The Castle Report

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

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.

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.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

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.

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.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

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.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

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.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

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.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

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.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

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.

I am a little tired of war and that is all there is to talk about this week. So, I am taking a break and will look forward to talking to you again next Friday.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

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 10^th 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.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

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 3^rd 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 250^th 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.