White House Dossier's

Decision Day in Iowa . . .  The big question is whether the voters of the Hawkeye State can deliver a major surprise, confounding all the polls and prognostications.  The big wildcard is the weather, with snow blanketing the state and temperatures in Des Moines forecast to range from a low of minus 19 degrees to a high of minus 1 degree. Virtually everyone expects former President Trump to win. Trump leads by 35 points in the Iowa polling average maintained by The Hill and Decision Desk HQ. The final, highly respected Des Moines Register poll, released Saturday evening, put Trump up by 28 points. The Hill

Five things to watch for during the caucuses

Des Moines Register poll shows potential trouble for Haley . . . Nikki Haley has overtaken Ron DeSantis in Iowa just days before a high-stakes Republican caucus. But even as Haley has moved into second place, a new Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll indicates her support may be based on “shaky ground,” said pollster J. Ann Selzer, who conducted the poll. The Iowa Poll shows 48% of likely Republican caucusgoers pick Trump as their first choice for president — a slight dip from the 51% who said the same in December. The poll shows troubling signs around likely caucusgoers’ enthusiasm for Haley, which could become particularly important as Iowa faces what is expected to be a historically cold caucus night following a blizzard that dumped a foot of snowacross much of the state. Des Moines Register

The famous Des Moines Register poll is conducted every four years and is generally the most accurate picture of what will happen, and where the momentum is, in the Iowa Caucuses. Worth noting that there is another school of thought about the the snow storm - while Trump's voters are more enthusiastic, they live in rural areas, where it's tougher to get to caucuses. Haley's supporters are in the suburbs.

Evangelicals ready to carry Trump to victory . . . Iowa's influential evangelical voters were once decidedly lukewarm on Donald Trump. But if recent polls are accurate, born-again Christians will carry him to victory on Monday in the Republican caucuses. What has changed? The video has a title: God Made Trump. "God looked down on his planned paradise and said, 'I need a caretaker,'" a voiceover intones over a minimalist piano track. "So God gave us Trump." BBC

So what is a caucus, anyway?

Haley looks to use Iowa result to gain in New Hampshire . . . The most recent polls in Iowa show Ms. Haley edging ahead of Mr. DeSantis — even a distant second-place finish will be treated as a victory for her campaign. A third-place finish for Mr. DeSantis, on the other hand, would be perhaps the most striking proof yet of his political weakness. New York Times

Haley's only chance is to outperform expectations in Iowa and then to win in New Hampshire, not just beat expectations there. 

Questions mount over US strikes against Houthis rebels . . . Questions mounted Sunday about the long-term impact of U.S.-led airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, with a spokesman for the Iran-backed militant group boasting that the attacks caused no “material damage” to the Houthis’ ability to target commercial ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis’ significant military capabilities may not have been eliminated. Some specialists say the American attacks could bolster the Houthis’ reputation in the region by allowing the group to credibly say it is fighting the U.S. and Israel as it stands in solidarity with the Palestinians. Washington Times

This needed a lot more shock - the plans were leaked - and tons more awe.

Houthis fire missile at US warship in Red Sea . . . Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired an anti-ship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea but a U.S. fighter jet shot it down in the latest attack roiling global shipping amid Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, officials said. The attack on Sunday marks the first U.S.-acknowledged fire by the Houthis since America and allied nations began strikes Friday on the rebels following weeks of assaults on shipping in the Red Sea. Associated Press

Two Navy SEALs missing off coast of Somalia . . . The two U.S. Navy sailors who were reported missing after falling into the sea while conducting a nighttime boarding mission Thursday off the coast of Somalia have been identified as SEALs, according to the U.S. Central Command. The two special forces operators were climbing aboard a vessel while on a mission in the Gulf of Aden when high waves knocked one into the sea. Fox News

International

The Israeli female soldiers who warned of what was coming and were the first to die . . . For years, units of young female conscripts had one job here. It was to sit in surveillance bases for hours, looking for signs of anything suspicious. In the months leading up to the 7 October attacks by Hamas, they did begin to see things: practice raids, mock hostage-taking, and farmers behaving strangely on the other side of the fence. Noa, not her real name, says they would pass information about what they were seeing to intelligence and higher-ranking officers, but were powerless to do more. "We were just the eyes," she says. As Hamas attacked, the women at Nahal Oz, a base about a kilometre from the Gaza border, began to say goodbye to one another on their shared WhatsApp group. BBC

Taiwan election piles pressure on US-Taiwan ties . . . Taiwan’s election of the presidential candidate China most distrusts puts at risk a fragile detente between Washington and Beijing, threatening another flare-up between the world’s biggest economic and military powers. Voters on Saturday gave the Democratic Progressive Party four more years in power, this time by choosing as president-elect the current vice president, Lai Ching-te, whom China condemns as an inveterate agitator for Taiwan’s independence—an outcome that Beijing has vowed to prevent, by force if necessary. Wall Street Journal

Money

Robots looking better to Detroit as labor costs rise . . . Automakers are looking to an old friend to help offset rising labor costs: robots.

