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!"
Ytram...that battered-spouse analogy is sharper than anything I've read in the Atlantic this month.
The hardest part of leaving an abuser isn't the leaving...it's the moment you stop believing the next punch is somehow YOUR fault.
America's still in that fog. But...fogs lift. Usually all at once. Keep saying "HELL NO" out loud...that's how other people learn they're allowed to say it too!
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!
What you wrote is NOT a rant. It's the burden of being awake....in a country that has collectively decided not to be...and that burden deserves somewhere to land. I'm glad it lands here.
You read Beijing exactly right. Xi didn't outmaneuver him ...Xi flattered him into giving things away...the SAME way Putin has for years.
Trump cannot distinguish between admiration...and MANIPULATION, and every authoritarian....on earth has been quietly taking notes on that vulnerability.
Taiwan, Ukraine, NATO, the Pacific allies...they're ALL running calculations now based on the assumption that the U.S. presidency....is workable in a way it should NOT be.
Merz saying he wouldn't send his kids here...is one of those moments that sounds small ...and isn't. Allies don't say things like that...OUT LOUD... unless the private conversations have already gone MUCH further.
And the food piece...YES. Fertilizer costs...plus fuel costs....plus labor disruption from the immigration crackdown...equals a grocery story that hasn't fully arrived yet but is on the calendar.
What you're feeling...the frustration of watching people around you act like everything's fine....has a name.
Psychologists call it moral injury. It's what happens to people who can see clearly in an environment that rewards NOT seeing. It's exhausting...and...it's real...and you are not the one who's broken.
You help keep me grounded too. That's how this works!
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!!! 🤬👊
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!
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.
To further explore these thoughts, I watched the Netfix MMA event last night. I wanted a direct look at the fuckery machine, to see how else it looks when not covered in the shit shroud of partisan political gladiation. Here's what I commented on a newsfeed report of the event:
A disgusting display of mock violence designed to gratify people whose blood lust conveniently excludes cheering at the sight of the real, deadly, bloody violence perpetrated everyday on their behalf by their own government acting on behalf of it's corporate masters. People stupid enough to giggle over naughty wet wipe ads offering to help them wipe away the obnoxoius and inconvient proof that their gut microbiome is being intentionally poisoned for the very purpose of inducing and maintaining the resulting anxiety and psychosis that drives people to invest in tickets and bets in hope of getting off and enjoying a few hours of blessed anesthesia. Like a bunch of sick fkn junkies. Thank you Netflix, for sticking the taint of American culture right in our faces. There's no wet wipe that can get rid of that image.
Seriously, I really have nothing to add. You’re right and I know it. Knew it before I started reading. Not the exact numbers.. but the basics. But.. I also know what I can do and I’m doing it.
I had someone on BlueSky… where I have over 17k followers… a lot for me… tell me that I was wasting my time calling and emailing my members of Congress. I got a little testy but explained why I do it… keeping up the pressure. She apologized and then we talked. She understood and agreed and it felt good.
I could easily give in and give up some days but I think in some ways.. I’m just too stubborn. Maybe stubborn isn’t a bad thing in this case.
The one thing I know is that however this goes.. I’m glad I’m here with you and this community. Being here keeps me grounded and informed and I know I’m not alone. We all need that right now.
Restacked, shared with friends and family and posting on other platforms. Things I almost always do with your free pieces. People don’t like to read but some will and I won’t give up on that either.
The one weapon we have to oppose this is the vote. It is precious. we must protect it and ensure that it is not tampered with. We must make sure that all eligible voters have the opportunity to vote. We must get the vote to the polls. And we must protect them while they are there. the November election is our chance to derail our fall into a dark future.
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
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!"
Ytram...that battered-spouse analogy is sharper than anything I've read in the Atlantic this month.
The hardest part of leaving an abuser isn't the leaving...it's the moment you stop believing the next punch is somehow YOUR fault.
America's still in that fog. But...fogs lift. Usually all at once. Keep saying "HELL NO" out loud...that's how other people learn they're allowed to say it too!
-Jack
Great analogy!
We've been F_ _ ked Up since the 80ies❗ Another terrific article this evening ✨ TGIF to you and your readers, and will reStack ASAP 💯👍
Karen..you're not wrong...the rot started a lot earlier than most folks want to admit.
Reagan handed us the operating system; this crew....is just running it on overclock.
