Brett McGinness

USA TODAY

We started out with a simple political dispute, but this weekend we made the leap to politically motivated violence, murmurs of rebellion and claims that our entire system of government is illegitimate. It's time to acknowledge what we're all thinking: The 2016 election is just the script of "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace." Think about it: we have the robotic wonk and the orange-colored chatterbox, and the female lead even has a secret body double ... George Lucas, you're a diabolical genius.

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'This election is rigged! Anyway, vote Trump'

Trump's "get out the vote" efforts continued over the weekend when he hinted to supporters that their votes won't really matter anyway. "The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places - SAD," he tweeted on Sunday.

The notion that the fix is in for the presidential election has supporters ready to take action if Trump isn't elected Nov. 8. "Our lives depend on this election," said one supporter at a Mike Pence rally in Iowa. "(I)f Hillary Clinton gets in, I myself, I'm ready for a revolution because we can't have her in." Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. voiced a similar sentiment on Twitter Saturday, saying "It's incredible that our institutions of gov, (White House), Congress, (Department of Justice), and big media are corrupt & all we do is bitch. Pitchforks and torches time.”

Mike Pence directed the "rigged" theory back at the media on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We will absolutely accept the result of the election. Look, the American people will speak in an election that will culminate on November the eighth," Pence said Sunday. "But the American people are tired of the obvious bias in the national media. That's where the sense of a rigged election goes here."

(And in case you're scoring at home, of the 50 secretaries of state and their equivalents -- the folks in charge of conducting elections -- 28 are Republicans.)

More WikiLeaks peeks

The folks in Clintonland have abnormally high levels of trust in email security. WikiLeaks was able to release the long-sought transcripts of Hillary Clinton's speeches to Goldman Sachs in 2013 specifically because her staffers were emailing them around to one another to discuss a plan of action if the transcripts ever got released. Included in the speeches: Hillary telling her audiences she had to embark on a worldwide "Clinton Apology Tour" after Chelsea Manning leaked diplomatic cables in 2010; saying she wanted to abolish the filibuster in the Senate; and generally being chummy with bankers.

More releases on Sunday showed some of the behind-the-scenes political maneuvering to increase levels of outreach to black voters; concerns that Clinton wasn't apologetic enough about her email server and about praising Nancy Reagan's efforts to fight AIDS; whether or not to take donations from representatives of foreign governments; and whether or not "password" was a good email password or not.

N.C. county GOP office firebombed

Police in North Carolina are investigating the firebombing of the Orange County GOP headquarters, which took place Saturday night. No one was injured. Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, said the offices were "a total loss." Graffiti on a nearby building read "Nazi Republicans leave town or else." North Carolina is a battleground state -- ugh, you know what ... let's just start calling them "swing states" again. Clinton holds a slim 2.9% lead statewide, but Democrats and independents outnumber Republicans 5-to-1 in Orange County.

The incident represents a pretty significant escalation of political hostility this election cycle, one that was quickly condemned across the spectrum.

More from the campaign trail

Just $2,016 to memorialize an election you'll want to forget forever

A Burlington, Vermont ski company has created limited-edition Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton skis, perfect for taking along when you flee to Canada on Nov. 9.