There will be no new column today, sorry. I considered either writing another precursor column to tonight's big speech (which would have wondered if Donald Trump was going to lay out a rationale for going to war with Iran, which we seem to be sleepwalking into), but then I decided the question will be answered before most people read the column, so it'd be kind of pointless. I also considered doing a snap-reaction blog post after the speech tonight, but decided I didn't have the energy to (since Trump is likely to speak for close to two hours -- meaning I couldn't even begin writing it until pretty late at night). So my apologies but you'll have to wait until tomorrow to read my reactions to tonight's speech.

But I do have some good news for everyone! We are finally moving forward on the redesign of this site. Woo hoo! Right now a test bed is being prepared where changes can be made to everything (the look and feel of the site) using a copy of the database. The process has just begun, but in hopefully a very short while, I'll be able to share with you what the new site may look like. My plan is to let everyone in to the test bed setup, so you can all play around with it and suggest changes or improvements. It is pointless for you to do so now, because the test bed currently looks exactly like the old site, so there's nothing new for anyone to see or test yet.

In any case, I still wanted to update everyone and let people know that progress is finally being made. And that bigger news should be coming pretty soon, which will allow you to get a sneak peek at how the new site will look and operate. I will keep everyone posted as things progress, I promise. But I just wanted everyone to know that the first steps have been taken.

And I will see you all tomorrow, with my take on Trump's big speech.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Tomorrow night, Donald Trump will address Congress and the nation. Not to mention the Supreme Court members who show up as well -- which should prove to be one of the most interesting segments of his speech (just for entertainment value alone). Of course, there is little doubt about what Trump is going to say tomorrow night overall -- that the state of the Union is not just good but downright wonderful! The best ever! Everything is great! The glorious Golden Age of Trump has arrived! Be joyous and celebrate, one and all!

Sadly, that's not even overstating what Trump will likely say. If anything, it might actually understate it. Today, Trump gave us all a little teaser, which was exactly what you'd expect from him:

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Donald Trump just got the biggest smackdown of his second term from the Supreme Court today, as they ruled -- 6 to 3, even! -- that Trump does not have the authority he assumed he had to slap any tariff he felt like, on any country he felt like, for any reason he felt like.

This is a big deal, obviously. Trump has gleefully revelled in doing whatever he felt like to the rest of the world up to this point, using a law that simply was not designed for this purpose. Today the high court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (or "IEEPA") doesn't allow Trump to slap any tariff he wants -- in willy-nilly fashion -- on any country, for no particular reason. The IEEPA law doesn't even mention the word "tariff" at all, in fact. Here is the meat of the decision against Trump, which was written by Chief Justice John Roberts:

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California voters will go to the polls to vote in a primary election in a few months, to choose the candidates for governor who will move on to the general election. But as a new poll shows, the result might be pretty shocking and may even give rise to a movement to change the way the state's primaries are conducted. Because as things stand right now, there is a very real chance that come November, the overwhelmingly-Democratic state might only have two Republican candidates on the ballot to choose from. Which, as I said, would be pretty shocking.

Personally, I have never been a fan of the new primary system here. It leads to all sorts of campaign shenanigans, and often freezes out political parties from the general election ballot. For the most part, this means that Republican voters in the state are often presented with the choice of only two Democrats to vote for in the general election. That has never seemed fair to me, even though I am not a Republican. Primaries are low-turnout elections, but they can prevent major political parties from appearing on the general election ballot, when far more people turn out to vote. And now California's Democrats are in danger of the shoe being on the other foot -- which may be what is necessary to bring a change to the system.

