Fourth & Democracy | Trump’s AI Trolling, An LSU Star Robbed Of a Future & A Crackdown Brought To You by Coors Light

Welcome to this week’s Fourth & Democracy,

It felt like the lights flickered a bit this week — and when they came back on, our country looked a little darker.

In Chicago, Border Patrol agents were seen body-slamming American citizens in the street like it was occupied territory. The president posted AI propaganda videos set to “Here Comes the Reaper,” and his supporters treated it like campaign art instead of an authoritarian warning. It’s starting to feel less like a democracy struggling through chaos and more like fascism tightening its grip.

Abroad, the chaos kept going. A fragile agreement for Hamas to release hostages was tossed aside when Netanyahu resumed bombing Gaza, killing civilians and burying any hope of diplomacy. And back home, the sports world collided with justice again — serious questions are emerging around the case of former LSU football star Kyren Lacy, raising hard conversations about fame, accountability, and the immediate response from law enforcement and the media in a life altering decision.

It’s been one of those weeks where every headline feels like a test — of our patience, our empathy, and our belief that this country can still pull itself back from the brink.

Let’s get into it.

1st & 10: Trump’s Shutdown Shitposting

While millions of Americans are watching bills pile up in a government shutdown, Trump was watching his engagement numbers. The self-proclaimed “jobs president” spent the week shitposting his way through a crisis by sharing AI propaganda that mocked, threatened, and distracted.

First came an AI video of Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero and fake mustache, dancing to mariachi music — Trump’s way of painting Democrats as the party of “illegals” getting free health care while working-class Americans suffer. Then came “Here Comes the Reaper,” a grim-reaper-themed AI video starring Trump’s Project 2025 inner circle — Russell Vought swinging a scythe through Washington, Trump playing cowbell, J.D. Vance on drums. It was fascist propaganda as performance art. Absurdity weaponized to distract from the fact that he’s the one destroying the economy.

And it worked.

Jeffries took the bait. Instead of hammering home how Trump’s shutdown hurts ordinary Americans through missed paychecks, shuttered services, delayed benefits — Jeffries turned the conversation to healthcare. It’s a noble issue, but politically? It’s a trap. Republicans have spent years turning “immigrant health care” into a scare tactic, claiming Democrats want to give free coverage to undocumented workers. What Jeffries didn’t remind people is that it was Ronald Reagan, the conservative icon himself, who signed the law guaranteeing emergency healthcare for immigrants. The right’s entire outrage cycle is built on their base forgetting that.

But the larger failure is strategic. Democrats still don’t seem to understand that this fight isn’t about fact-checking Trump. Like Rick Wilson said in a recent conversation, it’s about framing him as the reason Americans are suffering.

The shutdown message should be simple and relentless:

“Trump is hurting you. You can’t afford your groceries, your rent, your medicine — because billionaires and the Trump regime are playing games with your government and shipping your tax dollars overseas.”

Every day this shutdown drags on, Democrats should be naming what Americans are losing and who is taking it from them. Because the truth is, Trump isn’t leading a movement. He’s holding a country hostage, and every shitpost is part of the ransom note.

2nd & Long: LSU’s Kyren Lacy Was Robbed of His Future

Kyren Lacy was supposed to be celebrating his shot at the NFL draft this spring. Instead, he died alone in Houston — a 24-year-old Black man who never got the chance to clear his name.

Lacy’s death came just two days before a grand jury was set to review charges from a December crash that killed a 78-year-old woman in Louisiana. Police accused him of reckless driving and hit-and-run, claiming he caused a chain-reaction crash. The headlines branded him a killer before a single piece of evidence was heard.

The truth? Now emerging months later, it tells a different story. Surveillance footage and distance analysis show Lacy was roughly 70 yards behind the crash when it occurred. He wasn’t close enough to have caused it. The district attorney’s report, now public, found there was no link between his car and the collision. His attorney says investigators ignored inconsistencies, mishandled witnesses, and omitted key facts that could have cleared Lacy early on.

By the time that evidence surfaced, the damage was done. Media outlets had already run his mugshot. The NFL rescinded combine invitations. Commentators turned a young man’s fear into spectacle. And under the weight of that public backlash — the panic, the hyper vigilance, the humiliation — Kyren Lacy broke.

He was a talented athlete, a son, a teammate, and a young man whose life was consumed by a narrative written for him. Law enforcement failed him. The media failed him. And a system that rushes to criminalize young Black men before hearing them out failed him most of all.

Kyren Lacy didn’t die because he was guilty. He took his own life because this country wouldn’t let him prove he wasn’t.

3rd & Short: Does Netanyahu Own Trump?

Last week, Trump stepped forward with his “negotiator-in-chief” hat on — announcing that Israel had accepted a pause and that Hamas would start releasing hostages once they confirmed. But beneath the headlines, Israel kept bombing. It was another ceasefire PR veneer with actual conflict moving along as business as usual.

This mismatch in realities isn’t accidental. For years, Trump has stacked the deck for Netanyahu. He relocated the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. He formally recognized Israeli claims over the Golan Heights. He slashed American funding to Palestinian aid agencies. And now, in his second term, he’s vetoed U.N. ceasefire resolutions that challenge Israel’s operations while death tolls mount.

And don’t think the political strings behind this are purely foreign. AIPAC and its entities operate deeply inside both parties. They finance hostile campaigns, reward loyalty, and threaten dissenters. Their spending flows into primaries and general elections, reinforcing a bipartisan consensus around Israel policy that leaves no room for independent maneuvering.

Meanwhile, there’s the ghost in Trump’s closet: the Epstein files. Despite denials and never ending litigation, multiple reports throughout his second term have tied Trump’s name to DOJ files and they informed the president. Even without charges, the looming possibility of a scandal constricts how aggressively he can play with powerful foreign leaders — especially when the child predator you’re tied to was rumored to have ties to the country you’re protecting.

