Democracy doesn’t fall.
It cascades.
4288 verified events. 7,682 named actors. Court records, government filings, investigative reporting — sourced and indexed from 1142 to today.
Which capture lane was dominant when?
Each year normalized to 100% — the bands show which mechanisms of institutional capture were most prominent across 56 years of record. Hover a band to isolate it. Click any year to enter that year.
On this day · July 6
Nashville Mayor Files Eminent Domain to Block DC Blox Data Center Next to City Zoo
2026 · July 6Prince George's County MD Council Prepares Vote on 2-Year Data Center Moratorium
2025 · July 6Ukraine Presidential Decree 465/2025 — Bitfury Group and Vavilov Sanctioned Among 60 Crypto Entities for Alleged $3 Bill
2021 · July 6Pentagon Cancels $10B JEDI Contract, Creates Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability
2019 · July 6Epstein arrested three weeks after money laundering revelations
2019 · July 6Jeffrey Epstein Arrested on Federal Sex Trafficking Charges
Recent additions to the record
Nashville Mayor Files Eminent Domain to Block DC Blox Data Center Next to City Zoo
July 6, 2026Prince George's County MD Council Prepares Vote on 2-Year Data Center Moratorium
July 4, 2026No Kings Stages Nationwide July 4 Demonstrations Linking ICE Enforcement, Court Rulings, and Democratic Erosion
AI Governance Fractures: EU AI Act Enforceable Aug 2 as 19 US State Laws Pass in Two Weeks and Trump EO Guts Federal Oversight
ProPublica: Camp East Montana Repeatedly Failed Detainee in Mental Health Crisis Before His Death
The Intercept Documents Trump DOJ's Pattern of Charging Protesters as Terrorists
Federal Judge Hears Arguments on Howard County MD's Permit Revocation for Elkridge ICE Warehouse Conversion
OpenAI Proposes 5% U.S. Government Equity Stake (~$42.6B) as Sovereign-Wealth Vehicle
Curated timelines
Hand-picked swimlane views — pick a thread and read the cascade as it built. Each is a story you can read in five minutes and share as a URL.
Eleven named figures, one think tank, and a transition team blueprint that became governance in real time.
From Reagan-era founding through the six-three majority — the named architects and the justices they …
The Roberts Court ruling on January 21, 2010 — and the cascade of dark money, super PACs, and constitutional …
Two corporations, one agency, and a quarter-century of building the infrastructure that 2025 weaponized.
Both terms on one chart. The first term was chaotic, the second is operational. The difference is the …
Jeffrey Epstein's operation depended on institutional cooperation — from a U.S. Attorney's secret …
Built to be used
Compose, share, cite.
Pick actors. Set a year range. Filter by lane. The chart re-renders live; the URL is the citation. Every event has stable IDs and a JSON endpoint.
For journalistsPatterns, not anecdotes.
Twelve capture lanes show coordination across decades. Actor pages plot every event on a swimlane. Source tiers tell you what is court-record solid.
For citizensRead it as history.
Walk decade by decade. Every event has plain-language context: what happened, why it matters, where it fits in the cascade.
The most-documented actors
The patterns become unmistakable when you put them in order.
This timeline is the data layer for an ongoing investigation. The reporting traces how each captured institution enables the next.