Fourth & Democracy | Sports World Surprises, Republicans' Reefer Madness & Remove the Regime Rally in D.C.

And a bonus guide to surviving family Thanksgiving.

Welcome back to Fourth & Democracy, the Lincoln Square newsletter that meets at the intersection of culture, politics & sports.

The NFL and NBA are both hitting their stride as we head into the holidays, but the real action isn’t just on the field or the court. The federal government suddenly has a renewed obsession with policing THC, Hollywood is dealing with a jaw-dropping homicide case involving a touring singer and a dismembered body found back home, and one of Lincoln Square’s own – Michael Fanone – helped lead the charge at the Remove the Regime rally in D.C. this weekend.

Here’s what we’ve got this week:

1st & 10: MPJ’s Mouth is Out of Control, Stafford’s Bad Back Holding Strong, and Lebron is Back

The sports drama hasn’t slowed down heading into the holidays, and someone in the Brooklyn Nets’ comms office desperately needs to get Michael Porter Jr. under control. After already catching heat for referring to “women” as his vice while discussing his brother’s gambling case, Porter jumped back into controversy on Lonzo Ball’s podcast by claiming an eighth-grade boys team could beat a WNBA roster – using his middle-school scrimmages against future pros like Fever player Sophie Cunningham as “proof.” The WNBA didn’t let it slide. Legend Angel McCoughtry snapped back that dominating women as a 13-year-old isn’t an accomplishment, then laid out the reality: women play through cycles, pain, pregnancy, and still dominate. “Kobe never talked like this. Bron never talks like this,” she said. Exactly. It might be time for MPJ to humble himself and rethink how he talks about women – and stop handing out free ammo to the worst corners of sports culture.

And then there’s Lebron James – in his 22nd NBA season, he made his Lakers season debut last week. He’s broken Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s regular season minutes played record, and it’s truly stunning to see him still dunking, passing, and possibly leading his team to a title when most athletes have long since retired.

While the NBA is busy dealing with grown men acting like middle-schoolers, the NFL is in full swing headed toward a playoff picture beginning to take shape.

As we head out of the trade deadline and into the playoff hunt, the NFL is finally coming into focus. The Los Angeles Rams might be sitting near the top of every power ranking at 9-2, but even they found help by grabbing Roger McCreary to patch up their secondary. Real shock hit the league when the New York Jets shipped Sauce Gardner to Indy and Quinnen Williams to Dallas – moves that instantly changed the math for both teams. The Rams, New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, Indianapolis Colts, and Philadelphia Eagles control the playoff hunt for now, but one bad Sunday changes everything. For every team outside that top five, the mission is simple: clean up mistakes, win those coin-flip games, and hope you become a contender in January’s run.

2nd & Long: Reefer Madness in 2025?

The shutdown deal Trump signed didn’t just reopen the government – it’s dropping the hammer on one of the fastest growing, most accessible pain management markets in the country. Buried in the bill was a provision that effectively recriminalizes most hemp-derived THC products – delta-8, delta-10, THCA flower, and even many CBD gummies and tinctures – by slapping a ridiculous 0.4 total THC cap per package on anything consumable. Not per serving. Per package. For context: most gas station or grocery store “legal hemp” items carry anywhere from 10 to 50 mg per gummy. This isn’t regulation. It’s prohibition dressed up as consumer protection.

The move comes after years of elected officials complaining about “hemp loophole,” where low-dose THC drinks and gummies exploded into a billion dollar gray market after the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp under 0.3% delta-9 THC. Instead of passing age rules, testing standards, or basic labeling laws, Congress – with Trump’s blessing and Mitch McConnell’s finger prints – went for the kill. They didn’t even try to fix the system, only burn it down. Entire industries: the Texas hemp market, the THC-seltzer wave, and countless corner store distributors – now face federal criminal exposure by 2026.

And here’s the part no one wants to talk about: this is a direct hit to veterans, disabled people, and working-class users who turned to low-dose CBD or hemp-THC because they can’t afford a dispensary, their state doesn’t have a medical program, or because the VA hands out opioids but still treats cannabis like it’s cocaine. A lot of vets use hemp-derived products to sleep, manage chronic pain, or keep PTSD symptoms in check without getting wrecked or risking arrest. These products – a legal alternative to federally illegal cannabis – are now functionally banned. And for disabled people who rely on CBD oils that contain trace amounts of naturally occurring THC, the new cap wipes out half the market. These aren’t stoners – they’re patients doing what our healthcare system refuses to do for them.

Backlash has already begun. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is yelling about “21st-century Reefer Madness.” GOP Rep. Nancy Mace (yeah, we know) is warning this will wipe out farmers who followed the rules Congress wrote. Hemp advocates are calling it a political hit job to protect alcohol, big cannabis, and the same moral-panic crowd that’s been recycling this propaganda since the 1930s. The quality of the anti-weed scare videos has changed. The thinking hasn’t.

Reefer Madness is back – but this time it’s federal, bipartisan, and aimed squarely at working class people, veterans, and a hemp industry Washington allowed to grow just to burn it down.

