Controlling the Checkbook: Science Under Attack

Controlling the Checkbook: Science Under Attack

In this episode of The Overlap, host Joshua exposes a major 2026 regulatory power grab buried inside a 412-page Washington document: Docket OMB-2026-0034! 🚨 By converting federal grant guidance into binding law, political appointees could veto scientific research and cancel active studies based on political loyalty rather than evidence. 🤯 Connecting modern bureaucracy to the tragic history of Soviet botany, the episode reveals how your boredom is weaponized to dismantle scientific autonomy. 🦠🌾🔍📈💸 https://fof.foundation [https://fof.foundation]

The Moat Around the Whitehouse: Democracy at Risk

This week, we’re looking at the White House going full Baghdad “Green Zone”. FDR built a 1942 bunker so the Republic would outlive the man; today, they are pouring concrete for a $400 million ballroom “shed” over a secret military complex to make sure the man outlives the institution. Bypassing courts and a $1B budget hike—stay close to the house, it’s still yours. https://fof.foundation [https://fof.foundation]

One Big, Fugly Son of a Bill: OBBBA & Your Healthcare

There’s a recording from 1971. Two men in a room. One of them becomes a felon. The other becomes the president. What they agreed to that afternoon is the reason your insurance just denied your claim. Nobody talks about this tape. We’re going to talk about this tape. Solo episode. Will’s off doing something more fun than healthcare policy. Guardrails off. Twenty-six days ago, a woman named Shmeeka Simpson — who works three jobs, none of which offer health insurance — became one of the first Americans subject to a new rule that decides whether she gets to keep seeing a doctor. She’s terrified. She has good reason to be. She’s been through this before. Not with healthcare. With something else. A 30-year-old in Kearney named Crystal is in a closed loop she can’t think her way out of. You’ll understand when you hear it. Forty percent of rural hospitals in this country are operating at a loss right now. The ones doing the math don’t like what the math is telling them. Neither will you. In this episode: → The two-word phrase a president said in 1971 that built the system you’re living inside → Why the “but Canada has wait times” argument falls apart the second you ask one follow-up question → The Arkansas experiment nobody wants to talk about — and what it predicted with terrifying accuracy → The number that makes Speaker Johnson’s “young men on couches” speech mathematically impossible → The quiet line in the bill that has nothing to do with work requirements and might be the most devastating part → What a television doctor running Medicare means for the woman behind you in line at Dunkin’ → Why this bill got signed on the Fourth of July (the date is not an accident) We’re not doing a policy explainer. We’re doing the autopsy of a 50-year project — and the moment, three weeks ago, when it accelerated into something we haven’t seen before. By the end, you’ll know exactly what to do this week. Whether you’re on Medicaid or not. Whether you’re in a red state or a blue one. Whether you still have Republican friends or — like me — lost most of them somewhere along the way. This one’s for you. Specifically you. Pull up a chair. 🎧 fof.foundation 🦋 Bluesky + Mastodon 📬 Wherever you get podcasts Thanks for living. Thanks for listening. That’s the Overlap. https://fof.foundation [https://fof.foundation]

