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 · September 16
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith Warns Rule of Law 'Under Attack Like Never Before'
2025 · September 16Navy Seeks 2,400 Housing Units for Guam Military Buildup as Costs Squeeze Local Residents
2024 · September 16Sean Combs arrested on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges
2020 · September 16House Committee Report Documents Boeing-FAA Regulatory Capture That Killed 346 People
2016 · September 16Oliver Stone's "Snowden" Film Brings NSA Whistleblower Story to Mainstream Audiences
2015 · September 16InsideClimate News Launches
Recent additions to the record
St. Joseph County Council Delays Microsoft Data-Center TIF Expansion Vote to September 22
Judge Lee Grants Preliminary Injunction Freezing Gilroy ICE Facility Construction on NEPA Grounds
Gilroy and Williamsport ICE-Facility Injunctions Rest on the Same Legal Theory: a NEPA Categorical Exclusion Invoked Then Found Arbitrary and Capricious
ICE Turn-key Detention Solicitation Covers Four AORs on 10-Year IDIQs; Deadline Extended to Sept 14
DOJ Sends 29 States and DC Election-Record Preservation Letters Warning of Criminal Sanctions
Government Describes CUC Keyhole on the Record: a 2008 HSI St. Paul Funding Vehicle, 77 Investigations
LULAC, UnidosUS, Common Cause and Denver Sue DHS Over Armed ICE Officers at Polling Places
Sonoma Sanctuary Coalition Pickets a Sheriff's Foundation Fundraiser Over ICE Notifications; Watchdog Counted 325 Requests, 46 Answered, 21 Arrests
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.