SPYING: After WikiLeaks, a Recap of How the U.S. Government Discloses a Zero-Day.

“SHUT UP,” SHE EXPLAINED: Female-Owned Bookstore Turns Books by Male Authors Backward for Women’s Month.

WELL, GOOD: Jorge Ramos says the ‘Trump effect’ is scaring away illegal aliens.

In 1995, President Clinton told Congress, “All Americans, not only in the states most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers…We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.”

Sine Ramos’ daughter worked for Clinton’s wife’s presidential campaign last year, he concurs with her husband, right…?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION: It’s no R2D2, but Knightscope’s crime-fighting robots aid police.

WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS: The June Intelligent Oven. It doesn’t appear to connect to the Internet, which is good. I don’t want Russian hackers spoiling my souffle and then laughing maniacally.

SPACE: In a change of attitude, NASA appears to embrace private rockets.

PROMISES, PROMISES: Musk offers to fix Australia’s energy crisis in 100 days.

The Tesla (TSLA) founder was responding to a challenge from billionaire entrepreneur Mike Cannon-Brookes, who wanted to know whether the company was serious in claiming that it could end blackouts in South Australia quickly.

“Tesla will get the system installed and working 100 days from contract signature or it is free. That serious enough for you?,” Musk wrote on Twitter.

South Australia’s population of 1.7 million people suffer regular power cuts and energy shortages. In September, much of the state was left without power after a storm damaged crucial transmission lines.

Another major blackout happened last month, after an unexpected spike in demand due to a heat wave.
The Australian government has made solving the problem a priority, and increasing grid storage could help.

South Australia’s renewable energy woes are entirely self-inflicted and easily predicted.

JERK PLANET: Everything About Mars Is The Worst.

YOUR EARS CAN TELL YOU A LOT OF THINGS, IF YOU LISTEN: Your Ears Can Actually Tell the Difference Between Hot and Cold Water.

CHANGE? AG Sessions Open to Appointing Special Counselor to Review Obama DOJ’s Scandals.

I wouldn’t be opposed to loudly announcing a possible investigation while quietly encouraging resignations.

RETAIL BLUES: RadioShack closing 187 stores in latest bankruptcy filing.

The chain, based in Fort Worth, Texas, previously filed for bankruptcy in 2015, resulting in about 2,400 store closings. Subsequently, General Wireless, a joint venture of hedge fund Standard General and Sprint, acquired it and ran the remaining 1,700 stores.

In a Chapter 11 reorganization petition filed Wednesday in the U.S Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, General Wireless stated it planned to close 187 stores by March 13 and is “seeking to close and liquidate the inventory and other assets of between 530 and substantially all of their stores,” the company said in its filing.

Sprint paid General Wireless a $12 million “wind down payment,” and in return was transferred the leases for 115 stores, as well as equipment and furniture in 245 more stores where Sprint is the primary tenant.

The RadioShack stores that do not close March 13 will remain open and the company will continue evaluating options on them during the bankruptcy process.

RadioShack used to be my Christmas-all-year-round toy store, but today it isn’t just I can’t remember the last time I was in one — I can’t remember the last time I saw one.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: China’s Capital Outflows Just Reversed, Bad News For Global Real Estate.

The world’s greatest overseas real estate binge might finally be over. According to the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), China saw its foreign exchange reserves rise to over US$3 trillion. The unexpected rise is the first in 8 months, and may indicate that the new regulatory crackdown on capital outflows is actually working. This is bad for real estate markets that have seen a sudden surge of buying activity from Mainland Chinese buyers.

China’s capital outflows turned into inflows, meaning more foreign currency went into the country than left. The PBoC found itself with US$6.9 billion more than the month before, a 0.25% increase. This comes after US$220 billion in outflows in 2016, and another $12 billion in January. While it doesn’t seem like a lot in contrast, analysts polled by Reuters expected a drop of more than US$25 billion. Analysts are now adjusting projections since this means China’s foreign reserves are a full US$31.9 billion higher than they anticipated. This could mean that China’s new capital controls are much more effective than analysts had previously anticipated.

Will this be enough to pop the real estate bubble in Western metroplexes, or will Chinese-held dollars find new routes overseas?

LET’S GET SMALLS:

Full story here, and whatever you think of Biggie or his music, it was actually a lovely tribute.

Besides, Congressmen can do only one thing at a time — and it’s either harmless constituent service, or introducing legislation to comprehensively reform this, or fundamentally transform that.

