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Darrell Castle talks about the 4th of July and how Americans traditionally celebrate the independence of our country from England. For those who say they won’t celebrate because they are not getting everything they want from America, I say perhaps you don’t understand what the ideals of America really are supposed to be or perhaps it is because in your heart this is not your country.

Transcription / Notes

250 YEARS OF BEING AMERICAN

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 3^rd day of July in the year of our Lord 2026. Tomorrow is the 4^th of July when traditionally we celebrate the independence of our Country from England. To those who say they won’t celebrate because they are not getting everything they want from America I say perhaps you don’t understand what the ideals of America really are supposed to be or perhaps you don’t celebrate because this is not your country.

That is more than just a snarky, love it or leave it comment, because I have traveled and even lived abroad and when you do that you might like the country you are in but you don’t love it. To love a country, it has to be in your blood or your DNA. Terra Ferma or firm ground or the land under your feet is yours to live on and to defend with your life if necessary. It used to be that almost everyone felt that way so what happened.

Many things have happened but mass immigration from the Third World has had a profound effect on our culture and our politics. Now we elect members of congress who aren’t even American. Many other things happened of course but paramount among them was that our attitude and the attitudes of our politicians changed profoundly. For one thing the new media allowed us to finally get a glimpse at what the global ruling elite really are.

Let’s just start from World War ll and go forward from there. With a few notable exceptions prior to that war, America minded its own business for the most part. One of those exceptions was Woodrow Wilson deciding to spend thousands of American lives to rescue Britain and France from Germany and Kaiser Wilhelm. Staying out of European wars is pretty good practice and it always has been, but we seem to struggle with that from time to time.

When World War ll ended and NAZI Germany was defeated, Japan was defeated, and the lesser Axis powers were gone, America had about 10 million men in uniform and under arms. To some extent we demobilized and most of those men were sent home to their factories and farms but something else happened as well. We did not completely demobilize and instead we decided we could garrison the entire world. The idea was that in the event of a Soviet attack in Europe American troops could not be reinforced by ship due to Soviet submarines so the strategy was to forward garrison them. Now it can’t be done because of missiles and drones so it was never a viable concept and leaving would be the most obvious strategy.

We kept bases and troops just about everywhere including occupying the countries we had just defeated. People still loved us because after all we had just saved civilization from a return to the dark ages. Even with troops everywhere for the most part we still left other people alone to decide their own leadership. Korea and Vietnam were two places we intervened to prevent our great enemy, The Soviet Union, from expanding its politics into other countries against their will. We were at least able to convince ourselves that was the reason.

By the end of the Vietnam War a new generation was coming on the scene and that one had not fought and did not seem to remember World War ll. The bodies piled up and they filled the cemeteries. The American people finally started to listen to the new generation and the war became very unpopular. When we finally just left after all those dead, the Communists did prevail but now 50 years later Vietnam is one of the capitalist “miracles” of Southeast Asia.

In the meantime, we still had our great enemy, The Soviet Union” to occupy our time and resources and it kept our war production factories running at full speed. The philosophy that we lived with since World War ll had been containment or just don’t let them expand but don’t try to defeat them. Ronald Reagan said he had a different philosophy and it was “we win, they lose.” He and Gorbachev negotiated an end to the Soviet Union which was collapsing under the economic weight of cold war competition and maintaining 16 totally dependent colonies which could produce nothing.

The end of the Soviet Union was probably the greatest opportunity for world peace in modern history but we failed miserably and the world is still suffering from that failure. Instead of living up to the deal we made with Gorbachev we agreed to advance NATO to the very border of Russia. The purpose of NATO was to defend Europe from the Soviet Union which didn’t even exist anymore so it made no sense and NATO made no sense.

A new great enemy was needed and quickly found, When the Soviet Union was dissolved into the Russian Federation we had Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait and the new enemy of radical Islam was found. Along with that a few very bright and very sinister American Neocons drafted the Project for a New American Century and that ambition has been followed since then. Invade and conquer the countries around the Middle East and make this an American century.

Other countries such as Russia and China had their own ideas about this unipolar American world and there has been conflict since then. The attitude of America and that of mind your own business and let others do the same changed into something else. We are the sole superpower and we run the world. We claim the right to intervene anytime, anywhere we choose in the world and we don’t care what you think about it.

If we don’t like the people who lead your country and your leaders are misbehaving, we will invade and change your leaders if you do not comply. That attitude has kept us constantly at war and it has changed the way the world sees us. The situation has been made much worse because it has become obvious that for whatever reason America has become nothing more than the military arm of Greater Israel. Much of the world sees that and they see that Israel would not exist and would not do what it does without us and so the world hates us along with Israel. Yes, the world and much of the United States literally hates Israel.

 Before the attacks on Gaza, Iran and Lebanon, support for Israel was one of the most reliable things in politics, but now in just a few years its all changed. The fact that we are fighting wars for nothing but the policy of Greater Israel is becoming so obvious no one can ignore it except those who are bought and paid for. That the Israeli lobby is using our money to buy our leaders is very distressing and most see that. Even the dependable white liberal and Northern Jewish alliance has been broken.