1776: The Fund is the Foundation

The pardons were the headline. The $1.776 billion is the foundation. This week DOJ stood up an “Anti-Weaponization Fund” — paid from the Treasury, never passed by Congress — and won’t rule out cutting checks to the people convicted of attacking the Capitol. Joshua goes solo to trace the mechanism: how a government reclassifies the people who attacked it as victims, then pays them, while purging the prosecutors who built the cases. We’ve run this play before — after the Civil War. Sources and full transcript below. The fund itself — announcement, mechanics, $1.776B / Judgment Fund / Dec. 2028 sunset / five-member commission: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs — “Justice Department Announces Anti-Weaponization Fund” (primary source): https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-anti-weaponization-fund [https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-anti-weaponization-fund] TIME, “What to Know About the DOJ’s New ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’”: https://time.com/article/2026/05/18/trump-doj-anti-weaponization-fund-irs-lawsuit-settlement/ [https://time.com/article/2026/05/18/trump-doj-anti-weaponization-fund-irs-lawsuit-settlement/] PBS NewsHour: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/justice-department-announces-a-1-7-billion-anti-weaponization-fund-fund-to-compensate-trump-allies [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/justice-department-announces-a-1-7-billion-anti-weaponization-fund-fund-to-compensate-trump-allies] The Hill (Blanche “machinery of government” quote; Stacey Young / Justice Connection): https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5883454-doj-launches-anti-weaponization-fund/ [https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5883454-doj-launches-anti-weaponization-fund/] The IRS lawsuit settlement, Judge Williams “stripped of jurisdiction,” 93 House Democrats, Treasury GC resignation: ABC News: https://abcnews.com/US/trump-court-filings-plans-drop-10b-lawsuit-irs/story?id=133066043 [https://abcnews.com/US/trump-court-filings-plans-drop-10b-lawsuit-irs/story?id=133066043] NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-voluntarily-drops-10-billion-lawsuit-irs-leaked-tax-records-rcna345193 [https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-voluntarily-drops-10-billion-lawsuit-irs-leaked-tax-records-rcna345193] CBS News (Caputo $2.7M claim; “for the sole use” memo): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/who-could-benefit-from-trumps-1-7-billion-weaponization-fund/ [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/who-could-benefit-from-trumps-1-7-billion-weaponization-fund/] CNBC (Senate hearing; Morrissey resignation): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/19/trump-doj-irs-fund-blanche-payouts-jan-6-rioters.html [https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/19/trump-doj-irs-fund-blanche-payouts-jan-6-rioters.html] Who’s eligible / Vance & Blanche won’t rule out Jan. 6 payouts / “anybody can apply” / Coons on Keepseagle: TIME, “Vance Defends Possible DOJ Payouts to Jan. 6 Rioters”: https://time.com/article/2026/05/19/vance-defends-1-8-anti-weaponization-fund/ [https://time.com/article/2026/05/19/vance-defends-1-8-anti-weaponization-fund/] ABC News (Blanche/Vance, Merkley questioning): https://abcnews.com/Politics/acting-ag-todd-blanche-faces-questions-17-billion/story?id=133107554 [https://abcnews.com/Politics/acting-ag-todd-blanche-faces-questions-17-billion/story?id=133107554] HuffPost (Van Hollen “pure theft”; Coons; Keepseagle): https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anti-weaponization-fund-todd-blanche-jan-6_n_6a0c6ce0e4b00b2edf7d81de [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anti-weaponization-fund-todd-blanche-jan-6_n_6a0c6ce0e4b00b2edf7d81de] CBS News, “All J6ers will apply” (lawyers rushing to file; Dan Backer; Oversight Project): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-anti-weaponization-fund-january-6-capitol-riot/ [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-anti-weaponization-fund-january-6-capitol-riot/] The “1776” symbolism / Proud Boys “1776 Returns” / prosecutor & researcher reaction (Jacob Ware, CFR): MSNBC / ms.now, “Jan. 6 prosecutors and officers see Trump’s $1.776 billion fund as a signal”: https://www.ms.now/news/trump-weaponization-slush-fund-jan-6-rioters-prosecutors-message [https://www.ms.now/news/trump-weaponization-slush-fund-jan-6-rioters-prosecutors-message] Officers’ lawsuit to block the fund (Harry Dunn & Daniel Hodges): CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lawsuit-trump-1-7-billion-anti-weaponization-fund-former-police/ [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lawsuit-trump-1-7-billion-anti-weaponization-fund-former-police/] NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/jan-6-officers-sue-18b-pot-call-slush-fund-insurrectionists-rcna346103 [https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/jan-6-officers-sue-18b-pot-call-slush-fund-insurrectionists-rcna346103] The opinion piece this episode’s argument is built from (DuBois “psychological wages,” Reichlin-Melnik “worse than Watergate,” Raskin via New Republic): The Intercept, “Trump’s ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Fund Is a Handout to His Hardcore Supporters”: https://theintercept.com/2026/05/19/trump-anti-weaponization-fund-jan-6/ [https://theintercept.com/2026/05/19/trump-anti-weaponization-fund-jan-6/] The 2025 purge of Jan. 6 prosecutors and FBI agents (Act Two): CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/31/politics/fbi-agents-who-investigated-january-6-fired/index.html [https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/31/politics/fbi-agents-who-investigated-january-6-fired/index.html] CBS News (Bove memo; Bondi “improper investigative tactics”): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-agents-on-jan-6-capitol-riot-trump-investigations-to-be-fired-sources-say/ [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-agents-on-jan-6-capitol-riot-trump-investigations-to-be-fired-sources-say/] MSNBC / ms.now (Ed Martin firing letters; “25–30” prosecutors; Trump “good thing” quote): https://www.ms.now/top-stories/latest/justice-department-prosecutors-fired-fbi-trump-jan-6-rcna190283 [https://www.ms.now/top-stories/latest/justice-department-prosecutors-fired-fbi-trump-jan-6-rcna190283] Rep. Raskin statement (House Judiciary): https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/ranking-member-raskin-s-statement-on-trump-s-lawless-and-dangerous-purge-of-fbi-agents-and-doj-prosecutors [https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/ranking-member-raskin-s-statement-on-trump-s-lawless-and-dangerous-purge-of-fbi-agents-and-doj-prosecutors] Pardons / clemency scope (≈1,600 defendants; 14 seditious-conspiracy commutations; >600 assault, ~175 weapons; 140+ officers injured): Reported across the TIME and NBC pieces above. Note on the historical material in Act One (Confederate pensions, the Lost Cause, the 1958 federal-equivalence law, Confederate widow pensions paid into the 2000s): these are well-established historical facts presented as the host’s own analysis/framing rather than from a single live source. If you want hard footnotes for the broadcast version, flag it and I’ll pull primary citations (state pension records, Public Law 85-425, UDC archives). https://fof.foundation [https://fof.foundation]

Class Action Nation: The Lawsuit is the Last Remaining Public Square

The picket line is gone and the regulators are captured. That leaves the class action as the last room where collective harm gets a name. ⚖️ From the 190° McDonald’s coffee to the internal Sackler emails, we’re diving into why the “greedy lawyer” framing is a corporate shield—and why the courthouse is the last public square left. Resources & Action Items Public Citizen: Visit citizen.org to find resources on fighting forced arbitration. Constitutional Accountability Center: Read their analysis on the Chamber of Commerce’s 70% win rate at the Supreme Court at theusconstitution.org. State Level Advocacy: Check NAAG.org to find your State Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division. Coty Inc. Shareholders: The deadline to request lead plaintiff status for the securities fraud class action is May 22, 2026. https://fof.foundation [https://fof.foundation]