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In this video, I’m diving deep behind the scenes into my craft, character storylines, and worldbuilding mechanics for Lost Between the Lands of Here and There (Mythological Immortal Series, Book 2). We unpack the secrets behind writing compelling MM Romance, structuring urban fantasy character arcs, and expanding the lore of the Immortal Philosophers.
Featured Books in the Mythological Immortal Series:
Book 1: Sunset in the Valley of Now and Then
Book 2: Lost Between the Lands of Here and There
Book 3: Midnight in the City that Lost its Soul (Coming Soon!)
🏢 Published by Four Elements Press
An independent press dedicated to high-concept fiction, LGBTQ+ stories, and neurodivergent voices.
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What craft or character questions do you have for the next video? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
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LOST BETWEEN THE LANDS OF HERE AND THERE
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Dylan Eaglegod is on the hunt to save the world from the world famous Popstar and Bro Podcaster predatorial duo and the more sinister foes behind their curtain of toxic popularity. Race across the Mediterranean to save the largest ever, island hopping concert tour, where the Immortal Philosophers must succeed or leave the mortal fans for dead.
Secret forces and hidden magic are just as dangerous as the hearts in our heroes’ chests as the romantic and auric taxes of this epic Old World adventure test their limits. But from the ancient city of Málaga, Spain, to their pasts, the Old Guard of the Immortal Philosophers might not be enough to help Dylan save them all. Especially on the Mediterranean, where nothing is only as it seems.
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SUNSET IN THE VALLEY OF NOW AND THEN
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Dylan Eaglegod is on the run from the monsters of his old life after spending years living closeted with homophobic friends in Manhattan. He escapes to the Jersey Shore for new adventures and the potential for romance, but is confronted with dark secrets from his past after learning that Joshua, the ringleader of his old friend group, is after him and more dangerous than ever.
Dylan has to learn from Antonio and the other Immortal Philosophers as he embraces his powers to discover how to defeat Joshua before Joshua discovers them. Everyone has a part to play, but only Dylan can save them all.
About the Author:
ALEXANDER CASILLAS, a gay Puerto Rican author, editor, and writing coach near the beach between Philadelphia and Manhattan, explores the experiences of gay characters in literary fiction and young adult fantasy through short stories and novels. He holds degrees in literature, creative writing, and philosophy and religion from Stockton University.
Authored Works: Sunset in the Valley of Now and Then (The Immortal Philosophers Series Book 1 Dec. 2024) & Lost Between the Lands of Here and There (The Immortal Philosophers Series Book 2 April 2026) Published by Four Elements Press.
“In the Opposites’ World” (Short Story 2018) Published by Blunderbuss Magazine.
Editor for: Surviving Women’s Soccer A Memoir by Janelly Farias (April 2026) published by The Marketing Jersey,
LIVIN’ LA VIDA LOBA (Novella Series Book 1 Oct. 2025) & LIVIN’ LA VIDA LLORONA (Novella Series Book 2 April 2026) By Angelica Martinez Published by Four Elements Press.
AFRO-CARIBBEAN LOVE TALES: INSPIRING STORIES OF MARRIAGE, FAITH AND FAMILY By Esther Lawrence Published by The Lawrence Collective July 2026
Upcoming Works: The Immortal Philosophers Series Book Three (Sign Up for Title Reveal & Newsletter below)
Follow Alexander Casillas on Substack Threads BlueSky YouTube TikTok FaceBook BuyMeACoffee AlexanderCasillas.com
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Discover California author Angelica Martinez as an authority on neurodivergent teen fiction as she discusses how she blends Mexican culture, werewolf lore, history, and fast-moving family and friend dynamics that keep you glued to the page until the very end. What are you reading this Full Moon?
Author of Livin’ La Vida Llorona and Livin’ La Vida Loba discusses writing for the Neurodivergent community, YA readers, and the Mexican American influence of her groundbreaking debut series.
Livin’ La Vida Llorona is a haunting psych-ward ghost story where adapting to new neurodivergent diagnoses becomes a test of will, friendships, and family that has readers questioning if Selena will make it out before the full moon or if she will be trapped and studied for her werewolf secrets forever.
LIVIN’ LA VIDA LLORONA
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Selena Sol-Valencia is trapped in an institutionalized adventure where breaking free from the psych ward before her full moon transformation is a high stakes journey of self discovery, self control, and the ‘pro-social’ behaviors she must master as she adapts to her new neurodivergent diagnoses and medications. But the haunting figure of Cualli, La Llorona, is making it more difficult than Selena ever imagined.
Selena must dive deep into her family history and Mexican-Indigenous lore to figure out how and why the haunting spirit is so drawn to her. Friends and family are near and far, and help as they can. But Selena’s on her own against the ghosts of her family’s present and past. She must win her release before the full moon or face a lifetime of werewolf incarceration.
ANGELICA MARTINEZ, an Orange, California author, explores neurodivergent life through fiction, when not breaking up cat battles between her two cats. She holds degrees in psychology, education, and an M.F.A. in creative writing, with her thesis, “Scared Straight,” centering on the psychological and moral lessons present in the Horror genre. Martinez can often be found reading romance, watching horror films through tense fingers, reading manga, and practicing Tai Chi with friends.
LIVIN’ LA VIDA LOBA
TEEN WEREWOLF THRILLER
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Selena Sol-Valencia is an in-denial teenage werewolf battling for her life against family tradition, human traffickers, and teen crushes. But her biggest antagonist might just be her own mind. Could womanhood really be the most dangerous part of a girl’s life?
Selena must learn family history, her Tío’s rules of survival, and figure out how to make the most of the nightmare situations brought on by teen-wolf puberty and the intrusive world. Secrets lay behind everyone she meets, but once the claws come out, nobody’s safe.
Especially on the night of the Blue Moon.
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Launching Fall/Winter 2026
Dive into the diverse writings of talented LGBTQ Authors in the upcoming Four Elements Press LGBTQ Author Short Story Collection. From contemporary fiction, fantasy, and romance, to blended genres revolving around characters throughout the spectrum of gender identities, this collection series is a go-to for discovering your next bingeworthy author.
Receive our Free Newsletter for updates & Cover Reveal
A Few of our Featured Authors:
Natasia Langfelder
Natasia Rose Langfelder is a born-and-bred Brooklynite with a passion for storytelling. Natasia’s work spans many genres, from cyberpunk to horror to memoir. She has been published in The ThreePenny Review, Cloaked Press, Gilbert and Hall, Off-Limits Press, and more. When she’s not working or writing, you can find her on the couch with her wife and their rescue dog.
Read more of her work at www.natasiarose.com, follow her on Threads @Lady_Misfortune_ and on Bluesky @natasiarose.bsky.social
Kat Devitt
Kat Devitt is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. She has been published in Tales to Terrify, Suspense Magazine, and Books ‘N Pieces Magazine. Currently, she’s querying a novel, THE MONSTER OF BLACKSTONE, a gothic bildungsroman grounded in Scottish folklore, while writing another called VILLAGE WIP, a distortion of the Salem Witch Trials.
