We’re in bizarre times.

The United States Congress went back into session to pass dead-end legislation regarding the United States Postal Service (which, in case you’re young or have forgotten, has been struggling with budget issues for decades), on the seemingly baseless conspiracy premise that President Trump is trying to create problems with the elections, which itself is based on the seemingly baseless premise that a population that has been shopping, going to beaches, holding protests, and so on, cannot be expected to vote in person, for the most part.

Another assertion that is also tangled into the rhetorical mess is that vote fraud is not an issue of concern.  So, to place the thinking in conceptual order:  Voter fraud is not an issue, and COVID-19 is too much of a danger to expect the masses of people to vote in person, therefore we the Post Office must be prepared for something like an all-mail election, so budget-related changes in the Post Office indicate an attempt by the President of the United States to create the specter of voter fraud in a mail-ballot election.

Except:

A New Jersey election has been invalidated by a judge, and a new election has been ordered to be held, due to rampant mail-in voter fraud.

On Wednesday, State Superior Court Judge Ernest Caposela ruled that the election for a Paterson City Council seat had been irreversibly tainted. A new election has been ordered to take place in November.

Even if the U.S. Postal Service were an historically tip-top operation with no budget challenges at all, the prospect of a presidential election conducted primarily via mail would require an asterisk regarding the outcome.  Partisans and the news media can repeat that there’s no evidence of voter fraud until they’re blue in the face, but I’d venture to estimate that a majority of Americans would be suspicious.