Fourth & Democracy: Tactical Vests Hit Neighborhoods, Trump Vanishes, & Indonesian Unrest
Plus: More atrocities in Israel and Trump wants credit for 'saving college football."
Welcome to another edition of Fourth & Democracy.
The president has barely been seen in public since Tuesday. A man who lives for the spotlight — starved for attention — has been MIA, and the public deserves to know why. Meanwhile, the internet lit up with liberal influencer drama after Taylor Lorenz’s bombshell reporting, college football kicked off, and unrest continues to spread across the globe amidst an authoritarian push.
We’ve got a lot to cover this week. Let’s get into it.
1st & 10: The Rise of Weighted Vests
Guys fully bought into the brosphere, fitness nuts, even soccer moms — you’ve probably seen them marching through your neighborhood strapped into military-style weighted vests. What started as “rucking,” an Army training exercise meant to simulate long combat patrols under heavy gear, has gone mainstream.
In the height of the Forever Wars, capitalism turned military culture into a lifestyle brand. Tactical workouts hit CrossFit boxes, plate carriers became merch, and now suburban morning walkers are basically cosplaying a deployment.
Yes, experts say weighted gear can boost cardio, muscle, and bone strength — but they also warn it comes with risks, especially as people in their 30s start fighting natural muscle loss. Neck, shoulder, and back injuries aren’t just possible; they’re common.
Take it from a former soldier: carrying that kind of weight every day doesn’t make you tougher. It just breaks you down. And the militarization of your morning walk? That’s a heavier cultural weight than anyone needs to be strapping on.
2nd Down: Trump Saved College Football?
Arch Manning stumbled in his first road start at Ohio State. Ninth-ranked LSU stunned No. 3 Clemson in Death Valley. Our TVs were packed with wall-to-wall action as the season kicked off — millions betting, canceling plans, and sinking into couches to watch the next wave of college stars take the field.
But the weekend wasn’t without distractions. At a cabinet meeting last week, the president claimed — with zero irony — that he “saved college football.”
What he’s really pointing to is his new executive order: one that bans third-party pay-for-play deals, imposes revenue-sharing “protections” for women’s sports, and directs the Labor Department to reevaluate whether student-athletes are employees. On paper it looks like reform. In practice, it strips star athletes of earning power, locks their peers into the same broken system, and weaponizes Title IX as cover to attack LGBTQ+ and trans athletes.
That’s not saving college football. That’s using the game as a Trojan horse for authoritarian culture-war policies.
3rd & Long: Influencer Uproar over Taylor Lorenz’s Exposé
We all know who Trump is. He’s an animalistic grifting douchebag who treats the country like a casino he’s bleeding dry for the mob. And we all know what the GOP is at this point — either full-blown fascists or the cowards who let it happen. That part of the equation isn’t new.
But here’s the thing: when someone calls out Democrats or the ecosystem of liberal influencers who’ve hitched their brand to party-line causes, they aren’t above reproach. And it certainly doesn’t mean those influencers get to band together and try to torch the reporter who dared to call them out. That’s exactly what we saw this weekend when Taylor Lorenz (love her or hate her) dropped her WIRED investigation into the Chorus Creator Program — a dark-money incubator that’s been spending up to $8,000 a month to handpicked influencers, with strict nondisclosure clauses about who’s funding them and what they can or can’t say.
The documents Lorenz uncovered show contracts that read less like a mentorship program and more like a political comms agreement: Don’t disclose your participation, let Chorus approve or even force takedowns of your content from Chorus-organized events, and route your meetings with lawmakers through the program. In other words, it’s astroturf with a shiny progressive coat of paint.
Instead of reckoning with that, the blowback was immediate and vicious. Big-name Democratic creators went on the attack, painting Lorenz as everything from a liar to a “Nazi sympathizer.” Some threatened lawsuits. Others tried to wave it off as a smear. The whole thing spiraled into a pack-mentality defense of the tribe that liberal members of the party too often fall into — not a serious discussion about transparency or whether this model undermines the very trust they claim to be building.
