Kleptocracy Korner: Feb. 19, 2026
AI ads, armchair eugenics, and more
The Oldest Profession
Your favorite “AI” chatbot will soon be flooded with targeted ads based on all the juicy, depressing secrets you’ve shared with it. This “business model evolution” is not only deeply pathetic and entirely predictable, but once again proves the geniuses in Silicon Valley haven’t had a new idea in thirty years.
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
Two separate long-form pieces about “AI” and the technology’s looming impact on the labor market—one by The New Yorker and the other by The Atlantic—make one thing abundantly clear: We’re fucked. Either 1) the technology delivers on its potential, every white-collar worker loses their job, and the economy implodes, or 2) the technology fails to deliver on its potential, the stock market craters, and the economy implodes. I’m leaning toward the latter.
Bad Genes
The neoliberal set’s favorite sex trafficker was not only a child molesting sociopath, a feckless sycophant, and a horrible grammarian, but he dabbled in armchair eugenics, too. In better news, the New Start Treaty recently expired and a nuclear holocaust is right around the corner.
Lawlessness and Disorder
The Chicago office of the CFTC has been gutted, paving the way for scammers to cash in on cryptocurrency and predictions markets schemes with impunity. The upshot: Following a wave of market manipulation in the late seventies, we got Trading Places, and—with any luck—after today’s dipshits blow up the stock market, Hollywood will finally wise up and make a movie out of Leverage.
