The Castle Report

Darrell Castle discusses President Trump’s angry, profanity laced tirade directed at Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. Did it really happen and if so why did it happen and if it did not happen, why say that it did. Transcriptions / Notes TRUMP UNLOADS ON NETANYAHU Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 5th day of June in the year of our Lord 2026. My beat today is war and as usual there is no shortage of war to talk about but today I discuss President Trump's angry, profanity laced tirade directed at Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. Did it really happen and if so why did it happen and if it did not happen then why say that it did. Its no secret that Trump wants the U.S. role in the war against Iran ended and quickly. The war has placed the world's economy in jeopardy and therefore its end is imperative. To that end Trump has been negotiating with somebody representing Iran while using Pakistan as the broker. Every time it looks positive and Trump announces that fighting has stopped it turns out to be a little premature. Trump says we have a deal ending the war and fighting has ceased. In response gas prices in the U.S. come down and the stock market soars. The next step is for Israel to continue attacking in Lebanon as if there were no peace talks. Apparently Trump got tired of it this week and placed a call to the Prime Minister. The story, reported at first by people physically present for the call, and later admitted by the President himself went something like this. Trump called Netanyahu F-ing crazy and accused him of ingratitude. “You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving you're a**. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.” In the meantime, whether Netanyahu got the message or not Israel continued its war in Lebanon as if nothing had happened. According to Lebanese news agency NNA, the Israeli attacks continued and Hezbollah continued attacks against Israeli forces inside Lebanon. Lebanon's Embassy in Washington said Hezbollah would refrain from further attacks if Israel would show the same restraint but Israel does not seem interested. Israel announced that the fighting would continue but it would not strike Beirut while talks were ongoing. Israeli and Lebanese Ambassadors are in talks at the State Department in Washington. That makes me wonder if the Lebanese government has the authority to negotiate for Hezbollah. I guess one answer to that question is that Hezbollah is the Lebanese government. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that President Trump backed the strikes in Southern Lebanon. It's all very conflicting and confusing but there is one other possibility. There is a possibility that the phone call never took place at all or if it did then the whole thing was a stage show between Trump and Netanyahu staged for our benefit. Why would the President stage a profanity laced conversation he had with a foreign leader. To me the better question is why would he allow that conversation to be publicly leaked and then why would he admit that he said those things. I suppose the answer lies in his response to criticism he has been getting from the media and from people in his own party about how he does the bidding of Netanyahu and that he says America First but in practice its Israel First. I don't know what is true here but if it were all fake it would be to bolster his image of a strong leader who doesn't tolerate disrespect from allies. I don't know which version is true but it is very suspicious that the administration made such a big deal out of what should have been a private conversation. Israel, through its defense minister, has said that it would be remaining permanently in Southern Lebanon so why does this tiny country of 9 million seem so aggressive and so intent on expansion. For one thing its tiny size relative to its neighbors makes it very vulnerable. At its widest point it is only 71 miles wide and at its narrowest point it is only 9 miles wide. In other words, defense in depth is virtually impossible because it has no avenue of retreat to fall back and regroup as any retreat would put enemy forces right in Israeli cities. Therefore, it must attack constantly to push back its enemies who state clearly that they seek its destruction. Looking at Israel from the Israeli position they probably see their status as expand or die. Since defense in depth is essential and determines if a country has enough space to recover from an initial attack Israel believes it must constantly seek to push out its borders because a defeat on its borders leaves it extremely vulnerable. Now, with the new form of unmanned warfare coming to light with drones and missiles one of Israel's chief advantages is taken away or diminished. That advantage is pilot courage and training which thanks to the U.S. is some of the best in the world along with top-of-the-line aircraft it all serves to make Israel a foe to be reckoned with. Drones and missiles are rapidly changing the dynamics of war and Israel and the U.S. are apparently late to the game and a little behind in how best to defend against them. Israel's tactic seems to be to attack with as much force and with tactics as ruthless as necessary to push the enemy back as far as possible. I admit this is guesswork, but to much of the world the Israeli tactics is genocide but to Israel they just don't care because for them it is survival. Israel, it seems to me, could be controlled enough for the U.S. to make peace because it lives in a very bad neighborhood and without the U.S. Israel could not exist as a sovereign nation. It is a little unrealistic to think Israel, with its 9 million population would never face a superior force or coalition of forces. Therefore, Trump's phone call, if it did happen and was not a preplanned exhibit was probably necessary although the crass profanity which is so very common now could have been tempered. That type of profanity is so common it no longer has any meaning except that its user has no appropriate vocabulary. It reminds me of a different time when Harry Truman reportedly used the word Damn in the presence of Madame Chiang Kai- Shek the widow of Chaing who had been ruler of China until he was overthrown in the Maoist revolution. Madame Chaing resented it and complained and it was a front-page scandal. A few Presidents have apparently resisted Israeli pressure to attack Iran. If the testimony of Obama's Secretary of State is accurate then he is one who did and George Bush would not do it either but lots of Israeli money poured into the campaign of one who would and did do it. Often, national leaders opt for whatever they think necessary for staying in power rather than what they truly believe to be in the national interest. The smaller the group they actually have to please and make happy the better or at least that makes it easier. If staying in power and the national interest happens to coincide well that's just great, but in my opinion they rarely do. Finally, folks, there are reasons for why people do things but quite often we don't know what the real reasons are. In Truman's day we were different and perhaps a little naïve about leaders and maybe we still are. 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 resignation of Tulsi Gabbard from her position as Director of National Intelligence, and why she made the decision to resign. Was it because of her husband’s illness or something else. Transcription / Notes TULSI'S GONE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 29th day of May in the year of our Lord 2026. I will be talking about the resignation of Tulsi Gabbard from her position as Director of National Intelligence, and about why Tulsi made the decision to resign. Was her decision because of her husband's illness or was it something else. Tulsi never seemed to fit into Washington like a typical Washington politician. She never seemed willing to lie and cheat her way to the top as is typical of Washington. From the beginning of her prominence, she seemed a little too honest and too forthright for Washington politics. Nevertheless, she was a politician having served as a Democrat in congress from the state of Hawaii. She left congress and ran for president as a Democrat but lost in the primary to Joe Biden. She became disenchanted with the Democrat Party and decided to back President Trump in his run for that office. President Trump appointed her Director of National Intelligence, in theory the most important national security position in the country. The U.S. now has 18 intelligence agencies or departments if you count their various components and they all report to the Director of National Intelligence, but once in the office I imagine that the DNI found out who holds the real power in the intelligence world. When I learned a few weeks ago that the CIA had apparently broken into, raided, or whatever you want to call the CIA's visit to their boss's office, I knew Tulsi would soon be gone. Whistleblower James Erdman blew his whistle in congress and testified that the CIA had “seized” documents from their secure area in the office of the DNI. Some of the files they seized related to the assassination, or perhaps their assassination, of JFK. They apparently also took the files related to MKULTRA which was and probably is the CIA's experimental program designed to alter and control human behavior through the use of mind-altering drugs and torture. They sought to and apparently did learn the art of mind control including control of whole populations through these experiments. There are people who exist now who are suing the CIA in an effort to get some answers to the questions of what happened to their minds and the minds of their parents because of MKULTRA. That's not all they got because apparently they got the files on “Havana Syndrome” in which U.S. diplomats and others stationed in Havana and other places were apparently subjected to some kind of mind-altering rays. In response to the CIA raid, Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and James Comer (R-KY) chairman of the house Oversight Committee, sent a preservation letter to the CIA demanding that all evidence related to the taken or stolen material be preserved. I imagine the CIA got a good laugh over that letter as they endeavored to show naive members of Congress who actually runs this country. Apparently someone spoke to someone and explained the facts of life as it exists in Washington because when that letter of preservation became public people started to backtrack their statements. Even Erdman, the whistleblower said no I didn't say it was a raid instead I just said CIA refused to comply with “lawful oversight and documented everts to circumvent oversight.” He testified to Congress that not only did CIA refuse to comply with the directives of the ODNI Director's Initiatives Group (DIG) investigations into the origins of COVID-19 and other “phenomena” but retaliated against those who did not support their own conclusions. Quoting long-term CIA agent Erdman, “The CIA illegally monitored the computer and phone usage of DIG personnel, their investigations, and contact with whistleblowers, which significantly impacted Director Gabbard's implementation of several Eo's issued during this administration and tasked to the DIG.” In addition, “when the DIG ceased operations, the CIA also took back 40 boxes of JFK files and MKULTRA files being processed for declassification by DNI Gabbard.” The CIA's spying was referenced as tracking every keystroke of DIG personnel as they processed files directed by presidential EO to be released or unclassified. These files included files concerning JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations, the origins of COVID-19, Crossfire Hurricane, The Biden Administration's domestic surveillance, Anomalous Health Incidents (AHI) and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. So, just speculating here folks, but trying to do it with logic I think it went something like this. The President appoints this intelligent and experienced, but most importantly honest woman to head the nation's intelligence organizations. He then says that as he campaigned on a pledge to be transparent and release long classified files he issues an Executive Order (EO) to that effect. Tulsi, his DNI, who most likely took the job based on a promise to be forthcoming, sets out to obey the President's EO. She appoints a working group from among those in the office of the DNI which she calls DIG to sort through the files to determine if there was anything that should not be released. The CIA completely ignored that  report to DNI which was Tulsi and in fact they ignore or refuse to abide by the direct written orders of the President of the United States. They break into, or raid, if that is better, her office, take the files and even congress can't get them back. My conclusion, then, is that this case reveals as clearly as anything has who or what runs this country. I knew when I heard the story of what happened and looked into it that Tulsi would not be able to remain in the administration. Who would want to be director of the office that controls American intelligence agencies, all 18 of them, if one of those agencies was completely exempt from you, their boss's orders, and apparently didn't even follow the orders of the President. So, is that why she resigned because she didn't say that it was. In fact, she didn't complain about the President's inability or unwillingness to control the CIA but instead she thanked him and the American people for the opportunity to serve. In her letter she cited her husband Abraham and his diagnosis of a “extremely rare form of bone cancer” as the reason. She said he had stood by her every step of the way including when her Army guard unit was deployed to East Africa and through her political campaigns so she wanted to be with him full-time during such a difficult time. In 18 months as DNI she restructured the office, cutting its size and saving the American people more than $700 million per year. She launched many investigations and sought the release of previously classified material related to the programs previously listed. She has declassified more than 500,000 pages thus far. Her National Counterterrorism Center stopped thousands of narco-terrorists from entering the country until finally its head, Joe Kent, publicly resigned citing the Iran war as the reason. I saw her interviewed on the Shawn Ryan Podcast the other day and she was very forthright as she normally is. She said that the people who opposed her in her efforts were very intolerant of anyone who believes in God because in their minds they are God. They are the ultimate deciders of right and wrong and their choices are never wrong because they determine what right is. If a person opposes them, even if their boss opposes them, that person is on the way out. She said that before she goes at the end of June she will release many files related to the programs in question. Likely, these files will be released in weekly installments over the weeks of June. Her deputy director, Aaron Lukas, will serve as acting director until a permanent director is appointed. I predict without knowing one way or the other that the new director will have a CIA or perhaps military, meaning ex-General background. Politicians seem to be sweating over the prospect of files related to Crossfire Hurricane or the Russia gate hoax and other weaponization of law programs. I'm just speculating because I admit I don't know but I will wager that Tulsi grew very weary of constantly trying to follow presidential directives and being stymied at every turn while doing so. That type of constant stress is very difficult to bear long term.  Why would the CIA take her JFK files along with the other assassination files. That's a good question isn't it but the answer is very obvious but unsayable in public. Yes I know the assassinations were all done by lone nuts who were killed or prosecuted without any real investigation but nothing to see here folks just move along. Finally, folks, Tulsi seems to be an intelligent, honest woman who loves her country and its people and who puts them before any political party. There aren't many left like her and I for one will miss her. I wish her well. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle talks about President Trump’s recent summit with Premier Xi in China and points out the similarities with President Nixon’s summit in China in 1972. Transcription / Notes NIXON WENT TO CHINA TOO Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 22nd day of May in the year of our Lord 2026. President Trump just completed a three-day historic summit with Premier Xi in China. He is not the first President to visit China since President Nixon made that trip in 1972 when China was a far different nation than today as it was in the throes of suffering through the Maoist revolution. This is the Friday before Memorial Day when we pause to remember the fallen and for most it is the start of a 3-day weekend, but for Joan and I it is a different sort of anniversary to remember. Forty-nine years ago, on this date we saw each other for the first time because we were introduced on a blind date with mutual friends. So, we met forty-nine years ago on this date and we have been together ever since but our actual anniversary, the forty-nine will be in December. This Memorial Day falls 81 years after the end of World War ll, seventy-seven years after the end of the Korean War, and fifty-one years after the end of the Vietnam War. I guess the other wars, the desert wars, are still going on. Since we are into a little nostalgia this week and to prevent burying the lead it was 54 years ago that Nixon made his historic trip to China. It was historic because China and the US, although friends in World War ll had been bitter enemies for 23 years or since the Maoist revolution. The governing principle upon which the Chinese government has been based for all those years now 77 has been that capitalism would inevitably fail, and communism would ultimately triumph around the world. The triumph would come by way of revolution as it did in China but with the aid of countries where the Communist revolution had already occurred. That principle explains why the real enemy of the Western forces fighting in Korea and Vietnam was China and Russia, not North Korea and North Vietnam. When Nixon arrived in China in 1972 the Communist Revolution had been ongoing since 1949 or 23 years but China had not fared well under Communism. It was a desperately poor, agrarian society in which the people were making little or no progress. There was very little indoor plumbing, especially in rural areas, and very little access to electricity. GDP per capita was barely at subsistence levels. Unlike today, China was technologically backward with a massive military but unable to technically compete. Trade with China was at $95.9 million and Nixon sought to build a bridge across the hostility of that world. He famously declared it “the week that changed the world.” President Clinton had a different approach to China because he apparently believed that massive technology transfers and resulting economic success would ease tensions and result in a more peaceful world. In 2000 he gave the Chinese PNTR or Permanent Normal Trade Relations and supported Chinese membership in the WTO or World Trade Organization in 2001. Before Chinese entry into the WTO the US-China trade deficit was about $83 billion but by 2015 it was $367 billion. Chinese imports into the US also surged massively with an estimated replacement of US jobs at about 2.4 to 3.4 million. Communities built in the US around the manufacture of electronics, clothing, furniture, automobiles, and other products were devastated and became just the rust belt. Nixon visited a weak, agrarian society but the new economic policies turned it into an economic and military superpower. Now President Trump has visited this country which has been hostile to the United States for 77 years. Trump's approach to negotiating is to assume he has the strength in the relationship and to use it to his advantage. Tariffs, export controls, global alliances, and military power are all used in an effort to help benefit US farmers, manufacturers, energy workers, and many others. I predict that Trump's trip to China will prove similar to Nixon's in some ways. They both sought direct personal negotiation producing tangible economic benefits to both sides with protection from dangerous strategic competition. There is a knowledge or at least an assumption that President Clinton's belief that economic success alone would moderate strategic behavior did not work and guardrails have to be installed and adhered to. Nixon engaged an impoverished third-world China for the purpose of using it to counter the Soviets. Trump engaged a powerful superpower to prevent it from obtaining or maintaining dominance in key areas. He got a public commitment from Xi to stop supplying weapons to Iran and to not aid in Iranian nuclear efforts. I have some thoughts on Xi's statement about Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons. In my view his statement meant nothing or it was what in the law is referred to as legal fiction. He said that Iran should not have nuclear weapons and Iran should reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Well of course for the world's economies the Strait should be reopened; a no brainer. Both sides know that nukes are not the reason for the attack on Iran and not the real reason for the continuation of the war. Thomas Massie just found out in his Republican primary what the real reason is. If the Israel lobby or the friends of Israel wants you out of congress then you are out of congress. There aren't many surviving Republicans who are not totally sold out the Israel lobby. Rand Paul is an example and Thomas Massie was another. So almost no Republicans and about the same number of Democrats although some Democrats seem to survive without total subservience. If there are grounds for optimism coming from the summit they can be found in Xi's public speech or at least that's how I see them. The English version of Xi's speech comes to me via George Friedman and his Geopolitical Futures so quoting Mr. Xi. “Honorable President Donald J. Trump, ladies and gentlemen, friends, looking back at the cause of China-U.S. relations, whether or not we could have mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation is the key to whether the relationship can advance steadily. The world today is changing and turbulent. China-U.S. relations concern the well-being of over 1,7 billion people of both countries and affect the interests of the over 8 billion people of the world. Both sides should rise up to this historic responsibility and steer the giant ship of China-U.S. relations forward steadily and in the right direction.” To me that statement says this is a multi-polar world and if we are to progress together and for the good of the world's people you must recognize that. If you are willing to do that then 77 years of hostility can end at least open hostility can end. President Trump probably had the speech examined by his China people and he probably pointed out the thousands of Chinese spies who occupy every university of note, every corporation of note and even hold political office. Yes the mayor of Alameda, California has confessed to being a Chinese agent. There are hardly any members of Congress or the Senate who haven't slept with at least one Chinese spy. Mr. Xi let me ask you this if the Chinese are so smart and so technologically proficient why do you have to steal your technology and your scientific advances from us. I'm just guessing but I imagine all those things were discussed. In short, China needs the American market to save its economy. In recent years economists have noted that Chinese domestic consumption has fallen off a cliff, but production is soaring. Thar means that China cannot absorb nearly enough of its production and needs the American market to do that. America needs China and Russia to help it find a face-saving exit from its war against Iran. You both control Iran and we will endeavor to control Netanyahu. To carry my point a little further Xi mentioned the Thucydides Trap in which the ancient Greek Geopolitical Thinker pointed out that when a rising power collides with an old power war is always the result. Xi said he hopes that can be avoided for China and the U.S. If that is the case and both sides want to avoid war then talking is at least the first step and a necessary one. To that end they have scheduled another summit for Washington in September, I think. Finally, folks, it seems to me that China has everything to lose and nothing to gain by war with the United States. George Friedman pointed out the fact that he mentioned Thucydides but did not mention Lenin, or Marx, and to me that's pretty significant and could mean a turning away from 77 years of false assumptions. Why are these two men meeting and negotiating, well, I think necessity is the mother of invention and right now they need each other. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle returns to the discussion of war by talking about a war not spoken of so much since it has been driven from the headlines by the war against Iran. Transcription / Notes VLADIMIR PUTIN, DONALD TRUMP, AND THE DECLINE OF EMPIRES Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 15th day of May in the year of our Lord 2026. My beat today is once again war but we visit a war not spoken of so much since it has been driven from the headlines by the war against Iran. Yes, we don't hear much about Ukraine these days but it continues to cost lives, and resources and it continues to threaten the global geopolitical order. I'm sure you remember, if you are a long-term sufferer of these Reports, that back in 2014 in the eastern provinces of Ukraine the people voted overwhelmingly to become or remain part of the Russian Federation but that decision didn't sit well with Victoria Nuland who was the U.S. State Department representative there. She helped instigate a revolution that replaced the pro-Russian government with one more pro Europe and that led to a Russian invasion and the current war. Mr. Putin, like President Trump, has found that sometimes wars are easier to get into than they are to get out of. I remember from the war archives reading the discussions from the Japanese general staff when they were planning the battle of Midway. The admiral who was to command their carriers said this will work if the Americans do exactly what we expect and want them to. Well, the Americans didn't do what the Japanese expected and the Ukrainians haven't done what the Russians expected. When a Nation which seems to have overwhelming power goes to war against a much weaker opponent the powerful nation expects a quick and decisive, not to mention cheap, victory. Some examples would be the Soviet Union in World War ll, the Iranians of today, and the Ukrainians that are the subject for today. I mention World War ll a lot because last week the 9th of May was the annual celebration in Moscow of the Russian victory over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War. This year the celebration was different because for the first time in 18 years, Russia's Victory Day parade had no tanks, no missile carriers, and no armored columns going through Red Square. Smaller regions in Russia have their own smaller parades and celebrations and many of those have been canceled altogether. The people of Moscow were told to expect to have no internet service on May 9th. The reason for all the caution and the stepped down celebration was fear of Ukrainian drone and missile attacks. Yes, that's right folks, the Russian Federation, successor to the Soviet Union, cannot traditionally celebrate its victory over Nazi Germany because once again it is at war inside its own borders. The ironic thing is that once again the war is being fueled, at least partially by German arms. The two wars being fought right now, Ukraine and Iran, in which larger more powerful nations attacked smaller weaker ones are changing the dynamics of global politics and showing us once again that the unexpected results of war can totally change the geopolitics of the world. Ukraine, supplied to the tune of hundreds of billions in arms and treasure, primarily by the United States but also by the European nations has apparently perfected drone and missile warfare and has become one of the world leaders in that technology. Ukraine is now a world leader as we will see but recently Great Britain, desperate to prolong the fight I guess, gave the Ukrainians 120,000 drones from their own inventory. Ukraine, just an agricultural region on the border of Russia and only of any significance because of its proximity to Russia has become one of the world's most proficient practitioners of the new art of unmanned warfare. They are so proficient that they attack deep inside Russia seemingly at will to the point that the Russian people are afraid to conduct a parade in their community. Thousands of armed drones roam the skies looking for targets and although they are relatively easy to shoot down they are unstoppable in those numbers. Reports are that Iranian missiles and drones reach their targets about 10% of the time but that is against sophisticated air defense systems dedicated to stopping them. Against thousands, 10% is still a lot of destruction and in Ukraine/Russia I understand that they are virtually impossible to defend against. People will tolerate what they are told will be a short and decisive war but only for so long. The propaganda sent to them daily and now through Social Media minute by minute grows tiring when the people realize that it is all just lies. Reports coming from Russia indicate that Putin is feeling the heat of public dissatisfaction with the war. Nobody will tell us exact casualty figures but they obviously number in the hundreds of thousands. War you never have to feel and never see unless you look for it is one thing but when the numbers of dead reach that high and especially when the economy is crumbling as is Russia's people notice. To that end, last week, President Putin made a phone call to President Trump and proposed a new economic relationship with the United States. The internal pressure on President Putin seems to be working because he is now saying the war is coming to a settlement when there is no battlefield evidence that is the case. He says now that he wants a negotiated settlement and he wants the Europeans to be a part of it. Ironically, he seems to have singled out Germany as the leader in the settlement negotiations. He has maintained all along that he will not recognize Zelensky as the legitimate leader of Ukraine and would therefore not meet with him. That attitude has changed and now he wants to meet with him and he wants the Europeans to help the two of them broker a deal. I admit I am guessing here, but I think it's an educated guess. Putin always wanted to make Russia a part of the European community but the EU bureaucrats would not have him at their parties. These recent inquiries indicate to me that he wants to renew the efforts to make Russia part of Europe. Ordinarily, I don't think the Europeans would give him the time of day but the world is far from ordinary right now and they just might listen this time. Why, because of Iran and behind that Israel. Putin might be trying to take advantage of anti-US sentiment in Europe due to the war in Iran. The Europeans obviously want no part of that adventure that Mr. Trump started so perhaps a Europe-Russia détente is now possible. European politicians have made some astonishingly anti-US statements lately. Spain has doubled down on its refusal to let the US use its own bases in Spain for attacks on Iran. One of the leading candidates for Prime Minister of Spain is running on a campaign to take Spain out of NATO as a way to prevent that country from becoming involved in fighting Israel's wars. So, Putin seeks to turn the clock back to when relations between Russia and Europe were better, but that was when Russia was weaker than now. Just as in the U.S. regarding Iran there is massive and growing opposition in Russia to the war in Ukraine. The Russian economy is reeling and rumors are that the power brokers in Russia have turned against him. He has reportedly increased security at his private residences. It will be interesting to see how the U.S. will react to all this. President Trump left for China on Tuesday for a three-day summit with Mr. Xi. That summit has been in the planning process for months and has continued discussions despite the Iran war. The summit will obviously be primarily about the economic relationship between the U.S. and China but I'm sure Iran will be an important topic. China had Iranian officials in China just prior to Trump's visit. The question being asked By American media is, will Trump trade Taiwan for Iran, but we will see. Meanwhile back here in America the empire appears to be in decline and is always looking for someone to accelerate the process and Donald Trump appears to be the right man for the job. The empire killers of debt and war are now out of control. The debt has passed 39 trillion and interest payments have passed one trillion per year. Cutting taxes is a good idea if the cuts are matched with spending cuts but the President is removing the fuel tax to bring prices down with no corresponding spending cuts. The wars continue to cost more each day with no end in sight. So much of the world's economy depends on the price of oil so Trump starts a stupid war that closes the most important oil spigot in the world. It appears now that the U.S. cannot force Iran to do anything without risking major retaliation and resulting damage to the world economy with much higher oil prices. So, we are told the ceasefire is still in effect when it clearly isn't. According to U.S. intelligence Iran has 75% of its missile capacity intact and almost all of its underground facilities have been reopened. Iran is now a superpower in control of the most important waterway in the world. Russia's and other adversaries which depend on selling oil have had their incomes increase. So that all adds up to quite an achievement with no visible upside at all. Finally, folks, if the American Empire is in decline under the weight of debt and war what better man could we have to manage it. At least that's the way I see it. Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle doesn’t talks about war today, but about mothers and Mother’s Day. Transcription / Notes MOTHER'S DAY Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 8th day of May in this the year of our Lord 2026. I am so happy today because my beat is not war but mothers which will make most people happy and uplifted because after all who doesn't like and respect mothers and stories about them. Mother's Day as a national holiday had kind of a dual start or I guess you could say dual founders. Both of the women who started the day as a way to honor and support mothers did it because of the severe rural poverty and resulting infant mortality in their native Appalachia. In 1887 Mary Towles Sasseen from Henderson Kentucky led her class since she was a teacher, in what is believed to be the first observance of Mother's Day. Mary traveled around Kentucky and Ohio trying to have the day recognized as a national holiday but she died in 1906 before that happened. Schools in several states adopted the idea and in 1926 the Kentucky legislature passed a resolution officially recognizing Mary as the founder of the day. The creation of Mother's Day as a national holiday is usually attributed to three women Ann Reeves Jarvis, Julia Ward Howe, and Ann's daughter Anna M. Jarvis. Ann, known as “Mother Jarvis,” was an Appalachian homemaker who taught Sunday School lessons. Mother Jarvis saw the extreme poverty and lack of education among the Appalachian rural poor which resulted in a high infant mortality rate and a high rate of the death of mothers during childbirth. She set out to educate and help the women who needed it the most and she was eventually joined by the other two women. Anna, Ann's daughter, led the fight to honor her mother and to have the day become a national holiday and at her church the year after Ann's death a service was held on May 10th to honor not just Ann but all mother's. In 1948 Anna died in what was then called a sanitarium from dementia. Yes folks I am happy to have something to say that is not about war and what better subject than Mothers. Oh, I could bring war into it of course by talking about the mothers who are photographed holding their starving babies perhaps for the last time. I could even tell stories I have personally seen concerning mothers in war-torn countries who would do literally anything for enough money to feed their babies but I will not do that today and instead I will report on stories of mothers right here in America. Speaking of mothers right here in America many of my friends who are a little less conservative politically than I am, are very concerned about the plight of mothers. They are particularly concerned about infant mortality the same as what those women I mentioned who started national recognition of mothers and that came to be Mother' Day.  I wonder so I ask them why they care so much about infant mortality. I point out to them that one day they advocate for “a mother's right to choose” and the next day they are fighting to save infants from mortality so what gives. OH, wait I get it now those infants still inside their mothers are not really babies but just protoplasm or more generously just part of the woman's body. If so, then killing the child is not really murder because we have defined the child out of existence. I guess its like the war powers resolution which unconstitutionally gave the president the power to make war on his own without congressional involvement. He is required to report to congress within 60 days but when that is over he just says no the war is over and we won and this is a new war with a new 60 days. My point is that murder is murder but homicide is a legal term awaiting interpretation. Anyway, we all have or had mothers at some point but for many our mothers are long since dead and we have only the memories. Joan and I were both blessed by God with very good mothers who cared for us and loved us to the end. It sounds like a cliché but there is nothing like a mother's love for her child. She will sacrifice to the point of giving up her own life for that child. Let me give you an example from the animal kingdom. In my home office I have a bay window with my desk right in front of it. There are a few azalea bushes right outside the window and sometimes birds nest in them, especially cardinals which like to nest close to the ground. A couple of years ago I was working at my desk when I noticed a nest with a cardinal sitting in the nest. I didn't know it but she was sitting on her eggs to hatch them. I watched her for a few days and she would sit there through rainstorms with the rain pounding down on her and through wind that looked like it would blow away her nest. The male would come by from time to time just to check on her I guess. One day the eggs hatched and she had to feed the babies so she would go away and get worms for them and sometimes the male would contribute but the mother acting on instinct would give her life up for those babies. When they were at an age instinct told her was right she threw them out of the nest and said fly or die trying. They either fly or a cat eats them. We humans have developed a more humane way of dealing with our young than the animal kingdom but there are similarities. The cardinal mother would never think of killing her young for some always good reason but our humanity has allowed us humans to do that. When our babies are a certain age we still know that it is time for them to leave the nest. Sometimes we call that time graduation and sometimes it's marriage. “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24 That verse becomes more and more clear as we age because the child means everything especially to the mother. She would literally take a bullet for that child and then one day the father takes his daughter's hand and gives it to her husband and she has a new family which is now her first love as it should be. For the mother that child will always be her child but for the child which probably now has children of her own it's different. Well, that's about enough glorification of the role of mothers for one day and one Castle Report. Finally, folks, visit your mother this Sunday for Mother's Day. If you just can't get there at least give her a call because I promise you she wants to hear your voice. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle provides some options to end the war that Washington is currently fighting against Iran. Transcription / Notes OPTIONS TO END THE WAR AGAINST IRAN Hello this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 1st day of May in this the year of our Lord 2026. Yes today is May Day but my beat once again is war. This time I am looking for options to end the war that Washington is currently fighting against Iran. Donald Trump began the U.S./Israel war against Iran apparently because he wanted to deny Iran the chance to build its own nuclear weapon. That was at least the stated reason for starting the war. Suppose you are Iran and the U.S, demands that you dismantle and cease your nuclear weapons development program. Would you have any reason to comply with that demand considering what has happened to other countries in the Middle East. Acquiring nuclear weapons might be the only way left to prevent becoming a victim of a regime change war. Think about it like this for a moment. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Iran, Venezuela, Russia and North Korea have all been demonized by the U.S. in one way or another this century. The only two that remain uninvaded, Russia and North Korea have nuclear weapons and the others do not. The leaders of those countries who do not have nuclear weapons are dead or locked in prison. I ask myself if the United States would be threatened if Iran were allowed to develop nuclear weapons and my conclusion is that it would not. Israel would be threatened because a nuclear armed Iran would serve as a blocking force to the expansion of Israel and Netanyahu's plans for greater Israel. If Iran had nuclear weapons Operation Epic Fury would not have happened or at least logic tells me. Why then, other than Bibi's influence, did Donald Trump launch this war. He must have been told and must have believed that the Iranian government would collapse and flee in the face of overwhelming U.S. and Israeli air attacks. If he believed that then he must not be a student of history because that theory has never worked throughout the history of air power. It worked in World War II as part of a combined arms attack that involved millions of troops fighting around the world in ground combat. Later wars like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan it was assumed that air power and destruction from the air would make the difference but it did not. If a belief that Iran could be forced or persuaded to surrender or agree to U.S./Israeli demands as a result of destruction from the air was the cause of the attacks then obviously that was a false conclusion. Perhaps senior U.S. military leadership were and are students of military history and they warned the president that the strategy would fail and that explains in part why so many have been relieved. I admit that I have no inside information that leads me to that conclusion just logic and history. Having said all that what are the options Trump has in front of him right now. Here are a few that come to my mind but I'm sure there are others I just can't think of right now. First, he could just pack up and come home ala Ron Paul's advice to come home and mind your own business. That would mark the end of the unipolar world and an admission that the empire stage of American history is ending and what results it would leave in the Middle East are anyone's guess. Second, he could just continue the blockade and the air war in the hope that it would finally work. Third, he could launch a ground invasion of Iran like the other wars the U.S. has fought recently in which air power proved unable to force surrender. Invading Iran with ground troops would be different from the other multi decade wars because I doubt that it could be done with minimal U.S. casualties. Iran is a much bigger country with very different terrain across the country. It might even require a general mobilization of the American population with a draft and a conversion to war time production. It would most likely involve tens of thousands of casualties with many of our best young people coming home in boxes. In other words that would be one of the stupidest things an American president could possibly do, but they often do things that seem stupid to me. Fourth, he could resort to the weapons he is trying to prevent Iran from acquiring. He could tell the Iranians that unless they comply with his demands he will use tactical nuclear weapons to destroy their known nuclear and missile sites. He could threaten to increase the intensity and frequency of the attacks until they complied. The results of the fourth option would be so catastrophic that I don't even need to talk about them. It would forever remove from America the belief that we were once a moral and religious people. Fifth, he could reach a negotiated settlement and to that end Iran offered a suggestion which was quickly rejected but only in part. Iran suggested that the blockade would be lifted and the Strait would be open for free commerce. That would obviously leave Iran in a position to close it anytime the nuclear negotiations did not go their way. The question of nuclear enrichment would be deferred until some day in the future when the sides would start talking again. A lot of people would have accepted the settlement offer except that Trump knows what it really means. It would revert the conflict to status quo as if the war had not been fought except for the fact that Iran's infrastructure along with much of its leadership are gone. The other message the settlement will send is if we close the Strait you cannot force it open with air power or your navy. That message was not one Donald Trump was willing to accept so he said; what part of no nuclear weapons did you not understand. For now, the war continues and the blockade continues. It appears that the blockade is far more effective than air power proved to be. The blockade is hurting Iran economically to the point they want relief from it so perhaps soon they will relent and the president's ego could be salved with victory. He admitted when he announced that the settlement was rejected that the blockade was more effective than the bombing. “They are choking like a stuffed pig and it is going to get worse for them.” Perhaps the analogy of a stuffed pig is not the proper one to use with the Mullahs but that is Donald Trumps style not mine. He went on to say that they want to settle. They don't want me to keep the blockade but I don't want to lift the blockade because I don't want them to have a nuclear weapon. Iran had to do their tough talk as well saying it would engage in “unprecedented military action.” U.S. Central Command Admiral Brad Cooper said “Right now there are 41 tankers with 69 million barrels of oil that the Iranian regime can't sell. That's an estimated $6billion-plus from which Iran's leadership cannot financially benefit. The blockade is highly effective and U.S. forces remain fully committed to total enforcement.” The Pentagon's accounting office announced this week that so far the war has cost about $25 billion in taxpayer money. When I hear that I raise an eyebrow because I have a good idea what it costs to maintain a carrier battlegroup at sea and in-flight operations. I know what it costs to keep a carrier-based aircraft in combat mode let alone a massive B-52 or one of the stealth bombers. Tens of thousands of troops deployed with some 32thousand at least, bombs and missiles dropped on Iran. I just don't think all that can be done for $25 billion. The money is one thing but the war has cost at least 15 American lives and about 400 wounded although casualty figures have been very hard to come by. Let's not forget the billions of dollars reportedly incurred in damage from Iranian missiles to U.S. bases across the entire region. Damage assessment in the Gulf States and in Israel to U.S. property has been almost impossible to obtain accurately so why lie about the $25 billion. If that department lies each year about the trillions that go unaccounted for by the GAO or Government Accounting Office I suppose it's not a stretch for them to lie about the cost of war. So, I will assume that the Iranians are politically astute enough to know how this war is affecting U.S. politics. It is terribly unpopular and is a threat to control of the House and Senate. In addition, I spoke to a gentleman the other day who had recently been in Ireland. He said that in the U.S, terms of measurement gasoline was running about $12.50 per gallon and heating oil was unaffordable for most people. That condition probably exists across Europe and would probably make Iran have confidence to just hang on because political pressure will force Trump's hand. Time will tell if that works or not. Finally, folks, according to UNICEF about 1800 Iranian children have been killed or wounded by the war on Iran. I don't know if that number is accurate but if the accurate number is more than zero it's too many. However, as you are painfully aware my opinion is that this war is a stupid waste of lives and resources and should end as soon as possible. Having said that the men and women fighting it are my brothers and sisters and I stand with them always. 