I actually think this is what they're doing. Trump would by far benefit the most from a hot mic - talking (shouting) over his opponents is like half of his debate "strategy" and it sadly usually works out for him. Even with courtroom experience I'm not sure Harris can wrangle him.

However, taunting him into accepting a more formal debate structure with muted mics and speaking in turns would take away his favourite move.

He still owes El Paso, Texas roughly half a million.^[1] It's no wonder venues are hesitant to have him back. Though Trump's been stiffing workers and employees his whole life so the bigger wonder is that they trusted him to begin with.

The DUI in 95 led to Walz quitting drinking. Seeing how well Walz has disarmed other accusations before I'm not worried about that particular attack, it would probably blow up in Vance's face.

I do share your general worry about the debates, though. Not least because the hype for them has set the bar so high that I think failure to meet these astronomical expectations will be seen as a huge win by Trump. Harris in particular needs to absolutely annihilate Trump for her not to lose momentum.

And I don't think this is guaranteed at all. This is not her nailing people to their testimonies in the courtroom. The moderators here will NOT keep Trump in check and he will NOT show her any respect. He also will NOT be legally required to speak the truth (and we can't expect live fact-checking). Unlike her work as a prosecutor she does not attack this debate from an intrinsic position of authority. She will need to stare Trump down and put him in his place on the sole merit of her own charisma, personal authority and force of personality. That's not an easy thing to do.

I'm absolutely concerned.

Oh yes. Guaranteed constitutional crisis, I think. Which is wild to say about what should be the world's leading democracy.

As others have noted Peter Thiel money might have influenced the choice. Given Vance's relationship to Project 2025 (he wrote the foreword to Kevin Roberts's book, remember^[1]) it's also possible he was a strongly pushed Heritage Foundation plant - put in place to ensure the flailing incoherent mess that is Trump's mind is actually implementing Project 2025 properly when elected.

Amidst a sea of Russian bots and trolls shilling for Jill Stein at the hour of need an unlikely force stepped out to bat for democracy: Iran. Partly out of spite it seems - which given Trump is the target can only be described as poetic.

I still wonder if Kelly would have delivered more cheap voter appeal, but Walz is doubtless the best pick on merit and policy and will be the better asset as VP should she win.

In the end though I'm just so happy it's not Shapiro (please announce it officially so I can breathe).

Is this your first exposure to Trump?

Impressive that enough people still care for there to be a backlash.

I really, really hate Nintendo.

Funny, the Bard was easily the MVP in my playthrough. Bardic Inspiration makes a huge difference for any skill check in dialogue and in combat they dominated the battlefield with Cutting Words to make enemies miss or fail crucial attacks or saving throws, crowd control spells like Hypnotic Pattern and Confusion and Counterspell from Magical Secrets.

Bards are awesome.

I know he said he'll show up in another place (and will keep doing largely the same stuff there, presumably) but this is such an impactful end of an era for me. I've been watching ZP my whole adult life, pretty much. I can't believe his next video won't have the iconic music or animated imps. I don't know why this affects me so much but ZP has been such a constant I suppose, that it feels empty with it gone.

Still, huge props to the team for resigning in solidarity, absolutely love seeing that and I'll definitely follow whatever site they end up on next.