Pike Place Market has, according to KING 5, pulled the plug on Day of Remembrance, an event organized by Tsuru for Solidarity and slated for February 19. The reason? Because "the event’s messaging did not align with [the Market's] values," which are now aligned, it seems, with those of the present president. The new order of the day has it that any historical episode that offends white people is to be erased. In this case it is the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It didn't happen. White people didn't do any such thing. They have always been, according to Trump's administration and his supporters, on the right side of history, even during the "days of slavery." And so it is.  A culturally important institution in a deep-blue city is caving to exactly what got Trump elected, white nationalism. It was never about eggs.

While Pike Place Market goes MAGA, Seattle voters go socialist. The Seattle social-housing measure is winning big time. As of last night’s ballot drop (which is still an incomplete count), 69 percent of voters said “Yes” to public housing, and 58 percent want a new tax to do it (Prop 1A). The Seattle Public Schools levies are also enjoying resounding success at 79 and 73 percent. If the people of Seattle can reject MAGA, so too can Pike Place Market, which still, for reasons that make nonsense of human logic, permits cars to go up and down its street. 

The diseases all across America are calling today a "good day."  The man they love the most, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is now the Health and Human Services secretary. CNN calls it "a victory for President Donald Trump after Kennedy." But diseases are also as happy as clams. What they can see for the first time in several human generations is a very bright future. The only Republican to vote against Kennedy was Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. 

It's supposed to snow today in Seattle, but the sky is presently cloudless. That could, however, change by this afternoon, when we might get "snow or a rain/snow mix." Now, there's nothing more disappointing than the marriage of snow and rain. It's a union that always ends with the latter having the upper hand. Snow, if it is to be snow at all, must go it alone. Nevertheless, expect a pretty cold day.

The guru of parking, Donald Shoup, is no longer with us. The most socially significant part of the 86 years he spent in this world, which has time on its side, resulted in a 2005 book called The High Cost of Free Parking. For many of us, including myself, this work was a real eye-opener. Shoup basically pointed out that parking is heavily subsidized by the government. He even claimed that “the cost of all parking spaces in the U.S. exceeds the value of all cars and may even exceed the value of all roads.” (The public cost of parking was, according to his reckoning, somewhere "between $127 billion and $374 billion a year.") What we cannot doubt is that DOGE, which is dismantling our government as I write, will never look for cost-saving cuts in this major part of the American budget.

Do you remember the Beastie Boys' masterpiece "Pass the Mic," which includes a thunderous sample of Bad Brains' "Big Take Over"?

Well, I'm passing the Slog AM mic to Vivian McCall: Hey trans and nonbinary people (and their parents): If you were born in Washington and need to update the gender marker on your birth certificate to "M," "F" or "X," the Washington Department of Health has news for you: It's processing all requests in three days, an expedited rate. If you want a copy, order one with this form, and it should come in two weeks.

If you're an adult, submit this form. If you're changing the marker on your kid's birth certificate, here's the form to do that. A licensed health care provider or mental health care provider, like the ones your kid already sees about their gender, will have to sign.

If you're an adult and legally changed your name in court, and want to update that, too, submit this form with your certified order. If your kid hasn't legally changed their first and middle names, you can change them with this form signed by the parents listed on the birth certificate. If your kid has legally changed their name, just use the same form you would to update just the gender. Make sure to check the right box, and include the certified court order with your application.Want to read all this yourself? I would. Find more information here.

Vivian to me: "And now I'd like to pass the mic [to Mudede]." 

Two headlines, which (at 6 am) are presently on Seattle Times' main page say it all: 1) "Elon Musk calls for the US to ‘delete entire agencies’ from the federal government." 2) "State Department plans $400 million order for armored trucks from Musk’s Tesla."

What I have to say is this: The term "technofeudalism," made popular by the former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, must be avoided. It has weak explanatory power, and, as Varoufakis claims, it didn't "kill capitalism." The main defect of this term is this: Nothing in our society, which is completely commercial, resembles feudalism. It has no peasants in it, no knights, no courtiers, no Robin Hoods, no what have you. Our social form has absolute capital as its spirit and organizing principle. Capital was hard to find in the dark days of ducats. 

Instead of going on about technofeudalism, you could experience the revolutionary potential of technology by listening to this Elevator Music set by "the dynamite" DJ Lady D. She takes us there, particularly after the 32:00 point of the mix. We must not hate machines. We made them from what is rightly called the general intellect. Our robots are, true, captured by Elon and his ilk. But we can liberate them joyfully. Indeed, we do this every time we get down to the machine sounds Chicago house music or Detroit techno. It's all there. In the words of Cybotron, "clear your mind, clear your behind."