Donald Trump rigged the Miss universe contest so that the winners were from countries where he had business deals. Go ahead, act surprised.

Trump at the 2013 Miss universe contest in Moscow.

Courtesy of the New Yorker:  

From 1996 to 2015, Donald Trump co-owned the Miss Universe Organization, which also included the Miss U.S.A. and Miss Teen U.S.A. pageants. A day or two before a pageant began, Trump would casually visit the contestants while they conducted their final rehearsals. Former contestants told me that Trump would circulate among the young women, shaking hands and chatting with each of them, periodically turning to speak with Paula Shugart, the president of the Miss Universe Organization, who followed him at a discreet distance. (Paula Shugart declined to comment.) Adwoa Yamoah, who competed as Miss Canada in 2012, told me, “He made comments about every girl: ‘I’ve been to that country.’ ‘We’re building a Trump Tower there.’ It was clear the countries that he liked did well. He’d whisper to Paula about the girls, and she’d write it down. He basically told us he picked nine of the top fifteen.” Kerrie Baylis, who was Miss Jamaica in 2013, described a similar scene and added that, when the finalists were announced, “the list looked like the countries that Donald Trump did business with, or wanted to do business with.” Shi Lim, who competed that year as Miss Singapore, told me, “The finalists were picked by Trump. He was really in charge. We called it the Trump card.” (A Miss Universe spokeswoman said that the pageant rules allowed the company’s staff, including Trump, to participate in naming the finalists.) 

Trump has long viewed his businesses as mutually reinforcing, with all the products—from hotels to steak, vodka to golf resorts—complementing one another. As he said in the introduction to the first episode of “The Apprentice,” the reality-television show that made him a global celebrity, “I’ve mastered the art of the deal and have turned the name Trump into the highest-quality brand.” Trump often staged the Miss Universe pageant in cities where he had other business interests, and finalists usually came from countries where Miss Universe had strong television ratings. Under Trump, the pageant was held twice in Las Vegas, twice in Florida, and twice in Puerto Rico. In the other years, Trump kept the pageant true to its origins as a swimsuit competition by setting the ceremony in warm-weather locations like Panama City, São Paulo, Quito, and Mexico City. (Although interest in beauty pageants has faded in the United States, it remains high in Latin America.) Only once did Trump steer the pageant away from temperate environments—in November, 2013, when Miss Universe took place in Russia. 

Today, the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow looks like a harbinger of the Trump campaign and Presidency, featuring some of the same themes and characters. Miss Universe represents a paradigmatic example of Trump’s business style in action—the exaggerations that teeter into lies, the willingness to embrace dubious partners, the hunger for glamour and recognition. Trump got away with this kind of behavior for decades, and he played by the same rules during his run for the Presidency.

So it appears that rigging contests is kind of in Trump's blood.

After all you did not think the winners of "The Apprentice" won due to their ability did you? 

So riddle me this Batman. Would a man used to always getting the winner he wants balk at a little help in winning his own race?

I think not.

International election observers discover that America's elections ARE being "rigged." Just not in the way Donald Trump claims they are being rigged.

Courtesy of WhoWhatWhy:

The hundreds of international observers dispatched to keep an eye on the US election are already troubled by what they have seen. 

According to an interim report, the election monitors sent by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have expressed deep concerns over the disenfranchisement of millions of US citizens. 

“Up to six million Americans will be excluded from the election,” said Michael Georg Link, the OSCE’s chief election observer, in an interview with the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 

Link explained that an estimated 3.2 million Americans are being disenfranchised because they are either in custody and awaiting trial or have already been sentenced. An additional 2.6 million citizens have already served their time behind bars but were still stripped of their right to cast a ballot on November 8.

Hmm, I wonder which ethnic demographic this most negatively impacts and who that demographic would be most likely to vote for in this election?

But wait, there's more: 

The OSCE is also disturbed that so many Americans fear that the election would be rigged. Link explained that the international observers had so far seen no evidence that this is happening. Instead, he suggested that the accusations Democrats and Republicans had exchanged are rooted in the viciousness of this election cycle.

So to be clear this group of trained election observers, from around the world, are finding NO evidence of any election rigging, but they are finding evidence that certain groups are purposefully disenfranchised due to brushes with the law, which of course impacts minorities in far larger numbers than it does white people in this country.

I think that the only issue I would take with his article is the contention that BOTH Republicans and Democrats are adding to the fear of election rigging which might scare voters away from the polls this election cycle.

It seems pretty obvious that only ONE major party candidate is making those accusations, and it is also pretty clear as to why he is doing so.

Donald Trump's first general election ad is just as ugly and misleading as you would expect it to be.

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

With just a few weeks left until voters start casting their ballots, GOP nominee Donald Trump has finally cut a general election TV ad, which will air in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina. One of the very first images in the 30-second ad shows a line of people waiting in line to vote, with a soundtrack of ominous music playing and the words “system rigged” emblazoned across the screen.

In the context of the last few weeks, amid Trump’s warnings of election rigging and potentially illegal exhortations for untrained supporters to help root out voter fraud, the message of the ad is clear. Trump, who is down in the polls (all of them), is encouraging his base to view a Clinton victory as illegitimate.

Gee that's helpful.

But of course Trump has to accuse Hillary of rigging the system because he is beginning to realize that he is about to lose this election to a woman, and his ego demands that people believe that she cheated somehow.

Essentially Trump would rather agitate his supporters into reacting with violence, and even perhaps foment a civil war, than to admit that he lost because of his own shortcomings and lack of ability.

No doubt about it Dancing with the Stars is rigged. Update!

"We did it! I told you Mama promised to make sure we stayed on for at least a couple of weeks."

Early reports showing up on the message boards indicate that Bristol and Mark not only survived last week's "ho down" debacle, but that they were never even considered in jeopardy of getting voted off tonight.

So just what is it that Sarah Palin has in her bag of tricks that kept Todd on that horrific "Stars Earn Stripes" program until the end and is now protecting Bristol from kicked to the curb on this program?

It CAN'T simply be support from her flying monkeys because most of them have either drifted away, dies off, or are currently banging their heads against the walls of their padded cells.

In other words, what in the actual fuck?

"Remember if you ever want to see your little dog again you will do what I say."

Update: Twitter is going crazy in response to this decision.  

Nauseating that Bristol is still in this. We need to do something people. WHAT THE HELLLL 

UGH Total BS that Kelly and Val are in the bottom. How the heck is Bristol safe? 

RT if you can't believe Bristol made it through tonight's elimination! I demand a recount on the vote! 

Dancing with the Stars is ridiculous. A blind man can see Bristol can't dance yet she's safe and Kelly's in jeopardy 

if you are voting for Bristol Palin to stay on because you think this is a partisan issue, you are an idiot.

Well if the producers of DWTS brought this no talent idiot back in order to stir up controversy, I hope they are prepared for  the anger and frustration that is coming their way.