Thank you for the kind words and the restack...means more than you know!
-Jack
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!
Christie...first....stop apologizing.
What you wrote is NOT a rant. It's the burden of being awake....in a country that has collectively decided not to be...and that burden deserves somewhere to land. I'm glad it lands here.
You read Beijing exactly right. Xi didn't outmaneuver him ...Xi flattered him into giving things away...the SAME way Putin has for years.
Trump cannot distinguish between admiration...and MANIPULATION, and every authoritarian....on earth has been quietly taking notes on that vulnerability.
Taiwan, Ukraine, NATO, the Pacific allies...they're ALL running calculations now based on the assumption that the U.S. presidency....is workable in a way it should NOT be.
Merz saying he wouldn't send his kids here...is one of those moments that sounds small ...and isn't. Allies don't say things like that...OUT LOUD... unless the private conversations have already gone MUCH further.
And the food piece...YES. Fertilizer costs...plus fuel costs....plus labor disruption from the immigration crackdown...equals a grocery story that hasn't fully arrived yet but is on the calendar.
What you're feeling...the frustration of watching people around you act like everything's fine....has a name.
Psychologists call it moral injury. It's what happens to people who can see clearly in an environment that rewards NOT seeing. It's exhausting...and...it's real...and you are not the one who's broken.
You help keep me grounded too. That's how this works!
-Jack
THANK YOU JACK!
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!!!
I’m in for the long haul Jack… and it will be long.
#HoldFast
Never doubted it for a minute, William!
#HoldFast
-Jack
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...Allies showing up to demonstrations is exactly how this turns.
Thank you for being paid, present, and in the street tomorrow!
We aren't going back.
#Holdfast. ⚓
-Jack
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!
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!
TimE...you just laid out the ENTIRE strategy in ONE paragraph... kick the legs out one by one until it falls.
Hawaii showed it can be done. Forty-nine more to go.
The Heritage Foundation thinks they're playing chess. They forgot every state legislature gets a turn.
Bring on the THUD!
#HoldFast
-Jack
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
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’m with you,Jack, all the way!! Now or never. Mid-terms here we come. !!!
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!
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.
To further explore these thoughts, I watched the Netfix MMA event last night. I wanted a direct look at the fuckery machine, to see how else it looks when not covered in the shit shroud of partisan political gladiation. Here's what I commented on a newsfeed report of the event:
A disgusting display of mock violence designed to gratify people whose blood lust conveniently excludes cheering at the sight of the real, deadly, bloody violence perpetrated everyday on their behalf by their own government acting on behalf of it's corporate masters. People stupid enough to giggle over naughty wet wipe ads offering to help them wipe away the obnoxoius and inconvient proof that their gut microbiome is being intentionally poisoned for the very purpose of inducing and maintaining the resulting anxiety and psychosis that drives people to invest in tickets and bets in hope of getting off and enjoying a few hours of blessed anesthesia. Like a bunch of sick fkn junkies. Thank you Netflix, for sticking the taint of American culture right in our faces. There's no wet wipe that can get rid of that image.
Nice bedtime story, Jack.. Thanks a lot 😳
Seriously, I really have nothing to add. You’re right and I know it. Knew it before I started reading. Not the exact numbers.. but the basics. But.. I also know what I can do and I’m doing it.
I had someone on BlueSky… where I have over 17k followers… a lot for me… tell me that I was wasting my time calling and emailing my members of Congress. I got a little testy but explained why I do it… keeping up the pressure. She apologized and then we talked. She understood and agreed and it felt good.
I could easily give in and give up some days but I think in some ways.. I’m just too stubborn. Maybe stubborn isn’t a bad thing in this case.
The one thing I know is that however this goes.. I’m glad I’m here with you and this community. Being here keeps me grounded and informed and I know I’m not alone. We all need that right now.
Restacked, shared with friends and family and posting on other platforms. Things I almost always do with your free pieces. People don’t like to read but some will and I won’t give up on that either.
Thank you, Jack.
#Holdfast
~Susan
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.
Morgan...thank you. I'm glad YOU are here!
-Jack
The one weapon we have to oppose this is the vote. It is precious. we must protect it and ensure that it is not tampered with. We must make sure that all eligible voters have the opportunity to vote. We must get the vote to the polls. And we must protect them while they are there. the November election is our chance to derail our fall into a dark future.
Great sigh of relief at your presence.