Would it be too optimistic to expect two giant hurricanes — one flooding a good swatch of Texas and Louisiana and the other about to lay waste to the Eastern seaboard — to shut up the Trump bashers for ten minutes?

Apparently so, because no sooner does the president make an agreement with Schumer and Pelosi to raise the debt ceiling as well as set up a large fund for Harvey recovery and out they come from the left and right — from the left to crow about some sort of “victory” and from the right to complain that the deal didn’t lower the deficit.

Deficit? It’s as if Trump should have been playing hardball and calling for a government shutdown while Irma was tearing through Florida, sending the Pirates of the Caribbean into Tennessee with people fishing in their living rooms, if they’re lucky enough to have a living room anymore.

The shrinks talk about having “the right conversation at the right moment.” Making a fuss about the deficit in the midst of twin national catastrophes the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades and will cost who knows how many billions to repair is the exact opposite. It’s having the most counter-productive conversation at the worst possible moment.

And it’s even stupider because the new debt ceiling agreement is only for three months. In a short while they can fight that deficit all they want. As they say in Queens, “shaddup awreddy!”

As for the Democrats, left or otherwise, they should forget about that victory and save the high fives for the touch football game (if they still play that). That party’s so far out to lunch now they can’t tell the kitchen from the laundry room. Trump can afford to be generous because they barely exist and no one can recall when they last won an election. Nobody remembered Schumer’s new, new deal — or whatever it was — the day after he announced it. And it’s only going to get worse and everyone knows it. Liberalism isn’t just dead, it’s decomposed. Hillary Clinton’s forthcoming book evidently blows up what’s left of the house. No wonder Trump-bashing is all the Democrats do. It’s all they’ve got.

But that of course doesn’t stop the Republicans from shooting themselves in the foot and everywhere else. Even in the midst of two hurricanes, they seem clueless. Congress and the media remain in a horse race to the bottom while Trump, who seems decisive and in command, is seeing his numbers rise. Some Republicans appear miffed that they have been cut out of the process in favor of the even more execrable Schumer and Pelosi. Good. The Republicans need a kick in the you-know-what and a lot more. Mitch McConnell did something much dumber than incurring Trump’s wrath when he said the “naive” president expected too much too soon from Congress. The majority leader revealed his own inadequacy. “Qui s’excuse, s’accuse,” as the French say. He who excuses himself, accuses himself.

Despite the constant media drum beat and ceaseless leaks, Trump is looking more impressive eight months into his presidency than at inauguration. Only he and his cabinet are getting anything done. And the more he does, the angrier his opposition gets because, in the world of the Beltway, you’re not supposed to do anything, no matter which side you’re on. It’s as if giant “Do Not Disturb” signs had been put on all freeway entrances to Interstate 495 (aka the Beltway).

No one is more despised than the person who wants to upset the status quo, particularly an especially rigid one. He or she might show everyone else up. (Want to know why Maxine Waters hates Trump with such a passion? Simple. She’s been the congresswoman from South Central for umpteen decades and NOTHING has improved. In fact, the life of black people in her district has only gotten worse. What if Trump does something?)

But inevitably, great natural catastrophes shake things up in unforeseen ways. That’s why most contracts have force majeure clauses. We’re in the midst of double force majeure at the moment with some even greater majeure forces on the Pacific horizon of, dare we say it, thermonuclear proportions. With all of this, at some point, Trump Derangement Syndrome has got to give. One would assume that anyway. But clearly we haven’t gotten there yet.