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“CASPER”: Slang for someone who always disappears when there’s work to be done. After the job is finished, the “goldbrick” reappears. From the cartoon character “Casper the Friendly Ghost.” As a verb, this means “to ghost” or “goldbrick.” (“We couldn’t find him. He pulled a Casper.”)

From EMBRACE THE SUCK, 2ND EDITION.

RAPE CHARGES BELONG IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: Yale Student Found Not Guilty in Rape Trial. “In an interview after the verdict, Norman Pattis, a lawyer for Mr. Khan, said he had tried to challenge ‘the outer limits of the #MeToo movement,’ which he called ‘a form of mass hysteria.’ ‘Sex happens, especially on college campuses,’ he said.”

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Tariffs, going to war in California, and much, much more.

Tyler O’Neil is filling in for Liz this morning.

PRIVACY: Best Buy’s Geek Squad Techs Search Customer Computers For The FBI, Reports Claim.

WELL, THEY’RE KIDS WHO HAVEN’T EVEN FINISHED HIGH SCHOOL: Parkland kids can protest, but they don’t know what they are talking about. Were you smarter when you were half your current age? Wiser? Why assume it works differently for anyone else?

Democrats, and the Left generally, emphasize youth because their slogans do best with people who are inexperienced and gullible.

BYRON YORK: Golf: Donald Trump’s most casually broken promise. Question: Who was our last non-golf-playing President?

STAFFING BLUES: Several White House staffers terminated or reassigned for security clearance issues.

Several White House staffers have been terminated or reassigned for issues related to their security clearances — with at least one individual employed in the Office of the First Lady relieved of duty, sources with direct knowledge tell ABC News.

here is a list of several other individuals with security clearance issues that are under consideration for possible termination or reassignment in the coming days, sources also tell ABC News. These individuals are likely lower level and could include people who work in the complex but not necessarily in the small confines of the West Wing.

The full break down on the list of possible individuals that action could be taken against was not readily available on Wednesday.

I semi-joked last week that Trump seems to thrive on chaos, “but today’s stories are almost enough to make you wonder if he’s going to end up having to run the whole operation by himself.”

Then again, if he’s anything like SNL’s Mastermind Reagan, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

THIS CAN’T HAVE BEEN A SHORT BRIEFING: FBI briefed lawmakers on failures leading up to Florida shooting.

Acting FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich met with lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform and Judiciary committees Tuesday to discuss the missteps, which were revealed in the days after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

Bowdich acknowledged that the FBI failed to follow its own protocol after it received a tip in January about the accused shooter, Nikolas Cruz, 19, and vowed to take corrective actions, according to a press release issued by Reps. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the chairmen of the Oversight and Judiciary committees, respectively.

Related: Two SWAT officers responded to the Parkland rampage uninvited. They’ve been punished.

Plus: What does Broward Sheriff Scott Israel not want us to see?

But sure, trust the government to protect you.

CATAPULT SHOT IN THE RAIN, PERSIAN GULF: Carrier crew launches an F/A-18E in wet circumstances, February 27, 2018.

HMM: China test hypersonic space vehicle as Xi Jinping continues push to rival Trump military.

According to a bombshell report issued at the opening of China’s annual meeting of Parliament, the country’s 2018 defence budget will be 1.11trillion yuan (£127billion).

Military chiefs in China reportedly want to make the country’s armed forces the most powerful in the world and have set a target of 8.1 per cent growth.

At present, China is the second biggest military spender behind the US.

Sam Roggeveen, a visiting fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre of the Australian National University in Canberra, said: “The pace and scale of this build-up is really dramatic.

Those are just the official defense spending figures. China is known to do much of its military spending off the books. These figures are a few years old, but they still pertain in trying to get a better idea of how much Beijing really spends:

Not everyone agrees with Beijing’s numbers. Critics have complained for years that China consistently under-reports its defense budget by not including spending that other countries would disclose.

In 2012, Beijing announced a military budget of $106 billion. But the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute pegged the real number at $159 billion. The Pentagon estimated it was anywhere from $135 and $215 billion.

But there’s also this WSJ item from Tuesday: China Spends More on Domestic Security as Xi’s Powers Grow.

Beijing’s budgets for internal and external security have grown faster than the economy as a whole for several years, but domestic security spending has grown far faster — to where it exceeds the national defense budget by roughly 20%.

So who does Xi think his government really needs protection from? That’s a question I put to Bill Whittle and Scott Ott on a recent Right Angle segment.

DE BLASIO IS AWFUL: NYC’s mayor and ‘co-mayor’ are throwing city in the gutter.

TRADING BLOOD FOR INK: My column this week at Daily Caller, about putting the acrimonious relationship between Trump and press in perspective. Here’s a taste:

“Rachel Maddow can smirk all she likes here in the safety of the US, but she would last for about 10 minutes in the UAE or Bahrain[…]To those who would worry about Maddow’s safety at a Trump rally here in the United States, I’d put her chances at surviving at about the same or better as Sean Hannity showing up at a Black Lives Matter or Antifa rally.”

