A Field Guide to the Machine
Many Nations, Under Dollars, Divisible.
A civic evidence platform that traces what people feel back to what is documented. Rising costs, institutional failures, eroding trust: these are not random. They have structural causes, and those causes are traceable.
What this is, how it works, where to begin.
Amicus Index is a civic evidence platform. It takes the things people experience (rising costs, failing systems, promises that do not match outcomes) and traces them back to documented, structural causes.
It is structured, source-tiered analysis that shows its work. Every claim is tagged by evidence tier, every source is cited, and counterarguments are included by design.
The name comes from "amicus curiae" (friend of the court): a legal posture of offering evidence to help clarify a matter under review. That is the spirit of the platform. It organizes evidence, makes its analytical frame explicit, and gives readers the structure they need to evaluate what they are seeing.
Amicus Index uses a Four-Tier system so you always know what level of certainty you are reading:
The archive currently contains 40 chapters of structured analysis covering topics from tariffs and trade to corporate consolidation, government shutdowns, monetary policy, historical parallels, and more. Each chapter includes tiered sources, cross-references, and connections to related analysis. The full archive is being prepared for public release in phases.
If you want to see what they said vs. what happened: the Said vs. Did tracker compares 101 public claims against documented outcomes. Each entry is tagged as opposite, partial, or misleading.
If you want to follow the work: sign up for the free newsletter below. New analysis, patterns, and evidence as they publish. No spam, no daily emails. Just the work.
Ready to begin?
Read the launch noteA launch note from the builder.
This project started with a question most people have asked at some point: why does everything feel broken?
Not broken in the way that gets fixed next quarter. Broken in the way where the cost of insulin keeps rising and no one can explain who decided that. Where a bridge collapses and the investigation reveals that everyone knew. Where a public official says one thing on camera and does the opposite in committee, and both are documented, and nothing changes.
I started tracing those questions back to their sources. Not opinions, not takes; documented structural causes. Government reports, court filings, peer-reviewed research, regulatory records, Congressional testimony. What I found was that these problems are not random, not isolated, and not new. They are connected, they are traceable, and in many cases the people responsible for them have said one thing and done another, on the record.
Amicus Index is the result of following that question through 40 topics and over 449 tiered sources. Every claim is tagged by evidence tier. Every source is cited. Counterarguments are built in. The analytical frame is explicit, not hidden.
The name comes from "amicus curiae": a legal posture of offering evidence to help clarify a matter under review. That is what this project does. It is not advocacy. It is not neutrality theater. It is structured evidence, presented for public consideration.
This front door is live now. The full archive will open publicly in phases. If you want to support the work before everything is visible, you can. If you want to follow along as the archive opens, that is what this page is for.
What this is, why it exists, who built it.
Amicus Index is a civic evidence platform. It provides public orientation: helping people trace what they feel and experience back to documented, structural causes.
The platform currently includes 40 chapters of structured analysis covering systemic issues in American life, from trade policy and corporate consolidation to government shutdowns, monetary policy, colonial history, information control, and historical parallels. Each chapter includes tiered sources, cross-references to related chapters, and built-in counterarguments.
Every claim is tagged. Every source is tiered. The analytical frame is explicit, not hidden. When the platform reaches a conclusion, you can see exactly how it got there and at what level of certainty.
The platform also includes the Other Hand methodology: built-in counterarguments for each chapter. If there is a reasonable opposing view or a legitimate complication, it is included. This is not balance for its own sake; it is analytical honesty. You cannot assess an argument if you have only seen one side of it.
Most public information either overwhelms people or manipulates them. Amicus Index exists because there should be a place where structural problems are explained clearly, sourced rigorously, and presented with an explicit analytical frame rather than hidden assumptions.
The project started with a question most people have asked: why does this feel broken? The answer turned out to be structural, cross-domain, and documentable. Amicus Index is the result of following that question through 40 topics and over 449 tiered sources.
Amicus Index is built by a person trying to make sense of structural problems, not by an institution selling authority. There is no editorial board. There is no corporate parent. There is no investor to satisfy.