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 against Iran and the efforts to keep the Strait of Hormuz open for the commerce of the world along with the unexpected results being felt around the world. Transcription / Notes SOME UNEXPECTED RESULTS OF WAR Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 24th day of April in the year of our Lord 2026. I will be talking again about the war against Iran and the efforts to keep the Strait of Hormuz open for the commerce of the world along with the unexpected results being felt around the world as a result of this war. Let me start with a brief refresher regarding the history of the U.S. war with Iran before I get into unexpected results. The U.S. government back in 1953 started this long conflict by its overthrow of Mosaddegh who was popularly elect and his replacement with the Shah who was always seen as a U.S. puppet. If what I just said is true and I obviously believe that it is, then the U.S. has been in this conflict for 73 years. In 1953 the Korean War was just shutting down so maybe a new conflict was needed in the Middle East to feed the war machine, who knows. Fast forward to today and we find that often history does repeat but barely is it noticed because it will always be different this time. We have lots of propaganda coming out of the war from both sides and unlike propaganda in earlier wars today's propaganda reaches the whole world instantly through social media. In World Wars, for example, propaganda was designed only for the home populations of each side. Don't worry we are winning etc. Except for the Tokyo Rose broadcasts to the U.S. Navy and the Axis Sally broadcasts to the U.S. bomber crews the propaganda was primarily to keep the population's backs in the war effort. To that end a ceasefire is announced from time to time and that mere announcement will usually calm the headlines and the markets for a brief time. The other side quickly violates the ceasefire or denies that it exists and the whole thing starts over. President Trump says they have agreed to everything and the Iranians say no we will keep our uranium and the Strait remains closed. It appears to be just propaganda back and forth or perhaps just wishful thinking, and the confusion is exacerbated by Iran's lack of known leadership. We do know a few things that appear to be factual, however. Six or seven weeks ago, the U.S. and Israel launched a preemptive attack, surprise attack, sneak attack depending on your point of view. This attack was launched in the midst of negotiations ala Pearl Harbor. When the Japanese did it they thought and hoped it would demoralize the American people into negotiations favorable to Japan but it had the opposite effect and I submit this attack did the same to Iran. The U.S. dropped unprecedented amounts of bombs and missiles on Korea and Vietnam but neither surrendered and that fact of history seems to have gone unnoticed by the administration. The Iranians believe they are victims of an unprovoked attack which cost them dearly in terms of lives, treasure, and infrastructure. They think they are entitled to compensation for that and I submit that one way or another they will get it. In the meantime, the war is actually helping Iran by raising oil prices worldwide thus helping the Iranian export prices. They could insist on tolls through the Strait of Hormuz which they had never imposed before this war. I suspect that no permanent peace agreement will happen without compensation from the U.S. and/or Israel. Either way it would be on the backs of U.S. taxpayers. My guess is that this war will continue for a time that we could call indefinite and here is one reason why. Trump apparently started this war at the behest of Netanyahu but now he aggressively insults and attacks anyone he perceives to have said a negative word about him and that includes foreign leaders. He doesn't seem to understand that people remember the insults and foreign affairs of a great nation can't be conducted like kids jostling each other on a school ground. The problem of war in the Middle East is more than likely unsolvable as long a s Israel exists especially with its current leadership. Therefore, expect to be at war for a long time at least until it finally destroys the U.S. economy. Speaking of the U.S. and world economy let's look at some results of the war or at least some things made worse by it. This all comes at a time when rising debt levels and rising interest obligations are pushing the U.S. into a more fragile state. According to MoneyWeek U.S. debt has now exceeded 39 trillion. It has been only five months since it blew past 38 trillion. The debt has doubled since Trump was sworn in for his first term or about 10 years ago. No amount of bluster and bombast will erase certain facts such as the U.S. approaching 40 trillion amid rising interest rates, along with a coming debt crises. The U.S. has about 9 trillion of debt that must be refinanced or rolled over this cycle. Presumably short-term treasuries can be sold at about 3.5% but what if they can't and it takes 5%. That would be catastrophic and would accelerate the crash to unstoppable speed. I admit I'm no economist but that's the way it looks to me from the numbers. The disturbing thing is that Washington seems to take no notice of it at all. This fiscal year, 2026 the defense budget or war budget as its now called is about $950 billion. Trump has requested an almost 60% increase to $1.5 trillion for fiscal year 2027. That's all caused by the war right. Well, no, I'm afraid not folks because that doesn't even include the costs of the Iranian war so he's saying we need a 60% increase just to keep up. The U.S. has dropped tens of thousands of bombs and missiles on Iran and has lost a few aircraft along with great damage to bases all over the Middle East. The U.S. has had to move its military out of the Persian Gulf region and move its carriers at least 1000 kilometers or about 620 miles from the conflict to avoid missile attacks. So, one unexpected result of the war is that the U.S. multibillion-dollar carriers are very vulnerable to cheap drone and missile attack. Iran apparently has quite a stockpile of those and reportedly China is resupplying them all the time. Iran has an ace up its sleeve in this international poker game of death and that ace is the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait is a narrow strip of water that links the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. Before the war started approximately 20 million barrels of oil per day or about 20% of global production passed through the Strait along with 20% of global LNG exports according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The Strait is so vitally important to the world economy that it's a fair guess that disruption for a prolonged period would provoke a worldwide depression. Iran has spent decades accumulating the means to shut the Strait down. It has commanding geography with a thousand miles of coastline and many inlets where missiles can be stored and launched. The U.S. has discovered that even the U.S. Navy cannot police all of them. Just this week reportedly 24 Iranian tankers slipped through the U.S. blockade. If the Strait is not completely closed it is too dangerous for normal commercial shipping. Oil and natural gas are everywhere and in everything. They are the most important of all commodities that the world depends on. The Far East today is the manufacturing center of the world or the world's workshop and Middle East oil and gas keeps the Far East working. Until this war is resolved we can probably count on oil above 100$ per barrel and increasing shortages of many things we are used to having in abundance. Ultimately the real danger is worldwide food production and the increasing cost of food caused by ever lower crop yields. This threat to the world's food supply is being caused by the drastic reduction in fertilizer because so much of it is shipped through the gulf. The world needs fertilizer to grow crops and feed people and that is gradually being strangled. Once again, the unexpected results of war. Perhaps the markets of the world have just been waiting for a pin to pop the bubble so we will see that higher prices for fuel will result in higher prices for everything and that is as inevitable as night follows day. The result of all this and the result of the war will be a significantly lower standard of living for the people of the world. So, propaganda tells us the Strait will remain open and the Mullahs will never have a nuclear weapon. Neither statement appears to be true at the current time so that leaves the U.S. in a very difficult position. The U.S. could admit defeat and leave thus admitting that the Empire cannot fulfill its promises or the U.S. could resort to the unthinkable but I don't see many other choices. In any event the petrodollar world appears to be ending. I heard Marco Rubio, the Secretary of everything say that Brazil, the largest country in South America just concluded a deal with China to trade in the Chinese currency. The U.S. relies on the dollar as the world's reserve to bully and sanction other countries but if they are not trading in the dollar then sanctions are no threat. So, the world is changing rapidly and not in favor of the American people or at least that's my take on it.  Donald Trump has hung an Albatross around his neck and removing it is job number one. He might have to allow a strategic retreat to a more defensible line. The failure to reach that conclusion has resulted in the destruction of many armies and the loss of many wars. So, admit it was a mistake and find some way to reverse course no matter what Israel says about it. The longer he persists the worse it will get because he simply is not all powerful like he apparently thought he was, and neither is the United States. Finally, folks, I hope this was just a tragic mistake and not something preplanned and far more sinister but the unexpected results of it are apparently only unexpected by us normal people who are concerned about working, living, and raising our kids in a peaceful world. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle talks about whether or not the United States should leave NATO and whether that decision would bring about a new U.S./Iran order in the Middle East. Transcription / Notes: THE END OF NATO Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 10th day of April in the year of our Lord 2026. My beat today is once again war but I am so tired of war each week that I have decided to carve a niche out of the unexpected results of our current war and that is NATO and its possible end for the United States. I'm sure you all know what NATO is but as a refresher it is a treaty (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) in which the U.S. along with the other members agreed to come to each other's aid if attacked. The purpose was to prevent and protect against a Soviet attack in Europe like the NAZI's had done. Everything worked fine when there was a Soviet Union to fight and to protect against. The cold war justified the massive defense spending by the U.S. which allowed Europe to rebuild from the war's devastation and to provide generous welfare benefits to its citizens. The fall of the old enemy, the Soviet Union, triggered a crises in NATO because there was no longer a justifiable reason for its existence. The collapse of Russia and with it, communism, put the alliance under tremendous strain especially when rising debt levels in the U.S, caused economic hardship. People would ask why are American forces still deployed in Europe. Why can't Europe protect itself from perceived threats. Why do our families have to bear the brunt of Europe's defense. NATO continued to exist although the reason for its formation no longer existed. The reason smells like the Military Industrial, Intelligence, Security Complex and I am sure that was a lot of it, but some vehicle of justification had to be found for NATO's continuation and so found it was. NATO still exists today, and American troops are still deployed in Europe today although the reason is now obsolete. Moving the alliance to the borders of Russia along with a coup that replaced Ukraine's government of pro-Russia elected officials with anti-Russia officials might justify its existence. Who knows, maybe a new war could be started that would require hundreds of billions in new spending. That is exactly what happened and the Obama, Biden, and Trump administrations have handled it the same way. Pour money and weapons into Ukraine to fuel its war against Russia. Make the war last longer and be much worse than it otherwise would be. Perhaps if Ukraine were allowed to use American weapons to attack deep inside Russia then Russia would be provoked enough to attack outside Ukraine but so far that has not happened. Meanwhile back to present day and we find that although the U.S. poured hundreds of billions into Ukraine ostensibly for the defense of Europe, when President Trump decided to launch a stupid, pointless, unprovoked attack against Iran Europe seemed to want no part of it. Trump seemed to think that Europe should have been willing to support the U.S. out of gratitude for all the money and all the graves of America's sons scattered across Europe. NATO was much weaker than when the U.S. and Europe saw Russia as an existential threat. The Ukraine war, despite all the bluster and propaganda, proved that Russia could not even conquer that small corner of Ukraine on the border of Russia. My theory, then, is that Europe no longer feels threatened by Russia despite all the rhetoric to that effect but it does feel threatened by the millions of Muslims it has invited into its countries and who now live among European populations. So, Europe offers no help in Trump/Israel's war against Iran. Shockingly, even with our long special relationship with the UK, Prime Minister Starmer would not allow the U.S. to use bases in England, which the U.S. at least partially paid for, to refuel and rearm aircraft used against Iran. Many U.S. administrations, including the Trump Administration, have criticized Europe for not bearing more of the expense and sacrifice for its own defense, Trump has said that this is not 1949 which was the year NATO was founded and Europe is perfectly capable of defending itself. This hostile rhetoric back and forth along with the changing political climate in Europe in which the European general outlook was fast becoming one of subservience to the new global world run or at least managed by the bureaucrats in Brussels. Trump, J.D. Vance, and Marco Rubio have all made it clear that the U.S. would not follow that path so Europe says no help in Iran. Even the European effort to keep the Strait open is virtually nonexistent. There is nothing in the NATO charter that requires member states to support the U.S. efforts in Iran. The U.S. was not attacked which would have triggered the article 5 common defense clause so there is no Charter obligation in their eyes. How about just friendship and gratitude as Trump would put it. I suppose the Europeans say that friendship doesn't extend that far and in fact we don't even like you because you are crass and won't play by our globalist playbook so why should we anger all the Muslims in our countries. Supposedly, Iran has missiles that could reach Berlin and possibly even further and they have proven that these missiles are still there and they cannot be stopped if fired in volume. So, I understand why Europe does not want to support the U.S. in its attack on Iran, but I don't understand why the U.S. remains in NATO. I am very onboard with Trump's constant threats to leave NATO because the time is long passed when that should have been done. Unfortunately, I don't think it will happen because leaving NATO would require congressional approval and I don't think there is nearly enough support in congress to leave. Of course, another aspect is that the U.S. created NATO and accepted the defense of Europe not as a protection racket but as a strategy to keep European nations from building armies and invading each other which lead to two world wars. To me, this NATO issue along with the two-week ceasefire in Iran represent the best possible chance for a new order to emerge from the chaos. Not a new world order as traditionally talked about but an order in which the U.S. adopts a foreign policy designed to truly benefit the U.S. and its people. That would mean ending the special relationship with Israel and the beginning of treating it like we treat any other country. Ending the special relationship with Israel is job number one if Trump truly wants to extricate the U.S, from the Iranian war, and I think he does. Israel and its American lobby obviously do not want the war to end even if the Strait remains closed and the global economy suffers. It appears that he is not any more grateful than NATO for U.S. help. If that is the case and Trump constantly threatens to leave NATO because “they have been of no help to us “then why doesn't he threaten Israel with abandonment. The answer to that question would certainly explain a lot. The two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan, apparently, was something that had great promise for a new U.S./Iran agreement that could have remade the Middle East. The idea of joint U.S. and Iranian control of the Strait makes sense to me and I saw it as a way to pay for the rebuilding of Iran by charging all those European and Asian tankers a toll for passage. Before the war about 127 ships per day on average passed through the Gulf and now it is 6. If each of 127 ships was charged an average of $100,000 for passage that's roughly $355 million per month using my crude math. That money would go a long way toward rebuilding Iran from the rubble it now is. Reports say that the U. S. alone has dropped some 32,000 bombs on Iran since the attacks started and that figure doesn't include what Israel has dropped. In any event the U.S. taxpayer pays for all of it and we are U.S. taxpayers and therefore responsible. This is a free country right or at least that's how much of the world views it so since we are a “democracy” we the people are responsible for its actions. That sounds good in theory but in fact we have no real way to change anything and when we are given the illusion that we can all we seem to do is make a terrible situation worse. My toll charge system probably would not work because it would increase the price of everything but for the U.S. I'll wager its cheaper than war. Here in the real-world Trump reportedly told the Iranians that they have a chance to be Persians again. That is a tremendous offer and it shows he does understand at least some of the history of the Persian people. Iran was created by Great Britain from ancient Persia after World War 1 and Trump is offering them an olive branch they could use to regain control of their oil and shipping from Lloyds of London and the English banking system. Why not leave NATO for a new order in the Middle East. Why not, well I'm glad you asked. The answer is Israel, its American lobby, and the neo-con globalist war party that seems to own everything including all our lives. It is probably more than a coincidence that J.D. Vance is going to Pakistan to continue the very intense negotiations that brought this cease fire to life. J.D. is probably the least neo con of anyone in the administration. Could this really end in 5 weeks. Vietnam 15 years, Afghanistan 23 years, Iraq 18 years approximately so we'll see. Finally, folks pray this cease fire accomplishes more than the neo con war party wants it to accomplish and pray for peace. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle turns his attention away from the pressing issue of war and looks at Christians and Christianity as we near the end of Holy Week. Transcription / Notes: THE RESTORATION OF LIBERTY Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 3rd day of April in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm very happy that I have something to talk about besides war today. This is in fact Good Friday and in honor of that date and with Easter Sunday just a couple of days away I turn my attention away from the pressing issue of war and look at Christians and Christianity as we near the end of holy week. First, I want to say a few words about the title of this Castle Report and where that title comes from especially since we are currently in the 250th anniversary year of America. My argument is that the founders rather than trying to build a utopian perfect world were seeking the restoration of liberties they once had. The Declaration, written by Thomas Jefferson but inspired by the thinking and writing of John Locke and by the life and words of Jesus Christ as expressed by Jefferson as nature's God reflect that desire for the return of liberty. They had witnessed the excesses of the French Revolution and the results of mob rule or what we today might call democracy and they sought to build something based on the rights of the individual rather than the collective and that is what for individuals is called liberty. They sought a way to protect the lives they had built in their world and the lives they fought for from the reach of foreign imperial rule. That is one reason why I cringe when America today goes abroad to impose its will on others especially when there seems to be no provocation. Speaking of foreign imperial rule an incident occurred this past Palm Sunday in the ancient city of Jerusalem in modern day Israel. There is a church located in the Christian quarter of the city known as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. That church was built in the 4th century on the site where Jesus' empty tomb was believed to be located. In other words, it is about 1800 years old and it is one of the holiest sites in all of Christendom. It is simultaneously the seat of the Armenian, Greek Orthodox, and Catholic Patriarchates of Jerusalem. Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, those gentlemen wanted to go inside the church to do a live simulcast to their congregations on that Palm Sunday but they were barred from doing so by the Israeli police. The announcement was made that it was for “security reasons” but no synagogues were closed that day. The church has a long history of remaining open even during two World Wars so the explanation was doubtful. Denial of the Church to the people was so outrageous that even U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee was critical. Huckabee is usually a spokesperson for the Israeli government and so his words stung a little. My understanding is that when Israeli authorities heard his mild rebuke they rescinded the order. I don't know if that is true or not but in any event the Palm Sunday opportunity to minister to their worldwide congregations was lost. Meanwhile back in America a couple of incidents happened this Holy Week that are worthy of note. A young professional basketball player named Jaden Ivey lost his job because of his refusal to remain silent in the face of what he considered intimidation by his team regarding its affiliation with the LGBTQ community of activists and especially Pride Month celebrated in America in June. Jaden was raised in a basketball family and I guess it is in his DNA because his mother is currently the head coach of the Notre Dame women's basketball team. He had a stellar college career and was drafted by the Detroit Pistons where he spent several seasons. He also was selected to play on the U.S. national junior team. In February of this year, he was traded to the Bulls where he played in 4 games before suffering a season ending knee injury. He started to speak out against what he considered to be forced imposition of the LGBTQ agenda within the NBA. He said as a committed Christian he considered it “unrighteous.” He said a few other things such as he thought Catholicism to be a false religion. He made all these comments on his private twitter account but if you are an NBA player nothing you say is private so the Bulls quickly released him. To their credit they didn't try to lie and say it was because of injury, etc. They announced the reason as conduct detrimental to the team which triggers a clause in his contract that permits them not to pay him his contract balance. So, they are, in effect, saying that expressing one's Christian faith is conduct detrimental to the team. The problem for Jaden is that with a knee injury no one will sign him until they see proof of complete recovery so he should consider filing suit for religious discrimination and recovery of the balance of his contract. My guess is that on the contract at least, they would pay him. So, Christians are not welcome in the NBA or at least no vocal ones. It would be some justice if no Christians bought tickets or watched the team on TV so we will see. People voice their disapproval but nothing will change until we stop buying tickets.The Christian persecution, so evident in the NBA has also infected the NFL. Yes that's right the mighty NFL bends its knee to the even mightier LGBTQ lobby. It seems that Jaden had some friends in the NFL who knew him and who respected his Christian faith. A player named Treveyon Henderson with the New England Patriots chimed in on his friend's behalf. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness's sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Mathew 5:10.” Well that created quite a stir and in his required news conference New England Coach Mike Vrabel was asked about it. He made a long statement about how much he liked and respected Treveyon and how we want them, meaning players I guess, to be able to express themselves but we want them to be “educated.” My guess is that Treveyon's education matches up quite well with his coach so I submit that what he really meant was reeducated. Perhaps the NFL is trying to bend to Communist China as the NBA has done. I understand they do some reeducating in North Korea as well. The Germans used to call it “ideological education.” So, Coach Vrabel is in good company when he wants his player to be educated. There seems to be a growing number of players across professional sports who are Christian and more and more are willing to say it publicly, but it is very obvious that their leagues and this modern immoral society would prefer that they remain silent. Well, this is Easter weekend and I'm paraphrasing now but when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and the people cheered for him didn't the Pharisees say rebuke your disciples and then he replied If they remain silent the stones along the rode will praise me. Finally, folks, I bring this Good Friday Castle Report to an end with a statement, just a feeling really and that feeling is that there is something going on in this world now that is different. Not just the open persecution of Christians or the obvious belief that the persecution is OK or even desirable, but the fact that this Mideast war seems different. The major religions of the world are looking at it from different positions and they see it through different books but they are saying this might be what our book has been pointing to. The Restoration of Liberty would help though. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle talks about war and the President’s statement that it is basically over and we won. Is that statement true and what are the most recent developments in Iran. Transcription / Notes THE WAR HAS BEEN WON Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 27th day of March in the year of our Lord 2026. I will be talking about war today and the President's statement that it is basically over and we won. Is that statement true and what are the most recent developments in Iran. What is war but the most horrific thing in which a country, a people, can engage. It is killing on an industrialized scale and from the carpet-bombing campaigns of WWll to the guided munitions of today it is about killing. It is the young men of a country being ordered by the old men of that country to kill the young men of another country but they kill everybody, men, women, little schoolgirls, everybody. Unless done for purely defensive purposes it is immoral and unconscionable. Was Iran an imminent threat to the U.S. No case for that has been made as far as I know. Joe Kent, Counterterrorism Director said there was no imminent threat and his boss, Tulsi Gabbard, refused to state under oath that she knew of such a threat. Well, last weekend the President said he had quite enough of the Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its impact of the world's economies, it's rapid increase in the price of fuel and the price of everything here in the U.S., and its downward effect on his poll numbers. He gave the Iranians 48 hours to open the Strait or he would destroy their power system by attacking power plants. Apparently, the new Supreme Leader of Iran was not amused nor was he in a mood to accept the threats. It appears to me that President Trump is desperate to end America's part of this war with some kind of deal, any kind of deal that would free up the flow of oil. The new leader, Mr. Khamenei, has suffered enough he most likely thought, so why should he voluntarily end the President's suffering. His father, his mother, his sister, his nephew and his brother-in-law were all killed by the U.S./Israeli military. His father was not only the Supreme Leader of Iran, but he was also the spiritual leader of his faith that being Shia Islam. So, let bygones be bygones the Americans said to him just move on there's nothing to see here so let's move on. He was not going to submit meekly to the threats and he said that if the U.S. attacks his energy, he would attack energy infrastructure all around the gulf. Once again the bible speaks to us and says, you reap what you sow. I am not sure right now who is in charge in Iran, of the speaking to diplomats or of the Iranian military because supposed leadership and armed forces leadership are often different. Americans play similar games because Trump is saying the war is over and we won and at the same time diplomats are begging to negotiate while the Israelis are still attacking. That, I suppose, is just psychological gamesmanship. Here's a quote from Iran's armed forces spokesman. “We are watching your cowardly officials and commanders, pilots and wicked soldiers. From now on, based on the information we have on you, the promenades, resorts and tourist and entertainment centers in the world will not be safe.” The U.S. warned Americans across the world to exercise increased caution. So, was this a threat to the start of another worldwide terrorism campaign against Americans amusing themselves. Well, perhaps because that's the sound of it to me. Did he mean only the resorts in the Middle East such as those in Dubai or did he mean worldwide such as those in the U.S. Time will tell I guess but it was an ominous threat. Americans residing in Iraq were warned to leave immediately as well. Then we heard that Mr. Trump had decided to postpone the attacks for five days while negotiations were ongoing. It gets really confusing at this point because we are told that chief negotiator, Steve Wittkoff and Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law, were at a point where a partial deal was in place pending further negotiating. The Iranians said that no deal was in place and further they would not speak to Wittkoff and Kushner anymore. If any further talking which had not occurred were to be done only J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio would be acceptable. I understand why they prefer Vance because for one thing he is Vice-President and for another he has been sidelined through all this and my guess is that he was opposed to the attacks in the first place. Trump has made many statements about offered solutions to the Strait including joint U.S. and Iranian control of it but recently he offered a 15-point peace plan to end the war. He once again said he would unleash hell if the plan was not accepted. The plan went something like this; without giving you all 15 points, the Strait would be opened immediately and remain open. Iran would reject nuclear weapons forever and cease enrichment of uranium. Iran would allow international inspections and abide by their decisions. Iran would restrict its missiles to the short-range defense only type and would immediately cease attacks around the region and would cease attacks through its various terrorist proxies. The U.S. would do its part by ceasing its bombing campaign and the U.S. would assist Iran with development of peaceful nuclear energy. Washington says it wants a framework agreement for a ceasefire until details can be negotiated over a period of a month. So, we are given some hope that the bloodshed might end soon, but as usual those hopes were dashed very quickly. Last Wednesday Iran completely rejected the 15-point plan and said it would not negotiate. Instead, it would run the Gulf shipping lanes along with its proxies in the area. Iran offered its own five-point plan in response most of which has zero chance of acceptance. They want the U.S. to fix or pay for the damage it caused in Iran. Iran continues attacks inside Israel and continues to attack Gulf States friendly to the U.S. Reportedly Bibi Netanyahu has urged Trump to not make a deal until all the Mullahs are gone from Iran. I have even seen a report that Mr. Bin Salman down in Saudi Arabia has joined Israel in that urging. Iran's response is one of anger from their armed forces while diplomats pretend to talk.  “Someone like us will not come to terms with someone like you” the IRGC spokesman says. Trump says we are in negotiations right now, but the Iranians, officially anyway, say no we are not so go figure. In the meantime, the U.S. is not acting as if this war is ending soon. The Saudi report also said that U.S. ground troops should be used to remove the Mullahs from power. Notice I said U.S. ground troops not Saudi ground troops. The U.S. has a Marine Expeditionary Unit on its way to the Gulf onboard an LPH. There is normally between 2500 and 5000 Marines in such a unit. This week about 3000 members of the 82nd airborne division have deployed to the Middle East. This historic division which jumped into occupied France prior to the D-Day landings in 1944 contains some of the best troops in the U.S. military. Trump says that he is confidant he is dealing with the right people. I know one thing he usually doesn't bluff so these Marines and airborne troops are rather ominous to me and it is starting to take on an Armageddon type of vibe. The importance of all this to the world's economies is enormous. Aside from the bloodshed and destruction the Gulf and its Strait connect the oil rich nations of the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world and about 30% of the world's oil passes through that Strait every day. For some nations, such as China, the percentage is higher. Many other nations are very concerned about how the closure of the Strait effects their economies. India said it plans to deploy five warships near the Gulf to protect its interests. England, France, and Germany have all sent warships to the region but the British Navy is apparently not what it used to be. I guess it has been allowed to deteriorate because to this point the UK could only muster one out of date destroyer to contribute. In fact, listen to a few words from a recent article in European Business Magazine. “For over 300 years, Lloyd's of London has underwritten maritime insurance for the tankers and cargo ships that carry the world's oil, gas, and goods. Its dominance over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow chokepoint through which approximately 30% of the world's seaborne oil supply passes represented one of the most quietly powerful financial monopolies in history. Control the insurance, and you control who can sail. Control who can sail, and you control the flow of energy that powers the global economy.” That article is really telling us that the 300-year imperial world order has changed and that created a vacuum and as we know power abhors a vacuum. Into that vacuum stepped the U.S. Navy offering the protection that insurance underwrites. The British Crown's 300-year-old chokehold on global energy insurance has been severed by the U.S. when the UK got cold feet at the wrong moment. America now controls the physical protection of the most critical oil shipping lanes and the world knows it. The world order has indeed been changed on purpose or by accident it has changed. I wonder if the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, is embarrassed by this development. My guess is that he is but he seems to have no idea about what to do. He is in the middle of a terrible scandal involving close associates of the PM and the Epstein files. He has a lot of Muslim voters in his country now so he doesn't want to be seen as supporting Donald Trump and I suppose that contributed to the embarrassing decline of the British Navy which can't even protect its own base in Cyprus. In conclusion, world order has changed for certain. Is Trump that smart and just playing 3 or 4d chess while the world plays checkers. I don't know the answer to that but I know that American dead to this point numbers about 15. About 290 have been wounded and about 255 of those have returned to duty and 10 are in very serious condition. Can we trust the Iranians to keep a deal they agree to with the U.S. while Israel just sits fuming and waiting. Can we trust the Mullahs not to murder the tens of thousands of protesters they know about and who trusted the U.S. to remove their regime. No, is my answer to all of that. Finally, folks, did the U.S./Israeli war machine kill the new Supreme Leader's father, mother, sister, nephew and brother-in-law. My research indicates that the answer is yes and if so what does that say about the prospects of peace. Would you make peace if you were him or would you say no we will fight to the last drop of blood. Yes, me too. Does the last drop of revenge include atomic weapons in the hands of terrorists. I pray that it does not. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Today, Friday, March 20, 2026, Darrell Castle talks about the resignation of Joe Kent as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center and especially about the ramifications of the letter he publicly released explaining his resignation. Transcription / Notes: GOODBYE JOE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. I will be talking about the resignation of Joe Kent as Director of The National Counterterrorism Center and especially about the ramifications of the letter he publicly released explaining his resignation. Yes, Joe is gone and I for one will miss him in government because he was not afraid to ask questions and to encourage legitimate investigations into things which didn't make sense from the official government explanation. First, let's take a brief look at who he is and how he became Director of Counterterrorism. He was born April 11, 1980, so next month he will be 46 years old. He enlisted in the U.S. Army after 9-11 and made it through Ranger School where he served with the 75th Rangers. He requested special forces where he spent his 20-year army career. He served 11 combat tours in the Middle East wars. In 2018 he left the army and became a paramilitary operative for the CIA. He was married to Shannon and they had two children. She was also a military officer and a navy cryptologist and in 2019 while serving in Syria she was killed by a suicide bomber. If the loss of Shannon was as devastating for him as it would have been for me it's easy to see why he left military service and tried to enter politics. He ran for the U.S. Congress in 2022 and 2024 winning the Republican primary but losing to the Democrat in his Washington district. He voted for George Bush in 2000 and 2004 but then became more of a Libertarian and supporter of Ron Paul. I thought of him in Libertarian and Ron Paul terms while I was dabbling in politics myself. He liked the anti-globalist, antiestablishment message of Donald Trump and after Trump's election in 2024 He eventually served as chief of staff to the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. In July 2025 he was appointed Director of the Counterterrorism Center but from the start he had difficulties. I suppose that being on the inside of government exposes one to things that you either accept as part of the team or you become a pain in the butt to those who do. Joe made statements in favor of harsh views of Iran such as if it were up to me I would just take them out so something changed over the course of that year in his views. Well, Joe concluded that a foreign government was somehow complicit in the death of Charlie Kirk and he encouraged Tulsi, his boss, to look into it. When Kash Patel, the director of the FBI found out that Joe was doing that he took him off the President's Daily Briefing group and he disappeared for a while. He, like Charlie, lobbied the President to resist the advice to go to war with Iran. Whether Joe was correct with the opinions he expressed in his resignation letter, or not it seems now that going to war with Iran was not a very good idea. Why, because you can bomb them ala Curtis Lemay, back to the stone age and they will just crawl out of the rubble and fire ballistic and drone missiles at the ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Ground invasion of Iran is impossible because of the terrain and size of the place but I just read where a Marine Expeditionary Force has boarded an LPH in Japan on its way to the Persian Gulf. I spent some time on LPH ships a little over 50 years ago so I know what those Marines are probably tasked with. The H stands for helicopters and that means the old days of Marines climbing down rope ladders to the landing craft are over. Everything is done by helicopter insertion and you need air superiority for that. I guess they have that except for the danger of some Iranian waiting in a spider hole with a man portable missile.  Reports are that the Strait is about 90% closed to international shipping and it is damaging the world economy severely. The President calls on our former European allies but most decline as does NATO. Why would NATO decline to help keep the Strait open since they need the oil as much as anyone. I have a book in my library entitled Statesmen of the Lost Cause. It's about the southern politicians of the Civil War of course, but it reminds me of the NATO refusal because those countries view it as a lost cause or a fool's errand.  The Europeans apparently view it as a lost cause but I do not because I know what the U.S. military can do especially when things look bad. The Europeans are certainly qualified to speak on lost causes because their entire bureaucracy known as the EU plus UK is a lost cause. They celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Dublin but third world immigration has destroyed the cohesion of the Irish people. What they are really afraid of and angry about is that Donald Trump refuses to bend his knew to their global government run by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. However folks once again it seems that Ron Paul has been proven to have been correct in his warnings. “This is surely one of the worst military disasters in U.S. history. There are no military options available beyond the unthinkable, the use of nuclear weapons. The only viable option that remains is one that was often urged in the Vietnam War: Just get out. Now! No return to U.S. bases, no security guarantees to Gulf States. End the U.S. empire in the Middle East and elsewhere. If not, it's only going to get worse.”  Well, amen Doctor Paul but now let's take a look at what Joe said in his letter of resignation. I won't quote the entire letter but I will just give the paragraphs that have upset so many in the war/uniparty. “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to out nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.” To counter that statement the administration relies on Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt who said his Israel pressure accusation was a false narrative started by Democrats and the liberal media. “As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the U.S. first. “ Yes Karoline we heard that explanation clearly from Secretary of State Marco Rubio who told us that if Israel attacked first Iran would attack U.S. interests and we knew Israel was going to attack. I would call your statement more in the nature of an admission than proof of a lie. From Joe's letter: “Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that you should strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again.” Well, Karoline responded by giving us a long list of threatening things Iran did and said before the attacks started. I say in response that Iran did not have two carrier battle groups deployed against the United States and it did not have strategic bombers such as the stealth bombers and the old but reliable B-52's. The toothpaste is out of the tube now and things are being said that cannot be unsaid. This statement by a counterterrorism official is an open challenge to U.S. war justification and it has brought down on Joe's head the kind of attacks one might expect. If you are critical of Israel or of U.S. military efforts on Israel's behalf that makes you anti-semantic in today's media world. The last report I saw about Joe was that he is currently being investigated for being a Nazi. Joe Kent is a 20-year military veteran of U.S. special forces and as he puts it a gold star husband. His wife, Shannon, a navy cryptologist was killed in in Syria by a suicide bomber in 2019. Everything he said in his letter seems true to me. I am certainly no insider but it looks obvious in the absence of conflicting evidence that his portrayal of the situation is accurate. Still, it seems irresponsible to write and publicize such a letter. I wonder if he could have gone to his superiors in private instead of this public letter while his country has troops in harm's way. Oh, but he said he did do that by going to Tulsi and Vice President J.D. Vance both of whom apparently agree with him. Perhaps that is why they seem to have been sidelined while Marco Rubio who is Secretary of State, not National Security Director or Vice President always seems to be out front. He told them he was going to resign but I don't know if he told them he would make it public. I'm guessing but my guess is that he got nowhere by making his views to those above him in private so he decided to go public. In conclusion: His letter seems very close to giving aid and comfort to the enemy while his country is at war. This is a very difficult decision and one I'm sure he gave a lot of thought. Those of you old enough to remember Vietnam might remember the same controversy with the Pentagon Papers but this letter is far worse because it is an accusation of massive death by mistake and deception. Another phrase I remember from Vietnam is my country right or wrong. Apparently Joe couldn't take it anymore and had to let us know. Joe's letter could have devastating effects on the mid terms as well as 2028. Could it be just raw political positioning i.e. those on record as opposing the war win and those who supported it lose. I suppose it's possible but time will tell. Finally, folks, goodbye Joe you gotta go because the truth cannot live in the government today. One could extrapolate what Joe said and if one's conclusion is that he was accurate in his letter thoughts might go to mass murder but we certainly don't want to go there with our own government. 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 fact, proven over centuries, that war is easy to start but hard to get out of and if one gets out, the continuing effects exist long into the future. Transcription / Notes THE SHELF LIFE OF THE IRANIAN WAR Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 13th day of March in the year of our Lord 2026. Once again my beat is war and Friday the 13th seems like a good day to talk about something so unpleasant. I will be talking about the fact, proven over centuries, that war is easy to start but hard to get out of and if one gets out the continuing effects exist long into the future. Yes, this is Friday the 13th once again and we are only two days from the Ides of March which was the date of Julius Ceasar's assassination on 15 March 44 BC. He was born in 100 BC so by my rough calculations that would make him 2126 years old today. Why talk about Ceasar more than 2000 years after his death, because he has been the gold standard for leaders who became emperors since then. Emperors in Rome, for example, continued to be called Ceasar after his death and today we ask as did Shakespear, upon what meat doth this our Ceasar feed that he has grown so strong. Our Ceasar today has certainly grown strong. But I submit that his meat is money and especially oil. Reports say that the U.S. has borrowed more than $50 billion per month for the last 5 months and that this war is costing in excess of $1 billion per day. The more important problem is oil and how much does it cost. The price of oil at the pump for the American consumer is what will determine if the U.S. can stay at war indefinitely or will have to declare victory and come home. It's really hard to just come home when you have demanded unconditional surrender in an undeclared war. Gas prices have accelerated but there are still a few desperation moves to temporarily moderate them. For the average American rising gas prices mean lowered standard of living because the real effect is similar to a cut in pay. The employer doesn't increase wages because it costs more to get to work so you have a lower standard of living and lowered optimism. Oil effects virtually everything price wise because everything has to be made or harvested and transported and that drives up the cost of living for each American. Iran is a major source of oil for the world or at least it was. Iran was a major supplier of oil to China with about 45% of China's 11 million barrels per day of imports passing through the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. That Strait is now closed by Iranian mines and anti-ship missiles. The administration has made it clear that the Iranian navy and air force are no more so this closing is a little hard to understand. Reports stated that the U.S. Navy sank 10 or 11 mine layers earlier this week so my question is why not sink them before they laid the mines. The end of Iranian oil has created opportunities for others to step up production which I imagine has made Russia and Vladimir Putin quite happy. The world price of oil is rising rapidly which puts money into Rusia for domestic use and to prosecute the Ukrainian war. Trump is very aware of the effect of rising oil prices on his poll numbers and on the upcoming mid-term elections so he has taken steps to alleviate it. He and Mr. Putin had what was described as a very good call on the 9th and Russia has been freed from sanctions to sell its oil on the world market. It will be a little higher in price for China than the cheap Iranian oil but nevertheless it will help. Trump is also freeing up several million barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve something he criticized Biden for doing to help his poll numbers. China has to be hurting from all this war and oil strangulation because reports are that about 90% of Chinese oil came from Venezuela, Iran and Russia and now only Russia is left. Perhaps telling China that it will no longer get energy from the Western Hemisphere or from U.S. allies is the point of the war. That is just speculation on my part but with the attack on the cartels in collaboration with other South and Latin American countries it makes sense. Rising energy prices will be hard for China's export driven economy to absorb because it makes all their exports less affordable worldwide. Trump is scheduled to travel to China later this month to meet with Xi Jinping so we'll see how that goes. So, as the title of this Castle Report suggests the U.S. and Israel need to end the war before prices in the U.S. rise so much they effect public support for the administration. There are many events from war that can be hidden or censored from the public but it is hard to hide price increases at the pump. Casualties can be hidden to a certain extent for example getting real casualty figures has been close to impossible so far. We learned this week that at least 8 Americans and today 4 crewmen in a refueling tanker died so 12 are now dead and about 150 wounded. Some of those are gravely wounded with brain injuries and burns and may not recover. Those numbers have been censored but they leak out so accurate or not, we can't be certain. The other thing that is easier to censor from Americans is damage to infrastructure and casualty figures from others targeted because they host Americans. The U.S. bases and embassies in several of the Gulf States including Saudi Arabia have been seriously damaged by missile and drone attacks. In addition, the attacks have hit infrastructure and civilians which have nothing to do with Americans. These problems are much harder to solve because no one seems to know who is currently in charge in Iran. The Supreme Leader is dead and his son was appointed in his place. He might be dead or wounded but for some reason he seems to no longer be in charge. The very religious and new Islamic supreme leader apparently owns about $140 million of prime real estate in London's billionaire row. Does he control the military, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps or (IRGC) and if not who does. There are indications that no one does and the IRGC is acting on orders of individual officers. That would explain why the new leader apologizes to the Arab states which Iran attacked and said it was a mistake which would not be repeated. The attacks continued after his apology as if it had not been made. The U.S. cost of living and that of the world for that matter is why the Strait of Hormuz seems likely to be the deciding point of the length of U.S. involvement. A war of conquest with a ground invasion of Iran would probably be long, bloody, and very expensive and therefore can't happen. Oh, wait I'm sorry I mean it can't happen if there are rational, non-insane people making the decisions. The key to the war, then, is the battle to keep the Strait open and with it the flow of oil. Air power can probably destroy the IRGC and that should make it somewhat easier, but we have known since the end of World War ll that air power alone will not make determined people give up their homeland. The options then seem to me to be destroy the IRGC very quickly, which may or may not be possible, somehow get a new regime into power which can control them and which also may not be possible, or just fight it out however long it takes in the Strait. I guess some combination of all three is also possible. I am certain that Trump wants out of this mess, but I doubt if the Israelis do.  He held a meeting this week with the heads of various defense firms and told them to ramp up production of missiles both cruise and Patriot air defense missiles so the U.S. is running low. The Iranians answer by making 100,000 suicide drones at $20,000 each instead of the multi-million missiles to attempt to shoot them down. The Iranian tactic seems to be the rope-a-dope whereby the U.S. fires all its missiles then the Kamikaze drones counterattack. People tried to warn Trump but apparently he wasn't listening or had bad advisers as well. My own view, and this is pure speculation on my part, is that Trump believes that World Warlll has already started but it is a cold war right now pitting many forces against each other. We have what Reagan called the axis of evil consisting of China, Russia, Venezuela, Iran and North Korea. Two of those are gone and the rest are nuclear armed. Trump is apparently trying to cozy up to Putin which I imagine makes Xi a little nervous. Then we have the forces of the European global elite as managed by the World Economic Forum and its great reset of global bureaucracy and its unelected world government. Opposing those we have the American way of individual nation states living in freedom so that seems like the battle to me. In conclusion, I remember the wise words of a man I once heard say that if I am proud of anything about my life I am proudest of my humility. Well, I echo that now and admit that I know very little firsthand just what logic and research produce so I use my best guess powered by some experience. I know from history that the Middle East contains a lot of people with long memories. Apparently they are still settling disputes that happened over 1000 years ago. Finally, folks, children don't start wars they just die in them. It is a terrible thing to go to war and this one seems especially brutal. It appears that this attack was unprovoked and that makes it even sadder. I pray that it ends soon. