Podcast – The Castle Report

Darrell Castle talks about the riots in Los Angeles currently ongoing as well as attempts to put them down with National Guard troops and even U.S. Marines. The question, what does that portend for America and our future?

Transcription / Notes

ANARCHY AND TRUE CHAOS

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday, the 13th day of June in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about the riots in LA currently ongoing as well as attempts to put them down with National Guard troops and even US Marines and what that portends for America and our future.

I am recording this Castle Report as the chaos and anarchy rages on in the once great and beautiful city of Los Angeles California. Those words, chaos and anarchy, were the words chosen by Senator John Fetterman (D-PA). “I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that. This is anarchy and true chaos. My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement.”

Senator Fetterman’s party, the Democrat Party, at least the California branch of it, is apparently convinced that they are gaining a political advantage from the pain they have inflicted on their city and state. Governor Gavin Newsom is treating the event as a campaign launch for the 2028 Democrat nomination for the office of President. He makes tearful speeches and he blusters like a tough guy saying go ahead and arrest me and get it over with. I guess he thinks we are all on pins and needles awaiting his martyrdom.

The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, is at least presently in the state, unlike when she allowed two of the most beautiful cities in America Pacific Palisades and Malibu to burn to the ground just a few weeks ago. She and Governor Newsom turned in mutually disgraceful performances by allowing the city to burn and now, well they seem to have some weird affinity for fire. Newsom and Bass together have only one answer to the problems of Los Angeles and that is Trump did it. They have no answers, no policy solutions, just Trump must be responsible.

The recent presidential election and even current polling data seem lost on them. Never mind the reverse morality of letting your city be overrun by people crossing the border illegally. They don’t see the effect that thousands of people flying Mexican flags while burning cars, attacking police, looting etc. has on the rest of the country. The optics are very bad but they just don’t get it. They say the protests are peaceful and just over exuberance, while in the background fires are burning. It’s like that scene from the movie Police Story where Leslie Neilson’s character says nothing to see here folks please move along while the background has a view of Warsaw after the German invasion.

Bass and Newsom are representative of many politicians who focus on power plays of jurisdictional dispute and efforts to appeal to emotions for people who don’t want to go back to where they came from while Mr. and Ms. Average American are focused on the need for law and order. It’s pretty easy for a person living in my city of Memphis to see those videos and conclude, thank God I don’t live in LA where the politicians don’t seem to care anything about the people who elect them except as political talking points and numbers.

For a few days after the presidential election, it appeared that Newsom was pretending to move closer to the center because he noticed the results of pretending to be on the extreme left. Perhaps he noticed that illegal immigration was the number one issue to normal Americans so these riots were a perfect chance for him to appear sane. Just say a few words that might lead someone to think you care about law and order. Just give the appearance that you care about the lives and property of the people of California, but no, you just can’t seem to read the handwriting clearly on the wall.

Instead of law and order you say this; “He’s exacerbated the conditions. He’s lit the proverbial match. He’s putting fuel on this fire. Donald Trump needs to pull back. He needs to stand down. Donald Trump is inflaming these conditions. This is Donald Trump’s problem right now, and if he can’t solve it we will.” This man, Newsom, is pitifully out of touch with the reality of the situation. His regrets are not of the people whose property is being destroyed and certainly not for ICE agents and other law enforcement who are targeted for doing their jobs. People across the country could see the slick politician for what he really is.

If you want to talk about a bad look just look at the videos of people burning cars, throwing rocks, and now looting wrecked businesses all while waving Mexican flags. As the Babylon Bee paraphrasing George Bush put it, they do the rioting Americans just won’t do. These people obviously had difficult or unhappy circumstances in their own country and so they came here without the legal necessity of applying for entry. They riot and write death to America on the buildings they burn so one has to ask, why are you here. If you hate America, why are you here and why do you resist going back to the place that you obviously prefer. Why do you resist with violence the efforts of law enforcement to give you an all expenses paid trip back to where you came from.

Normal people must wonder, how could you choose foreign rioters over your own people. Isn’t your first obligation to your own. Your own would be your family first that is your wife or husband and your children who should come first, then those around you similarly situated. If someone kicked in your door and invaded your home would you mind. If someone kicked in your door, set fire to your car and home, would you mind. If someone burned your business and destroyed your financial way of life would you mind. If someone raped your wife or children would you mind.

Saying all that leaves me with a question and that is how you could choose people who do that over us normal people. I just don’t get it folks because many people repeatedly vote for politicians who pledge to do just that and I mean by that choose the perpetrators of violence and chaos over normal people. This situation is going down a very scary path and we might never be able to recover as people. The scary path is that Steve Bannon just might be right and we are at war. We are obviously constantly at war abroad as in Ukraine and the never-ending struggle for dominance in the Middle East but the war against Western Civilization is being fought in our streets right now.

War is a terrible thing and total war i.e. with fully committed resources is designed to kill and destroy and it doesn’t particularly care who gets killed. For example, the last total war was World War Two and in that struggle the allies sent 1000 bombers in a single raid over German cities with incendiaries and high explosives which killed hundreds of thousands. Were those civilians on the ground under the bombs innocent. That depends on how you look at it I guess because the people at home knew that if their own people were to be spared the war had to be won. They had an advantage over the normals of today and that was almost universal agreement on who should win. Now, after decades of propaganda in schools, under Marxist professors and with almost total media ownership by the left it is different.

Even with all that I still don’t get it. The people burning cars throwing rocks, destroying a once great city all while waving the flag of a foreign nation, I don’t get the attraction. My first reaction to anarchy and true chaos is apparently different from that of almost 50% of the population. My first thought is if they are illegal send them back and if they are criminals put them in prison then send them back unless you can work out a deal as was done with El Salvador to imprison them there.

This Castle Report, then, is not so much a report on what is happening but is instead my opinion of what that means. For example, this weekend the U.S. Army will celebrate 250 years of its existence. That is 250 years of sacrifice for our freedom and way of life in order to preserve it for future generations. I know what you must be thinking is that many of those wars were unnecessary but I’m not talking about the politicians I’m talking about the soldiers. They believed they were fighting for freedom and our way of life when they fought the enemies assigned to them by their civilian leadership.

This same weekend that we celebrate the army the revolutionary forces burning LA have announced a nationwide series of street protests which have a chance of morphing into LA in your neighborhood. Right now, in LA we have a kinetic battlefront in the ongoing war against the United States of America itself. This war is an effort designed to destroy this country so that it can fit nicely into the Great Reset of the World Economic Forum and the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations as well as whatever exists in the satanic minds of George Soros and Bill Gates.

This appears to me to be a well-organized resistance movement against the United States as a country. I’ve seen many videos of tactical gear of the kind the military uses being delivered to the rioters new and still in the original boxes. It has been planned alright and so the question is how we resist. I suggest it should not be by electing more Gavin Newsoms. His reaction is to file a lawsuit against President Trump. I have a copy of it on my desk but I decided not to spend my time on it today.

In conclusion folks, the effort to rip America apart from the inside out by tearing apart the very souls of our people must be resisted. I haven’t even mentioned the deployment of thousands of National Guard as well as 700 Marines from the 1st Division. The president said the Marines are there to protect federal property and I’m certain they can do that. I have some experience with the Marine Corps and I know that in my day we were offensive troops and you didn’t send us unless you wanted people to be dead. Deploying active-duty military inside the U.S. is problematic, granted, unless this really is looked at as war.

Finally, folks, do we have the right to have our own country. Do we have the right to exist as people who live in freedom and leave others alone. I submit that we do and I recommend that we get to work preserving that right now.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle talks about the recent attack on one leg of Russia’s nuclear triad and what that means for the United States, for Europe, and of course for Russia.

Transcription / Notes

ATTACKING THE NUCLEAR DETERRENT

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 6th of June in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about a recent attack on one leg of Russia’s nuclear triad and what that means for the United States, for Europe, and of course for Russia. This, I suppose, is the second part of my Castle Report which focused on the changing face of war and my conclusion that it means the end of the aircraft carrier as the dominant force of naval warfare, and the end of the tank as the dominant force of land warfare.

Yes, the blitzkrieg of Heinz Guderian and the great carrier battles are most likely relics of past wars now but the future of war looks even more terrifying to me. Why, well because death now comes from an unmanned robot controlled by some technician perhaps thousands of miles away in a Quonset hut, with little to no human interaction.

 Today  the attack by Ukraine deep inside Russia severely damaged Russia’s strategic nuclear delivery system. The three great nuclear powers, the U.S., Russia, and China all have what is normally referred as a nuclear triad which prevents any leg of the three-legged stool from keeping that nation from responding to a nuclear attack.

That triad consists of long-range nuclear bombers, submarine launched nuclear missiles, and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The triad of final nuclear defense prevents either of the three nations from final defeat in a total nuclear catastrophe which would leave the victor without much to celebrate. Over and over, I warn that total defeat of Russia is not possible while that nation’s missiles are still in their silos and their submarines still patrol the oceans.

Nevertheless, a few days ago Ukraine launched a massive drone attack 2700 miles inside Russia which destroyed several of Russia’s long-range strategic bombers. Initial reports said 41 planes destroyed, but even Ukraine admitted that the number was more like 13 destroyed and several damaged. The Russians say that only 5 were destroyed so we can conclude that some were destroyed but how many is anyone’s guess.

Apparently, these bombers were some of Russia’s most prized aerial assets and were vital to their nuclear triad. These aircraft were of a type no longer in production so replacing them will be very difficult and costly if it is even possible. In response, Russia of course launched its own massive drone attack inside Ukraine with 472 drones and 7 ballistic and cruise missiles. That will not be the end of the Russian response because Putin told President Trump in a recent phone call that he will have to respond so maybe the deep state is close to getting its war.

