my co-founder was 6’4). My best friend (CTO of a firm) is maybe 5’7. All that said - height vs salary research: https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmar ... stand-why/

Back on topic, I’ve been invited to the “10k White Dudes for Harris” call Monday night . Will report back

[Unagi]

Back on topic, I’ve been invited to the “10k White Dudes for Harris” call Monday night . Will report back

How does that happen?

[Apollo]

...I think we need to accept that no matter what, the media is going to try very very hard to give us a Trump Presidency. Again.

I agree 100%. Americans are increasingly turning away from the large, mainstream media voices putting their viewer numbers under pressure. Add to this the fact that their ratings always drop with a Democrat as President (Except for Fox, of course) and the business plan becomes obvious: Make Biden look like a failure to draw conservative viewers and the "Anti-Biden" woke left (the endless coverage of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan was the kickoff) while smoothing over the increasingly mainstream image of Donald Trump. Then, when Trump wins again, their ratings soar and they can bash him for four years to the delight of their "base".


Edited

[geezer]

Back on topic, I’ve been invited to the “10k White Dudes for Harris” call Monday night . Will report back

How does that happen?

I have a friend who's heavily involved in Black Democratic party circles, and she invited me.

[Unagi]

Back on topic, I’ve been invited to the “10k White Dudes for Harris” call Monday night . Will report back

How does that happen?

I have a friend who's heavily involved in Black Democratic party circles, and she invited me.

Very cool. Please do report back.

[LawBeefaroni]

Every csuite I've worked for or interacted with has been notably taller than average. Except for women. Women in these roles, in my experience, aren't notably taller than average.


Granted, all anecdotal and a small sample size, but pretty striking.

I’m a dead even 5’10, for what it’s worth (though my co-founder was 6’4). My best friend (CTO of a firm) is maybe 5’7. All that said - height vs salary research: https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmar ... stand-why/

I'm 5'10" as well (6'2" in the Trump measurement system). I don't buy I to the height thing being meaningful but I do make note.

Back on topic, I’ve been invited to the “10k White Dudes for Harris” call Monday night . Will report back

Very cool. Interested to hear how it goes. Although I think over 100 attendees and it ceases to be a call and becomes a virtual town hall or a webinar. That one with 30K? Quit crashing zoom, already!

[Smoove_B]

I like the tone for her campaign:

...and generally sounded like someone you wouldn’t want to sit near at a restaurant

Sorry I don't have alt text for the image.

[$iljanus]

There's been some interesting articles about the pivot from "threat to democracy" to "He's just... weird". The campaign still talks about how a Trump presidency threatens democracy but by prefacing it with the weird twins Trump and Vance it seems to resonate with more people. And it mocks the orange fella but isn't meanspirited like Trump.

Some smart folks on the Harris campaign. Also, Trump and Vance happen to be pretty damn weird.

[YellowKing]

I think it certainly resonates better with a younger demographic. My kids don't understand what "a threat to democracy" means. But they certainly understand what "weird old dude" means.

[$iljanus]

Yeah, it resonates with the young folks and even us middle aged folks. But even though one article said an 81 year old sitting president can't use that approach I could totally see Biden saying "Man, that's just weird." after some Trumpian word salad. And because Biden isn't on the ticket he's probably going to feel unleashed.

Can't wait for future poli-sci classes talking about the "cat lady demographic of 2024"

[Jaymann]

That is a perfect response. Keep it up.

[Isgrimnur]

WHITE DUDES FOR HARRIS CALL SIGN-UP FORM

[Smoove_B]

People should totally do that but I'd be using a throwaway email because that document will be scraped by god knows what.

[naednek]

Kamala is too short to be president now apparently (she is five two).

Seems maga is calling for an apartheight regime; the Tall who are given all the rights and the jockeys who will be their servants

Malcom Gladwell’s “Blink” talked about how 58% of male Fortune 500 CEOs are over 6’ tall, which is 4X the percentage of men who are that tall in the US.

Does being tall make someone a better leader? Enquiring minds want to know…

it's because they are breathing rarified air up there

[LawBeefaroni]

There's been some interesting articles about the pivot from "threat to democracy" to "He's just... weird". The campaign still talks about how a Trump presidency threatens democracy but by prefacing it with the weird twins Trump and Vance it seems to resonate with more people. And it mocks the orange fella but isn't meanspirited like Trump.

