Defeat the VETO!

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Welcome back, everybody. Another big day here in the great state of North Carolina. So, we are going to pray together in the second segment because last week, if you recall, last week, the North Carolina legislature passed the 12-week abortion bill, so banning abortions after 12 weeks. A lot of restrictions on RU-486, the abortion pill, and then, of course, Cooper, and all of those things. And all his demonic pride on Saturday. Downtown Raleigh with a bunch of pro-choice people, and then the pro-lifers were down there rallying as well.

I was at Love Life in front of an abortion clinic in Raleigh with a bunch of my students at the same time. And he vetoed the legislation then right now in the North Carolina State Senate. They are beginning to work on overriding that veto in the House. I heard from a House buddy, and they're planning to vote for later this evening.

And so, this is a big deal. We're going to pray about this together because we want to see this legislation triumph here in the state of North Carolina. But one of my dear friends that's been down there on the sidewalks for years as a sidewalk counselor and works with Love Life and, of course, with the Happy Warriors at Upper Room Church of God in Christ with our dear friend Bishop Wooden is my sister in Christ, Sharon Dooley.

He's actually down there in the legislative building and a great pro-life crowd down there today, which is a huge praise. Sharon, how are you? I am well. How are you? Doing pretty good. So tell me, kind of give me a little report.

What's the scene down there? It looked like it was mostly pro-life people that were filling the balconies there at the legislature. Yes, so I earlier sent out a video, and I think the numbers have doubled, if not tripled. It's huge. Numerous people have come up and said this is unprecedented. Of course, you wouldn't expect it because I think a lot of churches are afraid to come out. Let's be honest.

But there are way more pro-life supporters than there are pro-abortion supporters. This is tremendous. And everyone that I've spoken to so far, like everyone in the know has said, oh, no, it's going to pass. Yeah, so exciting, especially after all these years of being down there, Sharon.

And as always, thank you for your valiant work with Upper Room and Love Life and just being down there reaching out to these moms and dads. And of course, we would love to see a heartbeat, Bill, but this is a huge move in the right direction in North Carolina. But it hasn't been easy. We like to think of ourselves as a quote unquote red state.

We like to think of ourselves as a more conservative state. Yet we've allowed abortions up to 20 weeks, which is butchery in and of itself and dismemberment. But what's this like for you, Sharon, personally, as a believer, as somebody that's been down there on the street fighting for life and fighting for these moms and dads?

What is this like for you? Well, I tell you, I would rather have abolition. I think everybody, of course, would, because every human being deserves to live. But if we're going to start somewhere, let's begin to start somewhere. If it's got to be 12 weeks, that's fine, because that knocked out a lot of those surgical, those really torturous, without anesthesia abortions. Right. And I think it will also put a huge dent on these franchises and abortion bills all around the state. And we should be able to work towards something, you know, next year that limits it even more. But this is such a blessing. I know many people say incrementalism is bad.

But you know what, if we're if we're going to take a step in a direction, let's take a step in a direction towards life. And I'm all for it. Yeah. And it's it's really and it is important to have that conversation. You and I both know and would prefer absolute abolition.

Just get rid of it. Heartbeat Bill effectively does that. But there's still little ways around that. And in North Carolina, that just the political lineup and the political will just isn't there to happen. And so a lot of people will play this all or nothing.

And I'd rather save some babies lives than none. And it's a conversation we can continue to have. But I think for the for the Republicans in North Carolina, down there in the legislature, you know, this is the first chance they've had to really do anything about it with a legislative supermajority. And they and they're going to today.

Praise God. And so I'm with you 100%. It's a step in the right direction. Hey, can I just mention if anyone can after work, come to the legislative building because they're going to start packing out the I think it's the Senate. I think we're in the house right now. And then the Senate vote. So both both houses need to vote today. They may drag it on and on and on. But we have been told the pro board is going to try to pack out the house so that they supporters of life can't get in. So if anyone is available to come down, you won't waste your time.

It's a moment in history that you won't want to miss. And please come down and pray and stand for these babies. Amen.

Exactly right. And head down to the North Carolina legislative building downtown Raleigh. It's easy to get to.

There's actually a decent amount of parking around there. But this is the this is where the rubber hits the road legislatively. You're where the rubber hits the road ultimately, all the time, Sharon, and I just can never honor you enough and thank you enough for all of your years of tireless work down there for these babies, as well as the moms and dads. I love you and appreciate you and just thank God for you. I love you, Steve. God bless you.

