Bill Maher is back in the HBO studio for the first time since March when the coronavirus pandemic shut down normal television production. He doesn’t have an in-studio audience yet due to current restrictions over mitigating the virus. From the video clip I watched, it looks as though he is struggling a bit with the lack of instant response to his not-so-entertaining schtick but it’s notable that some progress is being made in the entertainment business to get back to almost normal.

Maher is worried. He watched the Republican convention and he now realizes that President Trump just might be able to win re-election. He is starting to feel as he did in 2016 and he’s nervous. He went on Joy Reid’s show on MSNBC where he admitted to her that the convention was well-done and viewers at home likely had a favorable reaction to its programming.

Appearing on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” Maher gave the RNC high marks, calling it “unique” and noting the inclusion of “people applauding” for some of the speakers.

“I don’t know if this stuff works, but it might,” Maher said. “I am feeling less confident about this — maybe it’s just their convention bump got to me, but I’m feeling less confident than I was a month ago.”

Reid even agreed with Maher about the production and then she did her usual race-baiting against Republicans – she mocked the “four black guys” and the women who were speakers. Maher attempted to set her straight. He said that people do have their own minds to make up about voting.

MSNBC host Joy Reid agreed that the GOP convention was a “smoothly produced thing” and suggested that the “four Black guys” and the “women” who were invited to speak were meant to sway voters as a “permission slip” for those who felt uncomfortable supporting President Trump again in 2020.

Maher, however, called the strategy “effective,” highlighting Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s blistering attacks against Joe Biden.

“He was pushing back on Joe Biden for saying, you know, if you vote for Trump, you ain’t Black and I don’t think that is a good thing for Joe Biden to have said,” Maher told Reid. “He [Cameron] said ‘I have my own mind.'”

Bill Maher is “very nervous”, just as he was four years ago. A month ago he was feeling confident that Biden will win in November but now he isn’t feeling that way. So, he is asking people to stop using the USPS until after the election in order to free up postal workers. He’s convinced himself, like other anti-Trumpers, that Trump is trying to use the postal service in order to cheat and win the election. There’s no other way to explain another Trump election victory, you know, except that Trump wins by cheating. A hashtag is born – #FreeUpTheMail. It’s crazy but he’s serious.

“If Trump’s going to try to scuttle the Post Office, we need to fight back,” the host said, delivering his “New Rules” show-ending monologue from his familiar set at LA’s CBS Television City. Starting in October, he added, “Don’t use the mail for anything but ballots until the election is over” on November 3.

Trump and his supporters have attacked the legitimacy of mail-in voting, and as president he has taken action to put loyalists in charge and taken away funding and equipment. He is deliberately trying to tank the postal system in order to have a better chance to beat Joe Biden in November, Maher maintained. “He wants it to fail. It has to fail for his scheme to work. It’s like a postal version of The Producers,” he cracked.

In order to block that plan, he said, citizens should deliberately limit their use of mail and take full advantage of doing things online. “You know how we pull over for fire trucks? It’s time we do the equivalent for mail trucks,” Maher said. “This can be our October surprise for Trump.”

Look, Bill Maher is a smart guy. We don’t have to agree with his politics or his penchant to go all-in on conspiracy theories that affirm his opinions but he is doing this nonsense to rev up Biden’s base voters. Maher’s show appeals to people that already agree with most of his brand of honesty. He can go after both sides of the aisle but we know he doesn’t vote as a Republican. He falls in line with Democrat voters.

The objection to universal mail-in voting is a legitimate one. Mailing out ballots to every registered voter in states that are not equipped to handle mass mail-in voting is asking for voter fraud. The problem is not with the postal service – they can handle an influx of mail-in ballots. The USPS handles millions of pieces of mail during the holiday season every year (and Mother’s Day, which is also huge for them). The current conspiracy that Trump is dismantling the USPS before the election to “cheat” and win is absurd. The new postmaster general is implementing more efficient ways of doing the job and replacing old pieces of machinery with new ones. The need to revamp the USPS is not a new situation. The postal service has been running in the red for years, a huge, inefficient money pit for the American taxpayer.

The Democrats in Congress have demanded that Postmaster General DeJoy stop what he is doing and let things remain as they are until after the election. He’s agreed to that. On Thursday he told the nation’s top election officials that mailed ballots are his top priority.

On Thursday, DeJoy told the election officials that he is forming a task force to look at each mail processing plant and assess what it might need to process the quantity of election mail anticipated this year, said New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, who is the president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, or NASS.

DeJoy alluded to such a task force in a public statement earlier this month.

“Over and over again, both [DeJoy] and his senior staff reiterated that the election is their highest priority,” Toulouse Oliver said in an interview with NPR after the call. “And they are actively putting into place processes and procedures to make sure every single piece of election mail, especially ballots, are going to be treated like gold.”

Democrats and other anti-Trumpers are desperate to lay the groundwork for an excuse if Trump wins as he did so with the help of the postal service or because he outright cheated. There isn’t the level of enthusiasm for Biden that there is for Trump with his voters. Even Michael Moore has noticed that. He is sounding the alarm as he did in 2016 that Trump can win because there is enthusiasm for his re-election.

“Sorry to have to provide the reality check again, but when CNN polled registered voters in August in just the swing states, Biden and Trump were in a virtual tie. In Minnesota, it’s 47-47. In Michigan, where Biden had a big lead, Trump has closed the gap to 4 points,” Moore began a Facebook post on Friday.

“Are you ready for a Trump victory? Are you mentally prepared to be outsmarted by Trump again? Do you find comfort in your certainty that there is no way Trump can win? Are you content with the trust you’ve placed in the DNC to pull this off?”

Moore continued, “I’m warning you almost 10 weeks in advance. The enthusiasm level for the 60 million in Trump’s base is OFF THE CHARTS! For Joe, not so much. Don’t leave it to the Democrats to get rid of Trump. YOU have to get rid of Trump. WE have to wake up every day for the next 67 days and make sure each of us are going to get a hundred people out to vote. ACT NOW!”

He went on to chide Biden for announcing campaign trips to Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. but not to Michigan. “Sound familiar?” He is warning that the Democrats are doing the same as in 2016 – taking votes for granted and not paying attention to crucial states just like Hillary’s campaign did.

The GOP convention did what it needed to do – offer a positive, upbeat message of America’s greatness. Trump’s accomplishments were highlighted and non-traditional GOP voters were featured. The personal stories were powerful. Suburban women and Independents that tuned in to see what was being offered by Republicans likely were struck by the contrast it presented from the doom and gloom and the Democrat’s message that America is horrible, that Democracy has been destroyed by Trump. Maher and Moore noticed.