[guest post by Dana]

This is President Biden’s third SOTU address. Per CNN, this is what to expect:

Biden’s speech is expected to be heavy on economic populism, aides said, with calls for higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy. He also plans to take a swipe at former President Donald Trump, vow to restore Roe and acknowledge his age

Additionally, the President will announce that the “U.S. military will lead an emergency mission to build a new pier on the Mediterranean coast of Gaza to allow large ships to deliver food, water, medicine and temporary shelters to the territory.”

U.S. troops will not need to set foot on land in Gaza.

Despite House Speaker Mike Johnson’s admonition for decorum, it appears that Marge has other plans for tonight:

Here’s what’s inappropriate – $34 trillion in debt. Laken Riley was murdered… I’ll argue that decorum has been destroyed here in Washington D.C. and in Congress. So, I think calling out the president if he’s lying to the American people is completely appropriate.

Should be fun.

—Dana

“Oh my God, this is the most classless act ever!!!!1!” say the people who don’t find Donald J. Trump’s actions classless at all:

And there it is. The most classless act ever conducted in Congress, by Nancy Pelosi. pic.twitter.com/kxNFzKIEIb

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 5, 2020

Pelosi’s action was both understandable after Trump refused to shake her hand at the beginning of the evening, and snitty and petulant and weak.

That said, Ian Miles Cheong is a Trump supporter. I cannot take a Trump supporter seriously when they whine about classless acts by Democrats, since I know that if Trump did the same thing they would applaud and cheer.

As an aside: in the Trump era, any particular thing that happens today must be the biggest worstest mostest thing that has ever happened in the history of the universe. Sure, Representative Preston Brooks brutally beat Senator Charles Sumner on the head with a cane on the floor of the Senate, but yeah, this was the most classless act evah!

More degradation of our politics in the Trump era.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

[guest post by Dana]

The mess-up in Iowa couldn’t have come at a better time for Trump. Democrats must be kicking themselves. Count on him bringing it up tonight. Too hard for him to resist… Also, on the day before he is expected to be acquitted, the president’s poll numbers have taken a jump too:

President Donald Trump earned his highest approval ratings of his presidency amid the ongoing Senate impeachment trial, according to a newly released Gallup poll.

The president got his boost from Republican — 94% of whom approve of him — and independent voters — 42% of whom approve, while Democratic approval sunk to just 7%. Trump’s previous high was 46% approval in the spring of last year.

Notably, a large majority of Americans — 63% — approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, which is seeing the lowest unemployment numbers in 50 years. Trump reached a tentative trade deal with China in December after nearly two years of escalating tariffs and tensions.

Trump’s third State of the Union speech tonight, with its theme of the “Great American Comeback,” will focus on immigration, the economy, and foreign policy.

Note:

While the speech was reportedly penned by speechwriters Vince Haley and Ross Worthington, the White House said it will be “President Trump’s own words.”

“The president is a best-selling author and deeply gifted orator who packs arenas and has a meticulous and carefully honed method for writing his speeches, whether it be at a rally, a manufacturing plant opening or the State of the Union,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement.

Uh, sure, if you say so…

Here is a roster of Trump’s special guests tonight.

Important update: Democratic women in attendance will be wearing not just white, but suffragette white.

–Dana

Won’t watch it. Don’t care who’s coming. Don’t care what he says. I’m going to a concert.

I don’t really care much about this story. I just love the picture:

Above: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The audience for the most part is awake, because they’re bobbing up and down, and we sit there, stone-faced, sober judges. But we’re not, at least I wasn’t, 100 percent sober,” Ginsburg said during a talk at The George Washington University on Thursday night, according to a report by The Blaze.

“Because before we went to the State of the Union, Justice Kennedy brought in … it was an Opus something or other, very fine California wine, and I vowed this year, just sparkling water, stay away from the wine, but in the end, the dinner was so delicious, it needed wine.”

She had vowed to stay away from the wine, you see, because she did the same thing last year.

Hey, it beats falling asleep during oral argument!

More important, as Ed Whelan notes, is the fact that Ginsburg is commenting, willy-nilly, on multiple cases now pending before the Court:

The 81-year-old justice discussed the public’s increasing acceptance of gays against the backdrop of resistance by Alabama officials to a federal court order that took effect Monday and made it the 37th gay-marriage state. With the high court set to rule on the issue by June, she said it “would not take a large adjustment” for Americans should the justices say that gay marriage is a constitutional right.

“The change in people’s attitudes on that issue has been enormous,” Ginsburg said. “In recent years, people have said, ‘This is the way I am.’ And others looked around, and we discovered it’s our next-door neighbor — we’re very fond of them. Or it’s our child’s best friend, or even our child. I think that as more and more people came out and said that ‘this is who I am,’ the rest of us recognized that they are one of us.”

But I can be fair on gay marriage!

Asked about the president’s legacy, Ginsburg pointed to the law, known as Obamacare, which she voted to uphold in the 2012 case.

“Our country was just about the only Western industrialized country that didn’t have universal health care for all of the people, and he made the first giant step in that direction,” she said. “That’s certainly one of the things he will be remembered for.”

But I can be fair on King v. Burwell!

Longtime readers know that Ginsburg commenting on issues pending before the Court is not a new phenomenon — indeed, this very blog (with a tip from Kevin M.) broke a nation-wide story about Ginsburg doing exactly that back in 2004.

The difference today is that nobody cares.

Just tuned in. Don’t know how long I can bear to listen to this chump.

[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]

Update: See this follow up post showing the Beatles v. the Taxman.

Update (II): Where are my blog manners? I forgot to thank Instapundit for the link.

He said it in the prepared text and in the speech itself:

The bipartisan Fiscal Commission I created last year made this crystal clear. I don’t agree with all their proposals, but they made important progress. And their conclusion is that the only way to tackle our deficit is to cut excessive spending wherever we find it – in domestic spending, defense spending, health care spending, and spending through tax breaks and loopholes.

(emphasis added).

You got that?  When you are allowed to keep your money, that is considered “spending” by the Federal Government.  Because in reality all of the fruits of your labor belong to us, the government.

Is it wrong to say it almost the attitude of a master toward his slaves?  Consider this passage from Jeffrey Rogers Hummel’s history of the Civil War, Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men, which I have to cut and paste from a screen cap:

(more…)

Leave your comments below. If I get a chance, I’ll put up a live chat when I can. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Sorry no live chat. Boy, that was awful, huh?

[Guest post by DRJ]

From Justice Alito — “Not true”:

From Chris Matthews — “I forgot he was black tonight for an hour”:

— DRJ

UPDATE — I don’t have video but here’s one more response from Boston University Journalism Professor and Hoover Institute Research Fellow Robert Zelnick:

“Finally, the president appeased his more liberal supporters by asking Congress to repeal the “Dont ask, don’t tell” arrangement-passed early in the first Clinton term-which prohibits declared gays and lesbians from serving in the armed forces. The cluster of senior brass sitting close to the podium failed to applaud and looked collectively at their leader as one might a vistor from a foreign planet.”

Share your thoughts below.