You can find her here: https://katdevitt.com/. She can also be found on Bluesky, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook @katdevittwrites
Esteban Guillermo Zanetti
Esteban Guillermo Zanetti has previously published “His Once Innocent Son” and “The Red Knight” novels. He is a writer of contemporary fiction and fantasy, with upcoming works in the LGBTQ and Fantasy genres.
You can follow him on Instagram and Threads @est.gui.zan
Follow us @FourElementsPress on socials
Angelica Martinez
Author of Livin’ La Vida Loba & Livin’ La Vida Llorona. A YA Xicana Werewolf series. ANGELICA MARTINEZ, an Orange, California author, explores neurodivergent life through fiction, when not breaking up cat battles between her two cats. She holds degrees in psychology, education, and an M.F.A. in creative writing, with her thesis, “Scared Straight,” centering on the psychological and moral lessons present in the Horror genre. Martinez can be found reading romance, watching horror films through tense fingers, reading manga, and practicing Tai Chi with friends.
Follow Angelica MARTINEZ on Threads, Instagram, and their page on Medium for more writings! Other Links!
J. Patrick Hanley
J. Patrick Hanley is a writer, educator, and accidental horse doula. His writing can be found in London Fog Literary, The Bloomin’ Onion, Hearth Stories, and on his website at www.jpatrickhanley.com. He lives in France.
Editor:
Alexander Casillas
Author of ‘The Immortal Philosophers Series’ books 1 & 2, Sunset in the Valley of Now and Then & Lost Between the Lands of Here and There. Editor of Surviving Women’s Soccer: A Memoir By Janelly Farias, Livin’ La Vida Loba & Livin’ La Vida Llorona by Angelica Martinez.
Follow Alexander Casillas on Substack Threads BlueSky YouTube TikTok FaceBook BuyMeACoffee AlexanderCasillas.com
Donate to support the creation of our First Semi-Annual LGBTQ AUTHOR SHORT FICTION COLLECTION Anthology! Where we will work with LGBTQ+ writers to craft 10-15 short stories to be featured in each edition!
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Welcome to the Four Elements Press Writing Workshop!
We offer one-on-one writing workshops with author and editor Alexander Casillas
Dive into a current WIP or start from scratch on a new piece of short fiction or non-fiction while learning the tools needed to take the piece to the next level of press quality writing. Learn the writing craft techniques of the top writers of our times and how to implement their theory into your art for gripping content that gives your readers everything they want and keeps them returning for more.
What to expect…
The standard Short Story Writing Workshop is a 3 part Video Call workshop course.
- Meeting 1 focuses on craft theory education
- Meeting 2 is a real-time editorial review of your writing with the editor
- Meeting 3 is a comprehensive review of the edited piece brought to meet press style standards as informed by the craft theory reviewed during the workshops
Each meeting is a minimum of 1 hour long, with the likely possibility that the meeting times could go longer to fully review the content.
*Between each meeting authors will be required to self-edit their drafts using the learned craft theory to reach press style quality standards.
Short stories are up to 9,000 words. (anything outside of that please contact us about a custom workshop experience)
Publication after the Workshop…
As part of our mission to uplift silenced voices and promote authors that reach our press quality standards and in effort to showcase the work authors create with our guidance, successful completion of the workshop earns the author consideration for the piece to be included in one of our Short Story Collections we publish as a main focus of our mission.
After completion of the workshop, publication will be reviewed by the press and offered to authors if the piece has a place in a Short Story Collection and if the piece is accepted by the press. Subsequent agreements will be offered in the event the press deems, by their sole judgement, the workshop piece suitable for publication.
Editor:
Alexander Casillas
Author of ‘The Immortal Philosophers Series’ books 1 & 2, Sunset in the Valley of Now and Then & Lost Between the Lands of Here and There. Editor of Surviving Women’s Soccer: A Memoir By Janelly Farias, Livin’ La Vida Loba & Livin’ La Vida Llorona by Angelica Martinez.
Follow Alexander Casillas on Substack Threads BlueSky YouTube TikTok FaceBook BuyMeACoffee AlexanderCasillas.com
Donate to support the creation of our First Semi-Annual LGBTQ AUTHOR SHORT FICTION COLLECTION Anthology! Where we will work with LGBTQ+ writers to craft 10-15 short stories to be featured in each edition!
Donate to the Press
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Thank you.
Thank you.
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Excited to announce the second installment of Selena Sol-Valencia Episodios, LIVIN’ LA VIDA LLORONA.
Selena Sol-Valencia is trapped in an institutionalized adventure where breaking free from the psych ward before her full moon transformation is a high stakes journey of self discovery, self control, and the ‘pro-social’ behaviors she must master as she adapts to her new neurodivergent diagnoses and medications. But the haunting figure of Cualli, La Llorona, is making it more difficult than Selena ever imagined.
Selena must dive deep into her family history and Mexican-Indigenous lore to figure out how and why the haunting spirit is so drawn to her. Friends and family are near and far, and help as they can. But Selena’s on her own against the ghosts of her family’s present and past. She must win her release before the full moon or face a lifetime of werewolf incarceration.
Order from our partner Bookshop
Request from Local Library!
ORDER FROM indie book stores
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From Author Angelica Martinez
Follow Angelica MARTINEZ on Threads, Instagram, and their page on Medium for more writings! Other Links!
Colorful People vs. “Patients”
I remember during one of my stays in the psychiatric ward that I had referred to my comrades as “patients” and one of them confronted me about my language. It was clinical, othering, and dehumanizing. I used this language because I grew up watching doctor shows and was a Psychology major in the 2010s. But then he made a point that has stuck with me to this day: “We are people. Not patients.”
This lesson has resonated with me so much that when writing this book, I wanted these people to reflect the different people I’ve met along my own life journey, with both friends and staff. It is easy for us to distance ourselves from mental illness, “oh that could never happen to me.”
There was a time when I thought that as well. One minute you’re in a biopsychology class, and the next you’re experiencing religious delusions of grandeur. Nothing has been as humbling as wearing scratchy scrubs and grippy socks, and in hindsight, I’m grateful to have this specific human experience due to the people I have met along the way. Some instances and friends I’ve written about are based on real people with names changed for privacy’s sake.
Psych Ward
Selena grows as a character in the Psych ward. She is forced to either completely self-sabotage and isolate (which tends to happen during depressive episodes) or reach out to her network of support and socialize. Although she doesn’t welcome it at first, Selena finds her own way of making friends, something that does not come naturally. Then, she’s able to maintain those relationships long enough to rescue herself. Because when you have a mental illness, no one is coming to save you except for yourself. You’re the one who changes your life. You take your medication. You go to therapy. And you make plans to destress with friends. It’s difficult, but it is possible with support. But you also have to ask for help first.