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In less than a week, Donald Trump will give his first official State Of The Union address to a joint gathering of Congress. His address to Congress last year wasn't an official State Of The Union, but it showed how Democrats were still unsure about how to react to him being president once again. I am reminded of the old Will Rogers quip: "I am not a member of any organized political party -- I am a Democrat," in fact. Democrats had no cohesive way of showing their disapproval of Trump, so instead they tried the "throw the spaghetti at the wall" strategy of having everyone do whatever they felt like doing. Some Democrats had little paddle-like signs they held up (with multiple different disapproving messages, showing a lack of cohesion), some Democrats refused to attend, some Democrats got up and walked out during the speech, and one stood up and started screaming back at Trump. The whole thing was a disorganized mess, message-discipline-wise. Democrats looked unorganized and weak.

This year they're not quite as disorganized, and they now have the benefit of Trump's approval ratings sinking below 40 percent once again, but they're still not going to present a totally unified front, it seems. Having said that, however, it does look like they've at least gotten one new idea that is better than last year's mishmash:

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I am going to begin this remembrance with my own personal story, minimal though it is. In 1988, I attended a political speech given by Reverend Jesse Jackson. He was running for president at the time, in his second national campaign for the Democratic nomination. Unfortunately, the arena he had booked was filled to overflowing by the time I showed up, so we heard the speech on speakers placed outside the venue. So while I didn't actually see Jackson speak, at least I got to hear his oratory.

After he was done, he came outside and worked his way down a rope line of people. Somehow I happened to be standing in the right place (unintentionally, I don't remember actually pushing forward to claim a spot, it just kind of happened where I had been standing for the speech) and was one of the people who got to shake Jackson's hand. The most memorable thing about it, though, came from a woman next to me who shouted: "Kiss my baby, Jesse!" and offered up her swaddled child. Jackson couldn't resist and stopped his progress down the line, gently took the child, cuddled it for a moment, and then gave it a big kiss. Admittedly, it was downright cliché to see a politician kiss a baby, but I was impressed by how well he handled it and what a touching human moment it truly was.

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The history of organized national presidential/political polling may have begun way back in President Andrew Jackson's time. That's pretty amazing when you think about it, considering the glacial pace of long-range communications in that horse-and-buggy era (the 1820s and 1830s). There were no telephone polls because there were no telephones. Even the telegraph network in this country was still in the future. Railroads hadn't conquered the continent yet. Most news went as fast as either a horse could run or a boat could float. In fact, the major waterways of the era were the equivalent of the Interstate highway system -- they were the funnels through which most travellers (and most news) flowed. And this was the dawn of a golden age of boat travel, because of the rise of steam-powered riverboats.

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Perhaps it was because the week ends on Friday the 13th, but whatever the real reason was, Donald Trump didn't have a great week this week. Which, of course, is good news for everyone else! There was actually a lot of good news in the political world this week -- so much that we're not even going to bother with the other news that wasn't so good.

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The freedom of speech in America just got two big confirmations from the judicial system, which is good news for everyone who cherishes their constitutional rights. Both of these were related, since they both stemmed from the same cause: the video that six members of Congress (all of whom had previously served either in the military or for the nation's intelligence services) released last year informing serving military members that it was their right and their duty to refuse to follow illegal orders. This is the indeed the law (in the Uniform Code of Military Justice), and all the members of Congress did was to reiterate what the law says.

For doing so, they have been vilified by everyone from Donald Trump on down, who immediately sicced his weaponized Department of Justice against the six, unleashing what Trump and his minions like to call "lawfare" against them. Investigations were opened. They were invited in to the Justice Department for voluntary interviews to discuss the matter (which, to their credit, they refused to do). And Pete Hegseth, the secretary of Defense, initiated a process to censure and downgrade the retirement benefits of one of them, Senator Mark Kelly.

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The House of Representatives -- against the wishes of the Republican speaker -- seems poised to vote today on a direct rebuke to Donald Trump's willy-nilly tariff regime. This is interesting news at the start of a midterm election year, but it probably won't actually serve to rein in Trump. Even so, it would be only the second time the Republican Congress expressly pushed back on Trump for any reason at all, so it is at least noteworthy.

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