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: Porn Still Turning Up in the Federal Workplace Despite Ban. Though to be honest, they’re probably doing less harm while they’re watching porn than when they’re doing their jobs.

FLASHBACK: The Tale of the Swedish Prosecutor, the Citizen, and the Human Being.

Seth Tillman:

I cannot verify the facts of this story. So, please, consider this a piece of fiction: a mere story seeking to pose a moral question. In other words, it is a story about you: about what you believe about your government, your public officials, your fellow nationals, and others—foreigners—nationals of countries other than your own.

The story is that a Swedish prosecutor successfully convicted a migrant (hailing from the Third World) for raping a Swedish twelve year old. A sentence of confinement was imposed by the court. The judge asked the prosecutor to make a recommendation in regard to whether the defendant should be deported after the period of confinement ends.

The prosecutor made a recommendation against deportation.

The prosecutor reasoned that the defendant was unlikely to be rehabilitated by confinement, and therefore, the defendant was likely to commit the same crime again. The prosecutor’s position was that whether the defendant goes on to rape a Swede (or a non-Swede in Sweden) or someone in the defendant’s own home country should not be considered because the health, safety, and lives of all potential future victims should be valued equally. And equality is a value upon which we all do or should agree.

Did the prosecutor act rightly or wrongly?

I’d wager he acted rightly in the eyes of his peer group, which is more concerned with political correctness than with protecting the property, safety, and rights of his fellow Swedes.

Related: Sharia Law Makes Its Debut in Swedish Court.

Who needs to export foreign criminals when you can import foreign notions of “justice?”

GANGSTER GOVERNMENT (CONT’D): Nerve agent was used to poison Russian spy and his daughter as it’s revealed police officer first on the scene is also fighting for his life.

CHANGE: Trump expected to inspect border wall prototypes in California next week.

DECLINE HAPPENS GRADUALLY, THEN ALL AT ONCE: Joel Kotkin: Left and Lefter in California; Golden State Democrats seem ready to break for good with mainstream, moderate liberalism.

SO MUCH FOR THOSE BABY STEPS: Saudi crown prince shocks Islamists with bold moves in Egypt.

It is hard to overstate the significance of a hugely symbolic move by the reformist crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). American media mostly are clueless about religion and lack any understanding of the momentous changes underway in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with the full support of the Trump administration. The fact that MbS is reputed to be close to Jared Kushner seals the deal: the mainstream media have little interest in extolling the world-historical transition underway in the nation that is pre-eminent in Sunni Islam, the Guardian of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina, and which has been the moneybags for radical jihadists for three generations.

This move, as recorded by the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya network, is startling and highly important.

Read the whole thing.

The American media would do a better job reporting this stuff if it could get past the Trump Bad/Not-Trump Good narrative, but don’t hold your breath.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Is Islam the Solution for Wayward Youth? “If young Muslims in Western countries who get involved in juvenile crimes stop what they’re doing and become observant in Islam, authorities should breathe a sigh of relief, no? That’s what Australian authorities encouraged recently. Things didn’t work out quite the way they had hoped.”

Unexpectedly.

SESSIONS TO CALIFORNIA: There Is No Secession.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a warning to California the same day he announced a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) over the state’s immigration policies.

“I understand that we have a wide variety of political opinions out there on immigration. But the law is in the books and its purposes are clear and just,” Sessions said during a speech to the California Peace Officers’ Association in Sacramento on Wednesday.

“There is no nullification. There is no secession. Federal law is the supreme law of the land. I would invite any doubters to go to Gettysburg, to the tombstones of John C. Calhoun and Abraham Lincoln. This matter has been settled,” he continued.

Game plan for Trump: Goad Jerry Brown into active resistance (heck, we’re pretty much there), invoke the Insurrection Act, then let “New California” legislature request to divide state, GOP Congress approves, and boom: New GOP Senators and presidential electors. It’s all laid out here. I mean, I offered a plan to avoid it, but it sounds like Jerry Brown wants to play hardball. And what could go wrong when an intransigent Democrat-run state stands up to a Republican president over matters of national policy?

PEOPLE WHO TELL OTHER PEOPLE HOW TO LIVE THEIR LIVES AND WHAT TO DO WITH THEIR PROPERTY ARE THUGS, NOT ACTIVISTS:  (Yes, some ARE government thugs.  And?)  Anti-Gentrification ‘Activists’ Embrace Violence, Threats.

BECAUSE SECOND AMMENDMENT, THAT’S WHY:  Pollster Speaks On Why Gun Control Doesn’t Happen Despite Poll Numbers.

BUT, BUT, BUT THOSE WHO LOUDLY BELIEVE THEIR FAITH IN EVOLUTION WANT TO BELIEVE THAT MEN AND WOMEN ARE EXACTLY THE SAME EXCEPT FOR THE FIDDLY BITS.  AND AS YOU KNOW, THERE IS NO OBJECTIVE REALITY:  (Hence their need to proclaim belief in things like science and evolution, which are not religious faiths.)  Free Markets and Evolution