For decades, car companies have increased automation inside their factories. Now, auto executives are looking more closely at this approach, to address a rising labor bill and take advantage of more sophisticated technology. Competition from relative newcomers like

Culture

Supreme Court could strike a hole in the Deep State . . . The Supreme Court will hear a dispute this week that could lead to a decision dramatically clawing back the power of federal agencies, putting a number of consumer and environmental protections in jeopardy. At issue is whether courts should defer to interpretation by federal agencies when a law could have multiple meanings, a practice known as Chevron deference. In practical terms, this means the court is considering whether to weaken the ability of a presidential administration to put forward regulations meant to counter pollution or climate change or to protect consumers without clearer authorization from Congress. The Hill

FAA seeking people with "severe" intellectual and psychiatric abilities amod DEI push . . . The Federal Aviation Administration is actively recruiting workers who suffer "severe intellectual" disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website. "Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring," the FAA’s website states. "They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism." Fox News

"No, I said to land in Cleveland, not Chicago."

Georgia DA prosecuting Trump plays race card amid charges of affair with aide . . . A Georgia district attorney accused of hiring her lover to prosecute former President Trump broke her silence on the controversy, saying she and the prosecutor were targeted because they are black. “They only attacked one,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis Sunday at Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta. “First thing they say,‘Oh, she’s gonna play the race card now.’ “But no God, isn’t it them that’s playing the race card when they only question one?” New York Post

RFK Jr. defends decision by his JFK and his dad to wiretap Martin Luther King Jr . . . “There was good reason for them doing that at the time,” Kennedy said, “because J. Edgar Hoover was out to destroy Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement and Hoover said to them that Martin Luther King’s chief was a communist. “My father gave permission to Hoover to wiretap them so he could prove that his suspicions about King were either right or wrong,” he continued. “I think, politically, they had to do it.” Politico

Fox News cancels MyPillow ads . . . MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell announced Friday that Fox News Channel dropped MyPillow commercials. It appeared to end the turbulent but profitable longtime relationship between Mr. Lindell and Fox News. “Fox News has canceled MyPillow," Lindell said on Steve Bannon’s “WarRoom” show. A source familiar with the matter said the partnership was suspended because Mr. Lindell hasn’t been able to finance the commercials and this was communicated to his media agency at length. “As soon as their account is paid, we would be happy to accept their advertising,” a Fox News spokesperson said. Washington Times

Air Force officer crowned Miss America . . . This beauty queen is flying sky-high. Madison Marsh became the first active-duty Air Force officer to be crowned Miss America when she flew ahead of the competition during the illustrious pageant Sunday night. The 22-year-old 2nd lieutenant in the Air Force and graduate intern at Harvard Medical School beat out 50 other contestants to earn the top spot in the 2024 Miss America pageant that took place in Florida over the weekend. New York Post

Four dead in Hot Air ballon crash . . . Four people are dead and another person is critically injured after a hot-air balloon crashed in the Arizona desert Sunday morning, according to local police. Officers responded to the scene of the fatal crash near Eloy just before 8 a.m. They told FOX 10 Phoenix in a statement that there were eight skydivers in the balloon who jumped before the crash happened; five people remained in the balloon, including the pilot and four who were along for the ride. Fox News

Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie Nortion on The Honeymooners, dead at 99 . . . Joyce Randolph, a veteran stage and television actor whose role as the savvy Trixie Norton on “The Honeymooners” provided the perfect foil to her dimwitted TV husband, has died. She was 99. Randolph died of natural causes Saturday night at her home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, her son Randolph Charles told The Associated Press Sunday. She was the last surviving main character of the beloved comedy from television’s golden age of the 1950s. Associated Press

Biden seems to think he's still in the Senate . . . President Joe Biden told Pennsylvanians on Friday that he works for the government in the Senate, a comment likely to fuel concerns about the gaffe-prone president's mental fitness. "My name's Joe Biden. I work for the government in the Senate," said the 81-year-old president as he met employees at a coffee shop in the Keystone State. Washington Free Beacon

If only it were true.