We didn’t go to the Tidal Basin, but we took 5 year old Izzy to see the magnificent display of cherry blossoms in close-by Kenwood MD, a fairly extensive area that sees gawkers in cars and on foot every spring. At first, he enjoyed them, but in the middle of the third block, he said very politely, “Let’s leave this neighborhood. I’ve seen enough”.

It is going to be a busy few days here as we get ready for Wednesday night’s Passover seder. Cleaning refrigerators, cleaning the pantry, moving things around, buying food, cooking food, moving plates, pots, pans and silverware. What is equally hard is trying to figure out which of these things should be done first, as each is, in a way, dependent on each other. It is always a bit chaotic (and tiring, to be sure), which is ironic, since the concept and title of a “seder” is that everything is in a set order. Or maybe, it isn’t irony. Maybe it is just that, after a few days of confusion and movement, we can finally sit down at a seder, where the order of everything is set for you in advance.

This year, the seder will be just us, children and their spouses, grand-children, and two cousins, one who lives here, and one who is coming to visit us from Asheville NC and who yesterday confirmed her volunteer role as Edie’s sous-chef for Wednesday. Hannah and Michelle will do their parts, and Joan and Izzy will figure out how to ask the four questions. Izzy said that he will do it in English, like this…..”Ma nishtanah…..”. He also told me that he was going to cheat and look to see where the afikoman was being hidden. We told him that that would be cheating. He didn’t seem to care, “I just want to know where it is going to be hidden. You can tell me, if you want.”

Whenever there is a big prize in one of the big lotteries, someone eventually wins it, against great odds. This is where I think we are with this war (excuse me, military operation) against Iran. It is possible that we (read: Trump) will win the war and that Iran will turn out to be as peaceful as Costa Rica and the world will be a happier place for generations to come. The odds of this happening, however, seem to be about the same as the odds that I will be a big lottery winner, which of course are very small, especially since I never buy any lottery tickets.

Trump says that we are close to a deal with Iran, and Iran says that the American proposal is completely untenable and a deal is nowhere in sight. Trump says that we are having good conversations with Iran, and Iran says that they have been engaged in no conversations with the United States. So what is in fact the truth? Ha! Truth is so 2015.

And in addition to refuting any claim that the Iranian government has been in negotiations with the U.S. (perhaps the U.S. has been talking to the parliamentary chair, but perhaps the executive branch in Iran does not think he represents the government), the Iranian leaders have said they might talk with Vance (viewing him as a potential soft touch, perhaps), but not with Kushner and Witkoff, whom they don’t seem to trust. At least that is what the media reports, but maybe it’s because they are Jews?

While everyone would like to see Iran become another Finland, this just isn’t going to happen. And because we do not have any idea of what a solution acceptable to Mr. Trump would be (because there isn’t one that is possible), we, like Brer Rabbit, find ourselves stuck in tar.

Trump is in a situation that he never expected. Not only are the Democrats, the never-Trump moderate Republicans, and the Independents against him, now part of his own MAGA movement, the part that believed him when he said he was the peace president and there would be no more foreign entanglements, is against him. He is finding himself at odds with his vice president on some items (the vice president, as usual, being required to stay in a “see no evil, hear no evil” situation), and with his Secretary of State, who is concentrating on the Americas, not the Middle East. With his sycophantic Secretary of War (that is what he is) Pete Hegseth and his Christian crusader tattoo (which he thinks makes him look manly, but most people think it makes him look like a fool) in action, he has alienated much of the military, and many of the parents and spouses of members of the military.

So, the stock market has fallen more than 10%, oil is over $100 a barrel and gas prices up over $1 a gallon, fertilizer is in short supply, prices generally are going up, job creation is plummeting and unemployment rising, and there is not one index that is trending positively. Trump has ordered DHS to start paying TSA agents after a six week hold-up (which Democrats and Senate Republicans tried their best to resolve), and will have to answer to the question: if you have the power to do this, why did you wait six weeks?

Yes, our borders may be tightly controlled, but – and again this is obvious – nothing else is, and the country is stumbling along, with many of its constitutional provisions, laws, and long time practices being simply ignored.

We know (we really do) how historians will treat Donald Trump. But what we don’t know is how historians are going to treat the Supreme Court. Because it is the Court which is the only “independent” institution supporting most of what Trump is doing. And it is the Court which has, through its various rulings over time – allowing unlimited money in political races, allowing states to gerrymander at will, giving the president virtual immunity for anything he does, striking down laws to guarantee meaningful voting rights for minorities, etc – allowed Trump to be Trump. And of course the historians will look not only at the decisions of the Court, but will look at the Court’s use of its “shadow docket”, which has allowed them to issue opinions on matters without going through the usual steps (including oral arguments and preliminary rulings). And they will look at the manner in which the Republicans have stacked the Court by refusing to bring the Merrick Garland nomination to the floor of the Senate and rushing through the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett.

To end this….what do you get when you cross an Iranian with a cherry blossom? You get a long blog post.