Darrell Castle talks about inflation and what economists using Bureau of Labor Statistics data refer to as the misery index.

Transcription / Notes

THE MISERY INDEX

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 17th day of June in the year of our Lord 2022 and on this Report, I will be talking about inflation primarily, but also what economists using Bureau of Labor Statistics data, refer to as the misery index. When will inflation subside, when will gas and food be affordable again, what is causing this misery, Those are questions worthy of our discussion today.

What I will try to do today is to give you some thoughts on how regular Americans are experiencing life every day and how this extremely empathetic administration, this we are always on the side of the working people, the little people, and against big business, political party is really made up of the most callous, unfeeling people in this country.

Americans are feeling the pain of this callous administration alright. They feel it at the pump, at the grocery store, on the vacation they don’t take, they feel it every day as prices continue to skyrocket with no end in sight. There will eventually be an end of course as all things end, but what will that entail, chaos, civil disorder, violence, or just the continued tyranny of the global cabal? From The Wall Street Journal:

“Energy and food prices made up much of the May increase, but this is cold comfort for consumers. Americans used to be able to substitute lower-cost protein when beef prices rose. But everything at the supermarket has become more expensive in the past year—eggs (32.2%), chicken (16.6%), milk (15.9%), even soup (13.9%). Lower-wage workers are getting crushed by Bidenomics.”

The Misery Index tells us something about the health of the economy and along with it the health of the nation. As the rate of inflation goes up the cost-of-living increases and as unemployment rises more and more people are dropped into poverty. The misery index then, is a look in the mirror for the economy and for the administration for that matter, telling them the condition of the average worker.

Yes, ordinary people are suffering as their standard of living collapses. I usually top off my gas tank on Sunday to be ready for the drive to work the following week. The last two Sundays the price was up 20 cents per gallon each week. When people pay more and more for gas each week and more and more for food each week their families sink deeper below their former standard of living. It’s as if their wages are being cut each week. It would break the heart of anyone not a complete psychopath or in the Biden administration.

What exactly has been the administration’s reaction to all this? Several evolving approaches consisting of everything from pure propaganda to wishful thinking, to embarrassing lies, have been unsuccessfully tried. The president wants the public to blame anything and anyone but himself for the misery inflation is causing. From its just transitory, and nothing to worry about to inflation is good to its Trump’s fault to its Covid’s fault to its Putin’s price hike to its big oil’s fault. It went from there to having press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre say, “We feel that we are in a good position to take on inflation.” The bottom line for the president is that the misery index is everybody and everything’s fault except his.

It’s the fault of the pandemic, it’s the fault of corporate greed and the rich who don’t pay their fair share, but most of all it’s the Putin inflation tax. However, I don’t remember Putin giving away trillions with no corresponding production to offset it and I don’t remember him canceling the Keystone Pipeline or blocking drilling offshore and on federal lands, and I don’t remember that he imposed any sanctions on himself. This is all just lies to justify what president Biden and the Democrat prosperity destroying radicals in the Democr...

Darrell Castle talks about how the civilian leadership, appointed by the Biden Administration, and the upper command of the Marine Corps has accomplished something that no foreign enemy has been able to accomplish in over 240 years of combat.

Transcription / Notes

PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 10th day of June in the year of our Lord 2022 and on this Report, I will be talking about how the civilian leadership, appointed by the Biden Administration, and the upper command of the Marine Corps has accomplished something that no foreign enemy has been able to accomplish in over 240 years of combat. That accomplishment was to wear down the United States Marine Corps and force it to surrender to the forces of identity politics and to recognize publicly a month set aside to honor a certain group of people for their sexual preference alone.

 The title to this Report is from Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. So, The Few the Proud the Marines forgets the basic mission and focuses on the celebration of Pride Week. What is the basic mission of the Marine Corps? Is it to achieve diversity of all ideologies within the ranks? I was taught the mission 50 years ago as follows: To close with and destroy the enemy and to inflict maximum attrition on him. It is a mission and a history based on blood and sacrifice. Officers are taught that the order of value is first the mission and its successful completion, second the men under your authority, third your own life. You quickly come to learn and accept that your life as a second lieutenant is pretty far down the order of importance.

