Darrell Castle speaks to the best and worst of times as a good description of our times, today.

Transcription / Notes

THE BEST AND WORST OF TIMES

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 31st day of October in the year of our Lord 2025. Yes, this is Halloween day, a traditional spooky, bad news day, but I have decided to use this spooky day and borrow a bit from the classic novel written by Charles Dickens entitled “A Tale of Two Cities”.  Mr. Dickens opened his novel with “It Was the Best of Times; It Was the Worst of Times” and that is a pretty good description of our times, today.

Dickens wrote those words in 1859 as the title and opening of his novel which was set in London and Paris during the French Revolution. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity.” That sounds so much like today because the more things change the more they stay the same and as we all know technology constantly changes but human nature does not. The setting of Dickens’ novel was an age of radical opposites that faced each other much like today, but today they are not cities but political divisions.

Here in present-day America, we have opposing forces and contrasting views everywhere you look. In New York City, for example, there seems to be a very good possibility that the people of that once great city will elect a man named Zohran Mamdani as mayor in the upcoming election. The man is often described as a communist as well as an Islamic fundamentalist at the same time. Those two terms are, of course, contradictory because communism was founded and still is based on atheism while Islam is obviously based on a belief in God.

He does seem to have some radical ideas based on economic theories which have been failures everywhere they have been tried. He is not the first to suggest that public transportation be free without any corresponding explanation of where he would get the money to pay for it. See folks, nothing government does is ever free because someone always pays and the politicians want the people to give them the authority to decide who they will steal the money from. I suppose that is true democracy whereby the mob is empowered to loot anyone not voting with the majority. Once again it proves the wisdom of the founders who believed in individual rather than collective rights.

Just wind the clock back a century or so and you will find the words of Thomas Paine who wrote a revolutionary pamphlet called Common Sense. One article or series of articles in the pamphlet was called The Crises. He began that section with the words, “These Are the Times That Try Men’s Souls” and that phrase seems more appropriate today than ever. That phrase is especially true here on Halloween Day as many vitally important things hang in the balance such as NYC and whether that city will ever be great again or whether it will continue its slide into the abyss.

So, Mr. Mamdani is an example of the worst of times. The best of times is an amazing contrast whereby the people of Argentina, after decades of socialist experiments, which left that once powerhouse of an economy in a state of collapse decided to change course. What could be more wonderful than the joy of seeing voters reject the allure of socialism for the second time. Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, has led his party to a landslide victory in the elections held last Sunday. Radical spending cuts and free-market reforms defined the two years of his presidency and the people of Argentina have endorsed his efforts and decided to continue the road to recovery. That’s the very good news from Argentina.

The bad news or at least I have decided to see it as bad news is that Donald Trump agreed to extend a $40 billion loan to Argentina which has defaulted three times since the year 2000. Never mind the chances of repayment, the president told the Argentine people that the money would only be coming if Milei was reelected which as I said, he was. Does that sound like an open bribe, yes it does, but at least it is open for anyone to see and at least the money is for Argentine trade with the U.S. It is not a Joe Biden kind of bribe whereby he and Hunter get the money personally.

So why is the bribe a bad thing. Well, for one thing this is a bailout and the American people voted for America first which means no bailouts. They especially did not vote for a bailout of a foreign country which might involve lower prices for their soybeans, beef etc. Oh well, we move on, and anyway, encouraging free markets, especially in this hemisphere, is not such a bad thing.

 Milei, in office for a little less than two years, has reduced inflation by 90% and cut the budget by 100%. Argentina is no longer in the desert as Mr. Milei described its condition when he took office. The nation has climbed out of its permanent recession and now has the fastest growing economy in the Americas. GDP growth is more than twice that of the U.S. Real wages have tripled and poverty has been cut by 40%. So, why is the $40 billion necessary? That’s a very good question.

In the meantime, the president is on a trip to the Far East where he has made trade deals with five countries that will bring, reportedly trillions in trade and hopefully more work for Americans. He stopped in Malaysia to sign a peace deal he helped negotiate between Cambodia and Thailand. He also met Japan’s new prime minister Sanae Takaichi who is a lot closer to Mr. Trump on how she views the world than most Asian leaders. The trade deal with Japan, worth billions for the U.S, includes rare earth minerals thus reducing the U.S. dependence on China.