Now, as for the judge experience, while I didn’t punch anyone in the face, I did threaten a staff member and throw a couple of chairs, which made the judge less sympathetic to my cause. My social worker even thought I was violent enough to push my mother because of intrusive thoughts I was experiencing, but would never act on. Luckily, my mother could clarify things over the phone.
Stigma
This series, and this book specifically, is about breaking the stigma of severe mental illnesses and mental health issues. Selena, Benji, and Angus all show non-compliant or aggressive behavior. However, with the right relationships, they behave differently. My goal is to humanize people who show these challenging behaviors because what we need and respond to is compassion and empathy, not judgment and vilification. As a former special education teacher, I have worked with students who have emotional disabilities, which in the past were classified as “emotionally or behaviorally disturbed.” What I noticed was that they didn’t respond to people who were afraid of them; they responded to people who “liked” them and saw redeeming qualities in them. Similarly, I find redeeming qualities in all my characters. Yes, even Angus.
Ghosts
The legend of La Llorona is a folktale that many Mexicans and Mexican Americans are familiar with growing up. I believe this is where my obsession with ghosts started. I love movies like Poltergeist or The Conjuring series. I’ve watched ghost hunter shows, including Ghost Files with Ryan and Shane. I wanted to take a storyline many know and add my own twist to it. Common advice about ghosts is:
Don’t allow the ghost to follow you home.
Avoid giving it your attention.
Avoid cold spots, or where you feel nauseous, dizzy, or sad.
Some of my research made its way into the book, and some of it didn’t. As for the Llorona legend, I may have changed a few things for poetic creativity.
End Note
Overall, I hope you enjoy and get to escape with Selena and her new friends. I’m still new to writing in the Thriller Horror genre, so I anticipate that the books will get gradually spookier over time (within reason). I genuinely love writing for young adults, but “mature” adults can read this book too, whenever you want to engage with your inner angsty teen.
Thank you, and until next time,
Angelica Martinez
ANGELICA MARTINEZ, an Orange, California author, explores neurodivergent life through fiction, when not breaking up cat battles between her two cats. She holds degrees in psychology, education, and an M.F.A. in creative writing, with her thesis, “Scared Straight,” centering on the psychological and moral lessons present in the Horror genre. Martinez can often be found reading romance, watching horror films through tense fingers, reading manga, and practicing Tai Chi with friends.
Donate to support the creation of our First Semi-Annual LGBTQ AUTHOR SHORT FICTION COLLECTION Anthology! Where we will work with LGBTQ+ writers to craft 10-15 short stories to be featured in each edition!
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Excited to announce the second installment of The Immortal Philosophers Chronicles of Dylan Eaglegod Book Two, LOST BETWEEN THE LANDS OF HERE AND THERE.
Following his Ocean City, NJ adventure…
Dylan Eaglegod is on the hunt to save the world from the world famous Popstar and Bro Podcaster predatorial duo and the more sinister foes behind their curtain of toxic popularity. Race across the Mediterranean to save the largest ever, island hopping concert tour, where the Immortal Philosophers must succeed or leave the mortal fans for dead.
Secret forces and hidden magic are just as dangerous as the hearts in our heroes’ chests as the romantic and auric taxes of this epic Old World adventure test their limits. But from the ancient city of Málaga, Spain, to their pasts, the Old Guard of the Immortal Philosophers might not be enough to help Dylan save them all. Especially on the Mediterranean, where nothing is only as it seems.
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From Author Alexander Casillas
Lost Between the Lands of Here and There is a tapestry through time and history to highlight the human struggles of the heart and will against the forces of toxic forces and toxic history itself. Dylan’s journey across the Mediterranean, all the way to the gates of one of the first ancient civilizations, is marred with rollercoaster love trials that often make little sense. Even when seeking advice from caring new friends, he struggles to understand his own emotions, even if the emotions of the ones he hurts feel more clear to him than his own. Whether driven by heart, soul, lust, or the moon and stars, for the first time in his life his distrust of himself grows. While for the first time in his life, the trust he has in those around him grows even more so. But even when juggling shoulders to lean on while managing obligations to others, being a shoulder for others becomes his greatest tool and greatest liability.
These struggles mirror the very real roles we play in our lives across the myriad of relationships we juggle throughout our lives when the ones around us are the ones we are desperate to keep close by our sides. Whether for wisdom, love, purpose, or pride, Dylan’s journey to find himself in his new family pulls him in so many directions he loses himself to the waves of change, endangering everyone in his orbit even if unbeknownst to him.
It’s my hope that this story helps you conquer the storylines that are cross generational and inherited, even if they are not our own.
The past is littered with trials and tribulations for those of us walking the present, like curses waiting for their moments to strike on us when the time is right. But just as curses come to doom, so too they come to be doomed. To be ended and silenced and made right once and for all. Opportunity is always a two way street of overcoming or perpetuating the trauma of the past. When these moments meet you, I hope Dylan’s journey inspires the striving to overcome and put right the wrongs that do and don’t belong to you yourself. The present is the only time for these moments to become those of transformation.
Look to your heart to guide you. Look to your closest allies, who understand you better than you understand yourself, to aid you, and look to the past to inform you as you take on the future you don’t let define you, but which you will into the mold you know will fit you.
This epic across the Mediterranean is a testament to the power over the chaos that thrives in the uncertainty of life and the lies we allow ourselves to live, when the truth is the only path worth living and the only path that sets us free. So live your truth and craft your future, until the feet that carry you feel more comfortable in your present than they ever have. For, there lies the happily ever after you deserve.
May we not allow ourselves to fall into the trap of the collector of idols and allow for words and practices read to not move us to action. May we take into the world the philosophies of the better world. May we be led, and lead by their teachings and examples and wisdom to not only inform ourselves, but to inform our decisions and the networks of people around us. A better world hides behind the fear to be different. A better you, hides behind the fear of leading. And a motive of connection, positivity, and honesty with oneself and others in the way to get there. For remember, everything in the immortal universe is a reflection of the whole from a different point of the totality of it all. The thousands and millions and trillions of particles that make up your you are already in sync in their decision to support you. That power of alignment to all be working together and in sync to be you is not something anyone else could give you. It is beyond.
Enjoy, and until next time,
Alexander Anthony Casillas
ALEXANDER CASILLAS, a gay Puerto Rican author, editor, and writing coach near the beach between Philadelphia and Manhattan, explores the experiences of gay characters in literary fiction and young adult fantasy through his short stories and novels. He holds degrees in literature, creative writing, and philosophy and religion from Stockton University.
Donate to support the creation of our First Semi-Annual LGBTQ AUTHOR SHORT FICTION COLLECTION Anthology! Where we will work with LGBTQ+ writers to craft 10-15 short stories to be featured in each edition!
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“LGBTQ AUTHOR” Anthology
Make a monthly donation
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December 19, 2025
Comparative Analysis of Minnesota “Feeding Our Future” Fraud vs. National Systemic Deregulation
Facts independently verified by the current GAO (Government Accountability Office) and PRAC (Pandemic Response Accountability Committee) data from 2024 and late 2025.