I mention all that just to tell you that it is a beloved organization by the people who have served and most of us would not trade the experience for anything.  When we were sent into battle, we knew that we had each other’s back and we depended on and relied on each other. In fact, setting aside all the patriotic stuff, we fought for each other.  I assume Marines still do that and that is why division and divisive nonsense like Pride Month are such an insult to Marines. We are 10 days into Pride Month and everywhere you look there are rainbow flags signifying support for the month set aside to honor the “LGBTQ Community. “I’m an old Marine from 50 years ago so seeing a notice that the Marine Corps had finally surrendered to the woke mob was a little perplexing to me. I know things change and culture changes in keeping with the law of thermodynamics, but the Marine Corps does not change, it lives forever as is.

 The exact statement the Marine Corps released from headquarters Marine Corps in Washington D.C. announcing recognition of Pride Month was as follows: “Throughout June, the USMC takes Pride in recognizing and honoring the contributions of our LGBTQ service members. We remain committed to fostering an environment free from discrimination, and defend the values of treating all equally, with dignity and respect.”

The image released with the statement was widely mocked on social media and was apparently taken from the 1987 film by Stanley Kubrick, “Full Metal Jacket.” The illustration was a Marine helmet with several rainbow-colored rifle bullets in the band with the words “Proud to Serve” written on the helmet. The difference between that image and the film image was that in the film version the helmet said, “born to kill. “If you saw that movie then you understand what those men portrayed as Marines endured and you might start to understand.

Whether born that way or not, killing is every Marines’ job and the bottom line of his duty. I suppose they should go ahead and change the slogan used in TV recruiting commercials for years, The Few the Proud, the Marines. Now perhaps we should just say we are proud to support pride. Seriously though I don’t get this. A whole month set aside to honor certain people’s sexual prefe...

Darrell Castle talks about President Biden's commencement address to the graduating class at the United States Naval Academy last Friday and how his address reflects American foreign policy and the future service of those young Navy Ensigns and Marine Second Lieutenants as they go forth to project American power around the world.

Transcription / Notes

SCREAM LOUDLY AND CARRY NO STICK AT ALL

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 3rd of June in the year of our Lord 2022 and in this Report, I will be talking about President Biden’s commencement address to the graduating class at the United States Naval Academy this past Friday, May 27th as well as how that address reflects American foreign policy and the future service of those young Navy Ensigns, and Marine Second Lieutenants, as they go forth to project American power around the world.

I can’t begin this Report without reminding you that tomorrow June 4th is the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Midway. That battle fought in the dark and desperate early months of World War ll changed the course of the War and the course of history in general.  Due to the sacrifice and courage of all those naval officers and men of the U.S. Navy, Japan’s ultimate defeat became inevitable, but it took three more years of bloodshed and atomic horror before they would accept it.

The President of the United States celebrated Memorial Day by delivering the commencement address to the graduating officers at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland on Friday May 27th. I’m not going to indulge you by making tired jokes about his slurred delivery, his confusion, his inability to pronounce words or to say the correct words because all that is old news now. He did make some terrible gaffes and he did continue his creepy habit of leaning over the podium and whispering. He did do a lot of literal screaming when talking about Russia to these young officers.

 What he did not say was to me, far more important than what he did say. Just on a brief inventory he did not mention the 80th anniversary that I just discussed. It would have been a perfect time to tell them that a worthwhile goal for their naval careers would be to just begin to live up to the courage and sacrifice of those men at Midway. Most of these officers will undoubtably be posted to the Pacific where there is a growing threat of war with China thanks to his loose lips. He threatened war with China over Taiwan when answering a reporter’s question in Japan. Would the U.S. military come to the aid of Taiwan in case of a Chinese attack? Yes, he said that’s our commitment.

I wonder if he is so far gone that he doesn’t know that is not our commitment and never has been, unless of course he has changed it and was just announcing the change. He undid about 46 years of American policy and relative peace with China with one sentence. What is the most important job of a U.S. President? One might argue that it is to prevent nuclear war. This man seems unaware of that job requirement and is increasingly willing to roll the dice with Russia and China. Another thing he could have told the graduates is that you are going in harm’s way, and you will be the tip of the spear delivering your aircraft and its ordinance where needed. China is a big problem now, thanks to my leadership and so, a lot will be demanded and expected of you, but I know you are up to it, and you have had the best training in the world to prepare.