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle talks about the war, declared by President Trump, against the nation of Iran. Does he have Constitutional authority to declare war; why would he do so; and what does it mean? Transcription / Notes PRESIDENT TRUMP DECLARES WAR AGAINST IRAN Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 6th day of March in the year of our Lord 2026. My beat is war today and war is obviously the most important story in the world right now as President Trump, unilaterally it seems, decided to make war against a nation that apparently had not harmed the U.S. and was not a threat to the U.S. Why then did President Trump do it. I'll give my thoughts on that but first let's look at what he did. The U.S. spent a few months building up forces in the Middle East region while negotiating or pretending to negotiate a settlement. The U.S. demands became increasingly more difficult for the Iranians to comply with including give up the use of peaceful nuclear power except for medical purposes. Surrender all enriched uranium that you currently possess and allow international inspection. Give up all offensive missiles and drones. Cease all support for your terrorist proxies across the region. Finally, you must change your head of state and give up your oppressive theocratic government. Well, those are some bitter pills for a sovereign country to swallow and some people believe they were designed to lure the Iranians into complacency while a serious attack was always the plan. The battle forces assembling in the region would have said to me were I head of state in Iran, prepare for serious war. I would have made defensive preparations such as moving my leadership and especially myself to a safe area. Iran didn't do that and with the Ayatollah's rejection of the peace proposal on Friday, he was dead within 24 hours. Once again, the U.S. war machine and the high-tech war fighting ability of the U.S. are amazing and a demonstration for the world. Two carrier battle groups including the largest warship in the world. Two hundred fighter jets which, by the way, cost $10,000 for each hour of flight operations so if they were all in the air at once which they often were, that's $2 million per hour. The last time I looked these figures up it cost about $25 million per day to keep a carrier battle group at sea and in-flight ops. Fifty thousand U.S. personnel, we are told, are currently engaged in combat. Six U.S. soldiers are known dead having been killed in Kuwait from an Iranian missile or drone strike. It seems that the Iranians misread he reactions of their neighbors because they reacted by attacking everyone in the region, thus driving the entire region into a military alliance with the U.S. The U.S. at the time of this recording has launched over 2000 sorties against Iran and the Iranians have fired over 500 missiles and over 2000 drones about 10% of which get through,.  Iran attacked U.S. bases and civilian targets in countries including Israel, The Gulf Arab States, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq. Only one has been fired at Turkey even though the U.S. has bases in Turkey. These figures don't consider the Israeli attacks which were, of course supplied by the U.S. for the most part. The arrangement was apparently that Israel would attack command and control systems and assassinate personnel including the head of state while the U. S. attacked the ability of Iran to retaliate with missiles and drones. So, does the President of the United States have the Constitutional authority to take the nation to war. My short answer is no but ever since the Korean War the U.S has held the view that as Commander-in-Chief the President can constitutionally command the military to do what he wants but that is not my view and it was not the view of the founders. Commander-in-chief means that once war is declared by congress he runs it. Our system of government does not allow one individual to put the entire population at risk by unilaterally and individually making war. What about the War Powers Resolution passed in 1973 which gives the President authority to commit troops to battle anywhere in the world for 90 days without congressional approval. Anyway, he said he briefed the 8 leaders of congress known as the gang of 8. My opinion is that the War Powers Resolution is unconstitutional. No one seems to care anymore what that document says or what it means and very few want to be limited by its words. So, to prevent the restraint it requires, congress passed a resolution essentially amending it and as I said that is unconstitutional. However, I admit that the resolution is what he used and even though it is misused and misapplied it gives him a pretty good argument for unlimited power. Most in congress will no longer argue that the President does not have authority to do what he has done. So, having looked at what he did now we ask why he did it.  Part of the answer was the usual i.e. the Iranians are terrible people who arrest a protester and hang him the next day. Prison guards routinely rape virgin girls who are arrested by the moral police because they believe that when they murder the girls they will be barred from heaven. Most of the explanation he gave had to do with nuclear weapons. Although just a few months ago he “obliterated” their nuclear program they were, he said, rebuilding it. The International Atomic Energy Agency of the UN said that Iran was enriching to 60% and only nuclear armed countries did that. Iran was supplying the whole hostile world including Russia with drone and missile technology. My understanding is that Iran's hypersonic technology came from China. There is an elephant in the room that he did not mention and that is Israel. This entire war is so obviously at the behest of Israel that I can't understand why the U.S. is not a little humiliated by it. Netanyahu said publicly that what Israel and the U.S. are doing is something he has dreamed of doing for 40 years. The real reason diplomacy could not work was not any of the things listed but something Marco Rubio announced to reporters on Monday. “It was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone, the United States or Israel, or anyone, they were going to respond and respond against the United States. We knew there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that would precipitate an attack on American forces, and we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after Iran before Israel launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.” So, if you reason this out and apply logic the reason we attacked Iran, killed many civilians, destroyed much infrastructure was that if we hadn't our ally would have gone rogue and launched its own war thus exposing the U.S. to much higher casualties. In that sense, then operation Epic Fury was an act of self-defense, against Israel. The nation of Israel puts Israel first so I wonder why the U.S. won't do the same. Why won't U.S. leaders tell our ally you launch your jets which you got from us and you will lose all American support and all-American bases in the Middle East or you can restrain your murderous impulses and remain our ally. The answer to that question probably explains the whole war but who knows the answer for sure. Maybe the answer is in the Epstein files but who knows. I know that when JFK gave Israel a firm no on their development of nuclear weapons he didn't live long and LBJ quickly reversed his decision. So, whatever the relationship between U.S. presidents and Israeli leaders throughout Israel's history President Trump is inclined to listen to Bibi and neocons in America rather than his Maga base. He promised the Maga people he would not start another disastrous, stupid, pointless, and very costly Middle East war but here we are. It appears that for the second time in President Trump's second term he used negotiations as a cover for a decision already made to go to war. Launching a military strike during negotiations could have the long-lasting effect of destroying trust in U.S. diplomacy so it's risky. Another reason for this that I admit is not obvious but this attack is an attack on China and Russia as well as the other BRICS. The U.S. does not want WWlll in the traditional sense because in today's nuclear world that would result in a worldwide catastrophe with no winners, only losers. Instead, today's war is about trade, money, commerce, etc. Who gets to run the world order of today. World orders come and go and they have throughout the centuries. In fact, the world order that emerged in 1648 formed by the Peace of Westphalia or the treaty by that name makes the most sense to me. It lasted It ended the 30 years war in which Europe was devastated and starving. It lasted from 1648 to 1803 when it was destroyed by Nepoleon. The treaty involved much of old Europe including the Holy Roman Empire and it allowed a world in which nations agreed they would stop unprovoked attacks on each other and would not assassinate each other's leaders. It brought peace and allowed the people of Europe to prosper and be fed again. Eventually, world orders and peace agreements always break down into violence and bloodshed. Today, the new order of the world is trying to form and it has devolved into proxy wars, economic wars, cyber wars, biological wars, sabotage wars, and information wars. Russia and China resent U.S. dominance and attempt to topple it while the U. S. will hold it by any means necessary. In conclusion, I don't know anything about this war for certain but I try to use logic to make the best guess possible. I know that China has stopped export of oil and gas and restricted its domestic use.  China imports 11 million barrels per day 45% of which comes through the gulf. Perhaps Chinese tankers could buy the new U.S. provided insurance thus bypassing Lloyds of London which has run shipping for over 100 years. Could that result in a new U.S., China, Russia alliance, who knows. Finally, folks, I close with the words of Ron Paul now 90 years old but as wise as ever. “Here's a plan: End this today. Return the destroyed U.S. bases to the countries where they are located. And just come home. That is what a real “America First” movement looks like.” 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 State of the Union Address by reviewing a few of the things President Trump said and the reaction of his opponents, as well as providing a Constitutional response. Transcription / Notes SOTU – A RESPONSE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 27th day of February in the year of our Lord 2026. I will be talking about the State of the Union Address delivered last Tuesday by President Donald Trump. I will comment on a few of the things he said and on the reaction of his opponents to those things and then I will do what I am often asked to do and that is give a Constitutional response. The President spoke for almost two hours the longest speech in SOTU history. He spoke mostly about the achievements of his second term and he mentioned that America is entering a golden age. He emphasized patriotism and heroes and he invited many of them to the speech including the gold medal winning men's Olympic hockey team. According to the reports I've seen more than 70 Democrats chose not to attend the speech but most of them did and they exercised their choice which was to set and glare straight ahead or occasionally to boo him. He noticed and called them out repeatedly for their failure to muster even the most basic bipartisanship in moments that should have been beyond partisan politics. For example, the President invited “a woman who has been through hell,” Anya Zarutska, whose daughter Iryna fled war torn Ukraine only to be murdered on a train in Charlotte North Carolina.  Yes, the killer had many past felonies only to be released on bail when he killed Iryna with a knife. The Democrats could not muster any energy to stand for her mother. That was bad but not the worst moment for Democrats. He held them up for the whole country to see in their worst moment and they went for it. “One of the great things about the State of the Union is how it gives Americans the chance to see clearly what their representatives really believe. So, tonight, I'm inviting every legislator to join with my administration in reaffirming a fundamental principle. If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” Who, in good conscience could not agree with that statement and Republicans certainly did. They stood, clapped, and whistled for a full two minutes in a raw, spontaneous reaction, but the Democrats didn't even move. Not a shuffle or even a courtesy clap, just nothing. He let that sink in for a moment then twisted the knife. “isn't that a shame? You should be ashamed of yourselves, not standing up.” I think people noticed as post speech polls indicated especially since illegal immigration was the most important issue of the 2024 election. His invitation to stand was not an attack on immigrants, nor was it hateful. Instead, it was a simple invitation to endorse common sense publicly. The American people elect and pay their leaders and in exchange for power and the honor of election those leaders must prioritize the needs of their constituents. It is the most basic social contract of the American government and it's hard to see how anyone could not grasp it immediately. However, I will point out that the theme transcends immigration. Whether you call it America first or you simply understand that we are all Americans and illegal immigrants especially murderers, torturers, and rapists are not, it is or should be a basic requirement of holding office. Washington is now filled with politicians who have agendas that take priority in their minds over Americans. Yes, for some its Ukraine first, for some its Somalia first, and for some perhaps even the President its Israel first. Now, let me finalize this concept and attempt to link it to Constitutional government and what that would mean. My view is that anyone who thinks that there is a single group who should come ahead of Americans in the minds of officeholders should not be in politics. Let them get a job in Silicon Valley, but please stay away from politics. In reference to the Constitution, I want to say a few words about Iran and what appears to be steamrolling toward an extended war. Like refusal to stand for the concept that American politicians should put the interests of Americans ahead of those of illegal immigrants, American politicians are bound by oath to the Constitution to oppose the drive to fight wars and attack other countries which have not harmed America in any way on behalf of others. This coming war is so obviously unconstitutional that I wonder if anyone in Washington even knows what it means anymore. I will also point out that if the U.S. Constitution is not enough for some of our globalist neo-con politicians, it is also a clear violation of the U.N. Charter which the U.S. signed in 1948. The charter forbids attacking countries which have not harmed you and are not a threat to you but the U.S. has done that many times especially since 1991. A nation does not have to attack to violate the charter because even threats and intimidation are also forbidden. The threat to Iran of you have 10 days to comply with my demands or something very bad will happen to you is an obvious violation. The idea of I am much stronger than you and you have something I want so if you don't give it to me I will take it by force is also an obvious violation. I oppose an attack on Iran for many reasons and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine apparently agrees with me. He has reportedly warned the President that an act of war against Iran carries significant risks including a prolonged conflict with high casualties. I understand that General Caine has the President's respect so maybe his views will prevail over Bibi's but I doubt it. Rumors abound that on one of Bibi's six visits to the Trump White House he threatened the President with what is known as the Samson option. In other words, it you don't do this thing for me I will bring down the entire temple by attacking Iran with nuclear weapons. There can be no reasonable doubt at this point that the coming war is for the purpose of greater Israel. If you don't believe me I invite you to listen to Tucker Carlson's interview with Ambassador Mike Huckabee conducted in Israel about a week ago. In that interview Huckabbe essentially admitted it and said it would be OK. Back to honoring the U.S. Constitution I have spent 37 years of my life defending it along with Western Civilization itself. I now have no confidence that the battle can be won. In other words, it appears that I lost the battle and a return to Constitutional government is impossible. As you probably know, I was a presidential candidate for the Constitution Party and I knew then that by some chance if I was elected it would mean great sacrifice and possibly even death so let's look at why I feel that way. Politicians seek power to get ahead, and to use the near monopoly on violence the government has to achieve those goals. They become seekers of largesse, and there are other words to describe it, but they seek largesse and they exchange it for votes and for special treatment. Subsidies for certain industries are clear examples of this. The subsidies given to corn farmers require corn ethanol to be mixed with gasoline. Now the corn producers say they could not survive without that largesse and any corn state politician who seeks to cancel it better consider a new line of work. The original ethanol requirement was to prevent global warming but the current President says it's a hoax, but the subsidies continue. Subsidies, bailouts, welfare, giveaways, and other shakedowns are not only unconstitutional, but they are also normally unnecessary and inefficient. For example, tariffs are essentially subsidies for selected industries, paid for by price hikes on consumers. The largesse that tariffs represent are put in place to favor a select group of beneficiaries and disfavor everyone else. Over time, the largesse builds up and becomes a huge drag on the economy. I grew up as a farmer's kid and we kept pigs whose meat the pigs sacrificed to feed us through the winter. With so many piglets sucking their mama the sow, the poor sow grows weaker and weaker, A once healthy, dynamic sow goes into decline and stagnates but the pigs are so addicted they cannot stop sucking until their mother can no longer feed them. So, I tell you what is necessary if this empire is to be saved from the disaster that appears inevitable but word of warning if you actually tried to do these things you would probably not survive. Empires have come and gone throughout history. They turn their money to trash by currency debasement, for example our own currency has lost 99.9% of its value relative to gold and we ask why things cost so much. Affordability crises they call it without any understanding of what actually causes it. Eventually, civil war and the struggle for remaining largesse destroys the empire and starvation and poverty are the result.  Old friend and economist Bill Bonner shares three essential things for a good beginning and I agree with Bill on all of them. So,” 1. protect the integrity of U.S. money and the money system. 2. Do not spend more than you take in, ever. This year revenue is projected at $4.9 trillion and spending is projected at $2 trillion more than that. 3. No wars, and I mean no wars that are not purely defensive.” This sacrificial candidate and hopefully President should announce no more deficits ever. No tariffs, no sanctions, no printing money to pay the debt and no more inflation because a balanced budget is non-negotiable. To do this, abolish the FED immediately. You will have to cut $2 trillion in spending and people will not take kindly to that but rip the band aid off quickly. Take your case directly to the people and tell them look folks we may be the greatest nation in the history of the world but we are going broke. Someone has to do it and if not me who, if not now, when. Explain to the voters that in fiscal year 2019 the $4.9 in revenue would have funded the entire government and it is going to again, this year. One other thing, this all depends on taking control of the military, industrial, intelligence, security, and spy complex so that must be done in conjunction. Remember the last President to attempt to control it was JFK. Never fear, just go on TV and tell the people why you are cutting $500 million from the war budget. Finally, folks, what are the chances the people would support a President who was determined to save his country and return to the Constitution? So close to zero that they could safely be listed as zero. 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 continuing saga of Jeffrey Epstein and what that saga means for the relationship between the global ruing elite and the people. Transcription / Notes EPSTEIN AND THE DESTRUCTION OF TRUST Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 20th day of February in the year of our Lord 2026. I will be talking about the continuing saga of Jeffrey Epstein and what that saga means for the relationship between the global ruling elite and the people. Yes, folks we are faced with a moral dilemma today and that dilemma is what to do when we find out that the ruling elite of the West, not just America but the West has completely abandoned the moral bedrock upon which the whole system is based. Western Civilization also known as Christian Civilization is based on a system of moral principles and if those principles are adhered to by everyone the system works and we can pass it on to our offspring. Now that entire belief system has been turned upside down and destroyed and that is of great concern to me. The elite, and I will call them that for lack of a better word, but hopefully you know what I mean by that term. The elite know that their power is also based on moral authority which they don't even believe exists. Their goal is to keep us from learning of their complete moral depravity because that might mean the end of their privileged and protected lives. The elites understand that once their complete amorality is understood by the masses, the West, and especially America, loses its façade of moral superiority that has always anchored our lives. Their fear is that if they have no moral authority and we know it why should we have any. When that cynicism flows downhill and infects the general population there is nothing left to hold us together. The sad and destructive part of all this is that we know for certain that it is not just a few very sick individuals as we have been led to believe but it goes much deeper than that. No, this pedophilia, to use a polite word, is a systematic, organized, and ritualized practice. These networks could only exist when backed by deep institutional protection. Political, police, judicial, and media, all cover for and protect them on a global scale. These recent revelations have led people to believe that the entire system is rigged against them. They see their lives as akin to a sporting event in which the refs play for the other side and the goalposts are constantly moved. They believe their country and the West have been stolen by a few super rich individuals who get further and further ahead because they have gamed the system while the rest of us fall further and further behind. This all paints the picture of a rupture between the ruling elite and the people. People have seen the level of horror that the files have revealed so far and they know that is only about half of it. They know in their hearts that elections will no longer solve their problems if they ever would. The level of distrust and anger among the people is and should be bipartisan. I am not the only one to see this picture because the ruling elite understand it as I do and they are a little afraid right now. Their reaction is foot dragging, redactions, and lies about the files. The other day Pam Bondi said that we have seen the final release and there won't be anymore and so we are moving on from this. Well, no Pam we are not moving on from this no matter how much you would like to. If you are ordered to redact the files and keep them hidden then honor, if there is any left, requires you to resign. I also heard the DOJ say that if these files were released unredacted it might cause the collapse of the system. Well, that's a chance I am willing to take to clean the system because allowing it to continue as is simply cannot happen. The administration seems to be taking the approach of trying to say OK folks we've been transparent and there's nothing else to see here so move on. This is just a few sick individuals but we know them so that's it. Humpty Dumpty, in other words as in the old nursery rhyme. I don't think it will work here any better than it did hundreds of years ago. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall All the king's horses and all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty together again. No, this system is broken and everybody knows it. The distance between the ruling elite and the people grows wider each day. In recent decades the economy has been changed or rigged if you prefer toward a debt-based financialized economy at the expense of the American dream. This has happened across the West as the system after the fall of the Soviet Union believed the thousands of years of nation states was at an end. From 1991 on the world would be a globalized trading bloc based on commerce rather than war and defense. It didn't work and all it seemed to accomplish was to destroy the poor and hollow out the middle class who were the backbone of the American dream. Just base everything on debt and worry about the interest later but huge cracks appeared in that system. Off shoring of manufacturing left nations dependent for critical resources such as antibiotics in the complete control of adversaries. Now, after seeing the total depravity in the files we realize who our leaders really are. How can we be really sure of anything anymore. What is so fantastic is or was the belief that it can't be believed or so depraved would never have happened. Would you believe me if I told you that Epstein was murdered by the very people on whose behalf the blackmail was committed. What if I told you that he is still alive as a lot of evidence points too. Jimmy Dore on his podcast the other day put forward a lot of evidence that he is still alive. Evidence such as a guard saying a transport van took him away on a day they normally didn't move prisoners and a day before he supposedly died. What about the director of the FBI and his top assistant telling Congress that he committed suicide when there is a lot of video evidence that he didn't. Is it hard to believe that people who would rape a six-year-old child and worse commit murder to cover it and to allow their sadistic and depraved circle to continue. We have some important names worth mentioning such as Les Wexner, founder of Victoria's Secret, Bath and Body Works, Abercrombie and Fitch, and La senza among others. He is also suspected of connections with Massad. He gifted Epstein a $70 million mansion in Manhattan and a 7000 plus acre ranch in New Mexico among other things. He is now an unredacted co-conspirator but he said he was conned and just didn't know. Richard Branson of Virgin Group (catchy name huh) which has Virgin Records, airlines, trains and other things. He once emailed Epstein and said he could be there if Epstein brought his harem. Too many other horrific things to mention but a lot and I mean hundreds of emails with code words such as beef Jerky, pizza and grape soda, Tinkerbell which is the name Jes Staley former CEO of Barclay's Group used for one of his victim. Oh, and I forgot Snow White, another big one. U.S. prosecutors are looking at Staley for rape and causing great bodily harm. Andrew Windsor, the former prince was arrested yesterday so perhaps those who are facing prison will talk about the rest, we'll see. Finally, folks, we know some of who they are and some of what they have done and they know that we know but they also believe they are protected in their satanic ritual attacks on our children. From Hollywood to boardrooms to the great capitals, they seem to be corrupt, demonic, and satanic in ways we just couldn't comprehend until now. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle shares his thoughts on those who seem caught up in the Epstein files and if correct, suggests that every system of power on earth is currently run by satanic pedophiles. Transcription / Notes THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday, the 13th day of February in the year of our Lord 2026. Friday the 13th and it is apparently a very unlucky day for some of those caught up in the Epstein files. Who is caught up in the files, just about everybody who is anybody it seems, all the rich and powerful, but as I said in the title the devil literally is in the details. Yes, folks it is rather shocking to find that the whole world is run by satanic pedophiles but that is what the recent release of over 3 million documents that constitute about half of the Epstein files seem to be telling the world. Royal families torn apart, heads of state, cabinet secretaries, titans of banking and industry, owners of sports teams, ex-commissioners of sports leagues, but most of all billionaires were all very connected to Jeffrey Epstein. He connected them apparently through blackmail, greed, and money to his satanic pedophile circle of the most disgusting. It is indeed unusual to find a politician of national status who was not enamored with Epstein and what he had to offer but not him. No, not the one man that many put all their hopes of catching in this net. The man they all wanted to be guilty, even demanded be guilty came out smelling like a rose. Orange Man Bad, President Donald J. Trump it seems was the whistle blower who called the police and said this woman is evil and Epstein is disgusting, get them out of here. Last Monday, the DOJ unsealed a document which revealed that in 2006 Donald Trump called the police to report Epstein's behavior. This woman, Ghislaine Maxwell is his procurer and an evil person you should look into her and I saw the way Epstein reacted around the teenage children of some of my guests so I threw him out. Well, good on you Mr. President, you are a lot of things, but apparently satanic pedophile is not one of them. There are so many names in these files and it is all so sordid I won't go over the whole mess which I'm sure you are familiar with by now. However, I have to mention a few names who are particularly bad. Bill Clinton, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly known as Prince Andrew), and perhaps the worst of all Bill Gates. Mr. Gates, with a net worth of hundreds of billions came out of this with his reputation shattered. For five consecutive years ending in 2019 I think, but maybe 2018 he was the most admired man on the planet. He was Time Magazine's man of the year primarily because he was spending 10's of billions pushing his vaccines around the world. I saw him give a TED talk in the early 2000's in which he openly said that his real goal was population reduction. I'm not talking about slowing the birthrate folks I'm talking about killing people. He said we could reduce the world's population by 15% through vaccines but that was a drop in the bucket compared to what needed to be done. He built and sold vaccines around the world, in particular Africa, disguised as life savers but in reality life takers. He is therefore a mass murderer and guilty of crimes against humanity. When you really think about it he is one of the worst criminals in human history. His toady here in America, Tony Fauci, destroyed many lives, killed many people, injured many people, destroyed business and commerce, and they should be treated accordingly by the Justice system. The system will pursue you to the ends of the earth for a $100 tax bill so we will see what it does with mass murderers. Now, Mr. Gates has already been punished to some degree by the loss of his reputation. I knew there was something going on when I heard him start fishtailing on the climate change is going to destroy the world scenario. He said he was mistaken and it is actually not catastrophic at all. I suppose he could have truthfully said climate change will not destroy the world because that's my job. Back on Pedo Island for a moment, Gates spent a lot of time with Epstein and even more time at Epstein's Manhattan mansion.  There was a constant stream of “schoolgirls” passing through the Manhattan home because countless emails described them as such. There is perhaps the most telling email of the millions in which Epstein emails himself about a request by Bill Gates, boy genius, founder of Microsoft, for antibiotics so he could secretly give them to his wife Melinda because he was afraid he would infect her with a sexually transmitted disease he caught from “those Russian girls.” His personal assistant for many years, a man who had been the Gates right hand for decades said yes, he helped his boss deceive his wife Melinda, helped him set up liaisons with married women, but when the requests went criminal he resigned. If anything, good comes from this sordid mess perhaps it will be the destruction of this evil, mass murderer. I feel sorry for Melinda though. I am obviously completely opposite her politics but I ha to see her humiliated in such a way. Melinda worked at Microsoft when it was young and he really was a boy genius. The story goes that she rejected him many times but he was relentless and finally they were married. When she finally couldn't tolerate the humiliation anymore she divorced him and ended up with many billions out of the separation. I've seen a couple of interviews with her since this started and to her credit she neither covers for him nor throws him under the bus. Instead, she just says that's something you will need to ask my ex-husband about. Here in America Representatives Thomas Massie, Republican, and Ro Khanna, Democrat are responsible for the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act. They said the secrecy and redactions are still unacceptable and they will continue to pursue release of the rest. Redaction is illegal to protect reputation and only legal to protect national security, child identity, etc. The two representatives have said that the files reveal children as young as 9 years old so it is more than likely far worse than I can tell you at this point. The release of these files has caused a widespread look at child abuse, i.e. rape, in and out of satanic rituals that apparently have nothing to do with Epstein. I saw an interview with a woman who is now an adult and in a position to help what she called survivors and she recalled being sexually raped at age six through nine when it entered the satanic phase and got worse. I found her believable especially in light of what has been revealed. Our British friends have been especially hard hit by all of this. In fact, it is so bad that it could bring down the British government. Ro Khanna said the King and Queen should answer questions because this is not a good look for the monarchy and in fact if the investigation doesn't proceed it could be the end of the monarchy. Massie and Khanna seem to be different from most members of congress. Maybe they are just celebrating not being mentioned in the files who knows. They do not grant the respect for noblesse oblige granted by many Americans to the British royalty. Khanna, in particular sounds at times a little like Patrick Henry rebelling against the colonial crown. “I don't think the appropriate punishment is you no longer get to be prince, there's got to be more than that. I don't understand the British custom that someone's asking the queen a question and the Queen is offended that she's being asked a question.” Personally, I think where Massie and Kahanna are headed with all this hyperbole is that they are sure that this problem is a lot more widespread in the Royal family than just Andrew. If so, this could be an extremely dangerous moment for the Windsors. The King maintains a lot of sympathy at this point for his swift removal of his brother but we will see what comes next. What will be uncovered next probably has them on pins and needles. The story is pretty clear about one thing and that is that Jeffrey Epstein was a low life grifter but he had something that attracted the rich and powerful like flies to a portable toilet. The news stories focus on sex because I suppose they think that is what we want to hear but the real story apart from the rape of children is one of power, greed, corruption, and treason. Epstein filmed heads of state and other powerful, rich, and influential people raping little children and then blackmailed them with the films. Many didn't seem to mind and they came back again and again for more. There is a series of emails from Epstein to his urologist, a licensed physician, whereby Epstein asked for drugs to treat erectile dysfunction and the dr. gave him the prescription and then said when you take them I look forward to pizza and grape soda. Now is that a conversation two men who are close to normal or sane have. Pizza and grape soda are mentioned time and again in the files. Maybe we should rethink that Pizza-gate non-story. Just when you think it can't get anymore horrifying it has a way of doing so. Now there is very convincing evidence that Epstein did not commit suicide but was murdered or perhaps is still alive. Murder seems to be the most likely end of the man to me and there are never before released videos of shadowy figures moving to his cell the night of his death. The most telling is a death announcement released by the authorities announcing his death the day before he apparently died. Yes folks, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman announced Epstein's death a day before he supposedly died. Very strange indeed but not if you consider the total impact of all this information. The world is run by satanic pedophiles it seems, but why the fascination with small children. More importantly, on whose behalf is all this blackmail being conducted. That would seem to be the most important question of all but as Bill Gates pointed out Epstein is dead now and we can't ask him. In conclusion, my fear is that we and especially our young people will become numb and accept as normal that satanic pedophiles run every system of power in the world. People must be prosecuted and go to jail or there really is a dual system of law. One for us and one for the rich and powerful. Finally, folks, this sordid mess is much worse than I have been able to tell you. What has been done to children and is still being done is too horrible for me to mention. The people involved, all of them, whoever and wherever they are must pay dearly. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle talks about what is going on in Minneapolis as well as the state of Minnesota — what is going on there, does anyone care, and what about fraud. Transcription / Notes MINNESOTA IS A STRANGE PLACE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 6th day of February in the year of our Lord 2026. Although I am a little late for the party I will be talking about what is going on in Minneapolis as well as the state of Minnesota. What in the world is going on there and does anyone care about the violence and death, and also what about the fraud. Was a 37-year-old ICU nurse really a threat to the ICE agents in Minnesota? Do Americans who film such agents as they try to do their jobs belong on government lists. Should the presence of ICE agents in Minnesota be eliminated since the politicians and the people apparently are violently opposed to their presence. The answers to these questions, unfortunately, almost always depend on one's political party affiliation. Republicans back ICE in its deportation efforts while Democrats stand with Alex Pretti. Sometimes these positions require members of both parties to abandon the principles they once held dear. The struggle this time around has often centered on the real culprit, the ruling class. Everything seems like a diversion or distraction. When you see the Minnesota politicians parading around talking about the demonization of the Somali community one might wonder if they are just trying to distract attention away from the billions in fraud from which they allegedly received hefty amounts. When the administration doubles down on its hardline response by sending in more and more agents even after people have been killed one wonders if this is in reality an effort to distract us from the coming stupid pointless war against Iran. Yes the U.S. sent another carrier battle group into the Persian Gulf as an obvious threat to attack at the moment of Trump's or Netanyahu's choosing. Yes, Bibi has or soon will be coming to America for the 6th time in the Trump presidency perhaps to deliver to the president his strike options for the coming attack on Iran. A diversion for our attention is therefore a welcome side benefit thanks to the violence of the protesters in Minneapolis. I can't help but wonder why the president has made no effort to explain to the American people why an attack on Iran is in their best interest. He seems to go from one reason to another as one justification is erased, another takes its place. He first gave us the nuclear threat or weapons of mass destruction we have heard many times before. Then, we are told the nuclear enrichment sites were obliterated in a previous American attack. Then CIA, Mossad, and who knows how many others, allegedly launched a violent protest movement directed at regime change. When the Iranian regime put down the uprising with extreme violence that became another excuse for an attack. The sides are talking now about a way to avoid war but I get the impression it is simply a brief delay for some reason or another. A similar delay is going on in Minnesota as the sides are talking and Mr. Homan has agreed to withdraw 700 agents. Could the agreement be this, look Governor Waltz if you will stop inciting this violence and let us at least arrest the murderers and rapists among you then you can keep the millions you stole from the American people. I don't know if that is true but it sounds plausible to me. What about fraud? Let's talk about that for a moment. The fraud conducted by the “Somali community” escorted into the country by Barack Obama and Joe Biden and grouped together in Minnesota so they could have political power and even elect their members to congress to lecture us about racism. We are expected to concentrate on the seeming insanity of the ICE protesters and ICE agents instead of the money and where it goes. The last figures I have seen reveal that Somali welfare fraud in Minnesota is estimated at $9 billion. That is $9 billion of Medicaid and other welfare stolen from people who work and from people who need the help and shuffled off to various fraudulent enterprises run by the Somali community. That is just the amount found to have been stolen in Minnesota. It's predicted to be even worse in California, Illinois, Maine, New York, and perhaps other Democrat states. Who knows how many billions of dollars of your labor have been stolen. Well, Elon Musk says he knows the various forms of fraudulent payments given away by the federal government amount to $1.5 and $2 trillion per year which is about 25% of annual government spending and which coincides almost exactly with the deficit. In other words, if these figures are correct that $2 trillion the government spends over what it takes in is all fraud. Almost all this fraud goes to perpetuate various deep state programs and to line the pockets of Democrat voters and especially their politicians. That's why they fight so hard to make us ignore it and to detract us from investigating it. Now, let me say a few words about the killing of Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis. Mr. Pretti apparently was killed when the agents first disarmed him of his legally possessed handgun, then threw him to the ground and shot him in the back many times. The object he was waving in his hand was a cell phone and to say they thought it was a gun made no sense because he had been disarmed by them. It does remind one a little of the bad old days of Democrat presidents when conservatives feared the Feds rather than supporting them. I'm thinking specifically of the incident in which Vicki Weaver had her head blown off by an FBI sniper named Lon Horiuchi while she stood in her cabin door holding her child. Agents also killed the Weaver's 14-year-old son by shooting him in the back. I knew Randy Weaver quite well back then as we had met at many speaking engagements and he was often at gun shows where I campaigned for office. The government today says there is no comparison with Vickie and Alex Pretti because she was unarmed. The truth is that Vickie had a .380 handgun in a holster under her dress just as Pretti had a legal gun in his possession. Once again they, the ruling elite that is, distract us from the real enemy. I've seen and heard Mr. Pretti described as a beloved ICU nurse and a peaceful man. I have no argument with the beloved description since I have no evidence to dispute that but the peaceful part I definitely dispute. To me, he appeared to be a man so fanatical in his system of beliefs that he was out of control and violently so. He was a nurse, which is a profession of the most noble among all if it is practiced correctly. Who can't tell stories of heroic nurses sitting with the dying or helping one through some of the most trying moments of life. Well, there was another nurse whose name goes unmentioned, but not for me. I say her name and I hope her parents are not offended by that but I feel compelled to speak for her because she really was peaceful. Her name was Laken Riley and she was peacefully jogging on her Georgia college campus when she was assaulted, raped, and murdered by an illegal criminal invited into this country by Joe Biden. Why, I ask, do none of the protesters care about Laken. She goes unmentioned by Democrat politicians and their protesters because I guess she just doesn't fit their political agenda. Laken's benevolence, her altruistic pursuits, her many accomplishments, her hopes and dreams count for nothing because she did not meet the Democrat politician's definition of someone they should care about. Sadly, Laken went out for a jog and she didn't come back the same fate has happened to literally dozens of women and girls at the hands of criminals whose cages were opened by Joe Biden. Just to name a few Sarah Root, Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray but there have been countless others. Jocelyn is of particular importance to me but I don't say much about her because she was a 12 year of child when she was very brutally murdered by five of Joe Biden's criminal invaders. No one speaks for her I suppose she is an embarrassment to the entire spectrum of what the ruling elite are trying to accomplish in this country and this world. That's probably enough about the women who have been murdered but there is one more and very recently. In Illinois recently a man named Joe Abraham has gained attention because he has had the audacity to speak for his 20-year-old daughter Katie, killed while stopped at a traffic light by a drunk illegal named Julio Cucol-Bol. Mr. Bol fled the scene but Katie was killed instantly. At least she didn't have to endure the torture that Jocelyn did. This case reminds me of that most appealing argument that to deport criminals would be forced separation of families. Well, the Abraham, Riley, and Nungaray families among countless others were certainly separated. None of these women are ever spoken of by Democrats and there have been no protests or demonstrations objecting to the government's policy of inviting violent criminals to walk among us. I suggest that when we see and hear the violent protests about ICE we try to remember the real victims who for Democrat politicians and their supporters remain nameless but for their families the loss is never ending. In Conclusion, I want to conclude by recommending a book that was just released and which I had to get an early copy to read. Peter Schweizer's “The Invisible Coup, How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Migration as a Weapon.” That book opens for you the war that has been prosecuted against us by people who hate us and intend to destroy us, and unfortunately that often includes our leaders. Finally, folks, what in the world does this all mean? That's a topic for another day perhaps next week, we'll see. Remember the nameless fallen ones and pray for peace here and abroad. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle talks about President Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland presented earlier this week and the important issues surrounding the speech including Greenland, Iran, Gaza, Ukraine, and of course Minneapolis. Transcription / Notes TRUMP SPEAKS TO THE WEF Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 23rd day of January in the year of our Lord 2026. I will be talking about President Trump's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland which was given on Wednesday of this week. I will also talk about some of the important issues surrounding that speech including Greenland, Iran, Gaza, Ukraine, and of course Minneapolis. Yes, President Trump traveled to Davos this week accompanied by a large U.S. delegation including Secretary of State Marco Rubio. California Governor Gavin Newscom was in attendance although not part of the US delegation. He was quick to gather a news event to question everything the President said. So, the President spoke for over an hour to the richest, most powerful, most pompous and self-important people in this world. He used the occasion to sign the Board of Peace Charter, officially launching a new international organization tasked with overseeing the peace process between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza. Trump said as he signed, “This Board is the chance to be one of the most consequential bodies ever created, and it's my enormous honor to serve as its chairman.” Founding members of the board were in attendance including Bahrain, Morocco, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and the United Arab Emirates. Missing was Bibi Netanyahu because he has an international warrant out for him and he would most likely have been arrested. Could the Board of Peace end up replacing the United Nations? President Trump seems to think so, “I wish the United Nations could do more. I wish we didn't need a Board of Peace. The UN just hasn't been very helpful. I'm a big fan of the UN's potential but it has never lived up to its potential.” Trump, despite his criticism, didn't call for the dissolution of the UN. I suppose he left that duty to me and I have been actively calling for its dissolution since about 1990 when I became associated with the Constitution Party. Many people agree with me but find it very difficult to say so. I supported Ron Paul's presidential campaigns partly because of his end the FED rhetoric and his criticism of international bodies such as the UN. I fear that the Board of Peace will become just another bureaucracy but we will see whether it can really achieve peace in Gaza. The proposal calls for Hamas to lay down its arms which it has publicly refused to do. Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law presented a slide show detailing the architectural plans for the Gaza strip. I hope those plans include the Palestinians still alive but we will see. Perhaps they can find jobs in the fabulous hotels and resorts that are supposed to be built. In the meantime, the IDF has reportedly killed at least 466 Palestinians since the ceasefire started as well as 3 journalists one of whom worked for Bari Weiss the new head of news at CBS. When invited to speak at WEF Denmark announced that it would not be attending because of Trump's position on Greenland. Perhaps the Danes don't quite understand the art of the deal. He renounced any plans to acquire Greenland by force and worked out a deal with NATO to allow US use of Greenland and in return plans for tariffs on EU members were canceled. Trump believes, and it makes sense to me, that the US needs influence there as a hedge against long term adversaries in the Arctic like China and Russia, for example. He assured them that US acquisition of rights in Greenland was not only, not a threat to NATO but would greatly enhance the security of the alliance. He said the new agreement would involve the Danes with the Golden Dome, and mineral rights.  In case you don't know Golden Dome is a new missile defense system being built. Mark Rutte, the head of NATO, said after his meeting with Trump that the discussion about Greenland had changed. Now the discussion is about how the arctic region can be protected and secured. George Friedman is a geopolitical analyst of impeccable reputation and I have been a subscriber to his publication, Geopolitical Futures for many years. In regard to Greenland George said in his recent newsletter that he admitted for the first time he just could not explain or figure out something. He could not explain why Trump would place tariffs on NATO allies in order to acquire interest in Greenland. Now that Trump has lowered the temperature of the discussion the point may be moot but I think he does not have the same regard for the Europeans that many others have. In fact, I think this whole new Strategic Strategies Report that the administration just released is an announcement that the security agreement that has existed since World War ll has run its course and is now over. The US will consider its own hemisphere and its own defense first. In other words, this is all a continuation of the American Revolution which for 250 years has not been able to separate the American people from the European bankers. The bankers got their prize with the formation of the Federal Reserve which was formed to take control of the US financial system and keep the American people in debt slavery forever. The FED prints its own money and loans it to the US so it can be used to pay US interest on the debt that it has, thus 38 trillion debt and one trillion of interest. Take, for example, Mark Carney the Prime Minister of Canada. He is former governor of the Central Bank of England and former governor of the Central Bank of Canada and though in office, still associated with powerful banking and investment firms. That may be rambling a bit but it's still all very true. Trump went on in his speech with his usual carrot and stick approach. “Certain places in Europe are not even recognizable, frankly, anymore, they're not recognizable, and I love Europe, and I want to see Europe do good, but its not heading in the right direction.”  