Aug 22, 2026 · 4h 22m
Empire, AI intimacy and prison labor expose power’s hidden machinery
It Could Happen Here Weekly 246
The compilation connects colonial rule, corporate technology, incarcerated-worker organizing and military dysfunction to institutions that conceal their costs from the public.
- 1U.S. empire persists through overseas territories, extraction and military power despite national rhetoric that obscures colonial relationships.
- 2AI companions turn loneliness and emotional disclosure into commercial assets while privacy protections lag behind corporate incentives.
- 3Incarcerated workers use strikes, mutual aid and legal organizing to challenge exploitation and conditions that formal remedies often leave untouched.
Don't miss
Incarcerated-worker organizers explain how a phone zap and mutual-aid campaign translated collective solidarity into concrete improvements in jail conditions.
The brief
Robert Evans and Mia Sato examine how the United States disguises colonial power through language, unequal citizenship and the political invisibility of overseas territories.
The empire segment traces a line from guano extraction and coerced labor to military bases, unexploded ordnance and the continuing colonial status of places such as Vieques and the Marshall Islands.
Bridget Todd and Garrison Davis argue that AI companions are not merely eccentric substitutes for human intimacy: companies can monetize disclosure, infer vulnerabilities and steer users toward corporate interests.
Incarcerated workers describe poverty wages, medical neglect and jailhouse deprivation, then show how strikes, phone zaps, mutual aid and legal education can win concrete improvements.
The closing news roundup widens the frame to anti-ICE surveillance, military breakdown, defense-contractor waste, Iran escalation, bond-market stress and Florida’s volatile electoral politics.
Books & mentions
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