The Overlap

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The Overlap is a podcast brought to you by the Friends of the Future Foundation. We believe that the majority of folks wish for the best future for themselves and future generations, we want to gather that majority, help them identify each other, coordinate together, educate, and equip them to ensure the best future for ourselves and future generations.

  1. 1D AGO

    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 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/ PBS NewsHour: 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/ 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 NBC News: 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/ CNBC (Senate hearing; Morrissey resignation): 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/ ABC News (Blanche/Vance, Merkley questioning): 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 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/ 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 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/ NBC News: 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/ 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 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/ 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 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 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).

    33 min

  2. MAY 14

    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.

    1 hr

  3. MAY 7

    Add Water to the Tea: The Fine Art of Selling Empty Bags

    From the 1929 utility pyramids of Samuel Insull to the 2026 hype cycles of Silicon Valley, the names change but the math remains the same. This week, Joshua and William trace the “boring” pipeline of share dilution—a legal mechanism that consistently transfers risk from those in the room to those standing at the end of the line. We explore how “going public” became the actual product, why your disclosure forms are written in Greek, and how a single New Jersey deli ended up with a $100 million market cap. Before you buy the next big AI IPO, join us to learn why the “exit” was planned long before you arrived.

    1h 2m

  4. APR 30

    The Base Breaks: When the War Machine Loses Its Fans

    The American war machine is losing its base. In this episode of The Overlap, Joshua explores why loyalty is running out as a new conflict in Iran looms. From the 1971 veterans throwing medals to the 2026 recruitment crisis, the pattern remains: the institution protects itself while families absorb the cost. This is a structural collapse of trust. Failures like the Pat Tillman cover-up and the denial of burn pit claims reveal a machine that chooses reputation over the people who serve. Today, the VA faces budget cuts while the $1.7 trillion F-35 program remains fully funded. Recruitment is hollowing out in the South and rural Midwest. The people who know the military best are recommending it the least. This isn’t a marketing problem; it’s a verdict.

    52 min

  5. APR 23

    MAGA Built a War Machine and Now It's Pointing in the Wrong Direction

    This week on The Overlap, we’re exploring the ultimate “I never thought leopards would eat MY face” moment in American politics. Join Joshua and Will as they trace how a decade of “independent expenditures” and manufactured outrage built a shiny new political highway, only for a real estate developer and some very aggressive email marketers to steal the keys and drive it straight into a ditch of their own making. We dive into the high-octane engineering of WinRed’s “accidental” recurring donations—where your grandma’s twenty bucks became a hundred-million-dollar refund error—and the psychological warfare of the Stop the Steal fundraising machine. Watch as the “loyal” foot soldiers like Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes learn the hard way that a twenty-two-year prison sentence is just a “routing error” in a system that views human lives as disposable infrastructure. From Ronna McDaniel being discarded like a used tissue to rural hospitals in red districts getting the “efficiency” treatment from the world’s richest man, we follow the trail of broken promises and drained bank accounts. Because as it turns out, the machine doesn’t have a loyalty setting; it only has a “concentrate power” button, and it just realized you’re sitting in the way. States United Democracy Center (statesunited.org) Protect Democracy Project (protectdemocracy.org) Indivisible (indivisible.org) Election Reformers Network (electionreformers.org)

    51 min

  6. APR 16

    People For Rent: America has always treated foreign workers as a resource, not as people.

    Will’s got his 90s voice ready and Joshua’s got the receipts on a 70-year-old architecture that treats students like Cold War chips. We’re talking about the $40 billion revenue model that charges you to watch you, and what happens when the ‘raw material’ starts writing op-eds. It’s a labor story, not an immigration debate, and no, it’s not a conspiracy—it’s a line item. Touch grass, then listen. #OverlapPodcast #HigherEd #LaborRights #SEVIS

    55 min

  7. APR 9

    When Loyalty Becomes Currency: The New Architecture of Governance

    On January 20th, 2025, the revolving door didn’t just keep spinning. It lost its hinges. For 64 years we’ve watched the same pattern repeat: warning, scandal, regulation, scandal, repeat. But what happens when someone removes the friction entirely? When loyalty becomes the only credential that matters? This week we’re walking the documented architecture of how people move between government and industry, who profits, and what it costs everyone else. We’ll trace the paper trail from Eisenhower’s warning to today. And we’ll show you what Pam Bondi’s exit tells us about power in 2025.

    50 min

  8. APR 2

    Interview with a PD: Funding, Systemic Flaws, and What Needs to Change

    Want to know what it’s really like behind the badge for public defenders? Spoiler: It’s a mix of heartbreak, hustle, and systemic dysfunction that’s costing taxpayers billions—and justice. Today, we’re diving into the trenches with Seth Minetta-Dillon, a Travis County public defender, who spills the tea on underfunding, overwork, the myth of the “lesser” defender, and the systemic forces shaping the criminal justice landscape in Texas.

    1h 21m
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

The Overlap is a podcast brought to you by the Friends of the Future Foundation. We believe that the majority of folks wish for the best future for themselves and future generations, we want to gather that majority, help them identify each other, coordinate together, educate, and equip them to ensure the best future for ourselves and future generations.

Information

  • Creator
    FoFF
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    68
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    The Overlap