One of the things I've been interested in lately is the series of events that led up to the Civil War. Specifically, what it felt like to live through. How did people feel? How did they talk about each other and what was going on? What was the
In my book, Defederalized, I used a variety of words to describe the transition of power away from the federal government to the states. I specifically avoided the word secession due to its fraught historical connotations. It's also a bit of a misnomer—secession implies outright breaking away.
Per Politico: "'Californians pay the bills for the federal government. We pay over $80 BILLION more in taxes than we get back,' the Democratic governor said in an X post Friday afternoon, referencing a recent analysis from the Rockefeller Institute that California contributed about $83 billion more
Check it - the state power tool is now available! You can use this tool to evaluate different state and their configurations. Here are the presets you can play around with - for example, the delta between the 2020 and 2024 elections, the regions from my books, and other divisions.
My new book, Defederalized: After The Constitutional Crisis, feels increasingly timely as so many of us reconsider our relationship to the US federal government. Here is a brief PDF containing selected excerpts from the book, including the chapter summary, an explanation of how we got here, and one of my
Here is the first of (hopefully) many videos going forward - the Scenario Exploder introduction! I've written two books on the topic of the US federal government collapse at this point. While I wish things were different, the reality is that books really are more something that you
"26% of the U.S. population qualified as highly right-wing authoritarian"Morning Consult One of the most mystifying questions in history is "why would individuals support a right-wing authoritarian movement?" The answer to the question, "Why would someone want to be an authoritarian leader?"
It's barely 100 days in to the new administration, and the collapse of the federal government is moving along surprisingly quickly. From this article in the the Seattle Times comes this piece, "At this budget meeting, the crackup of America was right at the surface." The
A few websites you might find interesting for tracking events related to the current administration: Project 2025 TrackerTrack the progress on Project 2025John DoePOTUS Tracker - Executive Orders, Presidential Schedule, Signed LegislationWhere is the President? Find out what the President of the United States is doing with real-time location, schedule,
One premise underlying The Defederalized Democrat is that the tensions between the current administration and the states will continue to escalate. One of the key demarcation lines for this turning very... ugly... would be the arrest of a state governor by the Trump administration. We've already seen the
A reader sent in a link to this website that lets you make your own nation composed of US states. By way of context, the rhetoric continues to escalate on the Republican side around topics such as a second civil war and national divorce. Far right figures such as Alex
The primary season for the 2024 election is now underway, and it's not surprising if you are approaching it all with a certain certain sense of dread. I can say with a pretty high degree of confidence that it's going to be an unusually weird year.