Sources: GAO-25-108172, PRAC Blueprint for Program Integrity, SBA-OIG Semiannual Reports (2025).
While Republicans try to isolate the Minnesota “Feeding Our Future” case ($250 million), federal data confirms that is a fraction of 1% of the total national loss.
- GAO-25-108172 (March 2025): The GAO confirmed that total direct financial losses to the federal government from pandemic-era fraud range between $233 billion and $521 billion.
- California : California’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) fraud alone is estimated at $20 billion. By comparison, the Minnesota “Feeding Our Future” case represents roughly 1.2% of California’s UI losses alone.
- Texas & Florida: As of late 2025, Florida leads the nation in “Per Capita” scam reports (13.4 per 100k residents), with Texas frequently leading in total Raw Volume of PPP/EIDL fraud investigations.
The TRUMP Sabotage of the Oversight Infrastructure
The massive scale of this fraud was not an inevitability of “liberal state management,” but a direct result of federal policy shifts during the Trump administration (2020-2021).
- Systemic De-Gloving of Oversight: On April 6, 2020, President Trump removed Glenn Fine, chairman of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), effectively sidelining the lead watchdog for the $2.2 Trillion CARES Act.
- Trump’s “Self-Certification” Mandate: The Trump administration’s SBA (Small Business Administration) mandated the “Self-Certification” rule for EIDL and PPP loans. The SBA Office of Inspector General (OIG) reported in late 2025 that this rule was the “primary root cause” of improper payments, as it prevented manual verification of eligibility before funds were disbursed.
- The “Speed Over Accuracy” Mandate: In 2025 the PRAC confirmed that the SBA distributed $343 billion in the first 14 days of the PPP program. This velocity, mandated by federal leadership, bypassed nearly all standard anti-money laundering (AML) controls.
STATE VS. FEDERAL RESPONSIBILITY
| Metric | Minnesota (Feeding Our Future) | Federal (SBA / Trump-Era) |
|---|---|---|
| Total Fraud Scale | ~$250 Million | $200 Billion+ (Potentially) |
| Primary Failure | Local Nonprofit Collusion | Mandated Self-Certification |
| Oversight Stance | State Audit Triggered Investigation | Removal of PRAC Chairman |
| Regulatory Tone | Compliance-based | “Speed over Accuracy” |
Conclusion: The Misleading FRAUD NARRATIVE
The focus on Minnesota serves as a Linguistic Diversion to hide FAILED Republican financial and regulatory policy. By framing the fraud as a failure of a specific governor (Walz) or a specific community, the narrative obscures the Federal Policy Failure that impacted all 50 states.
The data suggests that the Trump administration’s relaxation of financial guardrails created a “Gold Rush” environment where organized crime—not just local nonprofits—stole nearly half a trillion dollars from the American taxpayer.
This Federal Negligence was used by corporations and the wealthy alike to enrich themselves and their businesses, when the funds were supposed to be used to help the general American population for survival. These are the forces that benefited the most (the billionaire class) and the forces who NEVER are met with accountability, painting a STRIKING example of the failures of our two tiered justice system; where a local Non-Profit is targeted as a national villain, while the Billionaire class that sabotaged Federal guardrails is the government’s partner in sanctioned crime. Showing the full-cult capture of the Republican Party as the bowed heads at the feet of the billionaire class for mutual self-enrichment.
This is the very system that Tim Walz has made a career out of tearing down and reshaping for the benefit of the people of the nation and PROVING Republican attacks are in BAD FAITH.
In other words: THEY ARE SCARED!
Sources:
Oversight and Investigations Related to COVID-19 Pandemic Spending and Federal Programs | Insights | Holland & Knight www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2020/04/oversight-and-investigations-related-to-covid19#:~:text=On%20March%2030%2C%202020%2C%20the,Fine%20from%20his%20PRAC%20position
Self-certification procedures may increase fraud risk in pandemic response programs.
U.S. Small Business Administration Releases Report on Anti-Fraud Control Measures in Pandemic Relief Programs | U.S. Small Business Administration
Small Business Administration’s Continuity of Pandemic Program Oversight March 6, 2025 (IN12521)
Report to Congress: April 1, 2025 through September 30, 2025
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LIVIN’ LA VIDA LOBA
TEEN WEREWOLF THRILLER
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ABOUT THE BOOK
About the Author: Angelica Martinez
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The Selena Sol-Valencia Episodios:
October 2025: LIVIN’ LA VIDA LOBA
October 2026: LIVIN’ LA VIDA LLORONA
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LAUNCHING
OCTOBER 2025
LIVIN’ LA VIDA LOBA
A SELENA SOL-VALENCIA EPISODIO
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About the Author: Angelica Martinez
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The Selena Sol-Valencia Episodios:
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October 2026: LIVIN’ LA VIDA LLORONA
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OCTOBER 2025
LIVIN’ LA VIDA LOBA
A SELENA SOL-VALENCIA EPISODIO
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ABOUT THE BOOK
Selena Sol-Valencia is an in-denial teenage werewolf battling for her life against family tradition, human traffickers, and teen crushes. But her biggest antagonist might just be her own mind. Could womanhood really be the most dangerous part of a girl’s life?
Selena must learn family history, her Tío’s rules of survival, and figure out how to make the most of the nightmare situations brought on by teen-wolf puberty and the intrusive world. Secrets hide behind everyone she meets, but once the claws come out, nobody’s safe. Especially on the night of the Blue Moon.
ANGELICA MARTINEZ, an Orange, California author, explores neurodivergent life through fiction, when not breaking up cat battles between her two cats. She holds degrees in psychology, education, and an M.F.A. in creative writing, with her thesis, “Scared Straight,” centering on the psychological and moral lessons present in the Horror genre. Martinez can be found reading romance, watching horror films through tense fingers, reading manga, and practicing Tai Chi with friends.
The Selena Sol-Valencia Episodios:
October 2025: LIVIN’ LA VIDA LOBA
October 2026: LIVIN’ LA VIDA LLORONA
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Explore the translation challenges of Glowrot: No way out of Wonderland with author Beatrice Lebrun and Alexander Casillas. Learn how to pull from past experiences and how to bring such a story to life. Lebrun discusses their work with Storyforge and insights on writing in both Spanish and English. Find Glowrot: No way out of Wonderland on the Bookshop list, and pick up a copy to support Lebrun and the press here.
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Explore the dark themes and storylines of Glowrot: No way out of Wonderland with author Beatrice Lebrun and Alexander Casillas. Learn how to pull from past experiences and how to bring such a story to life. Lebrun discusses their work with Storyforge and insights on writing in both Spanish and English and the challenges of translation. Find Glowrot: No way out of Wonderland on the Bookshop list, and pick up a copy to support Lebrun and the press here.
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To our Beloved Community,
We are offering the opportunity to become Patrons in our Elemental Membership Tiers! Help us publish MORE marginalized voices!