Couple all that with the results of the war being humiliation for the U.S. and people are very dissatisfied. Recent polls reveal that the Iran War is more unpopular than Vietnam in its final stages. The war is saying something about us that is hard to take and that is that our leadership from Congress to the Senate and the Presidency are bought and paid for and possibly blackmailed for even worse reasons. So, we the people are supposed to send our sons and now even our daughters to die for that. No thanks the people are saying.

Well, that is quite enough about what is wrong with us right now so let’s look at some good news. The good news is that Washington is not America because it has become something almost foreign. We are America and when the world meets us and sees that the world recognizes it. The World Cup of soccer is a very good example of that happening and it has been very uplifting to watch. Huge stadiums filled with foreign fans shouting USA along with the Americans. Stadiums full of people from around the world singing American folk songs.

I saw a video of one German woman who said “if you want to hate America watch the news, if you want to love it drive its roads and meet its people. The outpouring of affection most of the fans have expressed has been heartwarming in the extreme. Even back in the Vietnam days more than 50 years ago I found that most people liked Americans but they did not like the American government.

For the first time in recent memory people are at least beginning to see that this is not just a Democrat/Republican issue but one that affects the entire country the same. In other words, I have been right all along and they are all in it together. Their differences and name calling are just theater for us and unfortunately sometimes we watch but many have stopped believing. I’m not talking about the people who have been conditioned through propaganda to hate each other so leaders can loot them. The leaders are all in it and if one is not he or she is quickly gone.

In conclusion, is there a way back. Yes, I think there is and it starts with disengagement from not just Israel but from the Middle East. I noticed that Bibi has returned to Washington for the 7^th time during the Trump presidency. Tell him we are leaving and that he is on his own. We will sacrifice no more lives for the desires of a foreign leader.

Finally, folks,

Happy 4^th of July. Celebrate with fireworks and hot dogs. Honor America as it should be and could be again if the people wanted it badly enough.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.

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Darrell Castle talks about Father’s Day, what it means, and why it is important to honor fathers.

Transcription / Notes:

FATHER’S DAY

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 19^th day of June in the year of our Lord 2026. I previously did a Report on Mother’s Day and what it means so today I will be talking about Father’s Day, what it means and why it is important to honor fathers.

Yes, we are two days away from Father’s Day which falls on the 21^st of June this year. It is dedicated as a Federal Holiday falling on the third Sunday of June each year. The holiday was started in Spokane, Washington in 1910 by a woman named Snora Smart Dodd who was inspired by a Mother’s Day sermon and she wanted to honor her father in the same way.

Her father was a Civil War veteran named William Jackson Smart who was the father of 6 children. His wife died in childbirth and he raised his 6 kids alone. His daughter thought that he had lived his life with honor so she persuaded local authorities to set aside a day to honor her father and all the others. In1972 President Nixon made it a federal occasion and now we celebrate it each year by honoring or remembering our fathers.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) tells us that the average gift per person given to each father in terms of dollars is $196.23. Interestingly for this year June 21^st is the summer solstice or the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere which means it is the day of maximum daylight. So, I guess we can spend more daytime at all those cookouts with our fathers.

In this Report I will endeavor to make recognition of fathers something you can easily see as vitally important. Social scientists tell us that data overwhelmingly confirms that children born to their married parents have much better outcomes than children born to single mothers. The data indicates that children born to married parents are “significantly more likely to be on track” at every life stage than children who are born to unmarried parents.

Children who are “on track” are those who achieve age-appropriate benchmarks for every stage in life. At the end of elementary school an on-track child has mastered basic math and reading skills, has behavioral competencies that predict later success, has a strong relationship with parents and is in good health.  From elementary school to adulthood the child born to married parents is more likely to be on-track and significantly so than the child born to single or unmarried parents.

The report from which I am quoting said that even babies benefit greatly from married parents. A baby born to an unmarried mother is three times more likely to need Medicaid or other government assistance to pay for the delivery of the child and is twice as likely to have received late or no prenatal care. That child is twice as likely to be born prematurely and much more likely to be born at a low birth weight. That child is 14 times more likely to have been fathered by a man not identified on the birth certificate (29% versus 2%). This all serves to illustrate the importance of fathers involved in the upbringing and in the lives of their children but there’s a lot more.

The data also shows many other problems which present themselves when a father is not involved in the raising of a child. The study shows that the absence of a father leads to children who report feeling abandoned, struggling with their emotions, and experiencing self-loathing, increased behavioral problems, poor academic performance, much higher rates of delinquency, youth crime, promiscuity, teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, and homelessness.

If that were not all fatherless children are at greater risk of suffering physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and many times more likely to experience physical and emotional maltreatment with the risk of fatal abuse 100 times greater. The report from the Institute for Family Studies concludes that there is a growing list of disadvantages for children in households without fathers but the report concludes that current U.S. welfare policies tend to encourage fatherlessness. The current policies subsidize unmarried parenting by paying for prenatal care, delivery and postnatal care while allowing the men who fathered the children to escape accountability.