None of that was said of course, nothing to bolster them and to uplift them for the many years of service, apart from loved ones, that lies ahead of them. Instead, he chose to make the occasion about him instead of them. I’m certain he is unfamiliar with Teddy Roosevelt’s line from which I drew the title of this Report. Walk softly and carry a big stick the Bull Moose famously said. By that line Roosevelt was emphasizing that diplomacy is the correct way to conduct international re...

Darrell talks about ordinary people and what they face in this new world today. A world run by powerful and wealthy people who meet in dark cabal to decide the fate of ordinary people and their prodigy.

Transcription / Notes

ORDINARY PEOPLE

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 27th day of May in the year of our Lord 2022 and this is also Memorial Day weekend when we pause to remember all those who served and especially those who died. Today I will be talking about all those ordinary people and discussing what they face in this new world today. A world run by powerful and wealthy people who meet in dark cabal to decide the fate of all those ordinary people and the fate of their prodigy as well.

To introduce this Report, I turn to the words of economist Bill Bonner. “Basic expenses—food. Shelter, and fuel—are going up so fast, households have less and less left over for discretionary spending, which leaves the big box retailers with a lot of unsold product in the box. And today we feel their pain—the misery—desolation—and anguish of the working classes, both at home and abroad. These are the guys and gals with chainsaws and work belts—with 18 wheelers to edge into a tight spot—with a night shift to complete without falling asleep—with croissants to bake or laundry to wash.

These are the people who made the world what it is. They fell on Normandy beaches—built the Brooklyn Bridge—put down the hardtop roads—baked the cookies—and delivered the mail. And now they are still the people who add the most real value to our lives. Not the hedge fund managers, influencers, or policymakers—but autoworkers, farmers, UPS drivers, cooks, baristas, and waiters—carpenters, plumbers, and masons. And here’s the gist of our story: the masses have been cheated, deleted, and mistreated. And it’s going to get worse.”

Well amen Bill, in fact I could stop this report right now and thanks to your eloquent words my point would be made, but there is more to the story. The elite class, some 2500 of the world’s most powerful and wealthy, gather as I speak in Davos Switzerland to plot their dark, satanic agenda of world domination. They go on and on about climate change, limiting your meat intake, advising you to eat bugs and take the subway, while flying in on their private jets and flaunting their lifestyles. Their words reveal in clear focus the enormous divide between the elites and ordinary people.

To kick things of in this year’s meeting of the World Economic Forum we had a speech by the WEF founder and author of the book, “The Great Reset” Klaus Schwab. Mr. Schwab, a German, but of course there are no nationalities to him, gave the opening speech and it was a real doozy. He said “the future is not just happening; the future is built by those of us in this room. We have the means to improve the world, but two things are necessary. 1. We must act as stakeholders of the world with stakeholder responsibility, i.e., act responsibly. 2. We must collaborate and work together.”

This speech was given to a group of people who consider themselves far superior to the other 8 billion or so people in the world. They have not been elected or even delegated the power to build our future. Their dark vision of the future is unworkable and dystopian, but in their efforts to implement it they will tear this world apart as they are already doing. Many dictators and so-called leaders were in attendance at this meeting and that tells me where their loyalties lie.

The loyalty and fidelity of the leaders of this world from Joe Biden to Emmanuel Macron, to Boris Johnson owe their allegiance to the people in that meeting and not to us. In fact, they hate us and place loyalty to their ideology over the well-being of their constituents, all those ordinary people. The evidence that they hate us is enormous and accumulating daily. Start with COVID and the economy destroying,

Darrell Castle talks about food by asking the question is there a worldwide food shortage or one inevitably coming and if so, is the cause deliberate sabotage of humanity or just the incompetence of the world's leaders.

Transcription / Notes

FOOD SHORTAGE—INTENTIONAL OR JUST INCOMPETENCE?

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 20th day of May in the year of our Lord 2022 and on this Report, I will once again be talking about food and asking the questions is there a worldwide food shortage or one inevitably coming and if so, is the cause deliberate sabotage of humanity or just the incompetence of the world’s leaders.

I don’t know the future only God knows it for certain, but I can look up at the sky and see the dark clouds rolling in and make a reasonable assumption that rain is coming and soon. The price inflation and empty grocery store shelves are similar in that they tell me that a food shortage is on its way. It is hard to imagine a food shortage any where in the Western World let alone here in America, but when there is a crises like the COVID virus or even a sudden snowstorm, we get a glimpse of empty shelves. Without the panic of a crisis what could cause such a thing?