Talk to you soon. OK, thanks so much, Sharon. God bless. And that's the deal. So if you can get down there, just Google Maps, whatever one you use, Apple, I don't care, whatever. Just put an NC legislature.

That's all you need to do. It's right downtown Raleigh. And there is a decent amount of parking around there. And this this is why last week on Friday was saying, hey, listen, call, email, visit, communicate with your legislators, especially if they're Republicans. And encourage them, say thank you for passing the legislation in the first place, because last week they were they were one hundred to one. The pro aborts, the pro abortion crowd, the pro choice crowd was inundating the Republicans. And the Republicans really weren't hearing much from, well, you and me in North Carolina. They were not hearing from their own base with a simple thank you. So that's that's discouraging.

I was mentioning this in my class this morning. I said, hey, does it bug you guys if you do something nice and you're trying to be helpful and people don't say thank you? Does that bug you? And they're like, yeah, I can't stand people to do that. Right.

OK, so they get it at 15. The rest of us have no excuse. Now, in my case, interestingly enough, both my representatives because I live in North Raleigh and Raleigh is mostly blue.

Both my representatives are Democrats and I emailed them both and I did get a reply from the one which I then replied to. I'll share that with you on the other side of the break. And then we also want to I'm going to take some time in the second segment when we come back to pray together, whether you're in North Carolina or not is irrelevant. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, we always need to pray into this issue of life, especially as the Republicans are facing all this pressure. They can't lose a single Republican.

It looks good, but we're going to pray for him when we come back right after this. Welcome back at Steve Noble, The Steve Noble Show. Boy, back there in the 70s when I was a little boy, do you remember the TV show SWAT? Remember that SWAT? The SWAT team and everything really cheesy 1970s drama, police drama of the SWAT team. So we had back there in Dearborn, Michigan, back in the day, I had somehow had a radio at our house that had a little microphone on it. So you could turn that into like this little mini PA system. This is SWAT.

Come out with your hands, all that kind of stuff. Right. So and then loved was infatuated with World War Two when I was elementary school. And so the thought of war and this I wasn't a believer and become a believer was 28. But then you when you become a believer and then once you start waking up, you get spiritually woke.

Then you realize that, yeah, you're in a war. And the perfect example of that is what's going on right now down at the North Carolina state legislature in the House and the Senate. They passed a 12 week abortion ban, including a bunch of restrictions on R.U.

486, which is the abortion pill. And they passed that last week. Governor Cooper and his pride moment on Saturday vetoed that publicly downtown outside a little rally because, you know, that's what you do when you worship Moloch or bail is you you proudly display your debauchery. And so that's what happened Saturday. And then today, right now in the House and the Senate, they are going to be voting sometime between now and 8 p.m. sometime this evening. They'll be voting every single Republican, including Trisha Cotham, who's the Democrat that became a Republican not that long ago. That's a transition I can support, by the way.

And every single one of them has to they all have to hold together. And if they do, they have a supermajority and they'll override Governor Cooper's veto. And tomorrow that will become the law in North Carolina. No abortions past 12 weeks and a bunch of restrictions on the abortion bill and a few other things.

And that's all good. It's a step in the right direction. Not as much as we would like, but certainly more than we've had here in North Carolina in a while. Which is why our abortions since Roe versus Wade are actually up over 30 percent because in the southeast, other states were able to get aggressive. They were doing the heartbeat bill. Florida just did a heartbeat bill, which effectively gets rid of just about all abortions, because most abortions are not done before you can determine a heartbeat. So that's just a politically savvy way of banning abortion for the most part is a heartbeat bill.

And so we became an abortion destination state. And so this is a big day for North Carolina. And we're going to pray together here in a second. But this is just an example of what we can do. So on Friday, I had mentioned, hey, email your representative in the House and the Senate here in North Carolina. And especially if they're Republicans, thank them for voting for it in the first place and telling me stand with them.

Some encouragement because they weren't getting much of that. My two representatives in the North Carolina House and the North Carolina Senate, because I live in Raleigh, which is blue, they're both Democrats. So here's an example of what I sent Senator Grafstein.

