And the question he is asking is the right one. Not is this authoritarianism — that debate is how you lose the years you needed to act. The right question is how far, how fast, and what stops it. He answers all three. I want to add one thing.
What he is describing is not chaos. It is sequence.
The inspector general firings are not a separate story from the Schedule F reclassifications. The university funding threats are not a separate story from the V-Dem ranking. The FBI loyalty tests are not a separate story from the election rule changes. These are the same story, told in different registers, advancing on the same timeline in a documented order: agencies first, watchdogs second, enemies third, elections fourth.
That order has been studied. It has a literature. It has case studies. Hungary is the most cited — which is why the Budapest result matters more than it might appear.
File the date Orbán lost. Note what actually changed. Not the institutions — he had captured most of them. Not the media — captured too. What changed was the threshold: the point at which enough citizens decided simultaneously that accommodation had become more costly than resistance.
That threshold is not fixed. It moves. And it is rarely moved by the headline stories. It is moved by the grocery bill. The mortgage payment. The medical bill that arrives after the coverage change. The thing that hits the body before it hits the brain.
Note which policies are now doing exactly that.
One thing Jack gestures at but does not quite name directly: the Bright Line Watch finding is not about institutions. It is about norms. The courts still function. Congress still meets. What has moved is the unwritten rule structure — the agreements that held for two and a half centuries not because they were enforceable but because enough people in power treated them as binding.
That structure, once degraded, does not automatically repair itself when the pressure lifts. Survival and damage are not mutually exclusive. Both can be true at once.
Jack is right that the difference between pretty fcked* and finished is human agency at scale. What I would add is that the agency that matters right now is not only electoral. It is the daily, undramatic work of people inside courts, agencies, and newsrooms who are choosing, case by case, to hold the line — often at personal cost, rarely with recognition.
File their work. Note what it costs them.
That is also data.
The next six months will tell us which kind of country this is. The historical record does not promise survival. It promises that survival is still possible — and that it has always depended on enough people refusing to treat it as someone else’s problem.
It seems that our capacity for endurance is akin to that of a battered spouse. Americans (for the most part) keep getting kicked and punched and gaslighted, yet for most of us it’s business as usual. I want to believe that eventually there will be MORE people entering the fray and saying, “Ah, HELL NO!"
It’s pretty sad to see what happened in Beijing over the past few days, but I expected as much. Trump is all self promotion, talk and nothing more! “The Art of the Deal” is nothing more than the figment of the imagination of a very ignorant, undereducated, arrogant, delusional fool…who equates braggadocio with strength…and what happened in China over the past days is a disgrace…China “played” him at every turn and “zinged” him every chance they could and he DIDN’T even realise it! He submitted to Xi just as he was always submitted to Putin. Weakening us and leaving our ally, Taiwan, dangling. Our other allies are withdrawing from us, with Germany’s Chancellor today saying he wouldn’t recommend to his children a visit the United States now. Our economy is teetering with the prices of gas impacting everything and yet I see people around me going along as if everything is “normal”…while nothing is normal, and it is going to get worse very soon! Food prices are going to get a double hit because of not only gas prices but also the shortage along with the increasing price of fertiliser, which will impact the amounts the farms can grow.
As always I look forward to your posts…and I am “ranting” again Jack, and I apologise! I read a lot and I am frustrated every day seeing what’s happening and wondering how much worse it is going to get! Thanks for being here…you help to keep me grounded, and steady!
You left out the part about Cheetolini lifting sanctions on Belarus for fertilizer and the Potato Prince publishing a video which he's disparaging Cheetolini...
Great analysis and communication, Jack! As a nation, we have to turn this ship around and turn the Project 2025 shit OFF!!! The same for the Heritage Foundation. Hawaii did the latter, so the rest of the states can do it as well. Slowly, but surely, taking the legs out from under "the stool," until the authoritarian initiatives collapse with a resounding THUD! Then, round up the sorry fucks who took part and/or enabled this shit getting this far, and throw every damned one of them in the crossbar hotel! Bam their asses!!! 🤬👊
What's going on under the cover of this sloshing layer of fuckery is even more terrifying. Our food, air and water are being poisoned under the watchful eyes of government regulators that are increasingly owned by the corporations we pay taxes to be protected from.
Gut microbiome disruption due to approved chemicals is directly connected to mental health disorders, hypertension and a slew of other serious health isdues. Quite literally our hearts and minds are being captured and fucked up by entities that are upstanding champions of the stock market, operated by pious philanthropic psychopaths who never dream of appearing in the spotlight of the heros and villains spectacle on the floor of the Great Colliseum that keeps us so mesmeized we don't notice our own murder.