This attack was more than just a bold and aggressive strike deep inside Russia against Russian air bases, it was a glaring example of the new face of war that is unlike anything the world has seen before. The Ukrainians proved with one attack how outdated the old aircraft carrier on the seas and battle tanks on the land now are. They made their own aircraft carrier out of a semi-truck and transported that carrier full of armed drones into Russia using personnel who appeared to be Russian.

I have seen conflicting reports but recent after-action reports say 36% of Russian strategic aircraft worth about $2 billion were destroyed. This attack came on Sunday the day before peace talks were held in Turkey to try to resolve the conflict. It gave Zelensky a chance to brag about just having destroyed another chance at peace. Anyway, the peace talks went nowhere and reportedly lasted only 3 hours. So, all that work, preparation and expense apparently for nothing. Sometimes it seems to me that everyone in charge of anything is crazy. Maybe that’s a kind of quiet requirement of seeking and holding power. Only the truly insane need apply.

Mr. Zelensky made a speech at the start of negotiations which was part gloating and part thanks to Europe and America for sending their best weapons which allowed him to wound the nuclear bear. Quote from Mr. Zelensky.

“First, as before, our top priority is supporting our defense, and I’m grateful for all the support packages and for every investment in weapons production in Ukraine, and for the development of production in your countries as well. Europe, together with America has better weapons than Russia. Our operation, Spider Web, yesterday proved that Russia must feel what its losses mean.”

That is just a few lines from his longer speech but its meaning is pretty clear. It confirms to the world that this attack was from Europe and America against Russia, it seems to be the hot version of a war that has been raging against Russia since peace was declared in 1989. That peace was to end the cold war but it just passed from cold to hot. But, you say, that makes no sense and you are correct it makes no sense unless you are insane and want to gamble with the lives of everyone on planet earth. Apparently there are people anxious to do that very thing.

Since Mr. Zelensky gave America and Europe some credit for this attack against the Russian bomber fleet based all the way up in Siberia we should look at the actual planning and execution of that mission and for that we consult the CIA. To do that we have former CIA analysist, Larry Johnson as quoted from an interview with Judge Andrew Napolitano. He said that the U.S. would likely give President Trump plausible deniability so he could wash his hands of it. This attack was personally planned and commanded by Mr. Zelensky they tell us but I don’t need a CIA analyst to conclude that can’t be true. However, Mr. Johnson doesn’t believe it either. “Sorry, folks, but I don’t buy it. This attack was not something a guy like Zelensky, whose skill set being a former homo-erotic dancer and actor, was prepared for.

The official line is that the president did not know about it but his recent warnings to Mr. Putin might lead one to conclude that he was embarrassed by Mr. Putin’s refusal to accept terms and end the war. The president promised us he could end the war but every time he tries someone throws in a monkey wrench into his Nobel Peace Prize so perhaps the president was living up to his warning that something very bad was going to happen. Perhaps, on the other hand, this attack was planned before he took office and he really didn’t know because apparently he didn’t know that swarms of Ukrainian drones attacked Putin’s helicopter near Moscow.

Mr. Johnson concluded that this attack, which was 2700 miles inside Russia, and far away from the frontlines in Ukraine, had to have been orchestrated by NATO and the CIA. “In a NATO proxy war against Russia, with Ukraine serving as the proxy, somebody in Washington and/or London had to have been involved in an operation as sophisticated and strategic as the one that went down in Russia on Sunday. I guarantee you, at least one if not more officers, within the Central Intelligence Agency knew about this and may have been involved with the planning for it and the operation of it.”

When Judge Napolitano pressed him on how sure he was of CIA, MI6 or Mossad involvement he said: “100 percent. Just the operations of initiating, of turning the drones on. Think of the process. You’ve got them hidden under this roof, so the roof has to open up. That requires an external command. The reports are they were using the Russian phone network. Maybe? But I think Starlink, Elon Musk’s operation, was involved with this as well. It was reported that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was watching the attack in real time. Which means, if true, he absolutely knew it was coming on.”

So, Mr. Johnson, an experienced, street wise CIA analysist is 100% sure that someone in the CIA was at least aware of this attack and may have been involved in executing it. What does that tell us about the U.S. government. To me, saying the president didn’t know is not believable except for the plausible deniability excuse because I just don’t see Mr. Zelensky risking U.S. wrath even if he had the ability to do it. The only other possibility is that the CIA is now so independent that it is literally a separate government.

Is the president in charge of this country or is it the CIA as rumors suggest. This is a sobering thought because many voted for this man because he pledged to end the war. If he just can’t persuade them to stop fighting I would understand but what I don’t understand is why the U.S. continues to fund the fighting and bloodshed. I sound like a broken record, I know, but I am thinking that we are ruled by a tiny elite somewhere that really enjoys killing. If the president knew about this attack he loses credibility as a peacemaker.

Furthermore, I predict this attack will have the opposite effect that it was intended to have. Rather than bring Russia to the bargaining table as Mr. Zelensky thought it would I predict that Russian gloves are going to come of and we are headed for World War lll against Russia. It is a stupid murderous avenue to go down but that’s the way it appears to me.

In conclusion, this attack which apparently took months to plan was executed the day before peace talks began. That tells me that someone or some group did not want the talks to be successful because the war must go on. Peace with Russia is something the average insane lunatic cannot permit.

Finally, folks, we plunge on and every day we get closer to the world of all-digital, all-knowing total surveillance powered by artificial intelligence, but our overlords must think that war is necessary for us to get there.  Perhaps when their dream is realized we will beg for their help to end it.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle discusses the war between India and Pakistan which began over an apparent terrorist attack in the disputed territory of Kashmir a few weeks ago. He alleges that the real winner in the war so far has been China.

Transcription / Notes:

WHO WON THE INDIA-PAKISTAN WAR

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 30th day of May in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about the war between India and Pakistan which began over an apparent terrorist attack in the disputed territory of Kashmir a few weeks ago.

Yes, rather than hide or delay the lead I will tell you right away that there is no real winer as yet but in the initial battle the winner was China and in this report I will attempt to defend that view. First, to set up my argument it will be necessary to review a little history. It is often said that generals fight the last war and in many respects I believe that to be an accurate assessment.

For example, coming out of WWl the navies of the world viewed the battleship as the future of naval warfare because it had proven so decisive in the naval battles of that war. The air arm of the navy didn’t begin until the 1920’s and that was just a primitive experiment. In the 1930’s seagoing nations started to develop aircraft and aircraft carriers and to experiment with them but the battleship was still expected to dominate the next naval war. Even the Japanese put their effort into battleships including the Yamato, the world’s largest.

When the war started with the attack on Pearl Harbor and then the battle of the Coral Sea and Midway it was soon obvious that aircraft carriers were the future, not battleships. The U.S. had three carriers in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor and the Yorktown was lost at Midway June 4, 1942, but within 2 years they had 17. When the war ended and the U.S. had the world’s money so it could buy anything it continued to put its effort into the ships that won the war in the Pacific. When nuclear power entered the navy the cost of an aircraft carrier continued to skyrocket until today it exceeds $13 billion.

Only one nation can afford to build and equip 13 of those ships and as a result the U.S. Navy has dominated the seas since WWll. Other nations such as China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran had to find some cheaper way to keep up and they did. While the U.S. was building $13 billion aircraft carriers to project power around the world those nations devoted their resources to building relatively cheap missiles to counter them.

My theory then is that the aircraft carrier, like the battleship before it, has had its day and the future of warfare will be robotic, ai generated, and probably in space. With that background we look at what is happening in one of the most dangerous corners of the world today and that is Kashmir where the borders of Pakistan, India and China converge. The immediate cause of the outbreak of war was a terrorist attack on April 22 that killed 26 Indians. People get really upset when they are attacked by terrorists and they demand that their nation’s government do something.

The Indians did do something and that resulted in one of the most interesting air battles since WWll. During the battle of the Coral Sea in 1942 the U.S. and Japanese navies fought a battle in which each side had ships sunk but the opposing ships didn’t even see each other. The battle was entirely between carrier-based aircraft from about 200 miles apart. The Indians and Pakistanis engaged in an air battle using the latest fighter aircraft in their inventories and the interesting thing is that the entire battle was fought in what pilots call BVR or beyond visual range combat. BVR is completely different from the air combat maneuvering and the dogfighting videos we see from WWll.

It pits aircraft, their radars, and guided missiles against each other at extremely long ranges. Each aircraft tries to acquire radar lock on his opponent before the opponent can acquire him and then he fires a missile along that radar lock guide straight to the other aircraft.

The French build formidable weapons systems and they build the defense mechanisms to protect those systems. For example, the French built the air defense system used by Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf war. The U.S. was finally able to persuade the French to reveal the best counter to that system. Now, international conglomerates build weapons systems for everybody so sometimes it’s hard to know the players, but in Kashmir it was a little more clear. That’s because the Pakistanis used Chinese missiles and most importantly the Chinese integrated air combat system incorporated into their own air combat system.

The Indians used primarily French equipment especially the Dassault Rafale fighter which French reports sometimes refer to as a flying masterpiece. The Rafale is a 4.5-generation aircraft meaning it is reported to be superior to the 4th generation but not quite the 5th generation. It is a multi-role fighter capable of speeds of 1.8 Mach and it has stealth capability at least partially.

Well, the Indians did retaliate for the terrorist attack which they believed to have originated from Pakistan. On the morning of May 7th India launched what they called Operation Sindoor consisting of missile and drone attacks on ground targets inside Pakistan. This is where the story gets a little confusing because a third player enters. The Indians get aircraft from France primarily but also from Russia such as the Mig 29 and SU 30. Pakistan has some U.S. F-16’s but none were used in this battle.

