Toward the end of Election 2016: The Neverending Story, you may recall that Donald Trump started yelling a lot about the election being “rigged.” I don’t know if he really thought it was rigged (even MAGA-heads have to admit he’s a bit of a conspiracy theorist), or if it was just a cynical sour grapes ploy. Either way, I thought it was dumb. And, in retrospect, pointless. It ended up not mattering on election day anyway, just like pretty much everything else I thought would matter.

Of course, our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters were outraged by Trump’s claims of election tampering. Why, it was the most shocking thing he said since the previous shocking thing he said. It was just terrible, we were informed. He was trying to undermine the very integrity of our most treasured institutions, we were assured. Harrumph. Harrumph, harrumph!

Well, never mind all that. Yelling about rigged elections is good now.

Gabriel Sherman, New York magazine:

Hillary Clinton is being urged by a group of prominent computer scientists and election lawyers to call for a recount in three swing states won by Donald Trump, New York has learned. The group, which includes voting-rights attorney John Bonifaz and J. Alex Halderman, the director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society, believes they’ve found persuasive evidence that results in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania may have been manipulated or hacked…

While it’s important to note the group has not found proof of hacking or manipulation, they are arguing to the campaign that the suspicious pattern merits an independent review — especially in light of the fact that the Obama White House has accused the Russian government of hacking the Democratic National Committee.

Hey, Barry. The ’80s called…

If Hillary had won, right now the Trump partisans would be following his lead and making the same sorts of claims. And guys like Gabriel Sherman would be fighting them. And I’d be laughing at the whole thing.

OUT: “Voter fraud is a lowly hoax!”

IN: “Voter fraud is our only hope!”

Look, we get it. You lost. It sucks. You’re in denial. You don’t want it to be true. You’re clinging to any shred of hope that it doesn’t have to be like this. You want it to be one way, but it’s the other way.

If you can’t accept what happened, if you insist on believing fake news… well, at least you’ll have something to fight about tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving!

P.S.