So, who owns whom? Not literally. But in practice? Trump is tied to Israel. His foreign-policy plays revolve around a relationship he cannot control. Netanyahu gets his headlines and his endgame. Trump gets to look strong and Nobel Peace Prize-like — until the lights go out, the bombing resumes, and he’s left trying to look like he held the line.

4th & Democracy: The Crackdown Has Begun (Brought to you by Coors)

If you still need proof that Project 2025 wasn’t just a think tank fantasy — look at Chicago and Portland. The crackdown has started.

In Chicago, ICE and Border Patrol agents stormed protests and immigrant neighborhoods with full military-style tactics and aggression. Viral footage shows citizens — not criminals — being body slammed, tear gassed, and dragged across pavement. In one clip, a young woman screams as Border Patrol agents shove her face into the street. In another, local police stand by a Border Patrol agent slams a man for standing in the wrong place. The Trump administration has called it a security measure. Governor J.B. Pritzker called it what it is — state-sanctioned brutality — before federal troops were deployed anyway.

Out west in Portland, the playbook was repeated. Protesters outside the ICE facility were met with riot shields and flash-bangs. A local journalist was struck by projectiles while filming. And when Oregon challenged the legality of Trump’s National Guard deployment, a federal judge issued a temporary block, leaving the door open for the next wave if SCOTUS so chooses.

None of this is improvised; it was all planned. It’s Project 2025 in action — the Heritage Foundation and Russell Vought’s blueprint for authoritarianism. It calls for mass deportations, expanded executive power, and the dismantling of civil service independence. What we’re seeing now is the hard launch: violence as political theater, bait for citizens to enter the streets, and pain for anyone who resists.

The bitter truth? The Heritage Foundation, the architect of this fascism, was founded and funded by the Coors family (yes, that Coors). Joseph Coors gave the seed money from the Adolph Coors trust that built the Heritage Foundation empire. That same fortune now bankrolls the policies and power structure trying to turn federal agents into a domestic army.

So the next time you reach for a Coors Light on an NFL Sunday, know exactly what you’re toasting. This isn’t just about beer. It’s about funding the machinery that’s choking democracy on our own streets.

If you want to hit back — boycott Coors. Every dollar you withhold is a dollar that won’t fund the Heritage Foundation’s fascist projects. Have principles and drink something else.

Recent Drops & Reviews

2025 Apple Event

Apple’s big fall event was less revolutionary and more routine — as has come to be expected — but it still delivered. The iPhone 17 lineup dropped with sharper cameras, faster chips, and a better battery life — solid upgrades even if the design feels familiar. The new AirPods Pro 3 were the real highlight of the event: stronger noise cancellation, adaptive sound, and live translation. It’s Apple doing what Apple does: refining, not reinventing.

Battlefield 6 (October 10th)

Early reviews say this year’s Battlefield feels like a return to form — crisp gunplay, explosive destruction, and maps that finally make sense again. There are warnings of chaos beneath the polish: cramped Rush maps, twitchy pacing, and cheating already seeping in. The feel is real but online play risks losing the soul. If post-launch support holds, this could be Battlefield’s big comeback — if not, just another beautiful multiplayer mess.

What to Watch

Monster — The Ed Gein Story (Netflix)

Netflix’s latest entry in Ryan Murphy’s Monster anthology, The Ed Gein Story (released October 3, 2025), digs into one of America’s darkest figures — and the culture that bred him. Set in 1950s rural Wisconsin, the series follows Gein (played with eerie restraint by Sons of Anarchy star, Charlie Hunnam) as he descends from lonely farmhand to the Butcher of Plainfield.

Murphy leans on historical accuracy more than past installments: Gein’s obsession with Nazi medical journals and “anthropodermic” pornography is explored as a grotesque reflection of the post-WWII era — a time when the horrors from Europe seeped quietly into American life. The show traces how isolation, religious repression, and trauma forged the monster who later inspired Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Silence of the Lambs.

It’s not easy viewing. But unlike cheap true-crime voyeurism, Monster: The Ed Gein Story confronts the twisted marriage of loneliness, ideology, and neglect that made American evil feel homegrown — and still does to this day.

How to Get Involved

Democracy isn’t a spectator sport — and in 2025, sitting on the sidelines is a vote for the people trying to end it. The system isn’t just cracking; it’s being dismantled.

Here’s some ways to fight back:

• Show Up on October 18th.

The No Kings protest will take place nationwide, with rallies in cites that have been occupied — D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, and Portland — as well as places near you. The message is simple: no more crowns, no more cults, no more fear. Bring an American flag, bring your voice, and bring someone who’s never protested before.

• Join a Local Democracy Defense Group.

From Indivisible to Protect Democracy to grassroots veteran-led networks, local chapters are organizing legal observers, voter registration drives, and rapid-response teams.

• Vote — and Volunteer.

County clerk races, school boards, and ballot initiatives matter. The far right has learned that power hides in local offices. Don’t let them keep it.

• Cut Off the Money Pipeline.

Boycott companies funding authoritarian projects — starting with Coors, which bankrolls the Heritage Foundation and its Project 2025 blueprint. Every purchase has become political.

• Use Your Platform.

Whether you have 10 followers or 10,000, your words carry weight. Share real news. Challenge disinformation. Tell people what’s happening and why it matters. Democracy doesn’t die overnight; it dies when good people stay comfortable. Get uncomfortable. Be loud. Support independent media. And on October 18, make sure they know — there are NO KINGS in America.

Stay loud. Stay grounded. Stay up.

Evan Fields is a veteran who also writes the Weekly Wrap for Lincoln Square and News from Underground Substack.