He mentioned his Scottish and German heritage and said the people of the United States care deeply about Europe. He used part of his time to tout what he called restoring the American dream. He mentioned his Executive Order to prevent Wall Street Corporations from buying single family homes thus driving up the cost of rent and making owning a home much more expensive. “Families live in homes, not corporations.” Well, amen to that quote Mr. President, that is exactly right. My approval of that action and the quote is not very libertarian but then I am not a libertarian. The US is not going to subsidize the whole world he told the assembled Davos men and women. Global tariffs were implemented to address the large trade deficits the US was experiencing adding that many countries were taking advantage of the United States. He went on to brag about the economic changes and success that he believes the US is experiencing. So, my conclusion is that he went to Davos to conclude a Greenland deal and to sign the Board of Peace agreement but mostly to explain himself to these people. Wars still rage in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran. The one in Iran seems to be heating up again with the Ayatollah publicly admitting to over 5000 protesters killed. Many reporters from inside Iran report more than 10,000. The Ayatollah has taken a very hard line calling the uprising sedition and blaming the United States and Israel for it and threatening full scale war. Trump has ordered his military leaders to give him strike options that could be done so something is most likely coming. US strategic bombers have been seen over the Persian Gulf region. I said I would say a few words about Minneapolis so here they are. That city seems to be the tip of the iceberg that is the massive fraud being committed against the US government but mainly against the working, taxpaying Americans. If you work and a portion of your labor and money you need to feed your family is taken from you by the IRS apparently a good deal of that is used to feed the terrorists in Somalia and to line the pockets of politicians across America. The politicians look the other way and run interference for the fraudsters and they are then rewarded with millions of fraudulently acquired dollars. It seems that California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and others may even be bigger than Minnesota. You are certainly aware that ICE is in Minnesota trying to round up, arrest and deport illegal criminals but the politicians who have been receiving millions in bribes from the illegals have been protecting them and attacking ICE agents. I suppose they believe that if they scream loud enough we the people will join the criminals, but then who will pay the taxes. This disorder went so far as to involve an attack or at least a forced disruption of Sunday Services at a Baptist church called Cities Church in St. Paul. Yes former news reporter Don Lemon led the mob into the church and disrupted people who were worshiping God on a Sunday morning. Lemon gave a lot of sanctimonious words about how protest is protected by the 1st amendment. He is really attacking Christianity and trying to eliminate the right of Christians to worship freely which is sacrosanct in the 1st amendment. It seems that in Minnesota they really love and value sanctuary except when it involves places that actually are sanctuaries. Contrast my city of Memphis with Minneapolis and notice the difference. Memphis has now had two good mayors in a row and the difference is astounding. The mayor didn't want federal authority here but he said if it's coming let's cooperate and use it to benefit the city. The guard came to help with the street patrols so the MPD could do police work. ICE was here arresting illegal criminals as they found them. Two statistics illustrate the whole thing and the difference. Car left down 70% and murders down 44% and people can walk their own streets at least better than before criminals were allowed to take over our cities. Finally, folks, wither you hate Donald Trump or love him pray for peace. Our children will appreciate it. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle talks about Iran today and exploring the possibilities for changing the regime there from one run by Islamic fundamentalists to one run by the ex-Shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi. Transcription / Notes REGIME CHANGE IN IRAN Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 16th day of January in the year of our Lord 2026. I will be talking about Iran today and exploring the possibilities for changing the regime there from one run by Islamic fundamentalists to one run by the ex-Shah's son Reza Pahlavi. What does the US want in Iran and what is it willing to do to have it. Yes, it seems that revolution is in the air once again in Iran but this time it seems to be different. Every few years people grow weary of the Ayatollah's strict laws, its moral police, etc. and they take to the streets to protest. This time it seems to be different for several reasons. The protests are much more massive and widespread this time and the people are showing great courage because the last report I saw showed more than 2500 dead and 10,000 arrested so not just protests but war in the streets it seems. The Iranians don't waste much time on niceties such as a fair trial either because they arrest a protester one day and publicly hang him the next as a warning to others. Another reason why this time might be different is that the US President is clearly fully supporting the protesters with his words and promises of military action. The primary reason, however, is that this time there are real reasons other that the resistance to fundamentalist Islam. The last large-scale protests happened when a young woman was arrested by the moral police and she ended up raped and murdered in their custody. The regime is apparently then made up of very bad people and that is always involved in the unrest. This time, in addition, there is a critical, life threatening nationwide water shortage caused or at least made worse by the regime's misuse of water facilities, reservoirs, etc. The water shortage is so bad that the capital city of Tehran is threatened with water rationing. For a city of 9 million that would be catastrophic. The final straw in this round of unrest has been the skyrocketing inflation and destruction of the purchasing power of the Iranian rial. The rial has been devalued so much that Iranian reports now express inflation in terms of dollars. It has lost 60% of its value since last June. So, the regime is bad and the people are courageous. Hundreds killed and thousands arrested which for many is the same thing. The US, through its chief executive, threatens to “hit them very hard.” The US currently has about 2000 troops next door in Iraq and all US bases in the region are on high alert. The US Central Command and certain regional partners have opened a new Middle East Air and Missile Defense command center at the US airbase in Qatar. Reports yesterday said that US troops are now being evacuated in expectation of an Iranian attack. If you have any doubt about whether the US considers itself to be responsible for policing the world and making it right in the US President's eyes those doubts should be erased. When one country has regime change fostered on it quite often it makes a lot of other countries mad and this situation is no different. The US announced a 25% tariff on countries that do business with Iran and that has made the Chinese very angry, Iran is a key part of China's multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative and they desperately want the Mullahs to stay in power. So, the US is, in its own eyes, the policeman of the world. The Iranians seem genuinely disturbed this time unlike all the other times. Their repressive tactics don't seem to be working as well this time. I guess all the Mossad and CIA agents on the ground in Iran encourage the people to carry on. Reports coming out of Iran are that many in the regime want to talk diplomatically with the US this time to avoid a US attack. Talks were scheduled but when Trump heard that people were being killed and hanged he canceled the talks. My opinion is that the regime wanted talks not to diplomatically agree to reforms but to preserve their power. The other problem with talks is that if the US held talks and agreed for the regime to stay in power with US blessing then the US administration would lose its standing. Right now, the people protesting, undoubtedly with Mossad and CIA encouragement, are literally dying and risking their lives to bring about the downfall of the Ayatollah's rule and they expect the US to refrain from diplomatically supporting it. We now have about four decades of diplomatic efforts with Iran without any noticeable results except to make the situation worse so I suppose talking to them and sending them money is pointless. It makes sense to me to stop business and encourage our allies to stop business with a regime that commits such human rights abuses as long as it's universally applied. That's the problem though isn't it. The concept of isolating human rights abusers is not universally applied and everyone knows it including the Iranians. It's hard to stay on the moral high road under such circumstances. Iran, ever the implacable adversary, as usual is talking tough. Would a sensible leader threaten war with an adversary many times stronger when that leader has what appears to be a weakened or destroyed armed forces. The Ayatollah is doing just that but I don't think he is insane, no, he is living out the Islamic book as he perceives it. It tells him seek death instead of life and wash the cities of the world with blood and constant war until the 12th Imman, the Mahdi comes and makes the world into what the books tells him it should be and will be. Rather than insanity he really does literally believe the words in the Islamic Holy Book written almost 1400 years ago. Western leaders don't understand that because they believe nothing. Religion, whether Christianity or anything else is just a ruse they use to get elected. They really believe nothing and worship only the god of power to which they are utterly addicted. This man, the Ayatollah, the unbending foe is different. He will pretend to negotiate for a better deal but when his gullible adversaries in the West deliver he will not comply because he believes the words in that book and nothing else matters to him. He warns the US, through his foreign minister, that he is ready for war if Washington wants to test it. I'm sure he is ready and he apparently doesn't mind how much his people suffer. Why doesn't he get them some food and especially water. I guess it's because he doesn't know how and besides the book doesn't tell him to do that. Why won't he make a deal with the great Satan for water technology and resources, well the answer to that question is obvious by the name of his adversary. The foreign minister said if the US wants war like it did before, Iran is ready for it but he hopes the US will choose the wise diplomatic option. The other way leads to criminal war like the abduction of Nichalos Maduro did. He hopes the US will negotiate rather than make war for Israel's interests. There is a man here in the US who has been very vocal in support of the protestors on social media. That man is Reza Pahlavi, the son of former Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who has been living in exile in the US since the ouster from power of the Shah in 1979 Islamic Revolution. He has been very active with international media appearances as well as social media and the other day he met with Trump's chief Middle East negotiator, Steve Wittkof. Some of the demonstrators in Tehran shout long live the Shah. My guess is that they are too young to remember what life was really like under the Shah. Pahlavi, to my knowledge, has not stated his true intentions with respect to Iran but he is scheduled to travel to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump as well as to deliver a speech at the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast. Very interesting indeed because that makes me think of the real reason for all this. Who are the American politicians who favor the interests of a foreign country over that of the American people. Just about all of them it seems. Last Tuesday, the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said there is no room in his party for those who do not support regime change wars. He said all should be in on overthrowing the Iranian government allegedly on Israel's behalf. There are many polls which show the Ambassador is dead wrong (no pun intended) about that. Polls show that far more Americans support my position of come home and mind your own business rather than the Ambassador's position of fighting for greater Israel in the Middle East. Did Trump commit an act of war against Iran when he sent stealth bombers a few weeks ago. The real question is not was the attack an act of war but was the attack at the bequest of a foreign leader and if so will that same leader request or demand another attack on Iran this time. My conclusion is that yes, he will do it despite the undeniable fact that the American people are sick of foreign wars that have nothing to do with them but are beneficial to foreign nations and their leaders. Meanwhile, in Iran the regime has shut down the internet across the country in an effort to prevent people from organizing meetings and protests. Elon Musk has provided his Starlink system and anyone in Iran can access it without charge he says. There are rumors that the Chinese have provided technology to Iran to disable Starlink. Anytime it is so obvious that an entire people group is not free it causes anger and outrage here in America. In response the Iranians have threatened to assassinate President Trump pledging that “this time we will not miss.” Well, a regime that murders and hangs its own people and which is mired in a water crises and inflation might want to consider a more low-key approach especially when that regime's past performance against the US air force is considered. For now the ISW reports that protests have been suppressed by security forces but could erupt again at any time so we will see. Finally, folks, to close this Castle Report here is an interesting quote from Paul Craig Roberts. “The United States is a strange place. Americans pledge their allegiance to the United States of America, but their government pledges allegiance to Israel. President Trump parades around as if he is master of the world, but he is not even master of his own country.” At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle discusses the raid in Venezuela, the capture or arrest of Nichalas Maduro and his wife and whether it was beneficial to anyone. TRUMP'S VERSION OF THE MONROE DOCTRINE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 9th day of January in the year of our Lord 2026. I will be discussing the raid in Venezuela and the capture or arrest as the DOJ calls it of Nichalas Maduro and his wife and their criminal prosecution by US Federal authorities in the federal district court of New York. Did it benefit anyone, was it right or wrong, was it legal or illegal. Yes, folks 2026 has barely started and it has already been quite a year. Was the capture of Maduro an indication by the administration that one year of his term is complete and now the gloves come off. I certainly think that was one of the many intentions of the raid, but not the most significant by any means. What then was the real intent or reason for the raid. The truthful answer to that question is, I don't know and neither does anyone else. We look at it and we see the results short term but what was in his mind only he knows for sure. Let's look first at the legality of the raid. In my opinion it was clearly legal if US law is the judge. The 1973 War Powers Resolution allows the president to deploy military forces; however, he chooses without prior approval of congress if he decides its in the national security interest of the United States. Its's more than a little hypocritical for any Democrat with a microphone to scream illegal because they could always repeal the War Powers Act but they don't/ Why not, because they use it too, and they want it available. When Hillary Clinton rejoiced at the death of Muammar Gaddafi who was killed in a US bombing attack while apparently asleep in his bed, was that illegal. What about when George Bush sent American forces into Iraq and eventually hanged Saddam Hussein, was that illegal. In fact, Trump should be thanked by Maduro and his supporters in congress because he could have sent a cruise missile through his window but instead he arrested him. The DOJ insists this was a law enforcement action whereby a wanted fugitive was arrested in a foreign country. So, the question is, what do you mean by illegal. Clearly it does not violate US law so perhaps you mean it violates your sense of consciousness or morality. Well, most of what the US government does violates my sense of morality but that is not the judge.  I guess the argument then is that it violates international law. My answer is that international law is a nebulous concept that doesn't even exist anymore. International law was invented at Nuremburg as a way to justify dealing with Nazi war criminals when there was little real evidence of the crimes with which they were charged. In other words, it began and ended at Nuremburg. OK then, did anything good come out of the raid. Yes, lots of things, starting with the way the raid was conducted. This was perhaps the greatest and most successful special forces raid in history. Conducted in a foreign capital with very few known casualties. As I said he could have just put a warhead on Maduro's forehead but he didn't so in that sense the rule of law is intact. To carry that thought forward, the President has this very elite force the best of the best and he is committed to using them to accomplish his foreign policy rather than mobilizing vast armies with coalition partners at a cost of hundreds of billions. Everyone around the world took notice and the countries you would expect voiced their disapproval, but at the same time they know he is not bluffing and when he warns that he will act it is prudent to pay attention. It was a demonstration of what the US military can do especially when you consider that Venezuela supposedly had the latest version of Russian and Chinese anti-air defense system. It was Trump's version of, we are still here and we are still the best so pay attention. The other benefit that it is hard to argue against is that Maduro is a very bad man and Venezuela will be better off without him. There was an election in 2024 which was won by Edmundo Gonzalez but Maduro used his military to hold on to the most addictive thing in the world, power. He was so bad as a leader that 20% of the Venezuelan population left the country. I personally know many Venezuelan people some of whom live here in America and some in Venezuela and they are happy he is gone. The pro Maduro crowds of young white liberals marching through the streets of New York are really anti-Trump not pro Maduro. I guess one can justify supporting a vicious dictator if it means hurting Trump. The crowds of Venezuelan people rejoicing in the streets of Caracas are far more important than those in New York. Sometimes I think the people in such demonstrations have lost touch with reality. Certainly, they have lost touch with the needs of ordinary people if they ever had touch with them. It reminds me of when Trump sent the National Guard into the most crime ridden cities to help slow violent crime. Washington DC was the first but my city of Memphis was also included. The people in New York marching against the deployment were probably the same as the pro Maduro crowd but in the streets it was different. I talked to many people in my law office who live out there with reality and that reality is constant fear of violent crime. People told me in no uncertain terms that they were glad to see the Guard on the streets and they felt safer walking or going shopping. The people of the cities worry about whether their kids will be killed in a drive by, and so they are glad for protection. So, Maduro was a very bad man who caused many to leave their country and many more were starving. Yes, he was a leader who lived in palatial luxury while his people starved. Venezuela has one of the largest deposits of petroleum in the world but the people have no gas. We learned after Maduro's capture that the infrastructure of pumping and getting oil to market was in such a poor state that it could take ten years to fully bring it up to speed. Venezuela has all this wealth under its soil and under its ocean but no one cared enough for the people to exploit it for their benefit. Will the American oil companies that are competing for Venezuelan oil use it for the people's benefit. Well, that is a good question but I believe that while trump is president they will. Right now, Venezuela is left in a highly volatile and uncertain phase of its history. Who will lead after Maduro. Delci Rodriguez, Maduro's vice president is in charge as I record this. She talked tough but only for a moment and then she saw the light and started saying something like I will be glad to cooperate with the Americans and I am just glad to be here. That is of course another point and that is that he did leave her in power and let natural progression take its course. Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado said that she would like to see Gomzalez given power because he won the election in 2024 but Trump seems committed to let the laws of succession take their course. So, the next several months are very uncertain and many questions remain. Will Roddriguez accommodate US pressure and demands, defy them, or perhaps some hard line socialist from Maduro's old party, The United Socialist Party of Venezuela, will try to seize power. One thing should be obvious though and that is that the US military will be used if it becomes necessary so the leaders of that country obviously know that. So, the President is reimposing the Monroe Doctrine to protect US interests in this hemisphere. When President Monroe announced his doctrine in 1823 or 24 it was to be a two-way street. To the European colonists he said stay out of our hemisphere and we will stay out of yours. Spain had colonies so it was primarily directed at them and it eventually took the Spanish-American War to get Spain out of the Caribbean. It would be hard to argue that the US has stayed out of European affairs since the US has fought two World Wars and currently has bases and troops all over Europe. In addition, the US has China surrounded by bases and carrier battle groups so two-way street, no not yet. Perhaps it indicates a return to the old Monroe doctrine whereby the US watches its own back yard and lets others do the same. I for one would be happy if that were the policy. In regard to that thought Trump has repeatedly referred to the Venezuelan oil deposits as “our oil. “Is he bringing a Machiavellian concept of might makes right to the table with that expression. No, he is referring to the contracts US companies had with the Venezuelan government before Hugo Chavez took power in 1998. One of Chavez's first acts was to nationalize the oil industry thus stealing all the oil, at least from an American point of view. So, Trump is referring back to the pre-Chavez days and saying by contract that oil is ours and you should thank me instead of criticizing me for enforcing contracts and the rule of law. None of that had anything to do with Nicholas Maduro of course since it happened long before he took power. Chavez named Maduro as his successor from his death bed in 2010. Venezuela is supposed to have free elections but if you know the history of that region you know that often free elections are in name only. You've probably noticed that I have spent very little time on the topic of drug interdiction. That's because the whole concept is ridiculous and had very little to do with US military action. Slowing the flow of narcotics into the US was at best a side benefit but it made for good theater. Interestingly, Bibi Netanyahu made his fifth visit to the Trump White House just before this happened. Bibi has been complaining for some time that Venezuela was allowing Iran to train its terrorists there and he wanted something done about it. So, was it an Israeli operation? I don't know since knowing is virtually impossible but I will wager it didn't hurt. Finally, folks, from all this talk you might get the impression that I am in favor of this attack but no I'm afraid not. America first to me means that we have enough problems at home to last all of our lifetimes and I think the American people are about sick of Foreign policy. Rather than empire building or the imperialism of Pax Americana our concerns are or should be here at home. I reject these grandiose schemes in favor of home and family the way it should be. Let us raise our children in peace and prosperity and keep the price of ground beef modest. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle ushers in 2026 by talking about the world as he sees it today along with some year-end thoughts about the past, the present, and the unknown future. Transcription/Notes BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is the 2nd day of January in the year of our Lord 2026. In this Castle Report I will be talking about the world as I see it today along with some year-end thoughts about the past, the present, and the unknown future. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” Those are the words of the Prince of Peace whose birth we just celebrated, and his words have been the bed rock of Western Civilization for over 2000 years. The decorations, gifts, and celebrations are just one of our connections to a Christian culture that has held Western Civilization together throughout its history. My thanks once again for Dr, Ron Paul's recent Liberty Report where he so eloquently sets these concepts out. Somehow it all seems different now. The mayor of New York City has been sworn in on the Quran rather than the bible. The nation itself with debt having surpassed $38 trillion Continues its enforcement of the Wolfowitz Doctrine which is part of the project for a new American century. Paul Wolfowitz put his name on a policy that still seems to drive the American government even under the America first president. Simply put, that doctrine says that American hegemony will dominate the world and no competitor which threatens that policy will be allowed to rise. The U.S. military will be used to destroy any competition. In practical terms, it means that the U.S. government will continue to use its military to bankrupt the country while exporting misery and suffering to others in pursuit of a global military empire on the framework of ancient Rome. My argument for you today is that this policy places the U.S. government in direct opposition to the title of this Castle Report. This year marked the first time the Defense budget item has surpassed the $1 trillion mark. Congress was so enthusiastic about it that they voted more money than the president asked for. The $1 trillion doesn't include interest on the defense related debt, veteran's affairs such as hospitals and lifetime care for the wounded and components of other agencies and departments with items related to defense so it is much larger than the published amount. Those who are responsible for such things probably still have a chance to save the economy if they did the responsible thing but instead they repeatedly do the opposite of the right thing. President Eisenhower was the last president to recognize what was happening and to refuse its allure. He also warned President Kennedy who tried to heed the warning but he died for those efforts. I paraphrase President Eisenhower's famous speech from 1953 entitled “The Chance for Peace” each of these dollars spent on military offense and the maintenance of the US global empire rather than on defense of our own nation is taken from the mouths of the hungry and off the backs of hardworking American families.” The new National Security Strategy document recently released by the Trump administration has set off a firestorm among those who favor warfare to solve every perceived problem. The document seems to be a reversal of the foreign policy doctrine that has existed since the end of World War ll. That policy included the formation of NATO with the US as the unofficial guarantor of military security. The US would accept responsibility for the defense of Western Europe and ensure that the Soviet Union was held intact. In return the US would have reserve currency status and would through that status control the world's economy. Reserve currency status ensured that the US would have the means through the accumulation of debt to fund its military in all circumstances. This was also a recognition by Europe that it was free to devote virtually all of its resources to rebuilding and to the welfare projects that would keep its citizens comfortable and thereby avoid revolution. The new strategy document seems to refute that policy and it appears to place Europe in some responsibility for its own defense. The Europeans don't like the policy shift at all but they are at least verbally adjusting to it. They came up with a way to obtain loans of up to $100 billion for Ukraine to continue the war to the last Ukrainian. The last few years have seen them trying to provoke a new war with Russia and this new policy might have a chilling effect on that desire. The US also included $800 million in the defense bill for Ukraine. Joan and I were talking about all this over breakfast the other day and she pointed out that people are starting to see fraud despite media refusal to discuss it. Some of those things like the fraud of the Somali community in Minnesota and the election fraud in Georgia now freely admitted are obvious. We also have the American people seeing their standard of living eaten away by inflation and an economy declining because it's burdened by debt. People are becoming aware of all this more and more as they see their country committed to the defense and foreign policy of a country far away. The people have come to realize that if they express criticism of that country's foreign policy the argument requires them to defend a charge of antisemitism instead of the policy. The same is true of the billions of fraud in Minnesota because the Governor of that state said that criticism was white supremacy so the argument is a defense of that charge instead of the fraud. Joan's position is that people are not ignorant despite media's refusal to report and investigate they are aware of what is going on. My response to her was yes, you are right but that puts us in the most dangerous position possibly ever. People see rampant crime and theft by government and they see government saying America first but its foreign policy seems to put another country's interest first, and that creates a dangerous, revolutionary atmosphere. I'm afraid that people are becoming aware that one of the founding principles which helped make America great is being erased and that principle is the empowerment of the individual over the power of the collective to demand obedience and compliance. In the American culture the individual counts and I'm afraid many are losing sight of that. The individual can take a stand against injustice without fear of reprisal from government. When governors have no argument against fraud except those who uncover it and point it out are white supremacists, and when senators have no response to pointing out the foreign policy faults of another country except to accuse those who object of antisemitism it means thee government officials have lost the argument because they have nothing to say. The real problem happens when government loses the argument as it has currently, which makes fraud and waste obvious to anyone. People try to change the system through voting but they see that it does not change very much. The worst frustration is that the dangerous revolutionary civil war tension is created when people see it, understand it, but nothing is ever done. They see fraud costing billions and they know that is just the tip of the iceberg. They see their money taken by the IRS to fund the wars in favor of other nations. They see fraud at every level and yet they are struggling to get by and they cannot get by without accumulating debt, which becomes unpayable. They know the difference between their debt and government debt is that they actually have to answer for theirs. Some of the things which have changed the lifestyles of the American people since the end of the covid confinement are really startling for the American families. Since covid, gas for utilities up 48.8%, car maintenance and repair 48.8%, car insurance 56.1%, coffee 46.1%, electricity 40.4%, meat 38.1%, used cars 33.6% bread 29,4%, milk 24.1%. I could go on and on with these numbers but just ask yourself if your income since covid has increased by anything close to these numbers. So, we can see the elements of an explosion building and smoldering. Couple this to the knowledge people have that they must send their children to schools which are run by people who hate them. Their children will be indoctrinated by teachers who hate them so their children will become like those who hate them and look to people who have caused the problem for the answer thus the inauguration of the mayor of our greatest city on the Quran. I know what you must be thinking, it's not everyone of them and there are some officials who really do care. Yes, I know about those people, but the truth is that the ones who claim to care make some angry speech to that effect and then go on about their business as if nothing happened. That is the demoralizing truth that we face here in the first month of 2026. In conclusion, whether we know it or not, we are all beneficiaries of the religion created by the one who is the author of the title of this Castle Report. The moral doctrine created by that religion has curbed power and defended the weak and helpless for over 2000 years. When you lay aside those moral principle you have power unleashed, enforced through force, and not limited by anything, to paraphrase Lenin. Finally, folks, as we start 2026 I close with another quote from President Eisenhower or at least I paraphrase him,” the people of the world are so desperate for peace that sooner or later the governments will have to step aside and let them have it.” At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle discusses President Trump’s 28 point proposed peace plan along with a few words about the other war, the one in the Middle East. Transcription / Notes: PEACE IN UKRAINE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 5th day of December in the year of our Lord 2025. Although the title of this Castle Report is peace, my beat is war today and as usual there is no shortage of war to talk about. Specifically, I will be discussing President Trump's 28 point proposed peace plan along with a few words about the other war, the one in the Middle East. Yes, President Trump is proposing peace in Ukraine. Perhaps he wants to turn his attention to other wars and potential wars or maybe he feels bad about campaigning that he could end the Ukraine war in 24 hours with just a few phone calls. I will be telling you what I propose the U.S. do in Ukraine and the Middle East but before we get to that listen to this important information. I am currently in the last month of my 46-year legal career which ends with the end of December. I still find it hard to say the word retirement but I guess that's what is happening to me. The profession of law has been great for me over the years. I worked hard to respect the profession and it returned the affection, but it doesn't give its favors, one has to earn them. The law allowed me the opportunity to earn a good life and I am very grateful for that. No top-down collectivized system told me what my life would be, instead I was free to chart my own course and achieve all that my ability could achieve. Having said all that, this is a very stressful and very busy month for me so this will be the last Castle Report for this year. I will join you again on the first Friday in January God willing. I plan to continue telling you each week what is wrong with the world and what I think the solutions should be. The President of the United States has proposed a 28-point plan to end the Ukraine war so let's take a look at that plan and compare it to what my version of a peace plan would look like. President Trump promised he would end the war 24 hours after he was elected. That was a little unrealistic as time has confirmed, but nevertheless it could have ended rather quickly. War means intervention by the United States and the best antidote to intervention is obviously non-intervention. No threats, no sanctions no weapons, no intelligence, no coordination, no missiles fired deep into Russia, and no need for elaborate peace plans. The real fix is much simpler than all that, just come home and mind your own business which is $38 trillion of debt. The President must know that intervention by the U.S. started the whole thing and this plan, though well meaning, is just more of that intervention. The U.S. has had its hands in this mess from the get-go and any plan has to consider that. The Orange Revolution in the early 2000s began it and the Maidan Revolution in 2014 completed the process from which conflict the U.S. apparently thought would result in a NATO military presence on the very border of Russia. Unless we come to understand the origin of this conflict it's hard to see how we can help resolve it. The two so-called revolutions that I mentioned were attempts to manipulate Ukraine into a hostile relationship with Russia from which Ukraine had no possibility of victory even with U.S. and NATO help. Looking back at the 2014 coup we see two U.S. senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham actually present in the capital of Ukraine demanding publicly that the people of that country overthrow their duly elected government and replace it with one more favorably inclined toward the U.S. Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokesperson for many presidents, including Joe Biden, was caught on one of those open mic telephone calls planning who would run the post-coup government. She took cookies to the protesters and bragged that we achieved it all with only $5 billion. So, as a result of this intervention, the U.S. is left trying to manage a problem that it created in the first place. Hundreds of thousands of dead and hundreds of billions of U.S. money expended and apparently all for nothing. No, actually it was not a war for nothing, so what was it for. A recent report tells us at least the main purpose. While the U.S. is $38 trillion in debt and Europe is trying to manage its decline under the weight of spiraling crime, collapsing birth rates and demographic destruction some in Europe and the U.S. are doing quite well. The global arms industry without which the bloody struggles in Ukraine and the Middle East would not be possible are enjoying record profits. The world's biggest weapons manufacturers posted an all-time record $679 billion in revenue in 2024. The globalists and neo-cons or whatever you choose to call them live to fuel these companies and make them happy. A report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reports what we already knew and that is that while the middle classes and poor are decaying rapidly, arms makers are thriving as never before. The U.S. companies lead the world of course with 39 companies making $334 billion. European companies are working hard to keep up the 26 largest enjoyed a 13 Percent increase in sales. Sweden's powerful Saab led the way with a 24 percent jump in profits. One other company, a Czech based company, though smaller than Saab was given the lead in feeding the Ukraine meat grinder and its revenue increased 200 percent. Israel didn't want to lose out so its companies which send weapons to conflicts all over the world increased profits by 16 percent. The SIPRI Report concludes that the arms giants are “capitalizing” on high demand. Therefore, they and the politicians they bribe have zero incentive to make peace. In World War two the situation was different because literally everyone including the President of the U.S. had sons or other relatives in the conflict but now the cannon fodder role is left for others. Russia's situation has seemed dire politically and economically at times, but not for Russian arms makers. Combined, their increase in 2024 was 23 percent. One might reasonably conclude that this whole war thing taken in its entirety is a conspiracy to destroy as many people as possible in order to make record profits. The people of the West may fear walking the streets of their cities but they never have to fear for the health of their “defense firms” because they are on the job. For the first time ever, several Middle East companies have cracked the top 100. The deal is so sweet everyone gets in on it. These companies anxiously search the world for rare earth metals to keep the killing going as long as possible. Could that have anything to do with all the talk and deal making about the Chinese controlling the rare earth market. Back in the Middle East Dubai's Edge Group made $4.7 billion much of it through drone and missile technology which they sell worldwide. For the first time Turkey's defense sector took in $31 billion combined. So, when we discuss peace and whether this or that plan will work we have to keep in mind that war is by far the most profitable racket on earth and the global elites who pontificate about climate change and moral values are the same ones who profit from the bloodshed. We should at least mention Just a few of the points in the President's 28-point plan. 1. Ukraine's sovereignty will be confirmed. 2. A full and comprehensive non-aggression agreement will be concluded between Russia, Ukraine, and Europe and all “ambiguities” of the past 30 years are hereby resolved. 5. Ukraine will receive “reliable” security guarantees. 7. Ukraine agrees to enshrine in its constitution that it will not join Nato and Nato agrees to include language in its charter that it will not accept Ukraine as a member. 8. Nato agrees to not deploy troops in Ukraine. 10. The U.S. will receive “compensation” for its guarantee. If Ukraine invades Russia it will lose the guarantee. If Russia invades Ukraine there will be a decisive, coordinated military response and all sanctions will be reimposed. If Ukraine, without cause, launches a missile at Moscow, the security guarantee will be dissolved. 11, Ukraine retains the right to EU membership. 12. A global package for the reconstruction of Ukraine will be prepared. The World Bank will develop the funds for this effort. 13. Russia will be reintegrated into the global economy. Sanctions will be gradually lifted. 17. The U.S. and Russia will reimpose arms control treaties including Start-1. 21. Crimea, Luhansk, and Donetsk will be recognized, including by the U.S., as Russian. 24. A humanitarian committee will be established to resolve humanitarian issues including exchange of all prisoners and bodies. 25. Ukraine will hold elections 100 days after the treaty is signed. 28. After the agreement is signed a ceasefire will immediately go into effect and all parties will withdraw to agreed upon lines. So, one thing that comes immediately to mind is that there are a lot of ambiguous terms in the agreement that will have to be defined and resolved. Right now, nobody seems to like it. Warhawk, Lindsey Graham hates it so it has that going for it. Zelensky hates it because there are a few Ukrainian people still alive and there are more profits to be made if he could just persuade Trump to give him more money. Russia seems at least willing to talk about implementation so despite the fact that it is perhaps not the best solution it is a solution so I pray that it works. Finally, folks, I pray that the U.S. will not bend to the will of Netanyahu and Zelensky, and their lobbyists in the U.S.. Come home close down much of the wasteful foreign “defense” spending. Mind our own business, reduce the deficit and defend America and its people. That's my peace plan. At Least that' the way I see it, Until January 2nd or thereabouts folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle talks about the economy in general as well as the United States economy specifically, and why American families are struggling financially. Transcription / Notes IT'S THE ECONOMY Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 21st day of November in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about the economy in general as well as the United States economy specifically. You probably remember when Democrat policy advisor James Carville told then candidate Bill Clinton, “it's the economy stupid.” He was correct and the advice is still correct today. Remember that next week is Thanksgiving so there will be no Castle Report. I will join you again on Friday December 5. Carville was a very effective political operative in those days and was apparently able to convince Mr. Clinton that the people who would elect him or his opponent cared more about their standard of living than they did about any foreign policy issue. They should have cared more about donating their children to the foreign policy whims of whoever was in office but when push comes to shove everyone has to eat. A family of four, and those relationships used to exist, is acutely aware of what food and gasoline cost. I'm a layperson in economics in the sense that I'm not trained in economics but I do have a family with the same economic needs as everyone else. Most importantly I have been a bankruptcy attorney for 46 years which has kept me in the forefront of the economic needs of ordinary people. Tens of thousands of people and businesses have told me about their struggles in cities all over the country and I have helped them find a way through their economic troubles. With all that said let's look at some of the economic facts that trouble the country right now. When I say, as I do from time to time, that an economic catastrophe is coming with the only question being when it will arrive, why do I believe that. Not much makes sense these days since America is the hottest economy attracting trillions in capital but inflation is still present and it seems that almost weekly another major corporation announces layoffs or store closings. Last week the fast-food chain, Wendy's, announced that it would be closing 400 restaurants. Amazon announced that it would be replacing about 30,000 employees with robots. The economy depends on federal spending and that is now completely out of control. My fear is that so many irreversible commitments have been made that the federal government is not capable of living within its means and if true that would signal eventual disaster. Fiscal year 2025, which ended on September 30 of this year posted a deficit of $1.8 trillion. Deficit means that the government spent $1.8 trillion more than it received in revenue. It's simple if you think about it from the standpoint of your family. Suppose you make $75 thousand per year but you spend $100 thousand and you do that year after year. You know what is going to happen eventually and that means you will be in my office to consult about bankruptcy. You can keep the plates in the air for a while by borrowing, pay day loans and the like, and by using one credit card to pay another until there is no more credit limit left on any cards. You can last for a while by just making interest payments on the cards but then you can't even do that. This problem gets worse and worse until it becomes unfixable and bankruptcy results. That is exactly what the federal government is doing to manage its spending. One of the major warning signs of impending trouble that economists always warn us about is when interest becomes the biggest item in the budget. It doesn't exceed medical expenses or social security yet but this year, ominously, interest was higher than the massive defense budget. Just as you do with your credit cards the government has to borrow just to pay the interest. In other words, the government is paying debt by incurring more debt which drives the debt and next year's payments even higher. This all means that annual interest, which now exceeds 20% of tax revenue will continue to increase. The debt is purchased primarily by foreign governments, central banks, large corporations, commercial banks and individual investors. Recently, in an ominous trend, those foreigners have been net sellers of U.S. debt. That means that the financing of the debt falls to domestic investors meaning you and me. People individually, through retirement accounts or through purchase of some investment fund, finance government debt with their savings. It is necessary that individual Americans do well because they have to save to invest in U.S. debt. Unfortunately, this year net savings is on track to be less than $1trillion, the lowest figure in many years while the deficit is on track to be roughly $2 trillion. This all means there are not enough foreign buyers and not enough domestic savers to finance the debt so the only option is for the banking system, i.e., the Federal Reserve, to create the money to pay for the excessive spending. I say excessive because if you spend more than you make with no plan to pay it, I call that excessive. When you get yourself into that cycle you have to stop, to reverse course before it is too late. It's almost like alcoholism or some other addiction. You can stop for a while, but then it's too late and you can't stop on your own. Inflation is the result when money is created and pumped into the economy without any corresponding increase in production. Energy, it is estimated, is about 50% of the cost of producing everything. When you make energy decisions on a national level that cut back available energy and add to the costs, everything increases in price across the economy. When politicians of one party or another decide to put on their virtue signaling act by refusing to allow domestic production it costs everyone. Everything families use, food, fuel, autos, and clothes for individuals cost more and the products necessary for business from machinery to microchips increase as well. There is no corresponding increase in wages for people so their standard of living is diminished. If a person usually pays $2.75 per gallon for gas and uses 20 gallons per week that is $55 per week so if it goes to $3.00 he just took a $5.00 reduction in his standard of living. People see this happening and they circle the wagons by cutting back on spending. When people reduce spending huge corporations such as Walmart and Amazon cut back as well which means jobs are lost and the process gets worse and worse. Lay-offs are becoming common and technology such as AI along with robotics makes reducing the workforce easier to do. As I said earlier, Amazon has announced plans to replace 30,000 workers with robots. Those machines never have sick days, they take no vacations, they do not get pregnant, and they don't worry about retirement. Bad policies from the federal government and most policies are bad, make our lives more complicated and more expensive. For example, Obamacare was called The Affordable Care Act but it has made the cost of healthcare much higher and the cost of insurance is skyrocketing. There are several indicators that can be followed to track the status of the economy. The first and most obvious is shipping records. The giant container ships that you see pictures of and view on television represent the health of the population economically. Timber is another indicator and prices are lower this year. That's good for consumers because it means things made from timber are also lower but it also bodes ill for the overall health of the economy. Lower demand for timber means lower demand for new houses. Builders aren't building as much and that means the housing market is slow. Not many are looking to build a new home because they can't afford it. Instead, people who have low-interest rate mortgages are sitting tight which means fewer homes on the market and higher prices. The young suffer because they don't have a lower interest rate loan and houses are rising so they can't afford to move out of their apartment to have a family. Most people who start a family want a place with a yard for their kids to play in, I know I did when my daughter was born. High home prices mean that for the first time in U.S. history, the average age of first-time home buyers is above 40. The president sees all this as well as I do and he is very conscious of the fact that his tariffs have added to the cost of everything whether he admits it or not. A tariff is a charge whether we call it a tax or not, it is a fee we charge foreigners for the privilege of having access to the American market. The result when it ripples through the economy is more money burning a hole in the government's pocket and higher prices for individuals. The president sees that and he hears the crying so he comes up with a plan to send $2000 to each American below a certain income. I'm opposed to it for many reasons but the primary one is that it will fuel more inflation and make everything cost more and be self-defeating. Who wouldn't want an extra $2000 he hasn't earned but in the long run it will not help. My local newspaper, which is owned by the USA Today group and therefore is an almost exact copy of the New York Times, except the sports coverage is not as good, said in an article I received last Wednesday that the cost of it “could be $600 million” while the tariffs have brought in only $300 million. So, the cost could be this or that but I assume everything in the article is slanted and a lie so you can't depend on it for information. Instead, the paper should say, look folks, this country is $38 trillion in debt and on track to spend $2 trillion more than it takes in so to have some chance to avoid a catastrophe use the money to at least reduce the deficit. Finally, folks, is there any way to restore the system and avoid what I have called a looming catastrophe? Sure there is, just see the results Javier Milieu has achieved in Argentina in only two years. Cut spending and stop only tying excessive spending to fraud. Just say we can't afford it anymore. Close overseas bases and stop fighting other people's wars. Come home and mind your own business. Wasteful programs, and that is almost all of them, will have to go. So that is the obvious formula but will we attempt it, no I'm certain we will not. At least that's the way I see it, Until December 5th folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

