Shipping Democracy since 1925
A century of proven and alleged US foreign interventions, filed as one courier company's shipment records. Every case gets a waybill, a tracking history, a rubber stamp saying how proven the US role is, and a sober page for the people who received it.
What hooked me
A spreadsheet of US foreign interventions from 1925 to 2026, with a source for every row and a column saying how sure anyone is about the US role. Some are in the declassified files. Some need a big rubber stamp that says ALLEGEDLY. That stamp was the whole idea: a tongue-in-cheek indictment of a century of foreign policy, where you can go looking for your favourite coup.
What I built
Freedom Delivered™, a courier company that has been shipping Democracy worldwide since 1925. Recipient consent not required.
- The map draws a dashed delivery route from Washington to every destination, with a postmark sized by how many shipments went there. A barcode along the bottom is the timeline: one bar per year, thicker when Washington was busier.
- Every case is a file: a waybill (Regime Swap Express, Air Mail, Third-Party Courier, Strongman Subscription, Un-Legalize for the war on drugs…), a tracking history, and a stamp that thuds down when you open it: CONFIRMED, ALLEGEDLY, KNEW. SHRUGGED., DRAFTED, NEVER SENT, and one WRONG ACCOUNT for the Contra money that went to the wrong bank.
- The cost to the people who received it sits on its own white page with a black band. No jokes there, just cited figures. The rule: joke about Washington, mourn the people.
- Clash of the Contras is a knockout bracket: pick the worse idea from Washington, two at a time. Commander in Chief mode puts every record in one bracket, shuffled fresh each time.
- There's a bonus stamp for everything Billy Joel namechecked in 1989, and the ™ in the title does something patriotic. Volume up.
What I learned
The column that matters isn't "did this happen", it's "how sure are we the US did it". Splitting those two is what lets the stamp be funny and honest at the same time. Also: the screaming eagle in every American film is a red-tailed hawk. The real bald eagle sounds like a squeaky toy. Even the eagle's voice was outsourced.