The authors of the article conclude that as a society, and especially our churches we have to start recognizing the value of fatherhood again. Our education system in general seems to be failing right now and the belief is that our moral standards have fallen first and a large part of that failing is how we view fathers. The poverty rate in the black and Hispanic communities lowers by 80% when the parents are married.

So, why wouldn’t fathers want to remain with the children they fathered. Why wouldn’t people want to get married and remain married if the statistics I just recited are true. That’s a good question but it seems that our society now sets up marriage to fail from the outset. There are many exceptions to that such as mine for example. I’m in the 49^th year of my marriage and many people ask me how I do it because they recognize that lifetime commitment is unusual enough to deserve explanation.

To continue the point of absent fathers and no marriage I reviewed a recent report done by The American Enterprise Institute in which the authors looked at the issue from a purely economic standpoint. The report was entitled; “Land of Opportunity: Advancing the American Dream.” From their report I learned that one of the chief things causing failure or at least lack of success is the gap between married and non-married Americans.

In the middle of the last century and I mean the 1900’s, one in 20 children were born out of wedlock. Now it’s two in five. America has the world’s highest rate of children living in single parent homes: 23% in the U.S. against 7% internationally. Forty percent of millennials from intact, two-parent families graduated from college and 77 % achieved middle class incomes or higher.

For those who didn’t grow up in intact families, only 17% graduated from college and 57% achieved middle class income. They are twice as likely to be incarcerated, even after other socioeconomic factors are considered. Quoting from the article for a moment.

“Research using tax-return data suggests that neighborhoods with high rates of single parenthood cultivate lower social mobility, including among kids who themselves are not raised by single parents.”

 The conclusion from the research is that absence of fathers on their offspring has very long-term negative effects on the well-being of children.

This study concludes that among all races marriage protects against poverty. From a personal perspective I can say that for 46 years I counseled thousands of people in my law office and my conclusion has been that divorce especially for women and their children leads to a life of poverty. Married parents regardless of race and education suffer significantly less poverty than unmarried mothers.

Another interesting thing about these reports is that the phenomenon is not happening evenly but it seems to have a self-perpetuating pattern. For example, from 1970 to 2018 marital births dropped by 29 points overall but they dropped 47 points for the bottom education group and just 6 points for the top. From the early 1960’s to the late 2010’s marriage rates fell by roughly 46 percentage points for the least educated young women compared with 17 points for the most educated which leaves those least able to bear the cost of single parenthood the most likely to experience it.

Government, for whatever reason seems to be putting its thumb on the scale to tilt the outcome against marriage. The institution of marriage is obviously the most important factor in raising children and for income mobility, but that is not how the government views it apparently. For example, a couple with two kids, with each parent earning $30,000 receives around $5000 in earned income tax credits benefits if they remain unmarried. They lose all the benefits if they marry which is in effect a tax on marriage.

Medicaid, housing vouchers and SNAP benefits all phase out and punish couples who get married whereas they do not if the couples live together without marriage. It seems that careful research keeps finding the same conclusion regarding economic success and opportunities for children despite efforts to debunk it.

In conclusion, I would like to thank the occasion that is Father’s Day for the opportunity to be honored by my wife and our daughter. In addition, it gives me the opportunity to talk about something besides war and the opportunity to put into words something that I have observed over a very long legal career.

Speaking of families, I have a family obligation next week so there is no Castle Report next week.

Finally, folks, may God bless you and your families. If you can’t visit your father on Sunday, at least give him a call because he will be so glad you did.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.

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Darrell Castle talks about a bill currently working its way through the U.S. Congress which would, if passed, literally integrate the U.S. and Israeli militaries and would put funding for the Israeli military on auto pilot. Will it pass and be signed by the President? Many people seem to think it will so he takes a look at it today.

THE ISRAELIZATION OF THE U.S. MILITARY

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 12^th of June in the year of our Lord 2026. I will be talking about a bill currently working its way through the United States Congress which would, if passed, literally integrate the U.S. and Israeli militaries and would put funding for the Israeli military on auto pilot. Will it pass and be signed by the President. Many people seem to think it will so we take a look at it today.

Yes, unfortunately it seems that certain members of the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States are now ready to complete the process of uniting the two countries militaries. The first bill introduced in the House would have literally combined the two. Many of the Israel first politicians are already dual citizens so why not complete the process and stop all the hypocrisy. Just go ahead and make the U.S. military the official enforcement arm of Israeli foreign policy.

The most egregious provision of the original bill is that the benefits due to American veterans like me, such as medical and educational benefits would have also been available to all Israeli veterans. That would have been a supreme insult to every American veteran who has ever served. The last time I checked there were about 15 million living American veterans so why not just insult them all while they are still alive. Just tell them all that “your service to this nation meant nothing” but certainly no more to America than an Israeli veteran meant to America.

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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 5^th 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.

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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 29^th 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.

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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 22^nd 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.

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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 15^th 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.

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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 8^th 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.

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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 1^st 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.

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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 24^th 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.