Darrell Castle talks about an interview of a British veteran that was conducted on Good Morning Great Britain on Veteran's Day earlier this week and the "viral" result of his comments. Transcription / Notes ALEC PENSTONE WAS RIGHT Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 14th day of November in the year of our Lord 2025. Last Tuesday the 11th was Veterans Day here in America or what they still call Armistice Day in Great Britain. I will be talking about that by using an interview of a British veteran named Alec Penstone that was given on British television and the “viral” result of his comments. Mr. Penstone was selected as the veteran to be interviewed and to represent all British veterans on the British television show Good Morning Britain. His interview was live and obviously intended to convey to the British public that the TV show, its hosts, and the network in general are just as patriotic and honoring of veterans as the general public. In other words, they intended to traffic from his honor and his willingness to serve in a time when service required great sacrifice. Mr. Penstone, now 100 years old served in the British navy on Arctic Convoy duty. The convoys carried goods from Great Britain and America around the Arctic route to Russia. Without those convoys Russia might have been defeated and knocked out of the war and the 3 million men, 3000 tanks, and 4000 aircraft committed by the Nazis to the defeat of Russia could have been used on the Western front to oppose the D-day landings so it was vital service. Yes, it was vital but also very dangerous because ships were hunted by German submarines and surface raiders. Being hit by a German torpedo or naval gunfire was certain death in a freezing Arctic ocean but men like Mr. Penstone were there and willing to endure the conditions to prevail. I tell of his exploits to show you that the man was and is a genuine war hero and not just someone sitting in an office drinking coffee while others were out in the mud and blood. So, the hosts of the show sought to bask in the honor and dignity of the man and I suppose absorb some of it onto themselves but it just didn't go according to script. The question was ‘what are your thoughts on Remembrance Day and what does it mean for the country”. The old sailor responded like this. “I can see in my mind's eye those rows and rows of white stones. All the hundreds of my friends, everybody else who gave their lives. For what? The country of today. No, I'm sorry the sacrifice wasn't worth the result that it is now.” The female host taken aback by the man's honesty said, “Oh Alec, I'm sorry you feel like that” Perhaps Alec has some mental illness or a touch of dementia, after all he is 100 years old. The male host decided to give him a chance to explain his answer. “What do you mean by that, though? “Maybe this would, give the man a chance to denounce all those British people who have been protesting the fact that Great Britain, the country he fought for, is no longer British. If that is what they expected, he left them disappointed. “What we fought for was our freedom. We find that even now, it's a darn sight worse than when I fought for it.” Yes, that was his answer and the hosts were a little unprepared for it. I'm going to use a little poetic license and say that he fought so that Western Civilization might endure and he, with tears in his eyes, knows that it has not. The host in conclusion of the interview said, “it's our job now, isn't it, to make it the country that you fought for.” I will answer Mr. Penstone and say no that isn't your job because your job is to make it the opposite of the country he fought for. I don't think you want this to be a Christian nation with traditions and people who defended that concept against Vikings, Romans, and Nazis, but that is why he fought. Well, I have put my words in the mouth of this Centenarian war hero who fought Nazi Germa...