I said, I live in North Raleigh and wanted to mention two things. First of all, thank you for serving our district and state as someone who has been in politics for nearly 20 years. I deeply appreciate your desire to serve the public and what is oftentimes a thankless job.

Even though we do not align politically, I certainly honor your role and desire to serve. Secondly, I want to respectfully ask you to consider taking a stand for the lives of unborn children when the override vote comes up next week, meaning today. I know this is a very partisan issue, but the realities of life are not.

They are just that, realities. Most Americans agree that there should be serious restrictions when it comes to abortion, and this bill addresses that reality. I understand the political pressure involved, but protecting the unborn rises above partisan politics and party platforms. If you're a mother or grandmother, you know that instinctively. Thank you for your time and consideration.

She actually replied on Saturday. I was pleasantly surprised. Dear Mr. Noble, thank you for your email and for sharing your thoughts with me. I believe that the decision about whether or not or when to have a child is one of the most important decisions one can make. And every pregnancy is unique, which is why every person needs to make the decisions that are best for them, their health and their family.

Remember who they leave out of that. The bottom line is that the ban on abortion will harm many North Carolinians and is something that can be lifesaving health care that should not be politicized or criminalized. Lifesaving health care. To be very transparent, I will vote to sustain the governor's veto. I appreciate you reaching out to me, Lisa Grafstein. And then I decided to reply. OK, so then that this is what you do with public officials, you hold them accountable.

Thanks for your reply. A few things. Number one, what about the life of the baby itself? Does that ever enter into your equation? Now, at this point, all I'm trying to do is plant some seeds here. It's all I'm trying to do. Number two, less than five percent of all abortions are the result of rape, incest or the life of the mother.

Ninety five percent are purely elective. They don't want the baby. Your comment about the health of the mother is an outlier and applies sparingly, to say the least. Number three, is there another situation where you would support one person taking the life of another in order to make their own life better somehow? Do you consider abortion to be akin to self-defense? Number four, if a woman chooses abortion, she certainly does not need to wait until 13 to 20 weeks when the procedure becomes remarkably barbaric.

Dismemberment is the process. If you are not familiar with those realities, I would encourage and challenge you to seek the facts. If a woman does not want her child, she simply has to abort in the first trimester, which is what most Americans support. To support anything after that is becoming increasingly distasteful to the majority of citizens.

I look forward to the governor's veto being overridden and I will do everything I can with my radio platform across the state to make that happen in his service in near Steve Noble. And that's just, is that going to go anywhere? Does that make a difference? I just think it's a matter of faithfulness. I think as a Christian, you have an obligation to try. And then you can lay your head down on the pillow at night and you've tried. And you can lay that before the Lord.

You can say, I tried. Speaking of laying things before the Lord, let's just pray and finish up the segment, praying for all the Republicans down at state legislature. Father God, we just come before you, thankful for your sovereignty, for your goodness. Thank you, Lord, that you've brought these men and women to the point where they were willing to pass legislation to end some of the abortions in North Carolina.

Of course, we want them all ended. But we're thankful for the progress here, Lord, and just pray in these upcoming hours that you would strengthen and encourage every single one of them. Thank you, Lord, for all the pro-life people, mostly probably people that know you personally that are down there supporting with signs and with their presence, supporting these Republicans.

Thank you for Trisha Cotham, who had the strength, Father, to leave her party because they just would not allow her to operate independently at all. And I pray for her, Lord, that under all this pressure, she would stand firm for life and pray even now, Lord, that there are a few pro-life Democrats down there. Lord, I pray that you would just stoke their conscience, prick their conscience so that they would choose you and your truth and these babies over their party or they'd choose principle over politics. But Lord, we just want to pray for every single Republican because they all need to vote the right way here. So I pray that they're deeply encouraged by the presence of your people down there and the presence of pro-life people. Lord, I pray that the pro-life people that are there are respectful and self-controlled.

And Lord, we just want to be able to celebrate this victory and to glorify your name. So we pray that it will come to pass in the next few hours that, in fact, will limit abortions to 12 weeks in this state. And then, Lord, I pray ahead of in the future that our legislators will be even more courageous and will seek to push the ball further down.

