POLITICAL CHILL: It was four below zero when Iowa Republican voters met for their caucuses and Donald Trump froze out his opponents, taking 51 percent of the vote.

  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had a big victory, of sorts, finishing second with 21.2 percent and nudging aside Nikki Haley, who finished with 19.1 percent. Only 15 percent of registered Republicans participated in the caucuses, a record low turnout.

  Haley said she had established that it’s now a two-person race, but which two people?

  Vivek Ramaswamy, the smarmy businessman with no experience in politics, quit the race after finishing fourth and endorsed Trump saying, “Now going forward he will have my full endorsement.”

  For Trump, who has run on a platform of grievance and lies, it’s his first big step to the Republican 2024 nomination and a rematch with President Joe Biden. After losing in 2020, inciting an insurrection, and becoming bogged in civil suits and 91 criminal charges, he’s on his way to regaining the respectable title of Republican nominee for president. Trump said in a victory speech, “The big night is going to be in November when we take back our country.”

  The former president added an attack on Joe Biden saying, “He is the worst president that we’ve had in the history of our country.”

  Trump has won votes with threats and statements that have his opponents and critics aghast. For instance, a stunning CBS News poll found that 81 percent of likely Republican voters agree with Trump’s claim that illegal immigrants pouring over the southern border are “poisoning the blood of the country.” 

  Also, entry polling says that two-thirds of Iowans entering the caucus meetings last night do not believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

BAD MOUTHING: A Manhattan jury this week begins to hear the second defamation case brought by former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll against Donald Trump.

  A jury in May determined that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll decades ago in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan. They awarded Carroll just over $2 million for the assault and nearly $3 million for defamation because Trump’s described her claim in October 2022 as “a complete con job.”

  Following that verdict, Trump issued a stream of attacks against Carroll on his Truth Social website, causing her to sue again.

  The judge in this latest case ruled that Trump cannot claim in court that he never sexually assaulted Carroll because another jury has already determined that he did. Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in an opinion that, “Mr. Trump is precluded from offering any testimony, evidence or argument suggesting or implying that he did not sexually assault Ms. Carroll, that she fabricated her account of the assault or that she had any motive to do so.” 

AT WAR: Hamas militants used 26-year-old hostage Noa Argamani to announce on video that two of her fellow hostages were killed in an Israeli air strike. She said that Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, had been killed by missiles fired from an F-16 jet.

  The video showed two bodies being put in body bags, but the identities have not been verified.

 Argamani is one of the better-known hostages. Video of her terrified as she was taken away on a motorcycle October 7^th is one of the iconic images of the attacks.

  Israel’s defense minister said the military has concluded its intensive ground operations in northern Gaza and is close to finishing in the south. Yoav Gallant, said Israel’s military is now crushing “pockets of resistance” in the north and hunting Hamas leadership in the south

  Meanwhile in the Red Sea, an anti-ship missile fired by Houthi militants from Yemen hit an American owned and operated container ship. No injuries were reported and damage was described as minor. The Houthis say they will continue their shipping attacks until Israel ends its war against Hamas in Gaza. 

THE OBIT PAGE: Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie Norton and was the last surviving cast member of the groundbreaking 1950s sitcom “The Honeymooners,” died on Saturday at her home in Manhattan. She was 99. 

  In a cast led by comedian Jackie Gleason in the black and white days of television, Randolph was the wife of Ed Norton played by Art Carney, a New York sewer worker who was the neighbor of Gleason’s bus driving character, Ralph Kramden. 

  Randolph was the upstairs wife in a New York tenement who commiserated with Ralph’s wife Alice — Audrey Meadows — as the two men bumbled with get rich schemes and membership in the fraternal International Order of Friendly Raccoons.

  Over the years the show, and its actors, developed a kind of cult following. Jackie Gleason had cast Randolph in the show after seeing her in a chewing gum commercial.

THE SPIN RACK: Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has been released after two weeks in the hospital following complications from prostate surgery. For part of his stay, the White House didn’t know. — An item we missed: Madison Marsh, a 22-year-old 2^nd Lieutenant in the Air Force and master’s student at the Harvard Kennedy School’s public policy program, won the title of Miss America Sunday night. — After weeks under threat, homes in the Icelandic town of Grindavik have begun to burn as lava flows into neighborhoods from a nearby volcano.

BELOW THE FOLD:  New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has ordered a review of the artwork and murals in the state capitol in Albany, some of which depicts native American warriors as fearsome killers. The ceiling in one rotunda features one panel of a white man battling a stunningly muscled Indian.

  One panel right outside Hochul’s office shows French explorer Samuel Champlain with the caption, “Champlain Killing First Indian.”

  The works are beautiful in their own way, but dated in the era of political correction, and some visitors have objected. “The New York State Capitol is for the people,” Hochul said in a written statement. “All should feel welcome in its hallowed halls.”

  But the problem is what to do about historic paintings that are part of an historic building. The paintings may not accurately depict history, but they are history as well. 

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