Back to history for a moment because this reminds me of how NAZI Germany entered the Spanish Civil War as a way to test aircraft and pilots for the coming war. When WWll started in Europe the German pilots were already experienced veterans. The Chinese apparently did the same thing with their integrated air combat system supplied to Pakistan. They supplied an entire integrated system not just their aircraft because the French Rafale was superior to Pakistani jets at least the French thought so.

What happened in the air battle remains undisclosed but we know that they fought from behind their own borders and at ranges which at times exceeded 100 miles. The battle reports are very sketchy and as a result it is very difficult to learn exactly what happened but apparently the Indian jets were able to destroy some Pakistani aircraft on the ground but in the air it was a different story, apparently. Western news outlets including the New York Times and the BBC reported that the air battle showcased the increasing lethality of Chinese jets and missiles against Western aircraft. In other words, the Chinese have had little recent warfighting experience against peer rivals so this was a chance to test their systems.

The Chinese and Pakistanis have claimed 5 Indian jets destroyed in air combat while losing none of their own. Three Rafales, one Mig-29, and one SU-30 but it is not possible currently to confirm the accuracy of that. The three Rafales are reported as definite with the other two as possible. They were downed by Chinese J-10C aircraft armed with PL-15E long range air to air missiles. To the West this says that after many years and many billions, along with IT theft from the West, the Chinese were finally able to test in real combat and the result was rather alarming.

The Chinese navy is acting as if this battle was definitive as to their superiority. They conduct naval drills across the Pacific and have encircled Taiwan in drills as if to say it’s a matter of when not if. China’s focus on technology and economics leave its new military systems largely untested in real world combat especially against an enemy as formidable as the U.S. Still, this Pakistani test was something for them to crow about and it has apparently given them a high level of confidence.

The Chinese aircraft company Chengdu Corporation has joined with Pakistan Aeronautical Complex to jointly develop the latest Chinese fighter jet the JF-17. Is any of this good news for the West, I don’t think so but neither should we exaggerate it. The Chinese have supplied Pakistan with entire systems of avionics, engines and weapons which all worked together and apparently the Indians were relying on their 4.5 Gen fighter, the Rafale, but not an integrated system and that reliance was not effective. The Chinese have put a lot of effort into making the Pakistani air force top of the line with training in how to use their systems. Other countries have reported problems with Chinese equipment and some have had to ground their Chinese jets because they could not get them to work properly within their own systems, but the Chinese personal involvement with the Pakistani air force seems to have solved the issues of concern.

India and Pakistan are both countries today but that is a relatively short development. Independence occurred for them in 1947 when Great Britain withdrew from colonial status and granted independence. The result has left a lot of disputed borders and unfinished business between the two. This current war is a long line of struggles over Kashmir. It is far more dangerous than ever because both countries are nuclear armed. Are they crazy enough to use nuclear weapons over a border dispute. I would never rule out the craziness of those who run countries. There seems to be something about power that drives people mad and after all what good is power if you don’t use it.

There are some very disturbing aspects to this war if you want to call it that. It is fast escalating just as the war in Ukraine escalated with new weapons including drones, satellite surveillance and targeting, artificial intelligence, hypersonic missiles, some of which are nuclear capable. These systems have all been deployed and they weren’t even available for the last India-Pakistan War which ended about 2003. Escalation happens faster when new systems are deployed because there is a need to match or respond to them. For example, India is now in discussions to purchase the most advanced Russian S-400 missile defense system to counter Chinese missiles.

Another disturbing aspect to this struggle is that both countries have attacked inside the other country far from the dispute in Kashmir just as in Ukraine. I imagine that the leaders of both countries are working around the clock to find ways to destroy each other.

Finally, folks, war is an idiotic trait of the depravity of man and this one is just a fine example of the early stages of the progression to the next level of technology.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle discusses how thoroughly, completely, and totally the American people have been lied to and how Joe Biden’s diagnosis of metastasized cancer is evidence of those lies.

Transcription / Notes:

THE OPPOSITE OF DEMOCRACY

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 23rd day of May in the year of our Lord 2025. This is Memorial Day weekend which is a time we are supposed to pause and remember those who fell in battle throughout the 250 years of America’s existence. Just a three-day weekend for most people but for some a sad time and a reminder of lives that could have been. The purpose of this report today is not to discuss Memorial Day but to discuss how thoroughly, completely, and totally we have been lied to and how Joe Biden’s diagnosis of metastasized cancer is evidence of those lies.

The lies I just mentioned are of such profound importance because they go to the very heart of this Constitutional Republic or what the Democrat Politicians often refer to as “our democracy.” The lies were not just the usual wink of a politician’s eye as if to say you know what I mean, right. No, these lies were not subtle and they were designed to systemically and ruthlessly mislead us as to the condition of Joe Biden and to deceive us in order to place an unelected cohort in the office of president of the United States.

Every institution and every person that vouched for him and told us that he was sharp as a tack and that he ran rings around everybody should lose all credibility and should never be believed or trusted again. When he was a non-campaigning candidate in 2020 apparently just sitting at home while others did the work and spoke for him most of us knew something was wrong. He was elected anyway or was he.

 Now, with this open deception I suppose it’s OK if I say publicly, no, that election was not fair it was stolen. How do I know that, well, I don’t but these people apparently lie about even the fact that their candidate is not the real candidate but who knows. I just know now without a doubt that the entire four years of his presidency was a complete lie and a fraud against the American people and their guarantee of the ability to freely select leaders. We could see the confusion in his eyes—his inability to complete a sentence—his stumbling walk—his falling asleep at critical moments, his shaking hands with ghosts. To point these things out was just pandering to extremists or cruelty, or worst of all, disinformation.

We all saw it, but they covered it up. The White House staff insisted that he was sharp as a tack behind closed doors. Jake Tapper, who now spends his time selling his book refuting everything he once said was different when the machine he once worked for had power. Back in those days he told us that he knew the man and never saw any evidence of decline.  The sycophant media told us he was more engaged than ever. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, blamed a cold or a childhood stutter for the fact that he couldn’t make a 10 minute speech and remain coherent. This was warfare conducted psychologically against the American people and against common sense.

The old quip—who are you going to believe me or your lying eyes became reality instead of just a clever line. Leaked memos and emails from the White House admit the issues he suffered from and the treatment including stimulants used to keep him going. Whoever was exercising power in his place wanted desperately to keep it. He became, in effect, a Potemkin president or kind of like a movie set which is designed to confuse and hide the reality that the great naval battle just filmed was fought in a small swimming pool.

Every decision made during his entire presidency is now in question. When I say in question I really mean discredited and invalid. The $93 million green energy spending scam– the 1500 last minute pardons—the open borders admitting known criminals from the prisons of the world-and especially the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan resulting in the deaths of 13 Marines. Those thing should be investigated but thinking about it now what really should happen is that everything signed by autopen while he was in office should be declared invalid by the Supreme Court.

This situation is like a thriller movie and The Manchurian Candidate comes to mind except there is no Manchurian. There is only a very dark cabal, hidden from public view running the country, funding wars, and fundamentally changing America. The American people had nothing to do with any of this except they believed the fantasy about kindly old Joe Biden looking out for the little people. In reality, the cabal remained busy trying to install policies that would outlast his term including funding for the Ukraine war.

Let’s just talk about media complicity for a moment. The media didn’t just get it wrong—no, they intentionally suppressed and deceived us. The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN, and many others all had medical experts to defend Biden’s vigor and to accuse any questioners of being right wing extremists, conspiracy theorists, etc. I am reminded of the retort to the accusation of being a conspiracy theorist—I will quit believing in conspiracies if you quit conspiring.

Regarding the currant admitted diagnosis of metastatic prostate cancer and bone cancer, we are told that he hasn’t had a PSA exam since 2014 so he had no symptoms and didn’t know. That is such a stupid lie that it insults the intelligence of the dumbest American. Doctors tell us, and I mean all doctors now, that his cancer was a slow mover so he has had it for as much as 10 years. Knowing that, he knew in 2020, Dr. Jill knew in 2020 and whoever was running this country knew in 2020.

Aside from the implications of the country having a completely nonfunctional figurehead president, what about the cruelty of a wife who loved power, money, and its pleasures so much that she would do that to her husband. When did Dr. Jill, his medical staff who continued to report that he had good health know that he had cancer and why didn’t they disclose that to the American people. We are told now and I suppose we are expected to believe that the president and even when he was vice president with access to the best medical team available in this world did not know that he had cancer. I refuse to believe that which is unbelievable.

Did he receive any aggressive treatment for such aggressive cancer such as surgery, chemo, or radiation or perhaps all three. If he did receive those treatments none of it was ever disclosed and if he did not, well I guess that means Dr. Jill just waited until it became terminal. Was this what it appears to have been, a cold, calculated, very cynical decision to let this demented man who didn’t know the difference go without treatment so the cabal could run things for a few more years.

Why now, why release this report now since the election is over. Perhaps the announcement was just intended to distract us from all the years of deception and keep us from looking behind the curtain. Maybe the autopen scandal was getting too close for comfort so now the cabal can say, look folks, old Joe has cancer so cut him a break and just let it go. Even Donald Trump is speaking out on the subject. Quote from the president.

“Joe Biden was not for open borders, he never talked about open borders, where criminals of all kinds, shapes, and sizes, can flow into our country at will. It wasn’t his idea to open the border, and almost destroy our country, and cost us hundreds of billions of dollars to get criminals out of our country and go through the process we are going through now. It was the people who knew he was cognitively impaired, and that took over the autopen. They stole the Presidency of the United States and put us in great danger. This is treason at the highest level. They did it to destroy our country.”

