McGonigal investigation, the ballad of the balloon and more

• “House Judiciary Panel Wants

Info From FBI About Indicted ExOfficial Charles McGonigal”

In our weekend column ten days ago we questioned if FBI Counterintelligence Supervisor McGonigal had been recruited by Russian intelligence as far back as 2005 when he may have quashed an investigation he supervised of a suspected Russian spy.

Having dispatched our column to House Judiciary Committee Member Matt Gaetz (R-FL) we are delighted that he, along with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the committee, are seeking further information from the FBI about Mr. McGonigal.

In their letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray they specifically requested “All personnel records regarding Charles McGonigal, including but not limited to his work history.”

• “Spy Balloon Discovery:

China Insists it’s only a WeatherForecasting Airship that ‘Blew off Course…’”

And somehow “unintentionally” happened to find its way over ICBM silos in Montana, one of the most important military sites in the USA.

“Weather-forecasting craft” is what every country says at first about airspace spying missions, including our own—do recall the U-2 spy plane piloted by Gary Powers that was shot down in May 1960 over the Soviet Union.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Bao Ning told this bold-faced lie: “China has no intention of violating the territory and airspace of any sovereign airspace.”

BS-squared. Clearly, their spy satellites had not been collecting good enough intelligence and they wanted a closer look.

As for Bao Ning stressing hope “that both sides can handle this together calmly and carefully,” what he actually meant was: Hang tight and do nothing while we continue to remotely collect what we need.

• “Chinese Balloon was Meant to Send a Message that Beijing Believes U.S. is ‘in Decline’”

The U.S. has been in decline since 22 November 1963.

Meanwhile, back in our nation’s capital…

• “CIA Director William Burns Warns China’s President Xi Ordered His Military to be Ready to Invade Taiwan by 2027”

Could it be the Chinese plan to pull a Pearl Harbor and take out Montana’s ICBM’s before launching into Taiwan?

If so, here’s how: A high-altitude balloon carrying a nuclear bomb explodes at 120,000 feet causing an electromagnetic pulse that disables everything below.

Our elected representatives spend too much time wrangling over every conceivable cultural issue including those exacerbated by China on (anti)social media (especially Tiktok) instead of unifying to engage in strategic future-think. We react to crises rather than take a proactive stance to prevent them, which explains why we’re continually caught off guard and fumble our responses.

• “China Urges McCarthy Not to Repeat Pelosi’s Taiwan Trip”

As if China, which has turned slave labor into an art form and created a global pandemic, has any right whatsoever to tell