The $15 Bill: The House yesterday passed a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill that includes a $15 federal minimum wage. The vote was close; 219 to 212 against near-unanimous Republican opposition. 

  “This isn’t a relief bill,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader. “It takes care of Democrats’ political allies, while it fails to deliver for American families.”

 The bill would provide $1,400 direct payments to people earning up to $75,000 a year and couples earning up to $150,000. It would expand and extend federal unemployment benefits.  Also included are more than $50 billion for vaccine distribution  as well as  $200 billion to primary and secondary schools, and $350 billion for state, local and tribal governments that have run into the red during the pandemic.

  On the Senate side, the parliamentarian eliminated the $15 minimum wage, saying that’s not something that could legally be included in the relief bill. The House Democrats hope to squeeze it in through the process known as “reconciliation.” 

Birds of a Feather: The annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference is underway in Florida this weekend, an event overshadowed by the presidential ghost of Donald Trump. 

  They’re angry, aggrieved, and selling fear of Democrats. Conservative writer Bill Kristol tweeted that, “CPAC has gone from resembling a Star Wars bar to a Munich beer hall.”

  Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, the guy who held up a power fist of support to the Capitol rioters, railed against oligarchs, big tech companies, and big. Media.  

• “The last six weeks, the radical left, their corporate allies, the liberal media, have tried to cancel me, censor me, expel me, shut me down, stop me from representing the people of Missouri, stop me from representing you. And guess what? I’m here today. I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not backing down. Not a chance, not a chance.”

  And there was this from Kimberly Guilfoyle, whose primary political accomplishment has been to become Donald Trump Jr.’s Evita.

• “We love President Trump, and I’ll tell you, I will confidently say that President Trump from his desk at Mar-a-Lago will accomplish more for America in the next four years than Joe Biden and Kamala Harris could ever dream of. That is because we are not giving up. The Republican Party is being reborn thanks to President Trump. It is being reborn as a party of the working class, of minorities, of hardworking American men and women. The party of America First, the party of President Trump.”

   And this from Sen. Ted Cruz, the Voldemort of Texas.

• “We are gathered in dark times. We’re gathered at a time where the hard left, where the socialists control the levers of government, where they control the White House, where they control every executive branch, where they control both houses of Congress.

“The US Capitol has giant fences with razor wires and 5,000 National Guard standing out front because the Democrats are convinced that political theater helps them. Let’s be clear, this is not about security at this point. This is about political theater. Half the country, the deplorables, are dangerous, and they’re going to turn the Capitol into a military outpost in Baghdad just to have their compliant media echo that message. But do you know what terrifies every one of these statists? The truth. Liberty’s powerful, liberty’s persuasive, liberty is fun.

“The message of liberty is profoundly subversive. The left believes in     rigid conformity. We believe in diversity, free speech. You can say whatever you want no matter how dumb it is.”

  Finally, Ted Cruz speaks truth.

The Prince: Despite an intelligence report that says Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, President Biden has no plan to take action against the Prince, the White House says.

  It’s a weak response. Basically the only thing Biden is doing is telling the world, “We know he did this.”

  The administration did announce penalties against Saudi officials, including a travel ban and freezing of assets of the kingdom’s former intelligence chief and sanctions against members of the hit squad that carried out the assassination.

  The report pinned responsibility on bin Salman because he has control of security operations in the kingdom and the team was led by a close associate of  the prince. The four-page document said it is “highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince’s authorization.”

The Ball Bounces: The Atlanta Dream, the WNBA team whose players revolted against co-owner Kelly Loeffler, the former US Senator from Georgia who denounced the Black Lives Matter movement, is being sold to new owners including a former member of the team. Most of the team’s players are black so Loeffler’s trashing of BLM didn’t go over well.

 During the campaign season players before games wore “Vote Warnock” shirts before games. The Rev. Raphael Warnock became the first black Democrat elected to the Senate from the South. Loeffler dismissed the team’s criticism of her as just a part of “cancel culture.”

The Bulletin Board: Nigerian authorities say 317 school girls were kidnapped this week from a government school. Sometimes the girls in these incidents are forced into marriage. About 100 of the 270 schoolgirls abducted by militant Islamist group Boko Haram in 2014 are still missing. — Eight Russian diplomats and family members escaped North Korea in part by using a hand-pushed rail car. North Korea has been entirely closed for a year because of the pandemic. —  

The two French bulldogs stolen from Lady Gaga’s dog walker have been safely recovered, returned to a police station by a woman the cops say was not involved in the crime. The dog walker, Ryan Fischer, is recovering from a gunshot to the chest. Gaga had offered a half million dollar reward for return of her dogs.

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