So now we are expected to just forget and forgive because Joe has cancer. Well, no we can’t and won’t do that for many reasons. The first is that the guilty need to be exposed and punished, but will that ever happen, I don’t know but it seems doubtful given what has transpired. Another reason is that the presidency isn’t just a ceremonial title or something that any demented, incompetent, sick person can hold while other more competent and far more sinister execute the duties of the office as they wish.

The American presidency is the most powerful executive role on the planet and given the currant power of America’s military I would say it’s the most powerful position in world history. It requires mental clarity, physical stamina, and above all, moral responsibility. None of these traits were present in Joe Biden and yet the cabal pushed him into the race, apparently denied him cancer treatment so they could use him to steal power. I have to point out that his wife was involved in all these subterfuges and was above all most guilty of the abuse of her husband.

They lied to us, the cabal lied to us, Dr. Jill lied to us and most importantly the media, which is supposed to be a watchdog, lied to us. Can the media in this nation ever regain any degree of trust and more importantly should it be able to regain trust. I just don’t see that happening in my lifetime because the American people, a large percentage of them anyway, are angry and demanding answers. Our media, watchdogs over power, deceived us about who held power for at least four years.

The last reason for continuing the investigation, arresting those to whom the evidence points, and seeing the guilty punished, is that if we fail in that regard they will do it again because they are just that wicked.

In conclusion folks, one other thought occurs to me about our former president. Perhaps he had slow moving prostate cancer as do many men his age but then he was subjected to many mRNA vaccines and boosters and the slow-moving cancer morphed into an aggressive turbo cancer that doctors tell us is common among the vaccinated.

Finally, folks, this information is hard especially because it reminds us that at least for several years we have not had democracy, but it’s opposite. Despite all that enjoy a three-day weekend and don’t forget to remember.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle talks about Present Trump’s trip to the Middle East and how it reflects Trump’s vision of the world — how it can be more peaceful and prosperous for everyone.

Transcription / Notes

WHY NEO-CONS HATE TRUMP

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 16th day of May in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about President Trump’s trip to the Middle East which should be finishing just about as I record this report. The trip reflects Trump’s vision of the world and how it can be more peaceful, and prosperous for everyone, in other words the anti-neo-con view of the world.

President Trump is currently on a Presidential trip to several Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia, his first stop, and then several of the Gulf Arab States including Qatar, the second stop. While he was in Riyadh, he spoke to the new leader of Syria which is interesting because until the fall of Assad that man was listed as a wanted international terrorist. Apparently Mr. Erdogan of Turkey joined in the conversation by phone and lobbied Trump to lift the sanctions on Syria which Trump agreed to do. His reception by the Middle East countries has been phenomenal and met with similar joy as his election was met with joy by his supporters. That joy is in reality hope for what could be and hopefully will be with the Trump Presidency.

When Air Force One entered Saudi air space six Saudi jet fighters came out and flew escort for the descent into Riyadh. The Crown Prince, Bin Salman came out to personally greet his arrival something he publicly did not do when President Biden visited. A long purple carpet stretched from the airplane steps to the waiting limousines while American music played from loudspeakers. The Saudis even rigged up a mobile McDonalds restaurant on the trailer of a large truck in reference to the President’s legendary fondness for McDonalds cheeseburgers.

Trump seems to have an affinity for Middle East people and especially their leaders because he shares a few things in common with them. He doesn’t drink and he does not condemn their culture and way of life. Let me pause here for a moment and give a little history to illustrate my point.

First we have George H.W. Bush’s war to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait with its “this aggression will not stand rhetoric.” Then we have 8 years of Bill Clinton’s no fly zone over Iraq with its starvation of hundreds of thousands, allegedly. We then follow that with 8 years of George W. Bush’s Global War on Terror with its invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. We follow that with 8 years of Barack Obama’s Afghanistan the good war as opposed to Iraq the bad war. Donald Trump comes in and tries to extricate himself from Afghanistan but Joe Biden finally does it, albeit with an extreme cost. Joe Biden almost immediately becomes embroiled in a European war between Ukraine and Afghanistan so it’s basically been a 25-year struggle of war which means killing, dying, and total destruction.

The leaders of the Middle East apparently see this man Trump with his prosperity instead of war rhetoric and they like it and are hopeful. His statements before the trip reflected the new attitude and purpose of the trip. He said he wanted to make new deals for peace and profit and that went over especially well in the Saudi Kingdom. Quote from the President, “a land of peace, safety, harmony, opportunity, innovation, and achievement right here in the Middle East is within our grasp.” That was apparently music to the ears of Bin Salman and when you think about it’s hard for me to find fault with that ambition.

Perhaps Trump’s joyous reception is because his approach to foreign policy in general and the Middle East in particular, in contrast to all those presidents I just mentioned, is not ideological. To illustrate here’s a quote from the President that was apparently well received in Saudi ears, “too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it is our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use US policy to dispense justice for their sins.” In closing he said, “I believe it is God’s job to sit in judgment—my job is to defend America and to promote the fundamental interests of stability, prosperity, and peace.”

That view of American policy toward the Middle East is the exact opposite of how those former presidents I mentioned seemed to view their roles. The purpose of those wars, we were constantly told, was to democratize and liberalize those countries. There were always just a small handful of rogue states and just a handful of religious fanatic terrorists who actually seemed to believe the words in that book written about 1200 years ago. If the US could just win its wars thus bringing regime change to those rogue states the rest of the Middle East would be inspired to accept Western values including its modern view of women and especially homosexuals. Then the Middle East would become Switzerland.

Believe it or not, the entire Middle East resisted the approach although some nations pretended not to because they thought cooperation with America was better than war with America. Other neo-cons supported the wars for different reasons, but essentially the wars were non-partisan. So, for 25 years they have all been in it together although for different reasons. For example, the classic neo-con treatise, also non-partisan, was the Project for a New American Century which demanded that America not liberalize the Middle East but subjugate and destroy it so that this century would be dominated by America as it ruled the world order. Despite having different reasons, then, both liberals and conservatives supported the wars including the necessity of killing and dying and of course the bombing of infrastructure into rubble.

This is going to be quite a juggling act for the President over the next few months and years. One of the balls he has to juggle to achieve his vision of a peaceful and prosperous Middle East is Israel. I don’t know how much history Donald Trump knows especially the history portrayed in the bible, but there are people in the Middle East who have literally hated each other for thousands of years. A thousand years before the American Revolution the people in that region hated and made war against each other. Before most of the region was divided into countries as it is today they hated each other. Great Britain, as part of the treaty that ended WWl, divided the sand into lines that they called countries. To some extent that kept a damper on much of the tribal warfare until the state of Israel appeared in 1948 and it has been either war by Israel against its enemies or war by the United States against the enemies of Israel. Donald Trump comes into the picture with a completely different perspective.

Trump seeks prosperity instead of war and perhaps that explains at least part of the hatred of neo-cons on both sides of the isle against him. Is the U.S. congress Israeli occupied territory as Fritz Hollins said it was. If so, then Trump will have a difficult time overcoming the voices united against him but time will tell on that. Worthy of note is that the one Middle East country not on the President’s agenda is Israel. Is that a not-so-subtle message, well it seems that way to me. Word of warning to the President, the last president who had problems with Israel’s expansionist goals was John Kennedy as well as future candidate for president, Robert, his brother. The rest of them, JFK’s successors, all seem to have learned their lesson.

Well, President Trump has survived two assassination attempts that we know of, one of which wounded him and he didn’t miss a beat so maybe that display of guts and bravado makes him more admirable to Middle East rulers. It’s pretty clear that he has not allowed hatred, threats, and intimidation by the media to sway him from his agenda. So, he is left with some real head scratcher problems if he is to accomplish anything on this visit besides commerce. Can he make peace while war rages on between Israel and Hamas as well as Israel and the Houthis. Apparently the Iranians, in anticipation of talks with Trump, told their proxies, the Houthis in Yemen to stop attacking American assets.

If you are looking to find peace with its accompanying prosperity, attacking American warships with the President in the region would be a very bad look so back off. The Houthi restraint might be temporary but it is on for now and that is better than nothing. Trump also seems to be a man who knows when to hold um and when to fold um which is a very desirable trait in a president. Too many times, the US has started a war with no way out so when he saw that developing in the Red Sea he just declared victory and went home.

The Israelis, on the other hand continue the war against the Houthis conducting daily bombing strikes all over Yemen. They continue to pound the rubble of Gaza dropping thousands of tons of bombs into what appears to be rubble worse than pictures of some of the German cities after WWll. There are reports and pictures coming out of Gaza of starvation on a scale that defies all the semblance of humanity. Are those reports true, exaggerated, or lies. I don’t know the answer to that, but if they are true it’s hard to see how any civilized person could continue to be a party to it. Mass starvation of children, as Joe Biden would say, come on man.

In conclusion folks, I want to bring this Castle Report to a conclusion with a quote from Dr. Ron Paul, “Having ignited the tinder box of the region with US backing, Israel has now found itself friendless in a region increasingly hostile to its policies and even its very existence. Now there are indications that the Trump Administration is tiring of this entangling alliance as the MAGA base looks more warily on foreign interventionism…Ties forged by trade and friendship produce peace and prosperity and are far preferable to endless neocon war cries.”

Finally, folks, the rumor is that Trump is encouraging the Saudis and Gulf Arabs to formally recognize the State of Israel. In return, the United States would recognize Palestine as a separate state entitled to have an embassy and all accompanying benefits of sovereignty. If that rumor is true it explains why neo-cons hate him so much. He works for peace rather than war.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle talks about the use of politics to address the world’s problems and how that use or lack of use, specifically regarding the disputes in the Middle East and in Ukraine, makes good political campaigning but fails to actually solve the problem.