It seems that there are many causes some of which are war, sanctions, inflation, reactions to COVID, and supply chain disruptions caused by a combination of all those things. Looking at sanctions placed on Russia is to the food supply as the dark clouds are to rain. When we hear the West’s politicians talk sanctions, we know we are going to be hungry. For example, the German Foreign Minister declared recently that sanctions against Russia will only be lifted after a complete withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukrainian territory. Well now, Foreign Minister, let me think, yes, I remember now that Germans killed about 27 million Russians during WWll and isn’t that enough.  Maybe you should consider sitting this one out, but I guess you must sit at the feet of your master.

Crimea has been a part of Russia for hundreds of years with only a gap between 1991 until 2014. It is Russia’s only Black Sea port and only warm water port and only entry into the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. Now, Putin has it with a land bridge to it as well and I seriously doubt that he will give it up while he has thousands of nuclear weapons. What that means is that the sanctions will never be lifted and food problems resulting are obvious. The truth is that the supply chain problems preceded the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the war has intensified the problems and made them far more intractable.

We in America, for the most part can live with prices and supply as they are now. Even though the shelves are depleted, and the items still there cost a lot more, we can get by so the question is will it get worse? If so, how much worse, and what would that mean for the American people. I’m afraid the answer to will it get worse is yes. Prices for gasoline are over $4.00 per gallon on average nationwide now, however the critical price affecting food is not gasoline but diesel because that is what affects the price and availability of food. The supply system we have in America now is so globalized and so dependent on trucking and rail deliveries that the slightest rise causes problems and increased prices.

Grocery stores have no storage capacity and are therefore dependent on daily deliveries. When the deliveries miss even one day there are shortages and soon nothing. The price of diesel has doubled in the last year and some suppliers report critical shortages both of which have a corresponding effect on food. Large trucking companies and large food distributors are warning that we are on the precipice right now and unless something is quickly done much of the world faces a food disaster.

Russia and Ukraine together produce about 29% of all the wheat exports in the world.

Darrell Castle talks about recent actions of the U.S. in Ukraine which causes him to question whether the current administration is try to provoke direct war with Russia.

Transcription / Notes

DOES THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WANT DIRECT WAR WITH RUSSIA?

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 13th day of May in the year of our Lord 2022. I will be looking at some recent actions of the U.S. in Ukraine which cause me to question whether the Administration is trying to provoke direct war with Russia in place of the proxy war it is now waging with Ukrainian blood and American treasure.

A second name for this Castle Report might be mind your own business. That is a concept that is completely lost on American politicians today because minding our own business is the one thing they will not do. They want to stick our collective fingers in every rattlesnakes nest they find in this world, but do anything to protect our border, not on your life. Will they do anything about rising food and fuel costs, not likely. Reports indicate that food and fuel will cost the average American family an extra $3000 this year, but pay increases are hard to come by. In other words, we are getting poorer each day, but at least Ukraine gets its weapons. How about the coming food shortage that threatens every American, no time for that, but war on the other side of the planet, we can’t wait.

The U.S. seems to be pursuing a course of action in Ukraine which puts it in direct conflict with Russia. By direct I mean outside the obvious proxy war that Washington loves so much. It is a dangerous gamble, but one the administration is obviously willing to make with our lives. Once again, I ask myself if the shoe were on the other foot what would the U.S. do? These proxy wars have been fought between the powers surviving World War ll since that war ended. For example, In Korea the U.N. army led by the U.S. was opposed by Communist China and Russia with direct intervention by China, and proxy intervention by Russia.

Vietnam was similar in that both China and Russia supplied weapons and intelligence to fight the U.S. enemy. It was Russian technology and air defense systems that allowed North Vietnam to shoot down so many U.S. warplanes killing and imprisoning the pilots. That situation should have ended with the fall of the Soviet Union but no, here we are again. This time the situation is reversed with the U.S. supplying the weapons, technology, and intelligence to kill Russians. The question for discussion and the danger point is how close this Administration is coming to direct involvement in the war.

