Project Cornerstone: The Modern American Gestapo
Nico Phillips’s implementation of Project Cornerstone in Act IV, converting state National Guards into a fascist Pretorian Guard, draws direct parallels to ongoing federal efforts to not only dramatically expand private immigration detention and prison infrastructure but also convert Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement Officers into an extrajudicial political police force for the President.
• NPR: Private Prisons and Local Jails Ramping Up as ICE Detention Exceeds Capacity
• Human Rights Watch: Immigration Detention
• https://www.propublica.org/article/immigration-dhs-american-citizens-arrested-detained-against-will
• https://youtu.be/L0iPoV81ess?si=7N4ALzuyeu8MF3Y_
• https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/ice-violence-misogyny-renee-good-alex-pretti/
• https://www.ms.now/opinion/ice-lawyer-james-rodden-racist-social-media-trump
• https://www.justsecurity.org/140413/dangerous-speech-white-houses-aliens-website/
• https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/02/immigration-hiring-push-trump-private-army
Sabotaging a Grassroots Presidential Campaign
Governor Barnes’s systematic effort to destroy Jacqueline Price’s popular and grassroots presidential campaign reflects documented instances of party establishments using institutional resources, media relationships, and coordinated opposition research to suppress grassroots candidates who threaten existing power structures — a pattern that has recurred in both parties in recent election cycles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Democratic_National_Committee_email_leak
Black Voters and Democratic Party Fatigue
The frank conversation between Jacqueline and former President McDonald about why she cannot win on identity or charisma alone reflects a real and important tension to acknowledge in America: the growing frustration many Black voters — especially Black men — have expressed with the Democratic Party, and the decline in Black voter enthusiasm that shaped recent election cycles.
· https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/08/opinion/democrats-black-male-voters.html
· https://medium.com/afrosapiophile/whats-black-men-s-beef-with-democrats-20dde3c60890
The Arrest of Political Opponents
The arrest of political figures by federal forces for political reasons — depicted in later Act IV chapters and written before recent events — has since drawn direct parallels to documented instances of federal authority being used to detain and arrest elected officials and political opponents.
• USA Today: Democrats Arrested Under Federal Pressure
• New York Times: Democrats Detained Under Trump
A Compromised Supreme Court
Chief Justice Perkins offering to sell future Supreme Court decisions, combined with his three decades of service to the Hughes network in exchange for judicial advancement, reflects real reported concerns about corruption and undisclosed financial relationships within the United States Supreme Court, which have become one of the most significant institutional credibility crises in the Court’s history.
• MSNBC: Clarence Thomas Controversies
• Brennan Center: The Supreme Court and Abuse of Power
GIJN / ProPublica: Exposed — Ethics Scandals at the US Supreme Court
Dimock, Pennsylvania
The public water crisis underlying Jacqueline’s publicity stunt to expose Governor Barnes’s corrupt ties with polluters, and invite her to overreact, was real. The town of Dimock suffered from a scourge of undrinkable water due to fracking from the energy companies. For a while, the energy companies were temporarily delivering water until they gained a favorable position with the state government to alleviate the requirement.
https://youtu.be/-tZ--fR6ywc?si=MlYDGnNmQBYh49f9
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact
The NPVIC—the mechanism Jacqueline uses to win the presidency—is real, legally operative, and already partially implemented. The book accurately depicts the current state of the NPVIC as of spring 2026: approximately 210 electoral votes worth of states have signed on to the compact, which would trigger a national popular vote for president without requiring a constitutional amendment. The compact needs 270 electoral votes to activate. I tried to highlight the real legal and political challenges the NPVIC would face to become a legal and political reality.
To that end, the fictional Supreme Court decision in Price v. Hughes, penned by Theodore Perkins, uses real case law, precedent, and legal arguments.
• National Popular Vote Interstate Compact — Official Site