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 23
Border Patrol Commander Bovino Throws Tear Gas at Chicago Protesters, Violating Court Order
2025 · October 23Energy Secretary Wright invokes rare DOE-over-FERC directive authority to compel ANOPR on large-load interconnection — D
2025 · October 23Billionaire Timothy Mellon's $130M Military Donation During Shutdown Raises Oligarchy Concerns
2025 · October 23Trump Pardons Convicted Binance Founder After $2 Billion Deal With Trump Family Crypto Venture and $450,000 Lobbying Cam
2025 · October 23White House Releases List of 37 Corporate Donors for Trump's $300M Ballroom Project
2018 · October 23Trump Calls Saudi Khashoggi Explanation "Worst Cover-Up Ever" But Signals He Won't Hold MBS Accountable
Recent additions to the record
AG Blanche, Asked in Norfolk Whether DOJ Could Block a State From Certifying, Says He Won't Say There Are No Circumstances
DOJ Files Notice of Appeal to the Ninth Circuit in United States v. California, Saying the District Court's Silence on Its TRO Application Is a Constructive Denial
Brennan Center Authors Say DHS's AI Inventory Leaves ELITE Off Its High-Impact List and Shows HSI Using Sentiment Analysis an ICE Policy Bars
Gov. Sherrill Answers the House Subpoena With a Statement Calling It "Political Theater" 13 Days Before the Midterms
House Administration and Judiciary Committee Chairs Subpoena New Jersey's Acting Secretary of State for Documents on the 6,600 MVC Registrations, Return Date Nov. 16
Judge Martinez-Olguin Enjoins DHS Election Field Operations Against Likely Citizens in Nine States, on One Voting Rights Act Claim, Stayed to Oct. 23
NYT Report: India-Based Accounts Paid to Spread Undisclosed Haley Stevens Videos in Michigan Senate Primary; Hirer Won't Name Client
OCC Issues Final GENIUS Act Stablecoin Rule Ahead of January 18, 2027 Effective Date, Drops Proposed Rewards Presumption
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.