I was a child during Korea, but I read a lot, and I certainly remember Vietnam and what happened during that roughly 15-year struggle. I can’t recall a single instance of Chinese and Russian assistance in killing Americans in which they openly laughed at the U.S. and mocked U.S. leadership. I don’t know if it was respect among enemies or just the fear of confronting a nuclear armed superpower especially in Korea when the U.S. was the only nuclear armed nation. I suspect it was that both sides recognized the wars as struggles between two competing world systems for world domination and therefore nothing personal.

Today, in contrast, the U.S. is openly killing Russians, destroying Russian war materials including capital ships, and then not only laughing, but dancing on the graves of dead Russians. Let me try to explain what I mean by that and why this policy is so dangerous. I wonder what the strategic value is, if any, in the following U.S. actions?

U.S. officials told N.B.C. News that the U.S. did play a role in sinking the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva, or in English the Moscow. I tried to analyze the sinking before the U.S. not only admitted to it but bragged about it, and I could not make sense of it. Given that the Moskva was specifically designed for anti-air defense and was...

Darrell Castle talks about the truth and the extraordinary efforts the Biden Administration is taking to keep us from finding it, specifically the government's new Disinformation Governance Board formed under the Department of Homeland Security.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 6th day of May in the year of our Lord 2022. I will be talking about the truth and the extraordinary efforts the Biden Administration is taking to keep us from finding it. Specifically, I will address the government’s new Disinformation Governance Board formed under the Department of Homeland Security to ferret out all the disinformation and misinformation floating around and restrict us simpletons to the truth as the Federal Government defines it.

When George W. Bush consolidated several government agencies under the title of Homeland Security, I knew it was a frightening idea. The name just sounds scary, like it belongs in the history of despotic regimes with a title like Gestapo, or at least not in America. My fears about that agency have proven to be correct as mission creep has expanded it from one mission to the next. The primary mission of Homeland Security is to secure the homeland, but that is the one thing it refuses to do.

Securing the homeland starts with securing the border, but this administration refuses to perform even that simple task. The border no longer exists under the current Department of Homeland Security which repeatedly sends its head, Alejandro Mayorkas, before congress to give lip service to the Administration’s lies about the border. Now, Secretary Mayorkas has a new task and that is finding and eliminating disinformation or misinformation from our minds.

The Federal Government which seems to have a hard time telling the truth about anything has appointed itself the Ministry of Truth, the determiner of truth, and the decider of what we the people are able to see, hear, and say. I suppose it is almost fair to say that the federal government seeks to replace God in American lives. Have faith they tell us because we know what truth is. The secretary testified that the new board has been created “to combat misinformation ahead of the 2022 midterms”. It is to be focused specifically on irregular migration and Russia, and even more specifically to minority groups especially Hispanic or Latinx as the left likes to call them.

That announced focus tells me that the Democrats are concerned that they are losing some of their support among their most loyal base. Minorities have phones and they are apparently coming across the truth from time to time about irregular migration, better known as illegal immigration, and of course Russia, stolen elections, bioweapons labs, laptops from hell, etc.

If you define those on the bottom rung of society of all races as a minority, those people may be starting to wise up about what is happening and that is probably frightening to those who own their votes. They are constantly told that the Democrats are their Party, and they will be taken care of in their rightful place at the bottom. Minimum wages will be periodically raised, and stimulus money will come their way. The truth, however, is somewhat different and perhaps the bottom minority is starting to see it. Rest comfortably at the bottom they say because we feel your pain.

One cannot rest comfortably on the bottom anymore even in the caring hands of the government because the bottom is constantly moving. The powers that be are bringing in more and more to the bottom so that its numbers are constantly expanding downward. Now those at the bottom must compete with the bottom of every country in the world and that is plain for anyone to see. That fact must be labeled disinformation and a giant new government board must be formed to keep us from seeing, hearing, or talking about that fact.

Those at the bottom become more powerless with each passing day....

Darrell Castle talks about the U.S. decision to give another $800 million in weapons to Ukraine and whether this continued escalation is necessary. He also asks the question "Whose hands end up using them and, how do we know where the weapons go."

Transcription / Notes

ANOTHER WEEK ANOTHER $800 MILLION

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 29th day of April in the year of our Lord 2022 and I will be talking about the U.S. decision to give another $800 million in weapons to Ukraine which now seems to be a weekly thing. Is this continued escalation necessary and where do these weapons go? Whose hands end up using them and, how do we know?

