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 · October 13
Pro-Trump Fund Fraudulently Markets Fake Treasury Event, Sells Sponsorships
2025 · October 13Trump Administration Unveils Gaza GREAT Trust Reconstruction Plan at Egypt Summit with Kushner and Witkoff
2025 · October 13Indonesian President Caught Asking Trump to Arrange Eric Trump Business Meeting
2025 · October 13Budget Chief Russell Vought Seizes Congressional Spending Authority
2025 · October 13Trump Accelerates Authoritarian Agenda With Mass Purges and Political Prosecutions
2025 · October 13U.S. Executes Extraordinary $20 Billion Argentina Bailout for Political Ally
Recent additions to the record
HSI Agents Search Rep. Ilhan Omar's D.C.-Area Home on a DOJ-Secured Warrant 22 Days Before the Midterms; No Charges Filed
ICE Agent Strikes Miguel Parra-Hernandez With a Vehicle in Houston Pursuit; Sheriff and ICE Give Different Accounts
Judge AliKhan Contemplates Consolidating the LULAC, NAACP and DSCC Polling-Place Suits; LULAC Amends Its Complaint to Add DOJ and the FBI
Judge Sooknanan Vacates DOJ's Voter List Maintenance Policy in Common Cause v. DOJ: Vacatur Only, With No Order on Data Already Transferred
Chief Justice Roberts Stays Fourth Circuit Order Directing FCC to Rule on Party Ad Rates; Response Due Oct. 10
ICE Reportedly Launches 45-Day California Enforcement Surge Starting in San Diego as Early Voting Begins
Judge Kelly Extends TRO Against White House Press Ban Through Tuesday After PI Hearing, Presses DOJ on Rationale
NAACP v. DHS: Plaintiffs Seek Expedited Discovery on Armed Agents Near Polls; Judge AliKhan Sets Briefing, No Ruling
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.