Water, Fire, Earth, Air, & Enlightened!
Join us in uplifting queer voices as you help us grow.
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As an Earth Tiered Patron, you are the rock that grounds us when fights come knocking. Our community is strongest when we stand together, and you help us reach wide and far. Earth is the home of all life known to man, and it’s that terrestrial energy that will manicure our paths to the garden of life.
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As an Air Tiered Patron, you are the voice behind our collective. You give breath to those who struggle and peace to those who worry. You tumble into our closed fists and lead us to tomorrow. May your voice carry us far, as we work to elevate those around us. Without leaders like you, we’d all be lost. May you ever reach new heights.
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As an Enlightened Tiered Patron, you are the visionary of tomorrow’s world. You are the director of leaders and the inspiration for mythologies. You are the philosopher of our times, and we are humbled by your divinity. May the more others look to you, the more love you receive in this life of scarcity. Enjoy the bounty of your community, and may you see no feat as out of reach.
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Four Elements Press is accepting submissions to a Queer Writers’ Short Story Workshop with Gay Author and Editor Alexander Casillas. Accepted writers will craft a short story with 1-on-1 session guidance to produce a work for publication in the Queer Writers’ Short Story Anthology. – Our first Semi-Annual short story workshop collection!
Submit writing sample to: Contact@fourelementspress.com
Sample submissions can be full length or except short stories: two pages minimum.
Submission is free, but *When Requested* the selected workshop writers will be asked to pay a 150.00USD fee.
Submission to the workshop includes up to 3 1-hour Zoom sessions for 1-on-1 short story craft discussion and review.
- Spots are limited.
- The Workshop will run through the end of October. For Publication in Winter 2025. Author agrees to schedule workshop time before the end of October, or hour sessions are forfeited.
- Authors will have the opportunity to craft a new work, or take an existing work to the next level with editorial guidance. It’s our goal to feature Queer writers in a variety of genres and writing styles in the anthology.
- An interview feature through the Four Elements Press LGBTQ+ Author Interview Series.
- This is another step we are taking to help build a Queer literary community where the next big queer voices emerge. We hope to grow this series into the place people find their next favorite author.
- Anthology stories are anticipated to be between 3,000-6,800 words.
- See “Important Statement” Below for Workshop Terms.
About the Editor
Alexander Casillas is the publisher of Four Elements Press and author of The Immortal Philosophers series.
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Important Statements:
The press retains exclusive rights for the publication of the author’s work as part of the anthology, including all print and digital formats. These rights are held for the purpose of furthering the press’s mission of uplifting queer voices. The author retains the right to publish their work in other venues (e.g., as part of a personal collection or in a different publication) as long as the anthology’s initial publication has been completed and proper attribution is given to the original anthology.
No royalties will be paid directly to the author for their individual contribution to the anthology. All proceeds from the publication will be retained by the press and reinvested to support its mission of uplifting queer voices. This revenue will be used for future publications, operational costs, and community outreach.
The writer agrees to meet the publication deadlines for the anthology. Four Elements Press reserves the right to edit the submitted work for style, clarity, and length. The final version of the work, including all edits, will be at the sole discretion of the press. Final drafts received after the specified deadline will not be considered for publication.
*The writer understands the publication deadlines of the anthology and will produce a final copy to be published at the discretion of the press. Four Elements Press reserves final judgement and drafting of the published work. Work not submitted by deadline forfeits the opportunity of publication.
The author is responsible for attending all scheduled one-hour conversations. In the event the author is unable to attend a scheduled session, the session will be considered forfeited and will not be rescheduled.
To keep workshop costs low, the press is not obligated to provide a complimentary copy of the finished anthology to the featured writers. Copies will be available for purchase from the press or its distributors at standard pricing after the publication date.
- Your submission to the workshop program signifies your full understanding and acceptance of all terms outlined
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TM Thomas is an advocate and strong proponent of women’s rights. She is a member of the LGBTQ+ community and has a strong desire for access to more inclusive and diverse literature. TM recognizes that people are able to use literature as a way to connect to the world at large and hopes that they are able to see themselves in her books. TM earned a BA in psychology and sociology and a master’s in social work. Playing It Straight is her debut novel.
The most important this is that you realize you get to define yourself – Playing it Straight
Lily Everett spent her entire life following along with what was expected of her; she never wanted to make waves. When senior year of college rolled around, she had a life that other girls envied- an awesome best friend, a spot on the cheerleading squad, and the dream boyfriend. Everything was perfect…until a stranger made her rethink everything and turned her world upside down. The day Lily met Charlotte Ramos, her life started to rearrange. Pulled together like magnets, Lily wasn’t sure where the line blurred between friendship and more. This new relationship made Lily stop going with the flow and fight to be herself, whoever that truly was.
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Claim your Element with a Tiered Donation to our Anthology!
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This series will be the heartbeat of Queer Literature, with semi-annual releases that will blaze the paths for LGBTQ writers into professional publishing.
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New Jersey – Philadelphia Area – Manhattan Area
Tea, experienced like this, is therapy.
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Explore fatherhood and the writing process with gay author host Alexander Casillas and gay author/podcaster Jameel Mayers. Find Mayers’ Fiction & Non-Fiction novels through our Bookshop List below to help support our fellow author and our press. A little support goes a long way in helping grow the queer literary culture and the community of Four Elements Press.
Fatherhood Podcast:
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This is a LGBTQ-led & Oriented Initiative
WE HOPE:
This series will be the heartbeat of Queer Literature, with semi-annual releases that will blaze the paths for LGBTQ writers into professional publishing.
To Support:
- Donate through this page
- Free-subscribe to our LGBTQ+ Author Interview Newsletter/ YouTube series, where we feature author interviews and where all of the exciting news about the anthology will be first shared!
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Claim your Element with a Tiered Donation!
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Take Part in Building the Future of QUEER LITERATURE!
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Donate to support the creation of our First Semi-Annual “Queer Voices” Anthology! Where we will work with 10-15 LGBTQ+ writers to craft 10-15 short stories to be featured in each edition!
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The Fifty-State Delusion
Every few years, someone at the DNC pulls Howard Dean’s old playbook off the shelf and treats it like gospel. They dust it off, talk about grassroots, and preach the idea that Democrats should compete everywhere. They tweet about expanding broadband in Nebraska. They send field organizers into deep-red counties in Idaho. They produce campaign videos with students from red-leaning suburbs talking about reproductive rights. The message is clear: if we show up, we can win.
They’re not wrong to want that. But they’re wrong to believe that’s enough.
I don’t say that lightly. I came of age politically in the wake of Dean’s movement. I believed in it. Hell, I benefited from it. The idea that Democrats could be competitive anywhere if they showed up everywhere was a powerful antidote to the fatalism that defined red-state liberalism for decades. We were told to organize in every county, register voters door-to-door, and build permanent infrastructure—not just drop in with a robocall and disappear.