The evidence framework exists so that rigor does not depend on institutional credentials. The work shows its sources, tags its certainty levels, and includes counterarguments because that is what honest analysis requires, regardless of who produces it.
"Amicus" comes from "amicus curiae" (friend of the court): a legal posture of offering evidence to help clarify a matter under review, without being a party to the case. "Index" refers to the structured, organized architecture of the evidence base. Together, the name describes what the platform does: presents evidence for public consideration.
The work stays free. Your support keeps it going.
The goal is straightforward: the core work stays free and public. All 40 chapters of structured analysis, the evidence framework, the connection graph, the timeline, and the glossary are being prepared for public release without a paywall. Support is what makes that possible.
But this work takes time: research, sourcing, fact-checking, building the evidence architecture, and maintaining and expanding the archive. Right now, one person is doing all of it. Amicus Index is not built to answer to advertisers, sponsors, or outside interests. It is built to stay rigorous, public, and independent.
Supporters get a closer relationship to the work, not access to hidden conclusions. That includes behind-the-work notes, honest project updates, early access when available, and the Amicus Index Brief as it develops into a more regular publication. Supporters can also give bounded input on research priorities by signaling which questions or topics they most want to see explored.
Everything that matters for understanding. The goal is the full structured analysis, all chapters, the evidence tiers, the connection graph, the Said vs. Did tracking, the timeline, the glossary, and the public newsletter. Supporting Amicus Index gets you deeper into the process and closer to the ongoing work; it does not unlock conclusions that free readers are denied.
$10/month. Your support keeps the lights on and the archive growing. It means this work can continue without ads, without sponsors, and without compromising the analysis to keep anyone happy.
How we handle money: Amicus Index publishes a Funding & Editorial Independence policy. Revenue streams and material contributors are disclosed. No single source of funding exceeds 20% of annual revenue. Editorial decisions and funding operations are kept separate. There are no ads, no sponsored content in the analysis, and no paid placements.
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How this work is funded, and what that means for the analysis.
This page describes how Amicus Index is funded, what kinds of funding are acceptable, what is not acceptable, and how editorial decisions are kept separate from commercial ones. It also includes a standing disclosure section, updated monthly, showing the current state of the project's funding.
These are standing rules, not aspirations. If the project cannot meet them, it will say so here before it says so anywhere else.
Amicus Index is built by a person, not by an institution. It does not have a corporate budget, a venture round, or a parent organization. The project sustains itself through its own funding rules, which are designed to keep the work independent and the analysis uncompromised.
Reader support is the primary funding source. People who find the work valuable can become supporters through monthly or annual memberships, or through one-time contributions. This is the foundation of the project's financial model: the people who use the work fund it.
Naming these categories does not mean all of them are active. The Current Disclosure section below shows what is actually in place.
Funding does not determine what Amicus Index covers, what it concludes, how it phrases its analysis, or when it publishes. This is the core rule, and every other rule on this page exists to protect it.
In practice, that means: no funder reviews, approves, or edits content before publication. No funding relationship influences which chapters are written, expanded, or deprioritized. No commercial offering shapes the evidence framework, the tier assignments, or the Said vs. Did verdicts. If a funding source creates a conflict of interest with a specific topic, the conflict is disclosed or the funding source is declined.
The evidence framework exists so that the work's rigor does not depend on who funds it. Sources are cited, certainty levels are tagged, and counterarguments are built in. A reader should be able to evaluate any claim in Amicus Index without knowing or caring where the money comes from.
Amicus Index publishes a monthly disclosure update on this page covering: active revenue categories, material contributors, and concentration cap status.
Aggregate supporter revenue (memberships, one-time contributions) is reported as a category, not by individual name. All grants, fiscal sponsors, and institutional customers are disclosed individually regardless of amount. Any other non-aggregate contribution or funding relationship above $1,000 in a calendar year is disclosed individually by name and category.
Last updated: March 2026
Active revenue categories: Reader support (memberships and one-time contributions).
Material contributors: None at this time. Revenue consists of individual reader support.
Concentration cap status: No single source approaches the 20% threshold.
Notes: Amicus Index launched in March 2026. Grants, fiscal sponsorship, and institutional offerings are not currently active.