I so appreciate that you tell the brutal truth so we are informed but then make sure to call us to action or continued action! It is easy to let discouragement seep in and your articles help me to stay on the offense. I’ve restacked and messaged this to many others. Thank you!
I'm so glad you mentioned Russ Vought. That slimy bastard is the one who has to be neutered. He was around in the last part of Trump's first term. He tried to do the Schedule F thing then, but the unions took him to court and got everything tied up. But the union presidents knew that it would come back around if Trump got back in, and would be harder to fight the second time around. So Vought got it fully implemented. And in the time that Biden was in office, Vought used all of that time to do more tweaking of Project 2025 and wrote the majority of the EOs for Trump to sign. Frankly, there's only one way to get rid of a 🐍 - sever the body from the head.
One big concern I have - one of the ways that Vought used eliminate agencies, move money from programs that he doesn't support, etc., was to use arcane laws to do clawbacks. I'm angry that the Dems haven't even tried to claw back any of the funds for Trump's pet projects. If clawbacks are good enough for the Executive Branch to do, it's just as good for Congress to do the same.
Fwiw, this is going to be hard. But you're right, Jack. These midterms could be our very last stand to keep our freedoms.
AAAARRRGGHH! I’ve had enough of this shit! Time to take the pitchforks and torches to Washington! Trump, Hegseth, Mike Johnson, that piece of sewage Patel, the whole lot, have to go!
Jack is correct.
And the question he is asking is the right one. Not is this authoritarianism — that debate is how you lose the years you needed to act. The right question is how far, how fast, and what stops it. He answers all three. I want to add one thing.
What he is describing is not chaos. It is sequence.
The inspector general firings are not a separate story from the Schedule F reclassifications. The university funding threats are not a separate story from the V-Dem ranking. The FBI loyalty tests are not a separate story from the election rule changes. These are the same story, told in different registers, advancing on the same timeline in a documented order: agencies first, watchdogs second, enemies third, elections fourth.
That order has been studied. It has a literature. It has case studies. Hungary is the most cited — which is why the Budapest result matters more than it might appear.
File the date Orbán lost. Note what actually changed. Not the institutions — he had captured most of them. Not the media — captured too. What changed was the threshold: the point at which enough citizens decided simultaneously that accommodation had become more costly than resistance.
That threshold is not fixed. It moves. And it is rarely moved by the headline stories. It is moved by the grocery bill. The mortgage payment. The medical bill that arrives after the coverage change. The thing that hits the body before it hits the brain.
Note which policies are now doing exactly that.
One thing Jack gestures at but does not quite name directly: the Bright Line Watch finding is not about institutions. It is about norms. The courts still function. Congress still meets. What has moved is the unwritten rule structure — the agreements that held for two and a half centuries not because they were enforceable but because enough people in power treated them as binding.
That structure, once degraded, does not automatically repair itself when the pressure lifts. Survival and damage are not mutually exclusive. Both can be true at once.
Jack is right that the difference between pretty fcked* and finished is human agency at scale. What I would add is that the agency that matters right now is not only electoral. It is the daily, undramatic work of people inside courts, agencies, and newsrooms who are choosing, case by case, to hold the line — often at personal cost, rarely with recognition.
File their work. Note what it costs them.
That is also data.
The next six months will tell us which kind of country this is. The historical record does not promise survival. It promises that survival is still possible — and that it has always depended on enough people refusing to treat it as someone else’s problem.
#HOLDFAST
We've been F_ _ ked Up since the 80ies❗ Another terrific article this evening ✨ TGIF to you and your readers, and will reStack ASAP 💯👍
It seems that our capacity for endurance is akin to that of a battered spouse. Americans (for the most part) keep getting kicked and punched and gaslighted, yet for most of us it’s business as usual. I want to believe that eventually there will be MORE people entering the fray and saying, “Ah, HELL NO!"
It’s pretty sad to see what happened in Beijing over the past few days, but I expected as much. Trump is all self promotion, talk and nothing more! “The Art of the Deal” is nothing more than the figment of the imagination of a very ignorant, undereducated, arrogant, delusional fool…who equates braggadocio with strength…and what happened in China over the past days is a disgrace…China “played” him at every turn and “zinged” him every chance they could and he DIDN’T even realise it! He submitted to Xi just as he was always submitted to Putin. Weakening us and leaving our ally, Taiwan, dangling. Our other allies are withdrawing from us, with Germany’s Chancellor today saying he wouldn’t recommend to his children a visit the United States now. Our economy is teetering with the prices of gas impacting everything and yet I see people around me going along as if everything is “normal”…while nothing is normal, and it is going to get worse very soon! Food prices are going to get a double hit because of not only gas prices but also the shortage along with the increasing price of fertiliser, which will impact the amounts the farms can grow.