But in 2024, after 20 years of preaching the gospel of “everywhere,” the results were clear: it didn’t work. Or rather, it stopped working.
If you want to know how we got here, you need to understand two things: demographics don’t vote, and hope doesn’t govern. The DNC has built an entire generation of strategy on vibes—on the dream of a 50-state future where every American voter might, one day, feel heard. But we’ve mistaken outreach for outcome.
This isn’t a condemnation of organizing. It’s a plea to be honest about what organizing can and can’t do under the current system. You can outwork the GOP in Alabama for six months, but you’re not beating a +30 Republican baseline with vibes and van rides. You can knock every door in Missouri, but if a voter’s deepest identity is that they hate “wokeness,” it doesn’t matter how compelling your Medicaid expansion argument is.
Democrats are spending time, talent, and treasure in places that are structurally, culturally, and electorally rigged against them. And while that’s morally understandable, it’s strategically suicidal.
Take Florida. The Democratic Party poured tens of millions into the state over the past decade, convinced that demographic shifts—especially among Latino voters—would flip the state blue. What happened instead? Ron DeSantis won reelection by nearly 20 points. Republicans won control of Miami-Dade. And Democrats lost nearly every competitive seat, even as abortion rights and gun control polled well statewide.
It’s not just that Democrats lost. It’s that they lost after doing everything they were “supposed” to do: youth turnout, Spanish-language ads, suburban persuasion, voter registration drives. None of it cracked the shell.
Meanwhile, Arizona—a state with fewer electoral votes, but better structural conditions—was starved of attention until the final stretch. When Democrats finally went all-in, they won the state. Twice.
This isn’t just about money. It’s about priorities. Political capital is finite. Every dollar you spend trying to win over a voter who fundamentally hates your existence is a dollar you didn’t spend turning out the ones quietly hoping you’ll fight for them.
Texas might be the most dangerous mirage of all.
Democrats have been chasing Texas since Bush was governor. And to be fair, the long-term math once looked promising: growing cities, diversifying suburbs, and a rising Latino population. But time has exposed a painful truth—Latino voters are not a monolith, and conservative cultural identity often trumps progressive economic messaging.
The left told itself a story: that demography would deliver victory. But reality bit back. Voters in South Texas shifted right. Republicans doubled down on evangelical outreach, oil and gas populism, and law-and-order rhetoric. The result? Democrats have stalled out in statewide races for decades, coming close only once—and even that required historic turnout, anti-Trump energy, and a charismatic candidate who was practically invented in a lab to appeal to both Austin and Amarillo.
Today, Texas Democrats still don’t control a single statewide office. The statehouse remains gerrymandered beyond reason. And yet, national Democrats continue to treat it as a crown jewel in waiting.
At what point do we admit it might not come?
This country is not built for national consensus. It’s built for regional entrenchment. The Senate guarantees that Wyoming gets the same vote as California. The Electoral College gives outsized weight to rural, white, aging voters. And the House is still shaped by gerrymandering so intense it borders on cartoonish. Add to that a Supreme Court captured by a reactionary bloc, and you have a system in which geography matters more than ideology.
We are not a 50-state party. Not really. And the sooner we stop pretending, the more we can focus on building power where it’s actually possible.
That doesn’t mean abandoning red states. It means redefining success within them. Maybe it’s not about flipping the state—maybe it’s about flipping a school board. Maybe it’s not about a Senate seat—maybe it’s about a ballot initiative, a local prosecutor, a mayoral race. Those things matter. But they require a different kind of investment. One that centers lived reality, not presidential fantasy.
Imagine what the Democratic Party could do with all the resources currently funneled into pipe dreams.
You could double down on turnout operations in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona—states that actually decide presidential outcomes. You could fund full-time organizing staff in North Carolina, which is competitive but often neglected. You could invest in defending voting rights and reproductive access in the courts. You could build media ecosystems to counter right-wing propaganda in places where voters are reachable but underserved.
You could, in other words, win.
But that requires giving up the dream of being liked everywhere. It means embracing the reality that some voters cannot be persuaded, and some states are too far gone—for now. It means treating politics like what it is: not a morality play, but a contest of power.
Democrats have spent too long trying to be the party of everyone. But pluralism doesn’t mean suicide. And fairness isn’t a strategy when the other side is burning books, rigging maps, and pushing constitutional conventions.
Yes—constitutional conventions. While we waste millions trying to flip Iowa, Republicans are laying the groundwork for an actual Article V convention to rewrite the Constitution. They’re not just playing to win; they’re playing to rule.
If Democrats don’t wake up, they’ll keep getting outmaneuvered by a party that doesn’t care if it ever wins another majority—so long as it never has to give up power.
Here’s what the post-2030 landscape looks like if nothing changes: population shifts accelerate in blue states, deepening the imbalance in the Senate and Electoral College. Young people continue to cluster in urban centers, making it even harder to win suburban-rural districts. Climate disasters, economic shocks, and conservative media will radicalize the right further. And every election the Democrats narrowly win will be treated as illegitimate by a movement that no longer believes in democracy.
The time to adapt is now. Not later. Not once we “hold the House.” Not once we “flip the statehouse.” Now.
This is not a call to retreat. It’s a call to choose our battles. To stop throwing good money after bad. To reject the delusion of 50 states and embrace a strategy of decisive, measurable, unapologetic power.
The old map is dead. It’s time we stopped marching in circles trying to resurrect it.
Because if we don’t, the only thing we’ll be competing for in 2036 is who gets to write the obituary.
To Trent’s Substack Article
Recommend TRENT HAS THOUGHTS to your friends
Essays, rants, and personal dispatches from a Southern strategist turned writer. Politics, memory, creative recovery, emotional wreckage, and the occasional text you’ll regret reading twice.
Follow Trent Harrington on Substack & Threads
About the Author
Trent Harrington lives in Nashville, studied political communication at The University of Alabama, built an award-winning agency, and led successful campaigns across the South. His work lives at the intersection of storytelling, strategy, and the stubborn hope that ideas still matter.
About the Author
Trent Harrington is a Nashville-based strategist, storyteller, and creative obsessive with deep roots in Alabama. He studied political communication at The University of Alabama, built an award-winning agency from the ground up, and led successful campaigns across some of the toughest terrain in Southern politics. His work lives at the intersection of memory, grit, and gay defiance – equal parts strategy and soul.
More by Trent:
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Ryan Mathew Schulz was born in Perth, Western Australia 1988.
As a graduate of John Curtin College of the Arts and a lover of all things theatrical, growing up in the world’s most isolated city made Ryan fascinated with life outside the borders of WA – as did the stories of Mr. Stephen King! Holding 8 years of a career as a drag queen, they tossed aside the wigs to tap into other artforms, discovering circus, burlesque, and cabaret through the Fringe World Festival.
Relocating to London in March 2017, to further pursue the arts, Ryan held 5 solid years working in those industries and now, works in commercial theatre on the West End. They enjoy writing stories that bring people into the sparkly glimmering worlds they’ve been part of, giving readers a taste of some fabulousness and grit!