Transcription / Notes

WHEN POLITICS FAILS

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday, the 9th day of May in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about the use of politics to address the world’s problems and how that use repeatedly fails. Specifically, how the use or lack of use of politics to solve the disputes in the Middle East and in Ukraine make good political campaigning but when push comes to shove politics fails to solve the problems.

The dictionary defines politics as: “the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power.”

We might be able to glean something from that definition, but it really means that normally politics is a precursor to war rather than preventing war. This Report then is not really about politics but about war. Yes, I suppose you might be able to conclude that the Castle Report is a report on war and my opposition to it. Here is an analogy, your kid sister is waiting on the school bus to bring her home from school and some bully slaps her and runs away. When confronted the bully denies having anything to do with it but you know and everyone knows that he did it. Retaliation is therefore a must. That bully has to be shown that he cannot insult you and yours with impunity so you attack him when he is on the way home just as he did your sister.

Does it end there, not likely. The bully approaches his friends for help and since his friends compete with you in local business they agree to supply the bully with people and weapons knowing that it will hurt you. The story just goes on and on without ceasing and when great nations are involved, great destruction results but also great profits for those who make the weapons. Those who make weapons and those who gain power because they are financed by those who make weapons seem to delight in war and want war to continue without end. They talk about peace but they never do anything to bring peace because they don’t really want it to happen. Politics fails then to solve the problems as it almost always does because politics is quite often false and meant to fail.

I look at the Middle East, specifically Gaza, and I try to apply my human reasoning to what is going on there. The story seems to change week by week or even day by day and it becomes so murky that it is very hard to make sense of it. I suppose that is because war is idiotic and senseless so how can one make sense of the Middle East. The attacks of October 7th by Hamas against civilians in Israel killed about 1200 people most were innocent meaning non-military targets. In other words, the object was to create terror and you don’t do that by attacking military targets you do it by murdering women and children.

That is what Hamas appears to have done, murder women and children. Stories of murder, rape and torture have been documented and if anything, they tend to downplay what really happened. I understand now that many more than 1200 were killed because many died of wounds later. I can’t blame Israel for retaliating with the purpose of not letting their people continue to be exposed and vulnerable to such attacks. The question becomes then; how much retaliation is enough and how much goes way beyond what can be justified as self-protection.

I read many people who report the Israelis as genocidal maniacs because of their alleged intentional killing of Palestinian children, etc. What the reporters or commentators of that version don’t seem to realize is that is exactly what the Israelis accuse Hamas of doing. Those who support the Palestinians in the struggle say the Israelis intend to kill every Palestinian so is that true or are these people really just anti-Semitic or more plainly do they just hate Jews. There seems to be a lot of hatred on both sides and that is for sure. Hatred seems to go back far beyond the life spans of anyone now fighting so I guess that means people are born hating and they pass the hatred on to their offspring. It seems then that a place with that type of historic ethnic conflict is a good place to stay away from.

I could look at every war the United States has fought since WWll and take apart the decision to go to war and the tactics of the war and it would appear to be nothing but a giant hypocritical boondoggle to benefit the ruling elite. The reason it would look that way is because that’s actually the way it is. None of this constant warfare makes any sense for the United States. We are here in North America, protected by the earth’s two greatest oceans, with no enemies on our borders. We have no real enemies abroad who threaten our existence except those we seem to intentionally create. Despite all that, we are constantly at war, constantly killing and constantly dying, constantly exhausting our revenue to build newer and bigger weapons. Why?

There has to be something extremely sinister at work because all those impeccably educated Ivy League geniuses who have run things for generations can’t be that stupid. A lot of them are educated idiots, granted, but not all of them, so they seem to be a self-perpetuating kind of Ivy League death factory. We don’t even have the excuse of hundreds of years of ethnic hatred like they have in the Middle East. There are many in America who try to give us ethnic hatred based on race, gender, etc. but that is obviously to keep the people divided so they don’t recognize what is being done to them.

This is a free country, right, so why don’t we do something about it. That’s a good question, but political partisanship blinds us to reality, I suppose, and it definitely keeps the real enemy obscured from us and that is the real purpose. I ask myself quite often, what does this have to do with the United States and the answer is almost always the same, absolutely nothing. There are always people who think we should go abroad and fight the enemies of other people but rarely are those experts expected to do the killing and dying.  What about any of these foreign adventures and military intervention in other people’s foreign wars and ethnic struggles is an America First concept. I have yet to see it and it is not why the people tried to upset the apple cart in the last election.

There are undoubtedly many things that Marjorie Taylor Greene, the representative from Georgia, has said or done that is silly and we could get a good laugh out of it but on the subject of America First she is absolutely correct and she said it very well.

“I represent the base and when I’m frustrated and upset over the direction of things, you better be clear, the base is not happy. I campaigned for no more foreign wars. And now we are supposedly on the verge of going to war with Iran. I don’t think we should be bombing foreign countries on behalf of other foreign countries especially when they have their own nuclear weapons and massive military strength. And on top of that, now we are told that we have signed a deal for mineral rights in Ukraine, in order to pay us back for the hundreds of billions of dollars that we gave Ukraine and they used for money laundering, sold the weapons we gave them to our enemies, and their leader is a dictator who canceled elections, was involved in the first impeachment of Trump, and campaigned for Biden.

Didn’t we learn our lesson when we went to war in Iraq and killed Saddam Hussein because of weapons of mass destruction? Did we ever find any? And did any of that oil over in the Middle East make us rich? The answer is no; we are 36 trillion in debt today.”

To that I say amen Marjorie, well said, you have my attention and I trust that of the American people who can still think with some logic. She’s not finished though.

“I also campaigned on accountability for the communist and tyrannical acts made by the government during Covid. Yet the Covid vaccine still has FDA approval even though there are millions of reported injuries and deaths, and this mRNA vaccine is known to have horrific side effects and does not stop people from catching Covid. And to this day, it’s still on the vaccine schedule, why on earth is this happening? Hasn’t big pharma made enough billions and billions and billions of dollars on this lie?”

She goes on and on but I must stop there since I intend to end this Castle Report with some good news. My thanks to Tom Woods and his newsletter for reporting the MTG speech to me.

So, good news first from the Middle East. I have no good news from the struggle in Gaza but the United States campaign against the Houthis seems to be over or at least on hold for a while. The U.S. has announced that it will stop the round the clock bombing attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen because the Houthis announced that they will stop their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. I suppose that means that we are expected to believe that the Houthis have capitulated in their struggle to make the world pressure Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza. The Houthis have thrown in the towel, quit, cried uncle, or however you want to say it, but it means that the war is over or more likely on pause for a while.

Starting today the U.S. and China will hold trade talks in Switzerland on May 9-12.  China will be represented by its Vice Premier and the U.S. by the Secretary of the Treasury. It will be the first meeting of high-ranking officials from the two countries since the Trump administration announced tariffs of up to 145% on Chinese goods. Will the talks resolve the dispute or amount to anything. That remains to be seen but at least they are talking instead of fighting.

In Russia, today the 9th of May they are celebrating Victory in Europe day when the Germans surrendered ending the Great Patriotic War. The Chinese Premier, Mr. Xi is in attendance so he could not be at the trade talks in Switzerland. Mr. Putin announced a 3-day ceasefire for the event so no fighting for the Russians although Mr. Zelensky in Ukraine sees it differently and has made numerous drone attacks near the ceremonies in Moscow.

The Indians launched missile attacks into Pakistan killing many people in retaliation for Pakistani attacks in India killing many people. The Pakistani defense minister says Pakistan would like to deescalate the tensions if the Indians would be willing to listen.

The world takes a breath for a little good news but even though this is good news it is really just rearming so nothing much ever seems to change at least not for long.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.

Today, Darrell Castle talks about remembering two anniversaries that are very significant in the history of the United States and the entire world. He shares how he believes they affect us today many years past those anniversaries, some of which he has personally experienced.

Transcription / Notes:

ANNIVERSARIES TO REMEMBER

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 2nd day of May in the year of our Lord 2025. I pause today to remember some anniversaries that are very significant in the history of the United States of America and of the entire world for that matter. In addition, I will endeavor to talk about the world as it appears to me today many years past those anniversaries some of which I have personally experienced.

Next week the 8th of May is the 80th anniversary of the German surrender in WWll. I talk of that surrender today because it will happen before my next Castle Report. In Russia they remember what is called Victory in Europe Day on May 9th instead of the 8th. Russia usually has a military parade before the Kremlin in Moscow to memorialize the Great Patriotic War as they call it. However, they don’t memorialize what happened for 40 years after the war. The Stalinist show trials and millions of dead are nothing to celebrate I guess. From my American viewpoint I talk about the anniversary to honor those who served and especially those who died. This year, 11 world leaders have announced that they will attend the celebrations in Moscow including the Chinese Premier Xi but I haven’t heard of any Americans in attendance. If I were president I would be there or at least send a high-ranking representative.

When General Eisenhower visited the airborne divisions on the night they were to jump into occupied France for the D-Day Invasion he said we may never see their like again and at this point I will say that he was right, at least I don’t see their like right now. Long before D-Day the Americans had some catching up to do because Germany had been fighting in Europe for two years and only Britain held them at bay across the Channel for two years alone.

I risk being overly dramatic about the war against Germany but on the other hand, that would be very difficult to do since the courage and sacrifice of the men who fought the war is hard to exaggerate. For example, right after Pearl Harbor the 8th Air Force was formed and assigned to defeat the Luftwaffe which at that time was the best AirForce in the world and believed to be unstoppable. The 8th had 8 pilots and no airplanes at the time. Three years later by the D-Day landings the Luftwaffe had been driven from the sky, their experienced pilots were dead, and their country’s infrastructure was a pile of rubble.

