A Timeline of 21st-century U.S. Political Transformation

Perhaps this timeline will help dispel the collective amnesia, the tendency to tune-out, that engulfs everyone who tries to make sense of what goes on from day to day.

Please see §1. Introduction: A New Method of Understanding the Unprecedented at Substack.

Our knowledge of significant events comes to us in reverse order to their actual occurrence. First something unexpected bursts upon the scene — a war, a political upset, a plague, a terror attack, an economic collapse. Then we learn a little background information. The belligerent parties were already at each others’ throats, the economy had been teetering on the edge of collapse for years, sleeper cells had been lying in wait undetected. Inconvenient facts emerge, implicating people responsible for preventing the very calamity that occurred. Trivial details ‘hiding in plain sight’ take on new salience. Records of cash transactions, secret communications, confidential meetings, travel documents are revealed. Lawsuits, legislative hearings, and FOIA requests extract more information in mind-numbing detail. Recognition-seekers boast about their roles. Conspirators have a falling-out, and blab. Finally a pattern falls into place, or if not a fully coherent pattern, at least a perspective that suggests where to look for answers. [Continued here]

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Contents

§1. 9/11 and Its Aftermath, 2000 – 2007

§2. Monetization of U.S. Foreign Policy, 2008 – June 2010

§3. A Secret Alliance, August 2010 – March 2013

§4. Making Enemies, April 2013 – December 2015

§5. Perfidious Albion and the Walrus, January – June 2016

§6a. The Insurance Policy, Pre-Election, July – November 2016

§6b. The Insurance Policy, Post-Election, November 2016 – January 2017

§7a. A Higher Calling, January – June 2017

§7b. The Sino-Sinecure and Secret Courts, July – Dec 2017

§7c. The Bat Lady and Other Precursors, January – December 2018

§8. Trial and Error, January – December 2019

§9a. Hijacking the Presidency, January – June 2020

§9b. Hijacking the Presidency, June – October 2020

§9c. Hijacking the Presidency, November 2020 – January 2021