I got a lot of scorn this week for declaring Iowa a rigged election based on the vote totals alone, and no real evidence. Strangers on the Internet called me pathetic, desperate, and a few other words.

There is no evidence that the vote count was rigged, although opportunity and human nature pretty much guarantee it. But it probably doesn’t matter because Cruz’s dirty tricks thwarted Trump’s win, and that was the main objective of the establishment. So now we have the odd possibility that the GOP was planning to fix the vote count but didn’t need to do so because Cruz did it for them. I have no evidence for that idea. I just think it is likely, given the existence of motive, opportunity, and a huge upside gain. In those situations, corruption is universal.

Here’s Karl Rove explaining how the Cruz’ campaign stole the election.

While there is no direct evidence that the GOP establishment rigged the vote, they did crown as their winner the candidate who has acknowledged and apologized for his campaign’s dirty tricks. If Karl Rove’s math is right, that cheating probably made a difference. Crowning a cheater as your party’s winner is different from doing the cheating yourself, I suppose. But not by much. The establishment wanted to slow down Trump, and they got their wish.

The Master Persuader filter can’t predict stolen elections. But it did sniff out the fraud after the fact.