Darrell Castle talks about the 250th Birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps, the NYC mayoral election held last Tuesday, and how a self-described socialist won the election. Transcription / Notes THE MARINE CORPS LIVES FOREVER Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 7th day of November in the year of our Lord 2025. Next Monday the 10th of November is the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States Marine Corps, an organization that I served with for four years more than 50 years ago. The title comes from a belief drummed into our heads back then, Marines live and they die but the Marine Corps lives forever. I am not going to spend this entire report taking you down memory lane because there are just too many bad things to talk about. This Report that I do each week is in a way a journey through the sewers of the world. People often ask me why don't you ever talk about any good news and my answer is, because I just don't see any. Often, good news is in the eye of the beholder and it depends, to quote an old saying, on whose ox is being gored. The point is though that someone's ox is always being gored and politics seems to be the art of making it the other guy's ox. I wonder if other people with military experience remember it the same way I do. I remember mostly the pleasant times of friendships with my buddies, of sitting in bars with them all over the world. When I served in the Marine Corps the number of Lieutenants was very small so you could walk into a military bar anywhere in the world and odds are you would see someone you knew. We all had the same thing in common and that gave us purpose and camaraderie. That's what I remember most of the time and I forget the moments of sheer terror and extreme boredom that went along with it. I take great pride in my Marine Corps service and in its 250-year existence. I guess its one of those, you had to be there kind of things, but this 250th reminds us that next 4th of July will be the 250th anniversary of the United States. That's right the Marine Corps existed before the country a fact that was pounded into us by our leaders in the early days. Those are some of the things I remember as I look back over more than 50 years but now it's time to move back into the real world of today.   Sometimes even the real world doesn't seem real or we might say that can't be real and with AI you never know for sure. We try one fantasy and when it fails we try another. We use one imaginary problem to escape from a different problem that perhaps was not a fantasy but was caused by reliance on a fantasy. For example, last Tuesday New Yorkers tried to escape from one of those fantasies by embracing an even more toxic fantasy. Time will show the results but if history is any indicator the results will be horrendous. That is the result history has given each and every time populations have tried to indulge in the New York fantasy. Yes, the people of New York elected a self-described socialist as their mayor. The race was not very close and Republican Curtis Sliwa did not get enough votes to deny the second-place candidate the race, but Andrew Cuomo lost despite spending more than $65 million. He did not have the message and New Yorkers apparently are tired of the same old corrupt politicians so they voted for a new George Sorus funded candidate.  Yes, George, it seems, owns a lot of American politicians. I obviously don't know the mind of each individual New York voter but apparently Mamdani found his appeal among the young and that generation, the one coming behind my daughter voted him into office. That generation knows they are struggling and they know that what they were promised turned out to be a fantasy that could not deliver anything but promises. Go to college using debt to obtain a meaningless 4-year degree and have a pretty good middle class job which doesn't provide nearly enough to live in this new credit-based economy,