3rd & Short: Los Angeles Singer Suspect in Dismemberment

Pop singer d4vd is at the center of a twisted Hollywood murder that reads like a script. In early September, workers at a tow lot in the Hollywood Hills flagged down cops over a foul odor emanating from a Tesla registered to the rising alt-pop star d4vd (real name David Anthony Burke). Inside the trunk of the car? The body of a teenage girl wrapped in a bag, brutalized, and decomposed. A police source told investigators that the victim was identified as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had gone missing from Lake Elsinore, California the previous year.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the Tesla had been parked on a public street in the Hollywood Hills for weeks before being towed. Investigators believe Rivas died weeks before the discovery because her remains were partially frozen or preserved along with being dismembered before being disposed of. The coroner’s office told police that the cause of death would most likely remain “undetermined” due to the nature of the body. The singer is not cooperating with authorities and has so far avoided arrest. His U.S. tour and upcoming album were both canceled along with brands like Crocs and Hollister dropping him from campaigns.

The details only get more strange. Both Rivas and d4vd had a matching “Shhh…” tattoo on their right index fingers. An unreleased song titled “Celeste” surfaced online, fueling speculation. And the fact pattern of a rising singer, a missing teen, and a decomposing body found in the trunk of his car has created the perfect storm. A true-crime spectacle colliding with viral stardom. The kind of Hollywood nightmare that spirals across the internet long before the police finish their reports.

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4th & Democracy: Michael Fanone and Thousands Stand Up to the Regime

Last weekend was a sight to see in Washington D.C. – something our nation’s capital hasn’t seen enough of lately: thousands of everyday Americans showing up. They stood at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, shoulder to shoulder in the cold, to demand one thing the regime in power fears most: accountability. It wasn’t partisan. It wasn’t performative. It was people recognizing that when the guardrails break, the only thing we have left is each other.

One of the voices at the front of the crowd was someone familiar to all of us here at Lincoln Square: Michael Fanone, former D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer and now host of Protect & Serve with Maya May. Michael didn’t come to give a speech that makes the rounds on social media and then gets buried under a news cycle. He came because he knows exactly what happens when a government stops fearing the people and starts trying to replace them. He lived it on January 6. He carries the injuries of it every day. And on Saturday, he channeled it into a message of urgency, “I am done waiting. I am done playing by their rules.”

The Remove the Regime rally wasn’t small by any means. It wasn’t some fringe spectacle. Reports estimate tens of thousands of people filling the space between the memorial and the reflecting pool – families, veterans, young organizers, labor groups, federal workers, Gen Z and kids holding handwritten signs. The atmosphere wasn’t despair. It was defiance. It was democratic energy. It was people who have been told they’re powerless deciding they’re not buying it anymore.

Through the No Kings protests, the Remove the Regime rally, and a growing populist surge among Democratic and Independent voters, the Trump regime is finally on its heels. People have watched their quality of life nosedive while the president and his cabinet wine and dine through gilded state dinners and private jet date nights – and we’ve had enough. The American people are speaking out – louder, more often, and with far less fear than they were a few months ago. As Michael put it last weekend, we are done waiting. We are done playing by their rules. And once a country decides it’s finished being controlled by people trying to rob it blind, the tide turns fast.

What to Watch

Stranger Things (Netflix)

Stranger Things returns this week with its final season – and it’s already shaping up to be the biggest TV event of the year, right when America already feels like we’re living in the upside-down. Eleven and the gang are back to try and save Hawkins once and for all with each episode in the final season rumored to be over an hour and a half long.

NFL Thanksgiving Lineup (Fox, CBS, NBC)

The Green Bay Packers are in Detroit to square off against the Lions for the first game of the Thanksgiving Day lineup at 1:00pm ET on Fox. Next up is Travis Kelce and the Chiefs battling the Cowboys in Dallas on CBS at 4:30pm ET. And finally, we’ll see the Cincinnati Bengals head to Baltimore to face the Ravens at 8:20pm ET on NBC.

What to Read

Overtime

We’ve officially made it to “the holidays,” that magical time of year when gratitude meets mashed potatoes and gravy … and sometimes chaos meets your dining room table. Thanksgiving is this week, and many of you will be gathered with people you love – and some you tolerate out of tradition, obligation, or sheer cosmic cruelty. There will be the uncle who is six beers deep before the turkey hits the table and suddenly decides he knows geopolitics. There will be raisins where they shouldn’t be and it’ll send seasoned cooks into emotional distress. And somewhere between those mashed potatoes and the third round of pie, someone will bring up Dear Leader.

Your patience may be tested. Your will might get pushed a little. But this year, with a world as chaotic as it is, protect your peace. You don’t owe anyone a debate. You don’t owe anyone a performance. And you certainly don’t owe MAGA Uncle Bill a full PowerPoint presentation on why gilded state dinners with murderous dictators don’t exactly scream “drain the swamp.” Let them wrestle with their ignorance and contradictions. Watching someone defend a regime that flies on private jets for date nights when they couldn’t even bring the pie they promised, is a comedy bit on its own.

This Thanksgiving, give yourself permission to step outside, take a breath (or a walk with your cousin, wink wink), or find a quiet room if things get too loud. Laugh when you can. Diffuse when you want to. Or simply choose not to engage. You deserve a day where the biggest question is if you want seconds, not whether you hate America.

Find your gratitude in the people who make you feel at home, in the food you worked hard to prepare, and in the moments of calm that still exist even when the world feels like it’s off its axis. Afford yourself the day off from the chaos. Enjoy your company, or your solitude. Enjoy your peace.

And remember: the work of protecting democracy doesn’t pause for the holidays – but you are allowed to.