That happened because 55,000 young men gave their lives in the skies over Germany and France. A B-17 crew of 10 men had to complete 25 missions to get a break at home for a while. The average life expectancy was 15 missions and the chances of surviving 25 missions was 1 in 4. That improved when the P-51 Mustang fighter was available later because it had the range to escort the bombers all the way to Berlin and back.

The Germans were fine warriors, dedicated men who fought hard for their country but on May 8th, 1945, they reached a state of unconditional surrender. Hitler was dead, apparently, and the head of state was Grand Admiral Carl Doenitz who had commanded the U-Boat campaign and later the German Navy. Doenitz sent General Afred Jodl to sign the German surrender and Jodl tried to time it so as many German soldiers as possible could make their way West and surrender to the Americans. Eisenhower told him that if he did not surrender immediately he would close the West to Germans and they would be left to the tender mercies of General Zhukov and the Red Army.

No German wanted to be at the mercy of the Russians because of the merciless way they had conducted warfare inside Russia. Germans who were taken prisoner by the Russians, hundreds of thousands, had a way of never returning alive. Well, Jodl signed the articles of surrender on German home ground and with Russian officers in attendance.

Eisenhower was a national hero, of course, the most popular man in the free world and he was destined to be president a few years later. The free world did not include the Far East at that time because the war against Japan continued until August, but that is another anniversary for another time. In looking at the German surrender and thinking of the men who fought their way across North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, and finally Germany itself my conclusion is that as Americans we have lost the honor of calling ourselves worthy of them.

You would have thought that WWll, with its millions of deaths, would have taught the world a lesson and it did teach ordinary people the horrors of war but for the ruling elite well, they never seem to get enough of it. For example, the Soviet Union which probably would have been defeated by Germany without the resupply conveys of American and British supplies, started to believe that it should be at the head of the post war world order. To that end it set about spreading its idiotic ideology of Communism around the world.

In totalitarian countries like North Korea and China it found fertile ground and thus just 6 years later the world was at war again in Korea. That invasion of North Korea invading the South in an attempt to unite Korea under communism cost about 35,000 American lives just to get back to pre-war neutrality. However, Korea is not the anniversary that I remember today, because from all this carnage emerged even more carnage in the form of Mao and his cultural revolution with its 50 million dead.

This week we remember the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war. 50 years ago, after a couple of years of negotiations about prisoners and the shape and position of the conference table the final papers were signed. Most prisoners were released and for some of those men they were tortured, starved and imprisoned for six years. The war in Vietnam, formerly Indochina or more accurately French Indochina, in reality lasted 30 years.

 In 1945 after the Japanese had been defeated, General Eisenhower and President Truman agreed that the Asian colonies which existed before the war should be returned to their European owners. Ho Chi Mihn didn’t appreciate that and began a war of independence against France or perhaps he just continued the one he had fought against the Japanese. When he finally defeated the French in 1954 and the French agreed to leave Vietnam General Eisenhower still would not agree to free elections in Vietnam. In about 1960 the U.S. saw that the communist North was winning the war and decided to take the place of the French. The rest is history but there are lessons in the 15 years the U.S. spent in that hellhole of a country. I knew many of the men who fought there from those of General Officer rank all the way to private. They were taken from the farms, factories, gas stations, high schools and homes of America and sent into that meat grinder which they knew nothing about and should never have been forced to care about.

The lesson in my opinion as I look at the 50th anniversary is that the lives of those who serve are precious and should not be sacrificed so carelessly. People fight hard when someone invades their country and determined guerillas with a willingness to accept any casualties are pretty hard to defeat, especially when they have the help of local powers who know that you will not risk total war with them to prevail. It was thought better by U.S. leadership to sacrifice all those men rather than risk war with China or Russia in order to prevail.

That is indeed a valuable lesson but did we actually learn it, obviously not. The lesson is valuable but it is not the real lesson. The real lesson is to let people run their own countries in the way they see fit. How much sacrifice are you willing to bear in order to set the world in the order that pleases you. Looking back after 50 years this whole thing stinks to high heaven. The decision to fight in the first place and the decision to not seek victory smells of the military industrial complex and the new globalist world order.

One is reminded a little of the disease of cancer when thinking about it. The money is not in curing cancer, it is in treating it. Keeping the patient alive with very expensive lifetime treatment is a lot more lucrative than curing his disease. It pleases those who profit in money and power to keep eternal war going and that, at least in part, explains some of the hatred against Donald Trump. He appears to be at least trying to find peace in the currently ongoing wars.

Speaking of current wars, the India-Pakistan war in the Kashmir region seems to be on again and is rapidly escalating toward full-scale war. The Chinese, right on the border, seem to favor Pakistan in this struggle and I suspect they have an easier time controlling Pakistanis than Indians but that is just a guess. The Pakistani defense minister said this week that considering the Pakistani incursion that killed 27 Indians he expects an Indian reprisal and he announced that war is imminent. Both countries are nuclear armed and the defense minister said Pakistani nuclear forces were placed on high alert.

What does any of this have to do with the United States, nothing. For that reason, I am hopeful that the U.S., as much as it appears to love war, will let these people fight among themselves without our help. I’m certain many defense contractors are licking their chops at the prospect of how profitable this war could be but I pray that Donald Trump is able and willing to resist them.

The struggle between Israel and Iran takes a new twist almost every day. Recently Netanyahu said that he expects to be finished in Gaza by September or perhaps a little sooner. That sounds encouraging until you think that it means several more months of pounding the rubble that is now Gaza. It also means that Israel will be free to turn its attention fully upon Iran.

In Ukraine the war rages on but Putin said he would ceasefire for three days around the celebrations in Russia of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Ironically, the area of fighting right now is where the greatest armored battle in history took place between the great German, Heinz Guderian, and the Russian Commanding General Marshall Zhukov, so it seems that not much changes in this world. Certainly not human nature.

Finally, folks, what is the correct American foreign policy to remember these anniversaries. Come home, mind your own business, not isolation but instead fortress America. The correct way for me to remember is to raise a glass and remember so I think I’ll do that tonight.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle talks about the war in which Europe currently finds itself as well as the seemingly inevitable war against Iran and its affiliates.

Transcription / Notes

WAR LASTS FOREVER

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 25th day of April in the year of our Lord 2025. I talk of war today as we are about two weeks away from May 8th which is the 80th anniversary of the German surrender in WWll or what became known as victory in Europe Day. I speak today not of the German surrender but of the war in which Europe still finds itself as well as the seemingly inevitable war against Iran and its affiliates.

It is very easy to get into a war and so very hard to get out of one. The efforts to resolve the conflict between Ukraine and Russia have become more difficult because neither side has been defeated. They have killed each other and invented new technological methods of warfare but neither is in a position of absolute defeat. Many seem disappointed that the war might end and they look for ways to make it continue. The only way it can continue is if the United States and Europe remain committed by supplying the money and hardware the Ukrainians need to continue the struggle.

Even if the U.S. decided to continue the supply chain the Ukrainians are running out of bodies. Even U.S. money and weapons might not be enough and so some are urging the use of U.S. and European troops to continue the fight against Russia. France seems to be seriously considering the idea. I have read that the usual argument in favor of U.S. commitment is that China is supplying Russia and some Chinese officers have been captured inside Ukraine where they were apparently learning about the incredible drone warfare campaign Ukraine has developed. I guess you don’t need so many bodies if you can fight each other with robots.

The situation in Ukraine reminds me of the U.S. efforts to extricate itself from Vietnam. Once again it’s easy to get into but hard to get out of. The U.S. was never defeated militarily and U.S. troops were not defeated on the battlefield but neither did the U.S. win and so by not winning it lost. History is filled with examples of committed guerilla forces fighting and winning against technologically superior forces. The American colonists against the British Empire for example. The more powerful force, usually with long supply lines, grows ever more exhausted and the war appears unwinnable so they simply look for a way to quit, but sometimes the guerillas will not allow them to quit and keep their dignity.

President Trump now finds himself in the position of fulfilling his promise of ending the war but the war is a lot more important to Ukraine and Russia than it is to the United States. The stated reasons for U.S. involvement, i.e. to weaken Russia have failed and it appears Russia is more resilient than previously thought. It appears to be the same situation the U.S. found itself in as it tried to leave Vietnam. The Viet Cong achieved their goals of uniting their country under their rule and the U.S. finally decided to accept that and just go.

The Ukrainian situation has similarities because Russia occupies Crimea and several provinces in the Eastern border region of Ukraine proper, while Ukraine still occupies some positions inside Russia although not many. Ironically, this Kursk frontier is the exact same region where the Russians fought invading Nazis during WWll. Not much changes except technology because human nature never changes.

Vice President Vance conveyed the President’s thoughts about efforts to end the struggle in that if his final offer is rejected the U.S. might simply abandon the process. If the U.S. went away and took its bombs and bullets with it then Zelensky and Putin could resolve matters on their own. The U.S. negotiating team seems to be growing weary as Secretary of State Rubio has stepped back from it, according to J.D. Vance.

“We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and Ukrainians and its time for them to either say yes or for the U.S. to walk away from this process. We’ve engaged in an extraordinary amount of diplomacy.”

Trump expects Ukraine to agree to U.S. recognition of Crimea as part of Russia but apparently not the Eastern Provinces which are in Russian hands after 3 years of war.  Ukraine would be barred from joining NATO but could join the European Union. All sanctions imposed on Russia since 2014 would be lifted and the U.S. and Russia would pursue greater economic cooperation. Ukraine would receive a “robust security agreement” from Europe but the details of that agreement were sketchy. Ukraine would receive money to help rebuild but again the details were unclear. I raise an eyebrow at that but again the costs of peace are cheaper than war. A summit was scheduled in London yesterday to hopefully reach an agreement, but the summit has already failed because Zelensky rejected Trump’s “final offer.”

