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If you’re confused and overwhelmed by all the political news about the U.S. Postal Service, here’s the key thing to know: At its core, this scandal is not new or innovative. It is the standard government version of the Goodfellas scheme: Deliberately make life impossible for an agency while using it to enrich big campaign donors, “and then finally, when there’s nothing left, when you can’t borrow another buck from the bank or buy another case of booze, you bust the joint out — you light a match.”

In this case, lighting a match means Trump (with the help of Senate Democrats) putting the postal office under the control of Republican operatives who then eliminated sorting machines, removed mailboxes and restricted postal workers from helping Americans vote absentee. The moves threaten to ignite a fire that could throw the election. Longer term, they could also bolster the argument that the only way to create a more reliable mail system is to hand over the postal service’s core functions to companies led by donors such as FedEx or UPS that funnel big money to Republicans.

This culminating tale of arson is the subject of today’s congressional hearings, but here’s the thing: It didn’t happen in a vacuum. Trump’s officials have justified the cutbacks by insinuating that they were merely necessary responses to the long-term financial crisis at the USPS.

“Our financial position is dire, stemming from substantial declines in mail volume, a broken business model and a management strategy that has not adequately addressed these issues,″ said postmaster general Louis DeJoy, a Trump appointee who was a top GOP fundraiser.

The creation of that alleged financial crisis — and whether it is actually even a crisis — is a less-well-publicized but critically important story of malevolence, because it is the foundational justification for everything Trump is now doing.

Over the course of years, the villains in this story manufactured the emergency in four ways: 1) They fabricated the notion that we should look at the post office as a business, but then 2) they subjected the agency to financial standards no other business operates under; 3) they continued blocking the agency from making the kind of investments that corporations and government retirement systems routinely make and 4) they restricted the agency from expanding its revenue-generating operations like postal services in other countries.

Let’s break each of these down.

1: The Post Office As A Business

You’ve heard the assertion a million times: The USPS is supposedly a business, and one that is losing money. But few have bothered to question the absurd premise of it.

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