@2:

It's difficult to "stand up against voter suppression" when most of the laws limiting access to voting are enacted in state legislatures where the GOP has overwhelming - and often veto-proof - majorities. Same goes with electronic voting, which is prevalent in those same states. If you need to blame anyone, blame the electorate that keeps voting in Republican-controlled state legislatures that gerrymander districts in their favor every 10 years and that push through unconstitutional voter-suppression laws in the guise of preventing non-existent "voter fraud".

To be fair, even a strongly left-leaning fellow like myself has to admit the Democrats are just as heinous as Republicans at gerrymandering.

And for Bernie supporters like myself, who knew all along that the DNC rigged the game for Hillary in any way they could, in which the proof 'coincidentally' came to light just after Hillary had it locked up, proves that the powers-that-be in the Democratic camp are just as corrupt as those who gave us George W. Bush.

It's all about the money. And those of us who don't have it continue to get fucked.

The purpose of democracy isn't to pick the best qualified people for office. Its to spread the blame around when bad leaders come along.

The election is not "rigged" against The Donald. If anything, he has a standing advantage BECAUSE of its peculiarities.

The Electoral College is a long-standing irritation which conveys far more representation to small, rural states than their populations should deserve if we were just counting noses. And that, as we know, has benefited one party above the other for a number of cycles now. Democrats can lose the Presidential election while garnering a majority of the popular vote nationwide. Is that fair? No. Does that have anything to do with anything The Donald is saying? Absolutely not.

What I would worry about, "rigging" -wise is that the Diebold voting machines, which produce no paper trail and are a product of a company led by a man with strong Republican leadership ties, can apparently be accessed centrally. In the last cycle, Karl Rove was astonished that his boy lost, and went off muttering. Rumors were that some benevolent hacking group had blocked access to whoever was supposed to be altering the vote tallies so the Republican could win. And, this year we have Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear, purported Kremlin-controlled hacking teams, dicking with the elections, and as we know, Trump is the Kremlin's boy. So, "rigged?" Possibly, but certainly not in Hillary's favor.

@7, I believe Rove was fine with Romney losing because he wanted the deck clear for a successful Jeb run in 2016 (wait, happened with that?) and he knew that Obama was a plutocrat tool who would mind his manners re the interests of the Bush family and the elites in general.

Hey look guys, we're an empire, not a "democracy". The very idea that everything should be fairsy-squaresy and that the elite shouldn't have more power than those of us who never read the Daily Intelligence Briefing is short-sighted, at best.

The Establishment wants Clinton. Not Bernie, Not Trumpypants.
The media hates Trump, the entrenched "shadow government" hates Trump, the DC insiders hate Trump, Wall Street hates Trumps, the Koch Bros. hate Trump, even the Republicans hate Trump.

The only people that like him are the little people who feel like someone is finally sticking a finger in the eye of the craven, condescending politicos+media who run the show and ignore everyone but their elite friends.

He's not going to win.

Don't Forget: Trump is friends with Bill & Hilary, they're buds, they went to his wedding, remember? and it's just just possible that Bill encouraged Trump to run so that Hilary would have an easier victory come November. So maybe it's a little deeper than we currently know.

Remember remember
the shite of November
The Trump-downer voting and plot.

I can think of no reason
thi' electoral season
Should ever...be...forgot.

Reporter: I suppose you are just as scared as the rest of us.

Klaatu: In a different way, perhaps. I am fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason.

George Barley: Why doesn't the government do something, that's what I'd like to know.

Mr. Krull: What can they do, they're only people just like us.

George Barley: People my foot, they're democrats.

...no end of good quotes from that movie...

In case no one else points it out. The biggest reason American democracy is rigged is simply the two party system. That, and no term limits for office except President.

@7 Efforts to suppress voting, and ludicrous gerrymandering that gives us a House skewed radically in a different direction than the popular vote are indeed deplorable. If you are going to speculate about hacking voting machines or manipulating vote counts however you need some real evidence, or you are just veering off into tin-foil hat territory. There is pretty much the same amount of evidence behind the fringe left paranoia about voting machine hacking as there is behind the fringe (or maybe mainstream) right paranoia about voter fraud: none.

I'd like to think the left represents the reality based portion of the population. Can we try a little harder?

@9: the media hates Trump?

If the opposite of love is not hate but indifference, then the media sure aren't going for indifference. They're hanging on every stupid word that comes out of his stupid mouth.

The "on the other hand" type of false equivalency has now infected politics. I'm a Democrat because I think (not believe, think) that that party's traditional goals are better for the country. I really don't care how we get to those goals; Lyndon Johnson is an example of why I think the end justifies the means. He was an arm-twisting mean bastard but his methods delivered the best legislation we've had since the ACA. If you think Clinton is no better morally than Trump, you're just not thinking.

@13 - You should read a little more widely. They mock and slam him all the time.

@15:

It's not that the media loves - or hates - Trump so much as they love advertising revenue more. If Trump is what brings eyeballs to the commercial breaks, they'll keep throwing his ochreous mug up on the screen.

For a long time I've accepted that Hillary and Trump could be very close and this is just a show. It wouldn't be the first show for which Trump played the foil.

Why must we pore over what that orange idiot say every.fucking.day!!!!

@16: Advertising revenue is tangential. Trump is 24/7 media coverage because he is the Republican nominee for president. People are interested, why is that so unfathomable to liberals whom feel that "the media" should acquiesce to "a standard" they deem appropriate?

The rise of Obama in 2008 was 24/7 and I didn't recall anyone back then conflating his coverage with ad rates.