As always I look forward to your posts…and I am “ranting” again Jack, and I apologise! I read a lot and I am frustrated every day seeing what’s happening and wondering how much worse it is going to get! Thanks for being here…you help to keep me grounded, and steady!
You left out the part about Cheetolini lifting sanctions on Belarus for fertilizer and the Potato Prince publishing a video which he's disparaging Cheetolini...
It’s hard to keep up with everything…it’s not a 3 ring Circus…it’s a 10 ring circus and every damn day they add another ring!!!
Paid subscriber here… glad to see this… it’s good to have allies…
going to a demonstration in town tomorrow… we aren’t going BACK!
Hang in there, Jack…
Holdfast
CJ Blair, yes, it is good to have allies! In fact, it is imperative that we have allies!
Thank you for going to the demonstration.
#HOLDFAST!
I’m in for the long haul Jack… and it will be long.
#HoldFast
I’m with you,Jack, all the way!! Now or never. Mid-terms here we come. !!!
Great sigh of relief at your presence.
JFC Jack I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you taught me enough so I know what I’m looking at now. Thank you.
Great analysis and communication, Jack! As a nation, we have to turn this ship around and turn the Project 2025 shit OFF!!! The same for the Heritage Foundation. Hawaii did the latter, so the rest of the states can do it as well. Slowly, but surely, taking the legs out from under "the stool," until the authoritarian initiatives collapse with a resounding THUD! Then, round up the sorry fucks who took part and/or enabled this shit getting this far, and throw every damned one of them in the crossbar hotel! Bam their asses!!! 🤬👊
#HoldFast!
Come on Muscle memory, Everyone!
Unite for Truth! We shall not be done!
Thank you, Jack for putting it together plainly and firmly in print! We have a long way to go!
#HOLDFAST!!!!!!
What's going on under the cover of this sloshing layer of fuckery is even more terrifying. Our food, air and water are being poisoned under the watchful eyes of government regulators that are increasingly owned by the corporations we pay taxes to be protected from.
Gut microbiome disruption due to approved chemicals is directly connected to mental health disorders, hypertension and a slew of other serious health isdues. Quite literally our hearts and minds are being captured and fucked up by entities that are upstanding champions of the stock market, operated by pious philanthropic psychopaths who never dream of appearing in the spotlight of the heros and villains spectacle on the floor of the Great Colliseum that keeps us so mesmeized we don't notice our own murder.
Thank you for saying what needs to be said.
Now it's up to the voters.
All the voters!
It's looked, walked, quacked and acted like a duck since 2016. It's a duck!!
How can people be so goddamned stupid?
I so appreciate that you tell the brutal truth so we are informed but then make sure to call us to action or continued action! It is easy to let discouragement seep in and your articles help me to stay on the offense. I’ve restacked and messaged this to many others. Thank you!
This really is a great piece.
I'm so glad you mentioned Russ Vought. That slimy bastard is the one who has to be neutered. He was around in the last part of Trump's first term. He tried to do the Schedule F thing then, but the unions took him to court and got everything tied up. But the union presidents knew that it would come back around if Trump got back in, and would be harder to fight the second time around. So Vought got it fully implemented. And in the time that Biden was in office, Vought used all of that time to do more tweaking of Project 2025 and wrote the majority of the EOs for Trump to sign. Frankly, there's only one way to get rid of a 🐍 - sever the body from the head.
One big concern I have - one of the ways that Vought used eliminate agencies, move money from programs that he doesn't support, etc., was to use arcane laws to do clawbacks. I'm angry that the Dems haven't even tried to claw back any of the funds for Trump's pet projects. If clawbacks are good enough for the Executive Branch to do, it's just as good for Congress to do the same.
Fwiw, this is going to be hard. But you're right, Jack. These midterms could be our very last stand to keep our freedoms.
I'm with you, Jack. 💯
#HoldFast
AAAARRRGGHH! I’ve had enough of this shit! Time to take the pitchforks and torches to Washington! Trump, Hegseth, Mike Johnson, that piece of sewage Patel, the whole lot, have to go!