Meantime, the U.S. is involved in another war currently raging in the Middle East. What we are seeing now could be a precursor to an even bigger war coming soon or maybe not, if sanity prevails. President Trump has made many statements toward the Houthi tribes in Yemen as well as the Mullahs in Iran. For example, last month he told the Houthis that “hell would rain down on them” if they did not stop their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. The attacks have not stopped and in fact have intensified. Hell has been raining down now for several weeks.

The U.S. has deployed another Carrier Battle Group to the area to support the continuous air strikes. The logistics of constantly supplying ammunition, bombs, food, and fuel to so many ships so many miles away has to be taking its toll on the navy. Why do it at all. Does it make any sense at all for the U.S. Navy to accept responsibility for keeping sea lanes open for others. Very little of the shipping passing through those lanes benefits the U.S. with most of the cargo going to Europe. Once again, the U.S. has gotten into something that is hard to get out of. History could reveal to the President that air power alone is rarely decisive against a determined foe. The bottom line is that a full-scale ground assault will be necessary to completely destroy the Houthis ability to cause trouble and I doubt if even that will work.

There is another reason for doing it, of course, besides keeping shipping lanes open. The real reason is to degrade all of Iran’s proxies in the Middle East and thereby deprive Iran of allies. Since the attacks of October 7th by Hamas against Israel the Israelis have been at war in Gaza. Dennis Kucinich tells us that in an area the size of Detroit, the Israelis have dropped over 100,000 tons of bombs. Most of those bombs are U.S. made by the way. The point is that Hamas, another Iranian proxy, has been degraded to the point that it is no longer much of a threat or of much help to Iran.

Israeli air attacks in Syria and the overthrow of the Syrian regime of Bandar Assad has destroyed or severely damaged Hezbollah the other Iranian proxy terrorist group. The fall of Assad deprived Iran of the ability to resupply Hezbollah and left them without many obvious allies in the area. The Iranians apparently recognized their predicament and have publicly abandoned the Houthis. Trump seems to want peace instead of war, but it is difficult when the one who wants war is Israel.

Apparently, during Netanyahu’s second trip to Washington he told Trump that he was going to attack Iran with or without U.S. participation. To me, if I had that decision to make it would be one of the easier ones. I would just say that I hope you don’t do that because if you do it will involve the immediate end of all U.S. military and monetary aid to Israel. Trump didn’t take my approach but he did say that he wanted to resolve the matter diplomatically if possible. When asked about Israel’s postponement of its attack he replied, “I wouldn’t say that I postponed it, but I’m not in a rush to do it.”

Trump has a Middle East trip coming up and one of the stops will be in Turkey to meet with Erdogan. The Turkish newspapers are full of stories about the upcoming meeting and how it can help resolve the Iran matter peacefully. By the way, folks Google has given us access to newspapers all over the world. If you want to read inside information from Turkey or Israel, it used to be difficult because of language but now you just click English and the articles are automatically translated.

Well, Turkish newspapers tell us that Trump gave Netanyahu what they termed a historic reprimand by telling him “You should be reasonable too.” Trump, himself, confirmed that Netanyahu went to the White House with a plan to attack Iran. The Turkish paper suggests that Trumps decision to negotiate instead of fight did not please Netanyahu but since it was the President of the United States he had no choice but to accept the decision.

Trump and the people he has assembled understand that his real fight is with China and it’s a fight for leadership of the world. That’s why he wants the Russia-Ukraine War to end and he wants the U.S.- Israeli war against Iran not to start. The talks are coming along nicely according to Turkey and involve supervision of Iran’s nuclear activities and lifting of sanctions against Iran. Both are fiercely opposed by Israel and that’s a problem.

In conclusion, involving your country in foreign military adventures is insane. The U.S. doesn’t have to do what it has been doing for the past 85 years. It should instead rethink its place in the world because fortress America sounds a lot more sensible than wasting blood and treasure on foreign battlefields when there is no national interest involved.

Finally, folks, in addition to the military aid provided to Israel during times of crises such as now, the U.S. provides 4 billion each year that has no known purpose except a kind of welfare which decades of administrations have seen as a kind of moral duty. The Israelis need that money because they recycle it into the U.S. Congress and other key defense decision makers. In other words. The Israelis have figured out a way to buy the U.S. Congress and make us pay for it.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle discusses the Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community just issued and signed off on by the office of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.

Transcription / Notes

THREAT ASSESSMENT

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Good Friday on the 18th day of April 2025. I will be talking about the Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community just issued and signed off on by the office of the Director of National Intelligence who at this moment is Tulsi Gabbard. This report gives the assessment of threats the U.S. faces from each country in the world where a threat is perceived to exist and is the combined assessment of the 17 intelligence agencies that are under the authority of the national director.

This report, which is published annually, is hot off the presses, but I don’t recommend that you read all 33 pages as I have unless you have a high tolerance for being terrified. Yes, once you have read this report you will wonder how the people who deal with this information every day manage to sleep at night. I will take this opportunity to share the highlights of the threat assessment as determined by U.S, Intelligence with you so you don’t have to read it and risk being terrorized.

The forward to the report introduces us to what is about to be presented. Terrorist and transnational criminal organizations, and I suppose that means drug cartels and their national supporters directly threaten our citizens and are directly responsible for more than 55,000 U.S. deaths from synthetic opioids in the last year, a 33% increase over the previous year.. It is amazing to me just how destructive the scourge of drugs has been to America. Those who are addicted seem to have an uncontrollable desire for the drug which enslaves them. I suppose the drugs at first, promise a good time or relief from bad times, but deliver, instead, misery and death.

I certainly believe that the U.S. government should consider as threats the nations enabling the cartels who do it for money and power. It’s a difficult problem indeed, for the cartels, thanks mostly to China, apparently control virtually all of Mexico and have made significant inroads into the governments of the various border states especially Arizona.

“Western Hemisphere based TCOs and terrorists involved in illicit drug production and trafficking bound for the United States endanger the health and safety of millions of Americans, contribute to regional instability.” Well, that’s a no brainer isn’t it so I wonder why no one in the government takes the time to explain to Mr. and Ms. Average American exactly what is happening and why such action against the cartels is necessary to save our lives. It is apparently profit for India, but for China they do it at cost because it’s a weapon to weaken and destroy the U.S. Mexico and its politicians are apparently so intimidated and terrified by the cartels and their multi billions in monetary assets that they do the cartels bidding.

In case you had any doubts about whether or not international terrorist groups are still active and still intent on doing harm not only to the U.S. Government but citizens as well you can now remove any doubt. “ISIS most aggressive branches, including ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), and its entrepreneurial plotters will continue to seek to attack the West, including the United States, via online outreach and propaganda aimed at directing, enabling, or inspiring attacks, and could exploit vulnerable travel routes.”

Well, that’s encouraging isn’t it to know that ISIS seeks to exploit your travel routes. The Report tells us that the New Year’s Day attacker in New Orleans was influenced by ISIS propaganda, as well as the Afghan national who was arrested in October for planning an election day attack in the name of ISIS. The intent of the attacks was to demonstrate to us and the world that ISIS could attack inside the US at any time. There are other international criminal groups outlined in the Report but for time’s sake we move on to threats that involve entire nations.

When the report speaks of China it uses the abbreviation PRC for the Peoples Republic of China. The PRC maneuvers constantly for ways to shape its power and influence in the world and for ways to gain advantage over the West, particularly the U.S. It uses its military to project power over Taiwan as well as the various claims it asserts in the East and South China Seas. Have you ever wondered when there are infrastructure problems in the U.S. why so many things seem so dysfunctional. China just might be behind it because cyber-crime and cyber terrorism are two to China’s greatest weapons and this report makes it clear that all that potential damage is just sitting there, pre-positioned, and waiting to be used in any conflict with the U.S.

The bottom line for China as outlined in this report is this; “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat to U.S. national security.” China is using complex, whole-of-government campaigns featuring coercive military, economic, and influence operations short of war to assert its positions and strength against others, reserving their more destructive tools for full-scale conflict. So, China uses its influence buying, its bribery of U.S. officials, its fentanyl production, its cyber-attacks, its spying inside the U.S., its theft of intellectual property, its theft of actual property, its ownership of vast amounts of U.S. farmland and its control of the manufacture of life saving medication as a kind of soft power to gradually weaken the U.S. so that it is less and less capable over time.

“The PRC remains the most active and persistent cyber threat to U.S. government, private-sector, and critical infrastructure networks. The PRC’s campaign to preposition access on critical infrastructure for attacks during crises or conflict tracked publicly as Volt Typhoon…demonstrates the growing breadth and depth of the PRC’s capabilities to compromise U.S. infrastructure.” The report goes on to say that recent telecommunications compromises are PRC attacks. I could go on all day with more and more threats from China but there are others to talk about.

Russia views its ongoing war in Ukraine as a proxy conflict with the West and because it so views the conflict it carries increased risks of unintended escalation. “Regardless of how and when the war in Ukraine ends, Russia’s current geopolitical, economic, military, and domestic political trends underscore its resilience and enduring potential threat to U.S. power, presence, and global interests.” Despite enormous costs incurred in the war Russia has proven to be very adaptable and resilient.

That is in part at least, because of the expanded backing of China, Iran, and North Korea. President Putin appears to be resolved and determined to pay a very high price to prevail. It seems to me then, that U.S. actions have driven Russia into the hands of China with its surrogates Iran and North Korea as well as enabling Russia and Putin to become stronger rather than weaker. Even the sanctions have forced Russia to form and expand the BRICS economic alliance as a way of working around the sanctions. More and more nations are joining therefore more and more nations want to help Russia avoid the sanctions.