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.

Darrell Castle talks about the military actions taken by president Trump against the nation of Venezuela as well as some other South American and Latin American nations. Is stopping drug trafficking and importation of narcotics into the United States all there is to it? Transcription / Notes A NEW MONROE DOCTRINE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 24th day of October in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about the military actions taken by President Trump against the nation of Venezuela as well as some other South and Latin American nations. I argue that there is more involved in these actions than an effort to stop drug trafficking and also assert that countering the import of narcotics into the United States is at best a side benefit of the action against those countries. The original Monroe Doctrine has been the policy of the United States for a little over 200 years, but it has been more or less abandoned in recent years. Is Donald Trump trying to reassert that doctrine with his military efforts in the Western Hemisphere, I think he is and I will make my case today. First, let's look at the Monroe Doctrine and what it was originally intended to be. It was first formulated or at least spoken of by President James Monroe in 1823 during his state of the union address to congress. He laid out before congress a foreign policy position that opposed European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. Essentially, he just told the Europeans, and at the time Spain was the primary nation, that we will leave you alone in Europe and not interfere in your affairs and in return this hemisphere is off limits to you. Intervention in the affairs of nations in this hemisphere by foreign powers would potentially be treated as a hostile act against the United States. This doctrine was the grand foreign policy strategy during the 19th century. The Spanish American War at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th was the capstone or high-water mark of that policy when the United States removed Spain from its last two remaining colonies in this hemisphere. The 20th century brought with it two world wars and an America victorious and willing to intervene anywhere and at anytime it wanted to. Instead of non-intervention in European affairs the U.S. now has in the neighborhood of 750 military bases on foreign soil all over the world. The doctrine has been argued about and debated since the Spanish American War, but now everything is different and far more dangerous because of nuclear weapons and the reality that one mistake by one psychopathic leader could unleash a worldwide catastrophe. We also have a new war called the war on drugs that has been raging since President Nixon proclaimed it in the early 1970's. That war has been fought, lost and fought again since then by almost every president since Nixon. Every president at least pays lip service to stopping the scourge of drugs coming into the United States. It seems that each time one drug is somewhat controlled a new, even worse one takes its place. Cocaine, fentanyl, and other synthetic opioids for example. Unlike other presidents Trump seems to be approaching the problem as an actual war rather than using war as a turn of phrase. He has stated that the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels he has designated as terrorist organizations. The Trump administration delivered that notice to congress after a strike on an alleged drug boat from Venezuela. There have been several strikes since then all against supposed drug boats. The scene is usually a high-speed boat carrying several people speeding across the Caribbean when a drone unleashes a hellfire missile and the boat and all its contents disappears. Designating a group as a terrorist organization is more than just saying we don't like those people. It deprives that group of many of the niceties of American law such as due ...

Darrell talks about the peace agreement or ceasefire orchestrated by President Trump to end the slaughter in Gaza and return the hostages to their families. Transcription / Notes DAY OF REJOICING Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 17th day of October in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about the peace agreement or ceasefire if you prefer, orchestrated by President Trump to end the slaughter in Gaza and return the hostages to their families. Yes, it was a glorious day anticipated for two years and on the day they arrived 65,000 people gathered in Hostage Square to welcome them home. Many did not survive but for those who did it was indeed an emotional and glorious day. Imagine the joy of seeing your loved one who survived two years of captivity underground in the tunnels of Gaza. For two years you didn't know whether he was alive or dead and what suffering he might be enduring. The peace might not hold and it might be just a temporary pause in the slaughter but the hostages are home and for that moment it was glorious. Everybody around the world celebrated and called Donald Trump a hero. When Trump spoke to the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, one of the speakers referred to him as a giant of Jewish history. Everybody celebrated except of course the ceasefire protestors in America. It seems that what they had been screaming about for two years was somehow not enough. I suspect that they see their only policy which is, Trump is bad, slipping away. If they had no policy at all that would be good because the more policies your politicians have the poorer you are. No policy is usually the best policy.  Can't you just let yourself be happy for one moment because these hostages are free. For more that 730 days since October 7, 2023, when Hamas kidnapped about 250 people from Israel, they endured a terrible ordeal, and finally about 20 of them were released. In total, 120 made it home alive and 130 did not survive the ordeal. The scene of their return reminded me of the films about when the survivors of the Holocaust stepped off the trains and entered freedom. These dates the dates of the start of the war and the end, carry significance in the Jewish calendar but I don't pretend to understand it, and I wonder if Hamas understands it. For the hostages after years of captivity, starvation, physical abuse, and torture, hidden away in oxygen deprived tunnels their conditions reminiscent of those described by the Psalmist in Psalm 107: 10-14.  “Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness, prisoners suffering in iron chains, because they rebelled against God's commands and despised the plans of the Most High. So, he subjected them to bitter labor; they stumbled and there was no one to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and he broke away their chains.” So, there is or was peace if only for a moment but it was a sweet smell at last. How did it happen when so many had tried but no one had succeeded at this level. I can see several differences between Trump's approach and all the others, but let's let Victor Davis Hanson speak about it for a moment. I'm paraphrasing him but for one thing, Trump approaches negotiations from a position of strength rather than weakness. Remember the one hostage who said than when Trump was elected they started treating them better. No more spitting on them and forcing them to dig their own graves because they were obviously afraid of him. Trump was very successful in cutting off the money supply to Hamas and the other Iranian proxy terrorist armies. His sanctions on Iranian oil were squeezing the country's ability to make war and supply the proxy armies. His attack on the Iranian nuclear enrichment sites destroyed or at least set back the Iranian efforts at building a nuclear weapon and that took away the threat that Neta...

Darrell Castle talks about the second anniversary of the attacks by Hamas against the nation of Israel and its people on October 7, 2023. What is going on in the Middle East, especially in Gaza today and is all the mass trauma a reaction to October 7th or is there more to it than that? Transcription / Notes THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE HAMAS ATTACKS Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 10th day of October in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about the 2nd anniversary of the attacks by Hamas against the nation of Israel and its people on October 7, 2023. What is going on in the Middle East especially in Gaza today. Is all the mass trauma a reaction to October 7 or is there a lot more to it than that. This was recorded too late for the settlement in Gaza but I don't think that changes my report. The question I have and will explore in this report is this, is the nation of Israel and especially its leader, Bibi Netanyahu, as bad as they are portrayed in virtually all media today. For example, here is a quote from Paul Craig Roberts just to get us started. “Today the world faces an even more absurd situation. Israel, a tiny country with no resources except American money and protection, has Western foreign policy, and apparently also Russia's, in its tiny hands. For a quarter century Americans have fought to destroy Arab nations for the sake of expanding Greater Israel. American soldiers were told by their lying government that they were dying and being permanently disabled to protect America from a non-existent Muslim terrorism, when in fact they were dying for Greater Israel.” Do you think that statement is true, and if you do why do you think so. Is your belief in whether it's a true or false statement just based on how you view the world or how you think the world should be or is it backed by evidence or even personal experience. There are reasons to accept it as true that were not clear to me before the war in Gaza but have been made clear as a result of international condemnation for the way Netanyahu has conducted that war. In regard to Israel controlling American foreign policy, that seems to be a reality. It should trouble or even enrage any American to think that a country of 9 million controls the military and state department of this country of 330 million. That statement is especially true when you consider the spying on America, and other less than friendly actions against Israel's only friend in this world. Tucker Carlson has been the prime mover in bringing that situation to the attention of the American people. Tucker points out certain things about the behavior of the United States and that of Israel and asks why. There are usually no good answers to his questions, which presents even more questions but now it seems that there may be changes happening. “I think the good news is that the government of Israel, in particular, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has pushed it too far. And he did that in part by running around telling people what he thought was true, apparently, I control Donald Trump. I control the United States Congress. I control the United States. He said that to political allies. And opponents in his country said it to foreign heads of state. I control these people. Don't you worry.” That quote from Tucker is a true statement in that Mr. Netanyahu actually said that out loud to other people. I've seen the videos of him saying it which he apparently didn't know was being filmed. He also said that If the Israeli people kicked him out of office his replacement likely would not have that level of control. I just don't understand why Donald Trump would put up with it. Blackmail, bribery or some other form of extortion. I don't think Donald Trump needs the money so it has to be something more sinister than raw greed. Apparently, the statement about control was too much even for Trump,

Darrell Castle talks about President Trump's 20-point proposal to bring peace or at least the absence of war and famine to Gaza. Transcription / Notes WILL THERE BE PEACE IN GAZA Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 3rd of October in the year of our Lord 2025.  I have decided to talk about what seems to be most important for the United States and the world in this report. The government shutdown will have to wait but it might be a good thing anyway. President Trump's 20-point proposal to bring peace or at least the absence of war and famine to Gaza is my beat for today. The people of Gaza are certainly important and certainly worth talking about because they and their land are central to Mr. Netanyahu's plan for the Middle East. Israel seems to appear in almost every discussion about almost everything today. Keeping all that in mind, I have a question to ask before I begin the discussion of Trump's proposed peace plan. According to articles by Max Blumenthal who has done yeoman's work on the subject, Charlie Kirk had expressed to him his one fear and it was not trans people, homosexual activists or anyone of that ilk. No, he said that what he feared the most was the “the Israeli regime backed by powerful and wealthy Jewish donors in the United States.” He went on to allege that Bibi Netanyahu offered Charlie $150 million to come back into the Zionist fold but Charlie chose to keep his honor. According to Blumenthal, sources within Charlie's inner circle said that Charlie and Erika had been attending Catholic Mass together. Why is that important, well Mr. Netanyahu was apparently very frightened by it. Candace Owens, close friend of Charlie's and a recent convert to Catholicism confirmed that for several weeks before his murder Charlie had been distancing himself from the Israeli donors. The investigation by Blumenthal revealed through conversations with Charlie's inner circle, that many members of that circle as well as members of the Trump administration, believed that Israel killed him. Blumenthal admitted that such beliefs might not be correct, but he was shocked that they were so widespread even with no help from the media. Reportedly, Israeli donors were furious and shocked that Charlie refused Bibi's money and more importantly his invitation back to the fold. Apparently, Charlie discounted Bibi's open boast that he controlled America. Afterall isn't it obvious that both American political parties support Israel's policies one way or the other. Those donors thought they could threaten Charlie with the end of his career if he didn't cooperate. He was obviously aware of the threats and intimidation but that did not stop him. I could make this entire report about Charlie again, but I promised Gaza in the introduction so how is Gaza related in any way to Charlie Kirk. Apparently Charlie was separating from the views of his Israeli donors over Gaza and that links them together, but one more thing about Israel and Mr. Netanyahu before I let it go. Foreign Agents Registration Act documents reveal that the Israeli government is paying pro-Israel influencers $7000 per Instagram and Tik-Tok post for each post spreading Netanyahu's propaganda. So, we know they were putting that $4 billion U.S. taxpayers give them each year to good use. Before I get into Trump's peace proposal I will ask the question that if members of the Trump Administration really believe that the Israelis killed Charlie as his inner circle believes then how can the U.S. Government, the shining light on the hill, the bastion of freedom, the world's example of rule by law and not by men continue to act as if nothing happened. The answer to that question would appear to be very frightening indeed.  Well, having said all that Donald Trump, like so many presidents before him, has developed a plan for peace in the Middle East, specifically Gaza. Netanyahu quickly accepted the plan publicly,

Darrell Castle continues analyzing the murder of Charlie Kirk especially the aftermath including his memorial service. Transcription / Notes WAS CHARLIE'S MURDER A FORT SUMTER EVENT? Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 26th day of September in the year of our Lord 2025. I will continue talking and analyzing the murder of Charlie Kirk especially the aftermath including his memorial service. Was this event of such magnitude that it could be a Fort Sumter level tectonic separation of opposing forces. I only know that the official explanation of the murder is not truthful because it simply could not happen that way. Since the assassination of President Kennedy this has been an assassination nation with so many that it would be impossible to list them all in this report. Wikipedia has a 12000-word article and even that doesn't include them all. We all remember the three big ones JFK, RFK, and MLK but there are literally dozens more of lesser significance. Very few rise to the level of professionalism that the murder of Charlie exhibited. Most killings or attempted killings were done with a handgun from close range. Even the attempt on Donald Trump's life in Butler, Pa. was done rather clumsily and would not have been possible without the incompetence of the Secret Service. Charlie's murder, on the other hand, was very professional similar to JFK's assassination in that it was done from long range with a scoped rifle and with only one shot to a lethal area of his body. That shot was planned and carried out by a lone nut who was 22 years old, living with his trans lover, and who had little to no experience in long range shooting especially with that rifle. There are so many inconsistencies in the official explanation that it's hard to keep up with them. I've seen interviews with military, i.e. Navy Seal snipers, who say that shot under the circumstances was impossible. I've seen videos attempting to prove that he was shot from close range with a small caliber handgun. Apparently the medical examiner's preliminary report said that there was no exit wound which, if true, would be impossible with a 30.06 caliber rifle from 200 yards. That bullet would tear through human flesh like a knife through butter from that range and that's not speculation it's a fact. I hate to be gruesome about it but a 30-06 round would have blown his head apart. So was there an exit wound or not because if not then the official story is a lie. The whole thing is a lie and a fabrication and I am totally convinced of that. The official narratives of many stories include impossibilities that we are expected to believe. For example, the way building 7 came down blocks from the World Trade Center in its own foundation footprint. We are told it was weakened by the towers, collapsed and fell, an obvious impossibility told without any embarrassment. In Charlie's case there are many flaws in even the long-range rifle story that as yet have no explanation. The video shows the shooter on the roof he used as a firing platform. He then got up and ran without a rifle apparently until he reached the edge of the roof where he climbed over and dropped down, again without his rifle. He then ran off into the woods where he left his fully assembled rifle with the spent cartridge still in the chamber. In other words, he didn't cycle the bolt to chamber another round in case he had to fire again to kill his target or to defend himself. The explanation for his running without his rifle, then it appearing in the woods, is that he disassembled it at the scene and put the barrel in his pants so it would not be visible. So, he took the time to do that at the murder scene, then ran with a rifle barrel in his pants and climbed down from a high roof then went into the woods, reassembled the rifle, wrapped it in cloth and left it there. He was only there seconds after the shot and trained experts take about 1 minute to disa...

Darrell Castle talks about recent events, in the history of America, from assassinations to simple murders and how we never seem to get the complete and truthful picture of what happened. Transcription / Notes IT ALL SEEMS LIKE A GIANT PSYOP Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. I will be talking about recent events in the history of America from assassinations to simple murders and how we never seem to get the complete and truthful picture of what happened. If we go back in history only so far as World War ll we find that psychological warfare was an important weapon for all combatants. It was important but also primitive compared to the worldwide grip it holds on us today. Sometimes it was millions of leaflets dropped from airplanes across Europe and sometimes it was Tokyo Rose broadcasting from Japan to American sailors opposing the Japanese navy. There were no video cameras, no satellites, no social media, and no internet whereby everyone was monitored and ordinary people could become celebrities overnight. Sinister forces became the status quo and opposing the status quo became very dangerous. President Eisenhower saw these forces coming to power in the world and he warned President Kennedy about them. President Kennedy, a genuine war hero, and a man of courage and determination took those warnings to heart and tried to oppose the forces that were fast becoming the status quo. He died for his efforts and even though it's been 62 years future leaders have all understood that you oppose the status quo at your own risk. JFK's brother Robert, who was most likely our next president, opposed those same forces and was determined to punish those who murdered his brother. The same year gave us Martin Luther King who also opposed the status quo and a man who argued for peace abroad and racial reckoning at home. Those three men met the same fate at the hands of a lone nut or so we are told. Hardly anyone today believes the demonstrably stupid explanations of their murders but at the time we still had some tiny amount of faith that our leaders might tell the truth occasionally but today, of course, we know better. Recently, in one of his Liberty Reports, Ron Paul, age 90 gave a pretty good explanation as he addressed the assassination of Charlie Kirk. “The turbulent 1960's saw several killings of major US figures, including JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King, who were challenging the status quo and pushing for a shift away from the Cold War confrontationist mentality. The real assassins of these peace leaders from last century were Nihilists who did not believe in truth. They only believed in power—the power that comes from the barrel of a gun. Rather than compete in the marketplace of ideas they preferred to snuff out any challenges and therefore decapitate any possibility that our country could take a different course.” There were many other assassinations, of course, during that same time period. Those of us who lived through it wondered what had become of us but then as usual it got worse. A couple of others worth mentioning were John Lennon, influential man obviously who talked often about peace and voiced opposition to America's wars. He was killed outside his Manhattan apartment by Mark David Chapman. John Hinckley, connected distantly to the Bush family, tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan who was in the process of peace with our worst enemy, the Soviet Union. I forgot to mention Richard Nixon who was ending the Vietnam War and who opened trade with China. The nation had just experienced several high-profile political murders so killing him might have aroused even the insouciant Americans' ire. Nixon didn't have to be assassinated because we had people who could false flag him and politically assassinate him. I mention all this history of death and destruction to present recent history as a massive psychological warfare experiment on the American people.

Darrell Castle talks about the brutal and horrifying video taped murder of a young woman named Iryna Zarutska who escaped from the national graveyard that is Ukraine only to be murdered in the urban graveyard that is today's American cities. Transcription / Notes LIFE AND DEATH IN CHARLOTTE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 12th day of September in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about the brutal and horrifying video taped murder of a young woman named Iryna Zarutska who escaped from the national graveyard that is Ukraine only to be murdered in the urban graveyard that is today's American cities. We have no shortage of murder to talk about today but Charlie Kirk's assassination happened too late for this Report and anyway everything has been said but in light of the subject of today the milk of human kindness is running a little low right now. Yes, Iryna finished her shift at the pizzeria in Charlotte where she worked. Still in her work uniform with her hair up under the company's ball cap she boarded the light rail train for the ride home and immediately started concentrating on her phone just like every other person her age would do. She was just doing what any person navigating America's inner-city jungle would do and that is just sit down, mind your own business, don't talk to anyone and don't look anyone in the eye. You have to be very careful in today's cities because the person nearest you could be a psychotic murderer. There was such a man in the seat behind Iryna that day. The man had 14 prior arrests and charges pending including assault, robbery, and other violent felonies and yet as is the custom of our George Soros funded District Attorneys the man roamed Charlotte freely. The interesting thing about Iryna's horrible murder is that it is not unusual. According to the Charlotte and Mecklenburg County Police Union her murder was just another day at the office in Charlotte. So, she escaped from war-torn Ukraine but not from the urban war against humanity that is being waged in our cities each day. The man lounged across two seats behind her as can be clearly seen on the video.  His attack on this tiny woman was so savage as to make description difficult. I will just say that he leaned over her and stabbed her three times in her neck which produced a look of horror on her face that is hard to forget. Blood gushed from her neck and covered her seat and the floor. DeCarlos Brown jr., career criminal, said I got that white girl as he walked away with blood dripping from his knife. Perhaps the most horrifying part of the video murder was the utter apathy and lack of empathy of the other passengers to what amounts to a public execution. One man at least tried to help her but all the others were completely unmoved by the scene. All faith in humanity, if there was any left, is now gone but worse all faith in this country's ability to survive what has happened to it in the last 12 years or so is gone. This is unfortunately not new. When I was in college more than 50 years ago we studied what was then called the bystander effect. Onlookers fail to intervene or even assist a young woman as she is dying on the floor of a Charlotte light rail train car. Undeterred by the horror all around them, prosecutors, funded by the George Soros Open Society Foundation, choose the righteous political narrative of their own beliefs rather than the rule of law or even the relief of human suffering. In Charlotte, the mayor is Vi Lyles who has been in office since 2017 so she has been repeatedly reelected which should cause the voters of that city to live in shame. Thia attack, not a one off, nor an isolated incident but just life in Charlotte as it is thanks to mayor Lyles and the Charlotte City Council. This is an elected public official who has referred to the police as terrorists and has spent her time in office making life for the city's residents unsaf...

Darrell Castle talks about the deterioration of freedom and the imposition of top-down control of speech and thought in the mother country that once believed in the concept of freedom. Transcription / Notes FREE SPEECH OR INCITEMENT TO VIOLENCE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 5th day of September in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about the deterioration of freedom and the imposition of top-down control of speech and thought in the mother country that once believed in the concept of freedom. From at least the year 1215 when the Great Charter the Magna Charta was imposed on King John by the British nobles English people have had the proud belief that they were free. King John did not resist but accepted the concept in writing that the law applies equally to all Englishmen, King and commoner alike. When the American colonies rebelled it was at least in part because they wanted the rights of ordinary Englishmen which they believed they were. In a system that is euphemistically referred to as democracy, people are supposed to choose their own leaders so the government is the people. That is the belief that we accept as true even when we know it no longer is true if it ever was. I am talking about Great Britain right now rather than the United States because things are happening in Britain that would not be tolerated here or at least I hope it would not be. By way of disclaimer, I haven't been to England in many years to see firsthand for myself what is happening, but I read and follow the stories continually reported by others. Great Britain seems to be in the middle of a crises involving immigration and the rights of immigrants versus the rights of Englishmen. The English government and recently the courts have clearly taken the position that immigrant rights are preeminent and that has led to a crises that many believe is the precursor to civil war. Why would a government of the people choose to prosecute its own people for just talking about immigrants in a negative way. Unbelievable, yet we accept it as true because it is happening right now in Great Britain. For example, consider the case of British comedian Graham Linehan. I admit that I was completely unfamiliar with the man until I, like the rest of the world, read his words and followed his story. His story is all the more disturbing because it is not at all unusual in England today. Mr. Linehan was in America doing some type of project in Arizona. When he attempted to board his flight to London he was singled out and subjected to extra screening, etc. He chalked it up to the joys of air travel today but when he arrived in London he found it was a lot more than just inconvenience. “The moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, five armed police officers were waiting. Not one, not two—five. They escorted me to a private area and told me I was under arrest for three tweets. In a country where pedophiles escape sentencing, where knife crime is out of control, where women are assaulted and harassed every time they gather to speak, the state had mobilized five armed officers to arrest a comedy writer for this tweet (and no, I promise you, I am not making this up).” OK, here is the tweet, or printed statement, or expressed thought, however you want to say it that got him arrested. “If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls.” There were three tweets in total as the officers told him but I won't quote the others because there is profanity in them. This case is significant and we hear of it because the victim is a prominent man who apparently has a popular presence on British television. They confiscated his belt, carry- on bag, and electronic devices and put him in a holding cell. This case is common and is happening all the time but we know of this one for the reaso...

Darrell Castle talks about the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two. How have the allied leaders handled the inheritance of the victory they were given by the blood of their ancestors? Are they behaving like victors? Transcription / Notes EIGHTY YEARS AFTER WORLD WAR TWO Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 29th day of August in the year of our Lord 2025. This is Labor Day weekend and a 3-day vacation for most of us but the day after Labor Day is an anniversary to remember. It is the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two. Where do we stand today with the inheritance that all those men gave us so many years ago. How have the allied leaders handled the victory they were given by the blood of their ancestors. I will look at some of the things that are happening in our world today to see if the allies have truly behaved like victors. Next Tuesday, the 2nd of September is the 80th anniversary of the signing of the Japanese surrender documents ending World War ll. The surrender was signed on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri while it was sitting at anchor in Tokyo Bay. The Americans had the people you would expect in attendance such as Chester Nimitz, the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and General Douglas MacArthur Commander of the Southern Pacific Region, who accepted the surrender on behalf of the victorious allied nations. General MacArthur was appointed Proconsul of Japan which made him the virtual ruler of that nation on behalf of the occupying American forces. General MacArthur ruled with a compassionate, but firm hand and in a few short years the nation of Japan once a radioactive, burned our wasteland was a G-20 economy. The Japanese were resistant at first but with the encouragement of their emperor they started to buy into MacArthur's program and they rebuilt their country as a model of American capitalism. There were many other people on board the Missouri that day including people honored because they were seriously wounded in the Pacific War but also ex-prisoners of the Japanese who survived years of harsh treatment. When I was a child one of our neighbors was boy scour leader for my scout group. He had served on the Missouri and was pretty good at crafts so he built a scale model of the ship about 3 feet long and kept it in a separate room of his house. He had tremendous pride in his service and in being present for history. There are very few of the veterans of that war still living and soon there will be none so every chance we get to honor them should be taken. August 14th the last fighter ace of the war died at the age of 103. His name was Thomas McPherson and he was the pilot of an F6F Hellcat fighter flying off the carrier USS Essex. In case you don't know a fighter ace is someone who shoots down five enemy planes in aerial combat. When the war was over Tom went back home to Nebraska and became a mail carrier where he spent his working life. He was a boy scout leader and worked in his church just living a quiet and peaceful life of service. Many gallant aces, many empty places as the pilots would say at dinner. There were many aces, but none still alive from WWll. We still have aces from Korea and Vietnam of course although they are going quickly as well. So, how the world has changed in 80 years. The U.S. dropped two atomic bombs thus ending the war but today 9 nations are believed to have nuclear weapons with about 12000 warheads in existence. Sometimes when I look at it all and I see where we are today I have to wonder who won the war. There are so many places today where the world seems to have turned upside down. Old friends are now bitter enemies and vice versa. China and Russia, our friends during the war but now enemies. Dr. Ron Paul, who just celebrated his 90th birthday a few days ago talked about America first in one of his Liberty Reports. He pointed out that the President promised us that he would p...