Last week Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin were in Ukraine for talks with President Zelensky. This was an unusual visit for the U.S. since no official delegation has visited that country since the Russian invasion began. It was not unusual, however, for the U.S. to promise $800 million more in weapons since that seems to be an almost weekly thing now. This new package was termed foreign military assistance and was part of a new $713 million which came after two successive weeks of $800 million each. This week President Biden asked congress for $33 billion of taxpayer debt to pour into the Ukrainian black hole of war and despair.

The new weapons also reflect a continuing trend of escalation in lethality including heavy artillery, armored personnel carriers, and helicopters, and tanks. The heavy artillery included 18 towed 175mm howitzers and 40,000 rounds for them. In an interesting twist of fate, the U.S. and other NATO members are also delivering ammunition and weapons from the Soviet Union remaining in European stockpiles. Poland will send several T-72 Soviet era tanks and Germany will provide self-propelled anti-air armored tanks. Those are essentially a flak gun mounted on a tank chassis. These old Soviet weapons systems will then be replaced by U.S. state of the art systems so sweet deal.

I give you this partial list of weapons to demonstrate the escalation of the war in terms of lethality and danger. Poland and Germany both previously expressed reservations about continuing to escalate the struggle but have sense reversed course. That reversal came after a meeting between several NATO members and Secretaries Blinken and Austin after their Ukraine visit. The meeting was held at Ramstein, the U.S. air base in Germany. The German Chancellor Herr Scholz, in an interview just two days before with a German magazine said:

“We need to do everything to avoid a direct military confrontation between NATO and a heavily armed superpower such as Russia, a nuclear power. I will do everything to avoid an escalation that could lead to World War lll—there can be no nuclear war.”

Apparently, everything does not include U.S. pressure, threats, and/or promises to pay for it all. Just two days after that statement was published Germany promised to offer artillery systems and training to Ukrainian troops on German soil. The German defense minister hailed the decision as “progress.” Scholtz once again emphasized that “avoiding escalation towards NATO is a top priority for me and that’s why I don’t focus on polls or let myself be irritated by shrill calls. The consequences of an error would be dramatic.”

Well, chancellor, those are fine words, but once again talk is cheap, and in the end you did exactly what you said you would not do. The risks you previously said you wanted to avoid are just as real now as they were then. In fact, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the next day, “the risk of nuclear war remains a serious real danger and we must not underestimate it.” Russia currently has a stockpile of battlefield or tactical nuclear weapons estimated at 2000 while the U.S. maintains about 250. Those weapons are not designed to be city annihilators,

Darrell Castle talks about food and what is causing the supply chain disruptions around the world. He asks if the world's food supply really is approaching crisis conditions.

Transcription / Notes

IS FAMINE IN OUR FUTURE?

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 22nd day of April in the year of our Lord 2022 and my discussion today will be about something none of us can live long without and that is food. What is causing the supply chain disruptions around the world and is the world’s food supply really approaching crisis conditions.

Governments across the Western World are starting to sound the alarm about a crisis in the supply chain especially in food. They blame the war in Ukraine for most of the problem just as they blamed COVID for the collateral damage that it caused. It is obvious, however, that the real culprit, is not so much the war as it is the reaction to the war. Just as the COVID lockdowns caused the economic devastation, severe economic sanctions placed on Russia are causing much of the supply chain problems the world is facing.

American politicians seem to be incapable of facing the fact that they have overplayed their hand with the sanctions imposed on Russia. Instead of deterring Russia, the sanctions have accelerated Russian and Chinese efforts away from the dollar as reserve currency for the world. For that and other reasons I contend that the U.S. sanctions policy is doing more harm to the U.S. and Europe than it is to Russia.

Russia formerly provided about 10% of the world’s oil supply so now that is effectively removed from the world market. Europe gets, or previously did get, about 40% of its natural gas from Russia. Perhaps even more ominous is that Russia is a very large supplier of wheat, fertilizer, and other components of the world’s food supply. Right now, with the agricultural system that has been in place since chemical fertilizers started to dominate the world, it is extremely difficult to grow enough food without those fertilizers.