Russia has suffered substantial ground losses in the war without losing any strategic capability. In other words, the campaign to weaken Russia has been a complete failure and completely counterproductive. The war has afforded Moscow a wealth of lessons regarding combat against Western weapons and intelligence in large-scale war. More than likely that information and experience will involve challenges in future conflicts including other adversaries with whom Moscow shares the information. Once again the U.S. actions have made its enemies stronger and will probably involve future unnecessary casualties. The word that keeps coming to mind regarding U.S. policy is self-destructive and especially stupid unless U.S. planners want to make the world less safe.

Finally, for Russia, it has the largest and most diverse nuclear weapons stockpile that, along with its deployed ground, air, and sea-based delivery systems, could inflict catastrophic damage to the Homeland. In other words, nuclear conflict with Russia would most likely mean planetary annihilation and should be avoided at almost all costs. Flirting with nuclear war shows a very dangerous mind and is hard for any rational person to see as anything but insane. Once again I could go on all day with this Report’s assessment of Russia but there are other threats to consider.

In my view this is the most important paragraph in this entire Report and it renders current U.S. policy a little hard to understand. “We continue to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003, though pressure has probably built on him to do so.” Did you get that folks, because when I read this it really mystified me. U.S. intelligence, the best that we have, says in writing, that it assesses that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. In light of that statement how can the U.S. threaten Iran with “something really bad.” Why move strategic bombers with their 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs within striking distance because “Iran cannot be allowed to build nuclear weapons” if your own best intelligence assessment is that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.

In conclusion, my own thoughts apart from this assessment is that the U.S. is in essence demanding that Iran demilitarize and I don’t see that happening. Iran is a theocracy but so is Israel and therein lies the rub. I see nothing good coming from the U. S. being involved in a religious war on the other side of the world and the last thing the U.S. needs to lose right now is an aircraft carrier.

Finally, folks, the assessment tells us that our struggles with Iran have made its allies China, Russia, and North Korea, harder to deal with and collectively they are much more powerful than any of them alone. In other words, according to U.S. Intelligence, as usual, U.S. involvement has made the situation much worse.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle endeavors to give his opinion on the subject of tariffs and what they mean for the United States.

Transcription / Notes

RESETTING THE ORDER

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 11th day of April in the year of our Lord 2025. It’s difficult to leave the subject of war and talk about tariffs but I have been waiting for the wars to pause long enough for me to do it. The wars haven’t cooperated, but I have to pause them for this week since the subject of tariffs can no longer be ignored.

I don’t claim to be an economist but I do know something about economic history so, I will, therefore, endeavor to give an opinion on the subject of tariffs and what they mean for us. I used to study the marketing theory of one of the great marketers in the world today, Dan Kennedy. People would pay handsomely for Dan’s advice and they would often ask him, so what should I do, this or that, and his answer was, yes. In other words, he would advise them to implement all those ideas at the same time. President Trump seems to have adopted that shotgun approach to how he deals with the US economy and its relationship with the world.

The tariff seems to be the base of Trump’s economic program and he has announced the implementation of 10% baseline tariffs on all imports but he has now temporarily paused them for 90 days. My understanding is that all reciprocal tariffs are paused except China which stands at 125%. He said that “yippy” globalists and “queasy” skeptics fueled his decision. I guess that means people were getting nervous and that made him nervous.

Tariffs are a tax on the importers of goods and the people who buy the finished products from the imported goods ultimately pay the tax. True, the buyer is free to not buy but in any event the tax money goes to the government and that explains the idea that tariffs will help reduce the deficit and therefore debt. The problem is that if we think about it the flaw in that reasoning is that increased revenue comes at the cost of decreased production thus offsetting any gains. Tariffs tend to slow down production wherever they are imposed. That is a concept proven time and again by history. The Chinese are a little uppity right now so their 125% tariff stays in place. The UN tells us that China now has 31% of world manufacturing and that is expected to increase to 45% by 2030. The idea then is to spur US manufacturing and that is a good thing but only if people have enough income to afford the products.

 Trump asserts that this tariff will correct decades of unfair trade practices that have disadvantaged American workers and industries. Quote from the president; “For too long, other nations have taken advantage of our open markets while imposing barriers to our products. Those days are over.” Think about it like this; a banana republic sells bananas to us and we sell them cars. We import twice as many bananas as that country does cars so there is a trade deficit and we put a 100% tariff on bananas so problem solved. The difficulty is that the banana republic now can’t afford nearly as many cars so it’s self-defeating.

 What he is attacking and threatening, then, is the order of the world that has existed since the end of WWll. It’s a globalist order in which the United States controls the world’s access to money with its reserve currency status while foreigners make stuff and exchange it for US debt and a promise to make interest payments on it.

The economic world order alters or changes from time to time as it did with the end of the gold standard in 1971. Things seemed to work well until the first really expensive war collided with the civil rights movement in which millions of additional Americans had to be included in the social fabric of America, its welfare, and its politics. President Johnson talked from time to time about how difficult it was to pay for both at the same time. His biography has many references to the predicament that he was in.

President Nixon found it impossible to do both and the triple blow was the promise of redeeming dollars with gold. His answer was to take the US off the gold standard thus reneging on that promise. Suddenly the dollar was free, almost literally, with no restraints which allowed the nation’s politicians to spend without limit. The debt grew and grew along with the deficits each year until now it is estimated that this fiscal year’s interest payment will be approximately 1.2 trillion.

 The US paid a price for being chosen to lead the world and impose our will on it, i.e. you do what we say or we are going to war and that means invasion and regime change. To stay leader in that game the US had to assume a role of uncontrolled military spending and to justify that, the masses had to be pacified. The US lost its way somewhere along that road and I think Trump is trying to find the way back. He might use a meat clever when a scalpel would work but I still think that is what he intends. If you read his book, the Art of the Deal, you can clearly see the tactics.

The rise of the computerized world powered by the internet brought the world together and allowed the oligarchs of the various nations to work together to accomplish globalization. The whole world was globalized and interconnected. US manufacturing was offshored meaning our capacity to make things went to foreign workers because US workers were just too expensive. Gradually, the middle-class jobs disappeared and all those factory jobs had to be replaced with something else. Do you know what the most common job in America is today, well its retail sales.

Those people who once worked in a steel mill as their fathers had done are now working at Walmart, carrying bags in hotels, or selling shoes. Their pay reduced from factory pay which included benefits and retirement, to minimum wage and the reality of constantly moving from job to job. People would be living in abject poverty except for the easy availability of credit because nobody can live on their income. This was a never-ending cycle because the easy credit which meant unlimited fuel for the economy drove prices up and made it even harder. Final result for each formerly middle-class American family was unpayable debt and bankruptcy, then the cycle would start over. Will tariffs bring back American manufacturing and reopen our shuttered rust belt factories, I sure hope they do.

Globalization, as the president sees it then, is other nations taking advantage of America and stealing America’s wealth but the reality is this. Foreigners shipped us cars, clothing, electronic gadgets, medicine, etc. and the US shipped them debt securities, blips on computer screens, and a promise that those blips could buy things. In other words, they made our goods and we gave them I.O.Us. as debt, which was a burden born by the hard-working American taxpayer. America lost its status as the world’s largest exporter and instead exported mostly debt. That debt has to be paid eventually by someone and that eventually is fast approaching.

Some of the things we import in great numbers are vital to the American people. The product I’m thinking of is antibiotics which is almost exclusively made in China now. The other things which are vital to the nation are not as vital to each person as being able to cure an infection in one’s body. Things such as computer chips and the all-important rare earth minerals without which the electronic gadgets could not work. Perhaps that is why Trump is trying so hard to secure Ukraine’s rare earth deposits for the US.

China’s economy is more dependent on the United States than the US economy is dependent on China but that doesn’t mean China will go away peacefully. One tactic is selling US treasuries thus making them worth less and driving up the cost of refinancing the roughly 9 trillion dollars of debt which must be refinanced very soon. China has also been able to reduce its total exports to the US to around 15%. It managed to do that by transshipping goods through Vietnam, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries. That’s probably why the Trump team told the Vietnamese that even reducing their tariffs to zero would not be enough.

The reciprocal tariff for Vietnam was 46% before the pause. I have a list here in front of me of every country in the world and only the big trading partners are being heavily taxed and the vast majority of countries are 10%. Even most of Europe is 10% but the Europeans are the enraged ones second only to China. I suspect that the real reason for the Chinese uncompromising attitude is that to just accept an equitable tariff with all this publicity would be an admission that the world order still puts them below the US and they are not willing to admit that to the world. The Europeans, on the other hand, just want things to continue as they are.

The Europeans talk about war and bluster with paranoia regarding Russia, but they expect the United States to pay for it.  The American people have made it clear that they want an end to these wars and that they can’t see any US purpose in fighting them. The administration said that some 70 countries have contacted US trade officials to negotiate reduced tariffs and most have offered to reduce their tariffs on American goods to zero. Would reducing tariffs worldwide to zero be a good thing for everybody.

 I’m not sure because it seems to me that it would further degrade US manufacturing thus driving down wages even further but zero tariffs are apparently not his intent. Would zero tariffs make for a more peaceful world. Maybe, and if so perhaps it would be worth it. I’m not sure how sustainable the US economy can be when it is based almost entirely on buying things that others make in exchange for ever increasing debt.

Trump also used the tariffs as a weapon to intimidate countries into doing what he demands. He used high tariffs against certain countries in Latin America to force them to repatriate their criminals which he wanted deported. That tactic worked against small, weak countries but I doubt if it would work against more powerful countries like China.

Finally, folks, if resetting the world order economically can be accomplished by tariffs to make the world a more peaceful place to live, work and raise our families that would be a good future. I hope and pray that it is so.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.