The story follows the eternal battle of the curse of the vampire, choosing between the sunlight and the shadows.
What will your choice be?
“Filament Lit Nights” invites you to wonder what it would feel like to leave everything you ever knew behind. To start a fresh and bloody life. A young man named Thomas arrives at the Cliffs of Dover, readying to end his life, when his attention is drawn to bright filament lit lights strung around a funfair, and a large thick striped black and white big top. There, a cast of vampires offers Thomas an extraordinary and intriguing future, filled with confidence, strength, newfound independence, sex, self-discovery and blood. A modern-day travelling vaudeville made up of vampires – travelling and seeking the misfits of the society.
“Sounds around the big top soon filled with screams, tears, POP and CRACK! The orderly and conformed humanity to which they’d entered in on was all too quickly unravelled as hidden away truths were confronted – their deep and buried animalistic like natures rose to the surface in a reactive response of fight or
flight.”
“They each looked out to the sea. All from different walks of life, but now all on the same path and with that of the same curse. It was a curse, but it was not holding any of them back. In actual fact, it had brought each of them together. They were now each as individuals, stronger for it.”
GB&T is a Queer-Horror trilogy written by Ryan Mathew Schulz. The series, is inspired by the industries in which Ryan has spent their life – burlesque, cabaret and drag – with themes around sex, sexuality, polyamory and equality. Each book follows the journey of a character named Michael, who battles to control his emotions and rational thinking, after being diagnosed with certain illness. This, leads him into some very precarious positions. Sometimes, regretful ones. Usually, deadly ones.
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“I dream of mycelium, of a world where no one ever has to feel alone.” – Tayler Simon, Black Madonna
Tayler Simon is a poet, book store owner, and advocate for all down in South Carolina. As a queer author and business owner, Simon is pioneering her way into State House conversations, and into the hearts of every readers through her tabling at weekend market events and popups. Simon has a “Liberation Podcast,” as she platforms and shares Indie Author stories and helps others publish through her work: “Writing Our Truths A Guide to Self-Publishing for BIPOC Writers.”
Follow Simon and her work, and support her everywhere she is! We can’t wait to have Tayler back for more talks and readings.
Authors: Sign Up for Tayler Simon’s “Liberation is Lit Podcast“ SIGN UP
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A philosopher, a billionaire, and a senator are quietly building the end of democracy. Here’s your crash course.
Let’s talk about the Dark Enlightenment movement and its proponents.
First, what is Dark Enlightenment?
The Dark Enlightenment is a political movement that wants to get rid of democracy and replace it with rule by powerful elites, backed by technology and strict social control.
Its proponents don’t think everyone should be free. In their future, freedom isn’t a right. It’s something you earn by being rich, smart, or useful. Everyone else? Tracked. Filtered. Controlled by AI. You’d still have a job. You’d still pay taxes. But you’d never get a say.
They want Christian Nationalism but high-tech. This isn’t church and state. It’s code and control. The press gets shut down. Schools get cleared out. A single ruler gives the orders. You don’t vote. You’re assigned a role.
They think inequality is good. Curtis Yarvin, the guy who wrote the plan, thinks people should be ranked by class, race, and IQ. He believes some people are just meant to rule. And the rest aren’t.
They’re using AI to crush opposition. Peter Thiel’s company, Palantir, is already being used by law enforcement and ICE. This isn’t about innovation. It’s about building tools to watch, predict, and silence people before they even act.
This isn’t a warning about the future. It’s already started. JD Vance is in the Senate. He talks about jailing reporters. He calls for punishing political enemies. He’s backed by Thiel. He reads Yarvin. He’s not hiding it.
That’s the plan. And they are executing it.
Curtis Yarvin began publishing under the name Mencius Moldbug (yes, fucking for real. Mencius Moldbug) in the mid-2000s. His work wasn’t satire. It was an instruction manual. Yarvin argued that democracy is a dangerous fiction. He believes that institutions like the government, universities, and the media reinforce progressive values and prevent meaningful change. His solution was not to reform them. It was to replace them.
He proposed a new system of governance: a permanent CEO-president who runs the nation like a startup. No elections. No legislature. Just order. His ideal citizen is not a voter but a shareholder. He believes the president should be able to invoke emergency powers, dissolve Congress, and fire the entire federal bureaucracy. He even published a step-by-step guide explaining how it could legally be done.
Peter Thiel read those essays. And he agreed.
In 2009, Thiel wrote, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” He sees modern democracy as slow, sentimental, and captured by the weak. He has invested in projects to build private cities outside the reach of U.S. law, and his company Palantir has developed predictive surveillance tools for use by ICE and police departments across the country. He built Palantir to track, sort, and predict human behavior.
Thiel isn’t just an observer. He’s an architect. He funds campaigns and intellectual projects that align with Yarvin’s worldview. He spent $15 million to elect JD Vance to the U.S. Senate.
Donald Trump is not meant to be the leader of this movement. He is a puppet, not the master. He is a useful idiot who, soon enough, will be out of the way.
Vance is no longer pretending to be a populist. He has said the federal government should seize the assets of liberal nonprofits. He has argued that journalists should be prosecuted for publishing disinformation. He supports using the Department of Justice to target political opponents. He praises the authoritarian governance of Hungary and has called for similar models in the United States.
He’s stated we may be in a post-democracy moment. He believes the Constitution is not sacred. He believes Christianity should shape public law.
This is not a fringe movement. It is coordinated, well-funded, and deeply embedded in Silicon Valley, right-wing think tanks, and parts of Congress. Yarvin wrote the vision. Thiel funds the tools. Vance is normalizing the power grab.
They’re not storming the Capitol. They’re rewriting the rules. Quietly. Permanently.
It is not trying to win elections. It is trying to make them irrelevant.
And it’s working.
A writer (Yarvin), a billionaire (Thiel), and a Vice President are working toward the same goal: to end democracy and replace it with a government that can’t be voted out. They are building it with money, software, and laws. It’s already happening.
Recommend TRENT HAS THOUGHTS to your friends
Essays, rants, and personal dispatches from a Southern strategist turned writer. Politics, memory, creative recovery, emotional wreckage, and the occasional text you’ll regret reading twice.
Follow Trent Harrington on Substack & Threads
About the Author
Trent Harrington lives in Nashville, studied political communication at The University of Alabama, built an award-winning agency, and led successful campaigns across the South. His work lives at the intersection of storytelling, strategy, and the stubborn hope that ideas still matter.
About the Author
Trent Harrington is a Nashville-based strategist, storyteller, and creative obsessive with deep roots in Alabama. He studied political communication at The University of Alabama, built an award-winning agency from the ground up, and led successful campaigns across some of the toughest terrain in Southern politics. His work lives at the intersection of memory, grit, and gay defiance – equal parts strategy and soul.