In a gesture of friendship and trust, Prime Minister Takaichi donated 250 Japanese cherry trees to help with President Trump’s beautification of Washington efforts. She mentioned in her glowing speech that Japanese fireworks will be used in D.C. as part of the July 4th celebration of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. thus the 250 trees. She and the president watched part of the world series game together and that was I believe the 3rd game which went 18 innings won by the Dodgers which has many Japanese players.

She knew that Trump and former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were close friends. Unfortunately, Mr. Abe is now deceased so she gave Trump his putter as a gesture of goodwill and she told him Shinzo would have wanted him to have it. Trump obviously appreciated the touching nature of the gift and expressed sadness at Mr. Abe’s death, and he said he accepted the gift on behalf of the United States. So, these nations, once enemies in a long and bitter war which ended in a nuclear explosion are now good friends so I’m going to put that down as some of the very best of times.

The bad times always seem to happen at the same time, and this time they were on the other side of the world. Despite the peace agreement brokered by President Trump the Israeli Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu apparently used the cover of Trump in the Far East to attack Gaza with American fighter jets and American bombs. The Israelis accused Hamas of killing one Israeli soldier so the attacks reportedly killed 104 people according to the Gaza Health Ministry which of course is run by Hamas. The Israeli attacks came after Israel accused Hamas of shooting an Israeli soldier which caused Mr. Netanyahu to order an “immediate and powerful” attack on the rubble already destroyed by powerful Israeli attacks over the last two years. The health ministry announced that 46 of the dead were children and 20 were women. This area of the world is a difficult to impossible place to find peace, and good times are hard to come by.

 The problem or at least part of the problem, seems to be that both sides in this dispute feel religiously entitled to all the land in the region and neither will be satisfied with anything less than the total departure of the other side. This might be a good time for the U.S. to stop its involvement including furnishing the weapons for the attacks. Such a policy shift would indeed be the best of times for America.

Continuing our examination of the worst of times the U.S. proxy war against Russia seems to be on the verge of expanding into Eastern Europe and other NATO member states. President Trump has made some policy changes taking a harder line against Russia in any possible peace negotiations and that is reportedly due to the influence of Marco Rubio who seems to be very good at the job of Secretary of State but who also may have more than a little neocon in him. U.S. sanctions on Russian oil haven’t worked that well, but now they have intensified and seem to be having their effect, and some of the drone attacks inside Russia have been against Russian oil and oil storage facilities.

Some of the European countries seem to be at odds with the European Union’s position with regard to Russia. Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania are three which have expressed such reservations. You probably remember that Joan and I founded and run a Christian Mission/Orphanage in Romania for orphaned children, mostly but not all Gypsies. I tell you that to explain that I pay particular attention to any news concerning Romania because it could affect our mission which is home to about 50 kids who have no other home to go to.

So, on the good news front the U.S. just announced that it plans to withdraw 800 U.S. soldiers stationed in Romania, as part of a broader restructuring of its forces in Europe. One thousand troops as well as aircraft, drones and other assets will remain in Romania. The U.S. Army 3rd infantry division took over command of U.S. forces in Romania replacing the 1st Armored Division. Perhaps that decision is a recognition of my theory that the tank is an anachronism on today’s battlefield.

IN light of our theme of the best of times and the worst of times here are a few things to close with. In the past two and one-third months ending October 15th the U.S. national debt increased by more than one trillion dollars. In light of the debt which now exceeds 38 trillion why is the U.S. continuing to fight and underwrite Israel’s wars or anyone else’s for that matter. How can the U.S. afford to loan anyone anything or bomb any one except in a dire act of self-defense. All the sanctions on Russia and China as well as other countries which do business with them accomplish not much but make more enemies and higher prices.

Finally, folks, I could go on with this best of times and worst of times analysis all day but instead let me close with some thoughts from George Washington. He and the other founders were of European ancestry and he saw and knew their political systems. He said we Americans should leverage our relative isolation and disentangle ourselves from the conflicts and eternal hatreds of the old world. We should focus on trade with everyone and prosperity for all. No entangling alliances because they just make us beholden and put us in the middle of wars that should be none of our business. That sounds like pretty good advice to me.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.