Some smart folks on the Harris campaign. Also, Trump and Vance happen to be pretty damn weird.

It's a counter to the hard right "it will be a bloodless Second American Revolution if the Left allows it to be" stuff. The far right was using an approach of fear and despondency to try to disengage voters. Project 2025, while it may motivate some opposition, also serves to terrify and people who panic often disengage. The media and social media loves scary stuff, it brings eyeballs feeds into the catastrophizing bias, which brings in money. The Harris campaign appears to be, wisely, trying to turn down the fear level to keep people from jumping out of [figurative and literal] windows.

[Smoove_B]

It's certainly a proactive approach. I won't say "aggressive", but I think pushing back and providing constant counter-messaging is going to work out better than just telling people to vote harder.

[YellowKing]

I think she's also smartly providing voters with a forward-looking choice, rather than relying on Biden's legacy. Because guess what? Voters apparently don't care about Biden's legacy. Trumpeting his many accomplishments didn't move the needle at all, and tying herself to that wouldn't have gotten her anywhere.

[Holman]

I think she's also smartly providing voters with a forward-looking choice, rather than relying on Biden's legacy. Because guess what? Voters apparently don't care about Biden's legacy. Trumpeting his many accomplishments didn't move the needle at all, and tying herself to that wouldn't have gotten her anywhere.

This election is about what the next president and their enablers plan to do. The existence of Project 2025 (and the fact that this has broken through to voters almost organically) sets those terms.

Harris's job is to propose a counter to the MAGA GOP's scheme for authoritarian theocracy. I do think she's up for that.

[em2nought]

There's been some interesting articles about the pivot from "threat to democracy" to "He's just... weird".

Team democrat sort of had to make that pivot after the way it was decided that Kamala Harris was now your candidate don't you think>?

[em2nought]

Since then I think I've noticed an uptick in people wondering if so many sources promoted that lie for so long what else might be a lie.

Serious question - why do you care about honesty when you support a candidate who claims babies are being executed after they're born (false). Or claimed that 20 million immigrants entered the country last year (false, not even close). Or dozens of other claims that can be easily fact-checked and debunked?

Do you actually believe Trump is telling the truth, and the entire rest of the world is lying to you about the "facts," or do you just not care when he does it?

I'm seriously trying to get into the mindset of someone who believes stuff that can easily be fact-checked with just a few seconds of effort.

Yes, PLEASE answer that as honestly as you can. I would love to know so I can get possibly get some context into my Dad's brain since I have been dying to ask him this (but it always elevates to yelling before we get there).

Does anyone actually believe that politicians tell the truth? I just have to go with my gut on who I think we would be better under. I think lots of the problems that we have added since Trump was president might not be problems if he was still president. Most of my decisions are more gut based instead of based on the "supposed" facts because I don't trust most facts. Was Columbus the first European to find America? I don't think so. Were there highly technical skilled civilizations in our distant past? I think so. Will spending tons of cash to fight global warming have any effect other than to empty our pocketbooks? I don't think so. Maybe most things come down to what sources people believe. My primary source of knowledge for the first thirty years of my life was a world book encyclopedia from 1955.

I wish I could provide something that might improve your relationship with your father as it kind of feels like a heavy burden. Team democrat certainly can't really think Trump is akin to Hitler really? Just giving up that kind of idea might go a long way to smoothing things over. I can say that once my father was gone there are lots of things I'd give up in order to have some more time with him. Say more things that I never actually voiced. Just sit on the glider together on the back porch and watch the cardinals at the bird feeder together again. Sit on the couch and watch a Penn State game together again.

Dirty tongues and dirty feet on chicks are just my weird kink dislikes. Scraping the tongue does get rid of some odor though and makes it more healthy pink in color instead of looking like you have thrush. Strips cut off of something you laminate make excellent tongue scrapers if you're careful.

I think the actual claim is that around 20 million have illegally crossed the border since Biden was "elected" 3 & 1/2 years ago accounting for those we don't even know about.

The "couch" thing I haven't even seen yet. Have to go see what that's about.

[Alefroth]

You completely whiffed your chance.