A simple fact then, that anyone but an American politician can see, is that it is not possible to destroy Russia, or to cut it off and isolate it from the global economy without causing severe damage to supply chains and food production around the world. In addition, as we all know, the U.S. relies on the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency to maintain its financialized dominance over the world. Much of the world is now frantically working to end that reserve currency status and leave the U.S. financialized economy holding 30 trillion of debt.

Dire conditions already exist in food supply chains for much of the world. The head of the UN World Food Program has warned that this will be the worst food crisis since World War Two. Joe Biden has admitted as well that coming food shortages are real. I suppose the alternative for him would be the Baghdad Bob approach of you are not seeing this. Unfortunately, world events are coming together to accelerate the crisis and make it a lot worse. If the nations of the West were to suddenly reverse course and make an all-out effort perhaps in time it could be reversed, but that does not appear to be happening.

The COVID lockdown policy in China has now spread to so many Chinese cities that an estimated 400 million people are locked down or at least partially locked down. That is more people than the entire population of the United States. That number represents about 40% of the entire domestic production of the world’s second largest economy. Chinese lockdowns are harsher than in the West and who knows what the long-term economic fallout will be.  For one thing, the Chinese economy, supplier to the world, is grinding to a halt and like a giant ship, once stopped, it takes a while to restart and gain momentum.

Chinese lack of production effects even our food supply. We don’t realize it perhaps, but a great deal of our food processing is done in Chi...

Darrell Castle talks about the economic warfare being waged across the full economic spectrum by the Western World against Russia, against Vladimir Putin, and against anyone who will not comply.

Transcription / Notes

ECONOMIC WORLD WAR

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Good Friday, or the Friday before Easter Sunday and this is the 15th day of April in the year of our Lord 2022. I will be talking about the economic warfare being waged across the full economic spectrum by the Western World against Russia, against Vladimir Putin, and against anyone who will not comply.

Last Tuesday, April 12th was the 77th anniversary of the death of Franklin Roosevelt. FDR conducted a world war, but he did not quite live long enough to see the end of it. Here we are 77 years later once again engaged in a worldwide struggle, but for now our participation is primarily economic and the control of all information.

NATO and the United States confront Russia and challenge Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, but it is the economic model set in place at Bretton Woods after World War Two and solidified by the disconnection from gold or anything of value in 1971 that enabled the West to defeat the Soviet Union in the cold war. It is what caused Vladimir Putin to inherit a broken nation and it is what caused the Eastern European nations to want to follow the West instead of Russia.

The results of economic warfare here in America include inflation hitting a 40 year high in March, with the latest CPI Index at 8.5 %. The Federal Government’s runaway money printing especially since 2020, is certainly enough to spark rising prices, but now we add a war to the equation. The effects of the war are starting to cause ripples across the entire world, more and more inflation, especially for commodities like food fuel and metals.

International trade is starting to break down which will continue to cause more inflation. People expect prices to rise so they buy more thus fueling inflation even more. When my gas tank is about a quarter from full, I stop and top off because I know it will be higher tomorrow, if any is available. The supply chain is being disrupted and breaking down across the world especially in China which seems to make almost everything now. Later this year supply chain problems are predicted to hit food hard with shortages and higher prices.

Doing things intentionally to make this situation a lot worse seems like madness to me, but that is apparently what is happening. Shutting down oil production in the United States and going to the Saudis with our hat in our hands at the same time we cozy up to their Iranian enemies shows either serious weakness in the current administration’s understanding of the world or suicidal intent on a national level. The Saudis recently released a comic video making fun of or mocking the president and vice president of the United States which is now viral. So, the Saudi sheiks, who murder homosexuals and who treat women as property laugh at and mock the United States and its leadership, but Washington still goes begging to them

The Western Nations, led by the United States, have sanctioned just about everything in the world that is Russian. They have shut down their own fuel supply and barred any imports from Russia. The exception is Europe’s dependence on Russian gas which has been allowed to continue. What would happen if Putin simply turned off the spigot, no one seems to know, but it does serve to highlight the hypocrisy of the thing.

In China, which as I said earlier, makes just about everything and ships just about everything, is so disrupted right now that by the fall of this year the world has to be in a terrible bind supply wise. First you destroy your own nation’s ability to manufacture by shipping all manufacturing to low wage countries, primarily China, then you decide to conduct economic warfare against all the countries that make everything y...