So, Lara Trump has made herself a song. She didn’t play any instruments. She didn’t write any of the chords or come up with any of the lyrics. She had a fancy studio auto tune her, so that it sounded halfway decent. It was a step above those places in the mall that would record you singing a song for $59.95. It was essentially karaoke. It was average karaoke.

Listening to her complain about the “obvious conspiracy” that was keeping her song from getting radio play was the last straw. I’m a pretty easy going and tolerant fellow. I’ll endure your crap a lot longer than most people. I’m done. It is the total lack of self-awareness that gets me. If her name were Jane Doe it never would have gotten by that mall shop style recording. She might get 13 downloads in that scenario.

I’m not even sure what to call her complaint on the conservative talk show circuit. It is equal parts irony, hyperbole, and certainly there is some oxymoron in there somewhere. How can someone completely misunderstand that she only got it recorded in the first place because of who she is and then turn around and complain about it not getting radio play because of who she is?

Call it hypocrisy but that doesn’t even begin to describe it. It’s like Donald Trump Jr. complaining about Hunter Biden and his drug problem while he is obviously hopped up on cocaine. Okay, we didn’t see any white residue on his lip, so we can’t say it was definitely cocaine. However, the blood shot eyes, manic speech patterns, and cloudy thought patterns make that one all too obvious.

Listening to all the Trump children and hangers on is an exercise in chutzpah. They are people that have never put in an honest day’s work in their life and are somehow victims of something. It is the lack of self-awareness that is breathtaking. We knew this of daddy, but listening to the entire clan is just so very exhausting.

I propose Elba. For those that don’t remember, Elba was the island the French exiled Napoleon to. This time you set up some kind of an invisible wall where no electronic messaging can penetrate. There will be no landlines. No cell service or any ability to post to social media. All of these idiots will be cut off from the outside world. They are banished for an eternity.

I’ll exclude Tiffany and Baron from this treatment. They have so far had the good sense to keep quiet and Baron is still a minor child. However, I am putting them on notice. You suffer the same fate as the rest of them if you too become tiresome. Airlift supplies to them. Send in a maintenance guy and cook and promise them Trump’s booty once they all perish. I know it sounds too humane for Trump, but I just don’t want to deal with it anymore. Let’s make this happen.

Occasionally, you get the opportunity for a good extended metaphor. Those of us in the Gulf South know all too well what it is like to survive and recover from a storm. Most of us in the Gulf South can identify four stages of surviving a storm.

The first stage is the preparation stage. We know the storm is coming. So, from here we all make calculated decisions. Do we stay and mitigate or do we drive inland? Will we need to board up our windows? Do we have enough emergency supplies in case we lose power. You get the idea.

The second stage is the storm itself. If you are riding it out you just hunker down and do the best you can. If you’ve gone inland there is the worry that something bad will happen to your home or someone else you know. So far, everyone is in the same boat.

The third stage is the immediate aftermath. People are still fairly unified. Neighbors help neighbors and everyone pitches in. We clean up the damage. We make repairs. We deal with insurance adjusters, contractors, and the occasional con man trying to win one over during a crisis.

It is the fourth stage that is the problem. Some people get back to normal quickly. Some people never do. Talk to any charity and they will tell you the same thing. There is an initial enthusiasm that people have when giving that just goes away. People give around Christmas and then in January those charities dry up.

Most experts have said that it takes up to two years for most people to recover from a storm. Most of us just don’t have that kind of attention span. Amidst all of the political mumbo jumbo related to the pandemic, it is this fatigue that is costing us. Of course, one can’t avoid the other connection to a storm when we talk about the eye of the storm.

I vividly remember Hurricane Alicia as a kid. The eye passed over Galveston and Houston. Briefly everything seemed fine. Then the storm raged again. We knew it would back then, so we stayed hunkered down. Sadly, the eye of the storm of COVID came and went. We were told it was over. At every turn there has been an almost desperate need to put the virus behind us.

First, it was following the first lockdowns. People wanted to get out. Then, it was the warmer weather and the thought that viruses couldn’t survive in warmer weather. Then, it was an experimental round of drugs that were being peddled like snake oil at town square. Finally, we had a vaccine and the initial rush of most people getting the jab.

At each stage, the optimism was a fool’s errand. Weeks of progress were erased by super spreader events. Politicians desperate to save the almighty economy failed to uphold common sense safety measures. Some of them (cough Dan Patrick cough) even said they were willing to make an even swap. When that didn’t go over well he shifted his blame to Democrats and black people.

Storms come and go. They wreak their havoc, cause their damage, and leave some devastated. For a brief while, we all stand up and pitch in as much as we can. Then, we lose our focus. Life interrupts even the best of intentions. Even the most dedicated of people lose their focus. Obviously, some of us are not the best.

The virus is worse than a storm. If I hunker down and practice common sense measures I can keep myself and family safe during a storm. The virus doesn’t offer that kind of guarantee. The idiots ruin it for the rest of us. They clog up the hospitals. They infect those that are trying to be careful. They keep this thing going. Fatigue is real. So is being an idiot.

Axios just did a compilation of google search data for the year of 2017 and then graphed it.  The result is a chart that perfectly illustrates why we all have Trump fatigue.  Trump has created, caused, or worsened 46 crises since he began infesting our White House on January 20, 2017.  Axios won’t let me post the image (and it’s too big anyway) but you can find it here.

Ugh.