Let’s be real: Republicans run influencer slush funds with nondisclosure contracts and secret takedown authority — we’ve even seen some accept Russian money — and every single one of these people scream bloody murder when it happens. And they’re right to do so. But when it’s your team doing it suddenly the rules don’t apply? Suddenly questioning it makes you a Trump supporter or the enemy? That’s the exact same cult logic they run on — and it should scare the hell out of anyone who actually cares about democracy.
The bottom line is — if you want to beat fascism, you can’t fight it by quietly replicating its tactics in-house. You can’t demand accountability from the other side while running cover for your own. And you sure as hell can’t threaten journalists for doing their job. That’s not saving democracy. That’s corroding it from within.
America, but Make It North Korea
Flags will wave in the evening breeze. Jets will roar overhead. Abrams tanks will crawl down Constitution Avenue in a carefully choreographed show of strength.
4th & Democracy: Where is the President?
For a guy who lives for the spotlight, five days off the grid is radio silence that sets off alarms. Social media lit up with speculation:
“Where’s Trump?”
“#TrumpIsDead”
“Is that him?”
Even Republicans were whispering, with J.D. Vance oddly suggesting in an interview that he’d be ready “if tragedy struck.” Meanwhile, the White House fed us echoes: recycled photos from June 28, grainy facsimiles that didn’t look quite right, and no live press access. No answers.
The public noticed. And it spiraled into chaos. At one point, the press corps literally reported not seeing the president at all. Camera lids. Blank schedules. Stock galleries. Every move screamed red flag.
Then, at what felt like the 11th hour, Trump — or his team — finally broke the silence. He was “spotted” heading to the golf course with his grandkids in Sterling, Virginia. But the optics were anything but reassuring: shadowy, staged, and clearly delayed. Photos only field the rumors.
Here’s the hypocrisy: When Joe Biden stumbled, the press ripped him apart daily, demanding to see every step and every slip. But when a malignant narcissist who craves attention vanishes for nearly a week, the media shrugs. Radio silence amid visible signs of decline.
And the silence isn’t just deafening — it’s suspicious. Social media trends shifted overnight. Bots swarmed comments and timelines. Threads tweaked its algorithm Sunday morning in ways that almost felt coordinated. The goal was clear: bury the questions.
This isn’t just a double standard. It’s a dangerous precedent for presidential transparency — and the media is enabling it. We deserve answers, like yesterday. Because how the hell do you lead a nation if you can disappear for five days and expect us to clap when they trot out a lookalike in golf gear?
Overtime: Israel’s Genocide
Israel has cranked its assault up another level this week. Airstrikes and gunfire ripped through Gaza City, killing at least 30 people — including civilians standing near a food line and families inside their homes. The city has now been declared a “dangerous combat zone” as the IDF openly plots a full takeover by mid-September. Translation: more forced displacement, more starvation, more dead bodies.
At the same time, Israel stretched its reach beyond Gaza, striking Houthi leadership in Yemen’s capital and killing their prime minister along with other top ministers. The Houthis answered by raiding UN offices and detaining humanitarian workers — proof that Israel’s war isn’t staying contained to Gaza, it’s destabilizing the entire region.
And looming over all of it are the ICC warrants hanging over Netanyahu and his generals for crimes against humanity — starvation as a weapon, collective punishment, the stuff we swore “never again” about. Yet the bombs keep falling, the starvation continues, and the world shrugs while continuing to send Israel support.
This is genocide. These are war crimes. And with a ground invasion already happening, the worst may not be behind us — it may just be getting started.