More by Trent:
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Sink into struggles and triumphs of Texas gay life with Michael Mendez Guevara and Alexander Casillas. Mendez Guevara is a recently out gay man who had a career as a high school teacher in Texas schools. He discusses his experiences inside and outside of the classroom, while recounting heartwarming stories about the students who inspired him to finish his debut! The Closest Thing to a Normal Life was published by Piñata Press, and is available through our LGBTQ Author Bookshop Store!
Mendez Guevara has two other books he is shopping around, so we have much to discuss as those reach their releases. We’ll have Michael back for a reading of his work, and be sure to follow him where he is!
Shop for all the books by our LGBTQ Authors who interview with us, all in one place! At Bookshop!
Our LGBTQ Directory & Author Interviews:
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Elon Musk doesn’t need to win a single state. He just needs your attention.
There will be no new political party, not really.
- There will be tweets
- There will be memes
- There will be a logo that looks like a military contractor married a crypto startup
- Maybe even a press conference streamed on X where someone says “the system is broken,” where Elon nods.
But don’t be fooled.
Elon Musk is not building a party to serve the country. He’s building a party to serve himself.
- If he builds one at all
If he funds a candidate, it will be for his own interests. It’s is also possible that he apologizes and claims he and Trump have found “common ground.” He’ll say he was “out of line,” DOGE is actually “doing great work,” or maybe a Trump threat will scare him.
I think that’s the most likely scenario. This is deflection and theater. A distraction from the damage being done by MAGA Republicans, and a way to improve his image. I don’t trust Musk or Trump. Not for a second. I do, however, believe they’re smart—or at least surrounded by smart people—and ruthless.
This isn’t about democracy. It’s about leverage.
And Musk has what no third-party disruptor has ever had:
- A massive audience
- A compliant media ecosystem
- An existing, supportive Super PAC
- Access to behavioral data on hundreds of millions of Americans through Twitter/X, Tesla, SpaceX
- And, coincidentally, a newly assembled nationwide voter database matched with information ranging from your tax returns to your speeding tickets
He doesn’t need to win the presidency. He just needs to keep the ‘system’ broken enough that he gets to choose who does.
And choice is now an illusion, too.
Your vote still matters.
Your voice still counts.
But not really.
Here’s the setup:
By 2028, the Democratic Party has fractured.
Years of frustration with incrementalism, corporate influence, a bloody intra-party primary in 2026, and cautious messaging have finally broken the coalition. Disillusioned progressives and younger voters peel off to back a new movement—this one led by a charismatic candidate who says what they want to hear.
Let’s say it’s Ro Khanna. Tech-savvy, labor-friendly, and rhetorically bold, he becomes the face of the New Democrats. Call it a populist-left challenge to the party establishment.
At the same time, a new force rises on the right: the America Party.
Founded with tech money and dressed up in startup aesthetics, it champions “common sense” politics rooted in old Freedom Caucus values—national debt reduction, limited government, deregulation, and libertarian principles. Add in anti-wokeness, crypto optimism, and vague promises of AI-powered efficiency, and it markets itself as post-partisan, responsible, and forward-looking.
Together, these two breakaway factions pull just enough voters from the center-left and center-right to fracture the field. And that’s all it takes.
The numbers don’t need to lie.
The math already does.
Let’s play it out:
In a battleground like Pennsylvania, the vote breaks like this:
- GOP: 38%
- Democrats: 36%
- New Democrats (Ro Khanna): 15%
- America Party (some asshole like Mo Brooks): 9%
- Others: 2%
The GOP wins the state with a plurality, not a majority.
That’s how most states award electoral votes: winner-take-all.
Even though the combine left vote is 51%, it’s split across two candidates.
Same on the right.
The GOP walks away with every electoral vote in the state.
Do that in Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan?
They hit 270.
But that’s just one path.
Here’s the other:
Let’s say the America Party wins just one small state.
Utah. Alaska. Nebraska’s 2nd district.
Now no one reaches 270. The election goes to the House of Representatives.
And in the House, it’s not about population. Each state gets one vote.
Republicans currently control a majority of state delegations.
They pick the president.
And that’s not the end of it.
Musk’s America Party could spend $500 million and win 10 to 15 House seats.
- Enough to fracture any majority.
- Enough to demand concessions from either party.
- Enough to block progress, jam up appointments, and act like the adults in the room while quietly backing GOP priorities.
They don’t need to govern.
They just need to control what passes.
That’s real power. And it’s unaccountable.
What’s their message?
We’re here to fix gridlock.
We’re not left or right.
We’re common sense.
We’re the future.
But every decision tilts right.
Every coalition they enable weakens the left.
And every outcome benefits the same class of billionaires who never had to choose a side because they bought the map.
Don’t say it can’t happen.
- 1992: Ross Perot gets 18.9% of the vote. Wins zero states. But Bush Sr. blames him for losing.
- 2000: Ralph Nader gets 2.7%. Gore loses Florida by 537 votes.
- 2024: Andrew Yang’s Forward Party raises alarms in Democratic circles for this exact reason-even though it fizzled.
This time is different. This time it’s powered by:
- AI
- Wealth
- Platform control
- Behavioral data
- And by people who think government is just another operating system they can reboot.
The America Party wouldn’t be a new option. It would be a controlled option.
- It wouldn’t have to win
- Just exist
- Fracture coalitions
- Hijack close races
- Hold Congress hostage
- And hand MAGA power again and again while pretending to stand above it all
And Elon Musk? He gets to be kingmaker, meme lord, and chaos engineer. All at once. All while claiming he’s just here to help. He’s here to save America.
Do I think this is likely? No. Probably not.
But while we’re all having fun during the Musk/Trump catfight, we shouldn’t forget a few things:
- Elon Musk is not your friend
- Nothing he says is honorable
- His loyalty is to himself
- And he’s certainly not here to save America
Maybe Elon Musk still just wants to throw his own “America” party.
Recommend TRENT HAS THOUGHTS to your friends
Essays, rants, and personal dispatches from a Southern strategist turned writer. Politics, memory, creative recovery, emotional wreckage, and the occasional text you’ll regret reading twice.
Follow Trent Harrington on Substack & Threads
About the Author
Trent Harrington lives in Nashville, studied political communication at The University of Alabama, built an award-winning agency, and led successful campaigns across the South. His work lives at the intersection of storytelling, strategy, and the stubborn hope that ideas still matter.
About the Author
Trent Harrington is a Nashville-based strategist, storyteller, and creative obsessive with deep roots in Alabama. He studied political communication at The University of Alabama, built an award-winning agency from the ground up, and led successful campaigns across some of the toughest terrain in Southern politics. His work lives at the intersection of memory, grit, and gay defiance – equal parts strategy and soul.
Subscribe to never miss an article in the LGBTQ Authors Series or from the other important voices and topics we share at Four Elements Press.
Click for Submissions and Literary Services
Schedule writing/publishing consultations on Patreon or contact us below.
Make a one-time donation
Make a monthly donation
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
Discover more from FOUR ELEMENTS PRESS
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.