Darrell Castle talks about Israel, Bibi Netanyahu and his project for Greater Israel. What is the concept of Greater Israel and how does it relate to the Israeli destruction of Gaza? Is this retaliation, self defense or is there more to it than that? Transcription / Notes GREATER ISRAEL AND THE PROSPECTS FOR PEACE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 22nd day of August in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about Israel, about Bibi Netanyahu and his project for a Greater Israel. Is he really working to expand Israel's borders across the Middle East or is it simply self-defense. Is the Israeli destruction of Gaza retaliation and protection from terrorists or is there more to it than that. There are many things I could be talking about right now such as the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska followed by Trump's “summoning” Zelensky to Washington, followed by Giorgia Meloni's recognition of Europe being left out of the deal. She quickly called Europe's leaders and suggested they accompany Zelensky to Washington to plead their case before the real leader of the world. Ms. Meloni appears to be the upcoming star in Europe but instead of those subjects I turn my attention back to the Middle East, which is the center of much of the world's trouble right now. I will confess that I never believed the rumors of the Project for Greater Israel and thought it was just that, rumors, until now. What changed my mind well, it was just paying attention and following the actions and words of the leader of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu who has now confirmed for us and the whole of the Middle East that he is, in fact, on course for a Greater Israel. He did an interview with an Israeli television channel about a week ago and in that interview he stated unequivocally that he was committed to the concept of a Greater Israel and that he believes that his expansionist policies and dreams are a biblical project. In other words, to paraphrase Ghostbusters, he is on a mission from God. I must say that in response to his words and actions that he views the nature of God differently from my view. He said that the project is a generational thing passed on from leader to leader but in the past leaders have missed opportunities and made mistakes which he is endeavoring to correct. He did not state specifically what countries or territories would be included in Greater Israel, but it is clear that it goes way beyond historical Palestine, Gaza and the West Bank. He has already destroyed many of the surrounding countries to the point that they hardly have governments anymore. Think of Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, and also Yemen which has a government apparently run by terrorists. Which country is left and which country is often referred to as the head of the snake. I guess that means that from Iran spews all the venom that is financing supplying and encouraging terrorism across the region. The snake's head must be severed from its body and he has an ongoing project to do just that. Let me get into a little of what seems to be going on in Iran right now. This week Israel continued its war against Iran by conducting airstrikes across the country. Fires burned across Tehran and around the country including a gigantic explosion and fire at an oil storage depot. Israel then, has reduced and is in the process of destroying not just Iran's capacity to make war, but its capacity to live and feed its people. The conditions inside Iran right now appear to be terrible and not just from Israeli attacks but because Iran is suffering from an extreme drought and water crises. There has been a decline in rainfall, granted, but also decades of mismanagement of water resources and crumbling infrastructure from war and neglect. Sometimes the priorities of our leaders are not the same as ours and the priority for the last 46 years in Iran has been the development of nuclear weapons,

Darrell Castle talks about the face-to-face meeting being conducted today between President Trump and Russian Premier Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska. He will discuss which player has the most at risk and the most to lose from this meeting. Results aren't known yet, but its promise is something to discuss. Transcription / Notes THE PEACE PRESIDENT RETURNS—MAYBE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 15th day of August in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about the face-to-face meeting being conducted today between President Trump and Russian Premier Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska. Which player has the most at risk and the most to lose from this meeting. We don't know the results of the meeting yet but its promise is something to discuss. Why have this meeting in Alaska and not in some European Capitol. Who knows for sure but a reasonable guess would be that Putin is under sanctions that make it very difficult for him to travel in Europe and after all, Russia and Alaska go way back. I won't go back any further than the 1860's when both nations were involved in very disastrous wars with very different results. The U.S. Civil War resulted in a Union victory but cost many lives and split the country for over 100 years. Russia was involved in a war in Crimea against England and France which it lost and which also had catastrophic loss of life and completely depleted the Russian treasury. Czar Alexander ll was desperate for cash and in 1867 he negotiated a deal with the U.S. to sell the Americans Alaska for $7.1 million. That seems like a bargain for the U.S. and it was but remember that was about 165 years ago when $7.1 million was real money. This week, in contrast, the U.S. passed $37 trillion in debt and is now dangerously close to $1 trillion per year in interest payments. What about today, why Alaska. For one thing Anchorage lies 4,350 miles from Moscow and 3,400 miles from Washington so it is a comparable trip for both. It was hastily arranged and we are told that the meeting last week between Mr. Putin and Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, brought a request from Mr. Putin for a face-to-face with President Trump which was quickly agreed to. Vice President Vance told us that Mr. Zelensky will not be in attendance because his presence would not be productive. I don't blame the U.S. side for that and I would not have invited him either. This is a war between the U.S. and Russia and everybody seems to know that except Mr. Zelensky. His country has provided the bodies for the proxy grist mill but it is a U.S. war. My hope and my prayer are that Trump will continue his quest for the Noble Peace Prize but in regard to Mr. Zelensky, after 45 years as a lawyer and after countless mediations I have learned that more is usually accomplished if the two competing sides are kept separate with the impartial mediator going back and forth. Ukraine and Gaza are two blights on Trump's Nobel Peace Prize resume at this point but this is a chance to resolve one of them, and it is right in his hands today. The Europeans have basically already rejected the deal even though they don't know what it is yet. If he makes a deal with Putin and the Europeans reject it if I were him I would just say O.K. since you prefer war to peace you pay for it because there will be no more American weapons and no more American money poured down this rat hole. Polls show that 70% of Ukrainians want to end the war right now. Zelensky may want to fight to the last Ukrainian and last U.S. dollar but his people don't.  Let's take a quick look at Trump's peace resume thus far. I argue that in many ways he is the most anti-war President in recent history. In his first term he brokered the Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and four Arab nations, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. The agreement ended hostility that had existed since Israel's found...

Darrell Castle recounts the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, around the 80th anniversary of the events and where it leaves us in the world today. Transcription / Notes COLONEL PAUL TIBBETS AND THE ATOMIC AGE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 8th day of August in the year of our Lord 2025. Two days ago, on August 6th we remembered the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. Tomorrow the 9th of August is the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan. I will talk about those events and about where they leave us in the world today. During World War ll the United States was in a technological race with Germany to develop a war winning atomic weapon. The U.S. had some of the smartest people on earth working on the weapon which came to be called “The Manhattan Project.” Einstein gave his theoretical advice and Oppenheimer ran the effort to build a potentially world destroying weapon. No one knew for sure what this weapon would do when it was unleashed. The only thing certain was that its explosive power would be like nothing seen before on earth. I am certainly no scientist and I am not scientifically educated but as I understand it the microscopic particle that makes up matter, called the atom contains enormous energy and if it could be split that energy would be unleashed by way of explosive power. Some scientists were afraid that the explosion would not be able to be contained and would continue until it destroyed the entire universe but they went ahead with it despite the unknown. The allies throughout the war fought a clandestine effort to prevent German scientists from finishing their work first. Many people gave their lives in that effort but eventually German industry was destroyed and only Japan was left. The decision to use the weapon against Japan was President Truman's alone. I understand from much reading on the subject that he was in Europe to conclude the German surrender when he received word that the weapon known as “Little Boy” was ready. His response was “use it.” Winston Churchill once famously said, “I think history will be kind to me because I intend to write it.” The point is that history is written by the winners not the losers. I have read many histories of the end of the war and the decision to use the bomb and my conclusion is that the historical perspective depends on your world view today. I read something this week which asserted that Japan was begging to surrender but Truman wanted to use the bomb so he ignored them. The supposed reason was to send a message to the Soviet Union that the same thing could happen to them. The Soviet angle as a secondary reason makes sense but I see no evidence of Japan begging to surrender. In fact, after the surrender when MacArthur was proconsul in Japan surviving Japanese troops tried to lead a rebellion against the surrender. The real question for debate is, was the dropping of the atomic bomb justified or was it the most heinous crime against humanity in history. Everyone has his opinion, but from the perspective of the Marines and soldiers on the beaches and in the jungles of Asia I doubt that they wanted to invade the Japanese home islands. Perhaps if some of those who condemn the decision had been at Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, or Okinawa they would see it differently. In any event on August 6th, 1945, a B-29 Super fortress flown by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr and with a crew of 12 more men lifted off the runway on the island of Tinian and headed for Japan and a mission that would forever alter our world. I saw an interview with Colonel Tibbets just before he died and the interviewer gave him a chance to express his sorrow at what he did but he said no I have no regrets. “I viewed my mission as one to save lives. I didn't bomb Pearl Harbor. I didn't start the war. But I was going to finish it.” Colonel Tibbets continued to maintain the same m...

Darrell Castle talks about Gaza and what is going on in that narrow strip of land in which so many have died and are dying. Who or what is responsible for all that death and destruction? Is it really happening, is it faked, just propaganda? This report is the result of his search for evidence that may reveal the truth. Transcription / Notes CAN STARVATION BE FAKED Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 1st day of August in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about Gaza and what is going on in that narrow strip of land in which so many have died and are dying. Who or what is responsible for all that death and destruction. Is it really happening, is it faked, just propaganda. This Report is the result of my search for evidence that may reveal the truth. The President of the United States said recently that he did not agree with Bibi Netanyahu who stated that there is no starvation in Gaza. He said that everybody needs to step up including the Israelis to make sure food gets to the area. “We can save a lot of people, I mean some of those kids. That's real starvation; I see it and you can't fake that. So, we are going to get even more involved.” What exactly that statement means is unclear but the President seems to be shifting his views or perhaps he is evolving as more comes to light. The President then, has accepted as fact that children are starving in Gaza so who is responsible and what can be done about it. The Israeli population does not deny it nor do they regard it as a curse according to recent polls. Most Israeli citizens believe that the Israeli actions in Gaza are in response to the attacks of October 7, 2023, in which some 1200 Israeli civilians were killed and some 250 hostages were taken and about 50 of which are still unaccounted for. A letter recently went out from over 1000 Rabbis in which they abhorred the violence committed by Hamas but they seemed to admit that the Israeli response to paraphrase the letter, is well, overkill. “The killing of huge numbers of Palestinians in Gaza, including those seeking food has been widely reported across respectable media and cannot reasonably be denied. The severe limitation placed on humanitarian relief in Gaza, and the policy of withholding of food, water, and medical supplies from a needy civilian population contradict essential values of Judaism as we understand it.” I interpret that letter as an admission by the Rabbis that the things mentioned are happening. Not everyone agrees though, and as I said Mr. Netanyahu denies that any starvation is happening. The President has seen the videos of starving children and has undoubtedly been briefed by his various intelligence agencies and has become convinced that it is happening. The picture, now viral or iconic around the world, of the woman holding her baby with a diaper made from a plastic bag she found is the convincing one. It has not convinced everyone though because that picture has been analyzed by many and found lacking. Some see adults in the background and say they seem healthy and well fed. The Israelis say the baby is not starving but has some sort of genetic disorder so the picture is staged for sympathy. I've looked at that picture many times and I don't know about the genetic disorder, perhaps that is so, but that baby is starving to death. Whatever other conditions he has does not change the fact that the baby is starving. The Rabbis' letter seems to admit that these conditions are being intentionally caused by the Israeli government and its supporters. Death and destruction are the inevitable consequences of war as we are well aware, but this seems to have reached an unusual level of inhumanity. Once again, we are told nothing is happening here folks, you are not seeing this. Bombing, strafing and shelling are the definition of war but how about the intentional starvation of mass numbers of people.

Darrell Castle talks about what the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, called a treasonous conspiracy by officials at the highest levels of the Obama White House to subvert the will of the American people. Transcription / Notes THE VERY DEFINITION OF A COUP Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 25th day of July in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about what the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, called a treasonous conspiracy by officials at the highest levels of the Obama White House to subvert the will of the American people.  Before I begin I want to take a moment and recognize that this month is the 15th anniversary of the Castle Report. Yes, folks I have been doing this for 15 years. It was conceived in a hotel in the state of Idaho back in 2010 after a discussion with some friends in the Constitution Party about how we needed people to speak on the issues. I said I will do it but only if no one tries to control what I say or what I talk about and to this point no one has. I will admit that sometimes I wonder if anyone cares about the issues enough to control what I say. Yes, Tulsi made some explosive accusations and she has released the documents to prove them. I'm starting to think that perhaps it was not a good idea for Hillary Clinton to refer to Tulsi as a Russian agent during the 2016 primary campaign. Perhaps it was not even a good idea to have her placed on the terrorist watch list so she would be unnecessarily searched in every airport she traveled through. Maybe you should not have had Tulsi followed by dog teams and maybe you should not have taken her electronic gadgets including her U.S. Army issued laptop and phone as she traveled through airports. Yes, what goes around comes around and now the way Tulsi has been treated by Democrats, especially since she used to be one, is and has been shameful but am I saying she released the documents for revenge. No, I'm not saying that because the documents speak for themselves and Tulsi has demonstrated the honor expected of a 20-year army officer to this point. Revenge can be sweet though, and as they say it is a dish best served cold. How explosive are Tulsi's allegations let's take a look. By the way I assume that everyone is aware of what I'm talking about in regard to the completely false Russia gate accusations against Trump so my intent is to look at the possible ramifications. The word treason is often used because it is a capital offense with no statute of limitations and so the charges can be brought no matter how long ago the alleged offense occurred. Think about it like this folks; the senior official in charge of all American Intelligence operations is now stating unequivocally that former President Obama and the subordinates of his team intentionally sabotaged the peaceful transfer of power in 2016.  She tells us, in effect, that they violated their oaths, betrayed their sworn duty to the American people, and attempted a coup against the legitimate government of the United States. In other words, they set out to weaken and then overthrow the government of the United States. They did all this, allegedly, not on behalf of some foreign power, but on behalf of their own power. They had power and they wanted to keep it because I suppose they had the power addiction really bad and they just couldn't be bothered about the rules of the game. So, do those charges constitute treason. The United States Constitution Article 3 Section 3 defines treason. “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.” So, again do the allegations constitute treason. I suppose one could try to allege that the acts constituted war against the...

Darrell Castle continues his discussion of Jeffrey Epstein and the list of his customers which doesn't exist along with the subjects of his blackmail which as we know does not exist either. DOES THE EPSTEIN LIST REALLY MATTER Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. There are many things of vital importance today such as war in the Middle East and war in Ukraine but I have decided to continue my discussion of Jeffrey Epstein and the list of his customers which doesn't exist along with the subjects of his blackmail which as we all know does not exist either. Just to refresh your collective memories a little bit last week the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Jeffrey Epstein did not maintain a client list of prominent people who were being blackmailed by Jeffrey Epstein acting as the agent for the Israeli Intelligence Service, Mossad. There are many reasons why the list is so important and why it threatens what's left of government credibility. First of all, it's extremely frightening to think that we have a government that is completely untrustworthy in all respects. I'm not talking about Democrats and Republicans I'm talking about the U.S. Government in general. Who would want to pay taxes voluntarily or serve in the military of a government like that. To further complicate things throughout history when people have lost faith in their government's credibility revolution has been the result. Two prominent examples would be the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian/Communist Revolution of 1917. In both cases the government which came forward to save the country from chaos and mass murder was far worse and killed far more people than its predecessor. Here in 2025 America, we have a government which came in with such promise for most of us and certainly for the President's followers who were known as MAGA. Together, America was going to be great again. MAGA had certain goals which carried the campaign to victory. There would be an end to illegal immigration and there would be deportation of illegal criminals. So far so good although Democrats in congress fight each and every deportation even when the one being deported is a known criminal. Now we hear rumors that Trump might be considering some form of amnesty but his base rebelled when that test rumor was circulated. The answer to the rebellion was simple. Amnesty was proposed piecemeal and in a disguised fashion. The folks in big agriculture, the restaurant business and chicken slaughterhouses need their cheap labor so maybe the President would consider an exemption for workers in those industries.  The heart of MAGA was of course the hope of peace. This president was going to bring peace and withdraw America from forever wars. Trump said in his campaign that he could end the war in Ukraine with a few phone calls but now six months after inauguration the war rages on and it has become his war. Just this week he decided to bully Vladimir Putin by giving him 50 days to comply with Trump's demands or he would “ruin Russia financially.” Zelensky said that it is too long and just wastes time and lives. I guess he just wants to get on with killing. He is shipping “billions of dollars” of new weapons to Ukraine including long range missiles designed to reach deep into Russia, but now he says they won't be used to hit Moscow. I hope that someone reminded the President that Russia has about 6000 nuclear warheads with systems to deliver them which cannot be defeated conventionally. He would also be wise to remember that Genghis Khan, Nepoleon Bonaparte, and Adolph Hitler were all unsuccessful in their efforts to intimidate and then conquer Russia. The point is that with a couple of notable exceptions the peace president is no more. The notable exceptions were Marco Rubio's successful negotiations to bring peace to the Pakistan-India War and a war in Africa which had been on again off again for decades.

Darrell Castle talks about the case of Jeffrey Epstein and the memo recently released by the Trump Administration which asserted that Epstein killed himself, had no client list, and no blackmail. Transcription / Notes JEFFREY EPSTEIN, PAM BONDI AND THE MORAL ROT OF AMERICA Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 11th day of July in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about the case of Jeffrey Epstein and the memo recently released by the Trump Administration which asserted that Epstein killed himself and that he had no client list, and no blackmail. Was that memo truthful or just a pack of lies. It's pretty clear that the evidence supports the pack of lies position, but we the public are supposed to believe those lies or at least pretend that we do. So, there were no pedophiles who happened to also be rich, famous, and powerful. There were no blackmail examples for us to consider and we have a bogus video not even on the correct floor where his body was found to tell us there was no murder. Yes, the saga of JFK and the Warren Commission Report continues and we the people are expected to look the other way for political reasons or to prevent the embarrassment of the country. I suppose it would be embarrassing if information were to be released showing that the CIA along with foreign intelligence agencies conspired to kill President Kennedy or that Jeffrey Epstein was a CIA asset. The explanation for Epstein is so ridiculous that almost no one could believe it but they tell it with a straight face. I don't know whether they think that due to decades of life in their schools we are too stupid to understand or whether we are so morally corrupt that we just don't care. O.K. having laid the groundwork for my outrage let me get into why I'm outraged and why you should be as well. First of all, I think Pam Bondi is a fine prosecutor and an excellent choice for attorney general. I was happy when Trump nominated her because I was aware of her record as the Florida Attorney General. Her intelligence and hard work were often disguised from adversaries by her physical beauty.  I don't want to be forced to alter my opinion of her but I do have some questions that need answers. Pam are you now and have you been lying to the American people about the Epstein matter or were you just confused. No, I don't think you were confused because you are just too smart for that so the question becomes did you willfully and knowingly lie to us because if you did you should be bothered by the hypocrisy. Were you ordered to lie and invent that nonsense memo that went out because it was an obvious pack of lies. If you were ordered to lie or just expected to lie out of loyalty I understand that. I don't agree with you but I understand. Most of us at some point in our lives are faced with a decision about loyalty to the one who appointed us or to a higher one. If you lied out of loyalty as I said I understand but I am very disappointed because you lied to the most loyal supporters of the President's agenda. There is no going back from this story and I am sorry for what it has done to you and to your career, nevertheless we the people deserve the truth although we no longer expect it. We don't expect it because we accept the vile corruption at every stage of government as normal. We aren't even bothered by it anymore because it's just, well, normal. See Pam, that's what makes the systemic corruption of today much worse than the systemic corruption of yesteryear. When JFK was assassinated we were naïve about corruption and we didn't understand that the government of this country had changed drastically. When we discovered that we were supposed to believe that a lone nut killed the President we did believe it and when we learned that was a pack of lies something died inside us. Pam, you and the administration you work for had a chance to change all that.

Darrell Castle gives his best guess about some of the reasons for the attack on Iran's nuclear enrichment sites. Transcription / Notes WHY DID THE U.S. ATTACK IRAN? Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 27th day of June in the year of our Lord 2025. Next Friday is the 4th of July so barring some catastrophe there will be no Castle Report next week. I hope you have that day off so you can celebrate Independence as Joan and I will. Today, I speak not of Independence but of war once again as I try to discern some of the reasons for the U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear enrichment sites. I will admit that the reasons for the actions of nations at this moment are normally nothing more than someone's or a group of someone's best guesses so I will make some guesses of my own today. The attack raised an important Constitutional issue because the Constitution gives only Congress the authority to declare war. That was just one example of the wisdom of the founders because the decision to go to war puts the entire nation's survival at risk. Perhaps, in this modern era we are expected to think differently and see that this attack was not such a Constitutional question because the last time the U.S. followed the Constitution in going to war was December 1941. Most politicians now on both sides of the aisle think and state publicly that the formal declaration of war is a relic of the past and just isn't done anymore. So, we are constantly at war but nothing is ever declared and that is very convenient for those who love war. The two political parties have apparently reached a consensus to let the president handle the decision alone and afterward they can criticize or praise him at their leisure. It's all just part of the theater of the absurd that we watch every day on our televisions or smart phones. Technology and speed are completely different now than in the days of the founders or even 1941. In the early days a debate about going to war might take months and there was little or no chance your adversary could learn of it before you acted but now those decisions take microseconds. It seems that in government today there are simply no secrets despite any top-secret classification, except for the very important secrets like JFK, RFK, MLK, the Epstein files, and of course 9/11. Those are the things we normal Americans are not supposed to know. For example, someone in the Pentagon or the defense intelligence agency leaked the top-secret bomb damage assessment or (BDA) of the attack which said it was unknown whether or not the nuclear enrichment capability of Iran survived the blast generated by 14 MOABs or mother of all bombs. A criminal investigation is underway to find the leaker. President Trump had previously told us that the nuclear sites had been “obliterated” by the bombing. When asked about it later he said that he got his BDA from Israeli Mossad agents who physically observed the sites. It turns out now that even the Iranians admit severe damage to the sites. Wars tend to be worse than expected. The ones who enter them expect and hope that the duration will be short and victory will come decisively and quickly but then reality sets in. For example, one could say that the Ayatollahs have been at war with Israel and the U.S. for forty-six years or the entire time they have held power in the Islamic Republic of Iran. They constantly inflame their people and incite international fear by leading chants in the streets of Tehran of “death to America” and “death to Israel.” It's not much of a stretch to believe that those two nations would see that as declaring open warfare and act accordingly. When someone screams for your death for 46 years perhaps you should consider paying attention because he might just be preparing the means to bring his ambitions into reality. That is one reason then for the attack i.e. to end the death to America threat.

Darrell Castle talks about the attack by the nation of Israel upon the nation of Iran and what involvement the U.S. will have in the war. Transcription / Notes IRAN CANNOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 20th day of June in the year of our Lord 2025. My beat is war today and there is obviously a big one to talk about and that is the attack by the nation of Israel upon the nation of Iran. Will the U.S. attack Iran's nuclear sites on behalf of Israel. We hold our breath to learn what Netanyahu will have the U.S. do. I have been a bit unsure about how to approach this Report since I'm pretty sure that virtually everyone knows about Israel's attack by now. What most may not have considered is that in less than a week Israel, a nation of about 9 million people almost completely destroyed Iran's ability to make war either offensively or defensively. Iran, a nation of about 90 million people or roughly 10 to 1 in population was believed to be at the end of a decades long pursuit of a nuclear weapon or that is at least what Israel keeps telling the world. Donald Trump told Iran that he wanted to negotiate an end to its nuclear ambitions and he gave them 60 days to enter into a deal to end their nuclear program. He at first seemed willing to allow enough enrichment for peaceful nuclear power but later backed away and said no enrichment at all. Iran said well, then we can't have a deal so at midnight of the 61st day Israel attacked and destroyed all the above ground nuclear facilities of Iran and assassinated many of Iran's top military leadership along with its nuclear scientists. Now, it's pretty clear that when Trump invited them to negotiate what he really meant was accept my demands or suffer the consequences. So, what was Iranian leadership thinking by continuing nuclear enrichment and refusing to talk. I obviously don't know the workings of the Mullah's minds but I can use what I do know to make a reasonable guess. I think they did not recognize in time that the world has changed dramatically in a very short time. Since the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, Israel has essentially been at war dismantling the Iranian proxy, terrorist armies bit by bit. The terrorist proxies are the way Iran spread its control across the entire region. The three Iranian proxy groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis have all been reduced to ineffectiveness by the Israel attacks. Hamas, what is left of it, is a pile of rubble. The Houthis are under constant air attack and Iran publicly abandoned them. Hezbollah had its leadership destroyed in a now famous exploding cell phone attack, and their sponsor in Syria has been overthrown. Israel attacked the Iranian anti-air defense system a few months ago and rendered it ineffective obviously. Apparently Israel's intelligence arm, the Mossad had so completely infiltrated Iran they built an Israeli military base inside Iran. Iran apparently didn't recognize any of that and whether by inertia, or poor thinking just continued business as usual. With all their terrorist groups anemic or destroyed they literally have no friends left. Nations like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Emirates may pay lip service to Iran but secretly I suspect they are cheering the Israelis on. The other change that Iran didn't see was that Russia, their once staunch ally has been strangely silent other than offering asylum to Iranian leadership. Russia is no longer a Middle East power and protector of Iran because it has all it can handle in Ukraine. Perhaps Russia is secretly happy about the war because it detracts the U.S. from Ukraine and most importantly it might raise the price of oil worldwide thus helping Russia's one product economy. China, Iran's other powerful friend is presently trying to resolve a trade war with the U.S. and seems to have no desire to involve itself in a Mideast war although there are rumors of Chinese resupply of ...

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 t...

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.

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 befor...

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...

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 wi...

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 Isr...

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.