S05E16 – Balogun’s Bump, Fauci’s Fraud, and Iranian Irascibility

We tackle three topics in this episode of Finding Common Battle Grounds. We start with the intervention by Donald Trump on behalf of the US Men’s National Soccer Team in the World Cup on behalf of Folarin Balogun. We all agree that FIFA is corrupt. We also agree that it’s harder to get more corrupt than Trump. Our general conclusion is that we want a World Cup that is just about the sport, and that Trump’s intervention added a taint to an event that was wholly unnecessary. We then turn to outgoing Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and her over-hyped report claiming to reveal the truth about Anthony Fauci. We agree that the report didn’t really provide new data. But Josh and Tom are convinced that the documents provide compelling evidence that COVID-19 came from a lab; Ryan can’t agree because the science isn’t there yet. Otherwise, we agree that Fauci was involved in funding gain-of-function research and lied. Finally, we turn to the initial framework for an agreement between the US and Iran to end the war (that had just restarted the night we recorded this) that was worked out in June 2026. Ryan argued that Obama had a better deal. Josh and Tom are skeptical. We discuss some of the details.