GEORGE ORWELL, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Los Angeles Times Op-Ed Claims Sanctuary Cities ‘Keep Crime Down,’ Jack Dunphy notes.

The MSM may have eliminated the phrase “illegal aliens” from their style guides, which increasingly resemble Winston Smith’s Newspeak Dictionary, but the rest of us haven’t.

THIS DEAL KEEPS GETTING WORSE ALL THE TIME: Defiant Iran Conducts More Ballistic Missile Tests; This Time From Naval Vessel.

DETERRENCE: Aging nuclear triad ‘will not remain viable forever’

Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, pointed to the pieces of the triad that are nearing the end of their service life. Minuteman III missiles were first fielded in 1970, the B-52 and B-2 bombers first deployed in the ’50s and ’80s respectively, and ballistic missile submarines first entered service in 1981, he said. Even the warheads are aging and were mostly designed and built in the 1970s.

Gen. Paul Selva, the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told the House Armed Services Committee that the military is currently facing the challenge of maintaining the nuclear triad and that the need to recapitalize is becoming more and more apparent.

“These systems will not remain viable forever,” he said.

We have an awful lot of bills coming due after three Administrations worth of neglect.

JOEL KOTKIN: Common Sense on Immigration.

The need for foreign workers remains important, but the conditions have changed. No longer a largely rural, empty country, more than 80 percent of Americans cluster in urban and suburban areas. Many routine jobs have been automated; factories, farms and offices function more efficiently with smaller workforces. Since at least 2000, notes demographer Nicholas Eberstadt, the “Great American Escalator” has stopped working.

These changes suggest the need to rethink national immigration policies. In a country where wages for the poorest workers have been dropping for decades and incomes have stagnated for the middle class, allowing large numbers of even poorer people into the country seems more burden than balm. They often work hard, but largely in low-income service jobs and in the low end of the health care field. In California, home to an estimated 2.7 million largely Latino undocumented immigrants, approximately three in four Latino non-citizens struggle to make ends meet, as do about half of naturalized Latino citizens, according to a recent United Way study.

Overall, our current immigrants, legal and illegal, have not advanced as quickly as in previous generations. This, along with the crisis in much of Middle America, should be our primary national concern. This doesn’t necessarily translate to mass deportations or even severe cutbacks in legal immigration, as some, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and several congressional Republicans, have said. But it certainly does suggest taking a fresh look at how we view immigration.

Indeed — and “comprehensive” is not necessarily the same as smart.

STARBUCKS HURT BY REFUGEE PLEDGE:

Reuters reports Starbucks Corp.’s pledge to hire thousands of refugees has harmed its image among consumers, according to one measure. Amid a boycott campaign organized by immigration opponents, Starbucks’ consumer perception levels as measured by YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz score fell by two-thirds between Jan. 29 and Feb. 13, and have not recovered.

Unexpectedly.

IVORY AND IVORY: TCU Invites Shaun King to Speak During ‘Unity Week’

ANALYSIS: TRUE! Marine Le Pen: “France Isn’t Burkinis on the Beach, France is Brigitte Bardot”

SHOE-IN: American Bar Association Gives Neil Gorsuch Highest Possible Rating For SCOTUS.

SO HAS TRUMP ACTUALLY DONE ANYTHING TO SUPPORT THE NOTION THAT HE’S A RUSSIAN STOOGE? Still Waiting for Trump’s Russia Reset.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with his Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin on Tuesday, and according to the readout, the new administration intends to toe the line on Ukraine and uphold sanctions against Russia. . . .

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has officially rebuked the Russians for their recent missile launch in violation of the INF treaty. . . .

Under normal circumstances, neither item would be particularly newsworthy; reaffirming commitments and calling out rivals for treaty violations are rudimentary elements of statecraft. But in a charged media landscape fixated on Trump’s Russia ties, it is worth noting once again that the administration has so far done nothing to tilt foreign policy in Russia’s favor. If Tillerson sticks to the commitment expressed to Klimkin, then sanctions are here to stay, and if advisors like General Selva hold sway in Trump’s security team, we can expect a conventionally hawkish policy toward Russia. This is hardly good news for Moscow, but it does cast further doubt on the dubious Manchurian candidate thesis.

Dubious indeed.

VIDEO: Lying cop doesn’t know Uber driver is actually a lawyer.

(H/T, Tree Hugging Sister.)

NEWS YOU CAN USE: State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets for 2017.

California’s taxes are nearly a third higher than the next-highest state (Maine) and yet their infrastructure is still falling apart.

Aside, of course, from Jerry Brown’s never-to-be-completed high-speed train to nowhere.