2OT: Unrest in Indonesia
Indonesia is burning, and the reason couldn’t be more clear: lawmakers tried to give themselves a massive pay raise while the people can’t afford to live. Parliament pushed through a housing allowance worth around 50 million rupiah a month — nearly ten times Jakarta’s minimum wage — at the same moment ordinary Indonesians are drowning under rising food prices, collapsing job security, and brutal taxes (sound familiar?) That’s not just greed. That’s gasoline on a fire.
The protests started with workers, students, and ride-hail drivers demanding better wages and reforms. Then came the breaking point, 21-year-old driver Affan Kurniawan was run down and killed by a police armored vehicle during the demonstrations. His death lit the fuse. Suddenly it wasn’t just marches — it was torched government buildings, looted mansions, and parliaments set on fire.
President Prabowo scrambled to do damage control — suspending perks, canceling overseas trips, even pulling back his own China visit. But it was too little, too late. The people saw exactly who the elites are: out-of-touch, insulated, and arrogant enough to treat the country like their own personal piggy bank.
This isn’t unrest; it’s a reckoning. And unless the Indonesian government confronts the real economic pain of its people, the flames won’t die down anytime soon.
See, it works when the people work together.
What to Watch
NFL Opener — NBC, Peacock, Hulu
The NFL kicks off its season on Thursday Night Football this week with a matchup between last year’s Super Bowl Champs, the Philadelphia Eagles, squaring off with the Dallas Cowboys. Jalen Hurts and the guys look to start their season off with a win against a now Micah Parsons-less Cowboys. You can catch a full slate of games on Sunday across the NFL network, NBC, ESPN, and other networks.
Hasan Piker: This should be bigger news… — Youtube
Queer Eye For the Straight Guy — Netflix
Yeah, I said it. Go watch Queer Eye — it will change your perspective on a lot of things. In a time where a lot of young men are insecure with themselves and the LGBTQ+ community, a lot of them need an education and a little empathy. I first watched Queer Eye with my wife and it blew my mind. This group of gay men goes into people’s home (every kind of person you could imagine) and do nothing but make them feel better about themselves and get them pointed in the right direction.
We need some joy in our lives right now and Jonathan Van Ness and the guys are the perfect group to bring it. You can find all of the seasons on Netflix now.
What to Read
Everything Lincoln Square.
With the drama that unfolded last week over influencers and who is being upfront and honest about what they are putting out there in the media — now is as important a time as ever to support Lincoln Square.
Listen to me, these are good people who love democracy. I was just a fan, a regular dude who was concerned with the state of our country and wrote about it. Lincoln Square believes in voices like mine and they believe in opportunities to put real truth out there — from real people.
Here is a list of our esteemed colleagues:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , me ( ) and more.Your support of this organization and the people that make up the fight for democracy is something we couldn’t be more grateful for.
The Final Word
We’re on the edge of a dangerous moment in our economy — and I don’t think it’s getting nearly enough coverage outside of maybe Ed Elson. He pointed out last week that collapsing economies in the developing world almost always share one thing: a strongman at the top who seizes the central bank and installs a loyalist. Once that happens, inflation spirals and the economy craters.
That’s the playbook Trump is reaching for now. The fight over his attempt to oust Fed Governor Lisa Cook is still unresolved, but if he succeeds, it would be an unprecedented step — the executive branch bringing the Fed to heel. Layer that on top of sweeping tariffs and a deliberately weakened dollar, and the American dream could start looking a lot more like the Venezuelan nightmare.
The independence of the Federal Reserve isn’t some technocratic detail. It’s the thin line between economic stability and collapse. Break that line, and we’re all going to feel the cost.
Stay loud. Stay grounded. Stay up.
 | A guest post by
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THANK YOU FOR CALLING THE GENOCIDE A GENOCIDE
The Final Word, Paragraph 1: I always like to remind people that the civil unrest that comes with a collapsed economy inevitably leads to emergency measures: martial law, canceled or taking control of elections - the very thing that keeps the perpetrators who caused the unrest in power. This is the nail-in-the-coffin power grab.