The field in order to eliminate all abortion in the state of North Carolina. And just pray that you would blow the political winds in such a way that that can happen. But, Lord, we thank you for victory. We thank you for your goodness and your faithfulness and your providence. And again, just pray a special blessing even right now over every single Republican, the ones that I know personally, Lord, and the ones that represent us, that they would stand strong and that they would feel your pleasure. When they vote to limit abortion, Lord, bless them, give them the victory. And we ask all that in Christ's name. Amen. This is Steve Noble on The Steve Noble Show. When we come back, special counsel John Durham's report is finally out.

When did that start? Jesus ascended to heaven. Oh, my goodness. We'll go over that when we come back.

Welcome back to Steve Noble, The Steve Noble Show. Great to be with you. Keep praying when you think about it on the legislature down in North Carolina as they seek to override Governor Cooper's veto of the abortion ban starting at 12 weeks. So remember to pray for that as we go throughout the day.

That vote might not happen until seven or eight o'clock this evening. OK, so just stay in a posture of prayer over that one and talk about all these things in my classes, by the way, and my classes in general. U.S. history, world history, civics and Christian ethics, which are geared towards eighth through 12th grades. I'm almost 70 percent full for this fall, which would be a total of 220 students, which would be great growth over this year.

I just praise the Lord if we get there. But also, if you're an adult, I always have adults every year. Hey, Steve, I wish I could take your classes.

Actually, you can. You can audit the classes. And this year I only had civics and U.S. history online in this fall and have all four of them available online. U.S. history, world history, civics and Christian ethics. Christian ethics is one semester. So you, son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, whoever it may be, these are great classes, not to sound all puffed up. I'm a pretty good teacher. And this is the content itself, a biblical worldview, all taught in real time, utilizing the news of the day. Pretty dynamic stuff. And God has just done great things in the classrooms and the students and parents.

It's just been awesome to watch all this happen and be a part of it for 11 years. So if you want to check that out, the easiest, I guess the easiest thing you could do is just text the word truth to 66866. That'll kind of start the conversation.

Truth to 66866. Or you can go to the website, nobleuschool.com. Noble U, like university, nobleuschool.com. And there is an audit option there. OK, you can audit, no homework, no tests.

You'll just get access to all the classes when I teach those starting in the fall. So check that out. Very important.

All right, so let's go here. Special Counsel John Durham. Finally, this is the Wall Street Journal. Highly critical report on how the FBI handled allegations linking Mr. Trump to Russia in 2016.

Here's some bullet points. It's from the Wall Street Journal. He said the bureau swiftly pursued a vague tip about potential contacts between a Trump campaign aide and Russia authorities in July of 2016.

Even though, the report says, the bureau had no other information in its files to corroborate any such contact. The Justice Department's Inspector General in 2019 found similar flaws in the FBI inquiry but found the investigation was justified. So going back to July of 2016, this is during the election. And you had the FBI, the Department of Justice, operating politically to try to defeat Trump. OK, remember that. That's a huge problem. Another point. He concluded the FBI was more cautious and skeptical of allegations of foreign influence on the Clinton campaign than on the Trump campaign in 2016.

No! According to the report, the bureau didn't aggressively pursue evidence of two instances in which foreign governments were potentially planning to contribute to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign to gain influence. Sounds like Biden. The speed with which the FBI opened the investigation into the Trump campaign based on raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence also reflected a noticeable departure from how to approach those other allegations, it said. The FBI provided briefings to the Clinton campaign, the report said, an approach it said stood in contrast to the lack of such briefings provided to the Trump campaign. Politicized. Weaponization. Third point, he concluded that the FBI didn't rigorously analyze information it received, especially from people in groups of political affiliation prolonging the investigation and prompting the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, Mr. Durham said the FBI was overly reliant on investigative leads from Mr. Trump's political opponents.

Of course! The whole thing was about getting Trump. Fourth point, he concluded that the FBI engaged in a confirmation bias, no kidding, in which it discounted or willfully ignored material information that did not support the narrative of a collusive relationship between Trump and Russia. The report describes senior FBI officials as unusually involved in aggressively pushing the Trump-Russia investigation forward as the inspector general's prior inquiry had found. Now remember, remember Stalin's right-hand guy, show me the guy, I'll show you the crime. This is using political power to take out your political opponents, and when that starts happening, you don't live in the good ol' US of A anymore, you live in something else.

This is the abuse of power, this is tyranny developing. The FBI's leadership has turned over since the Russia inquiry. FBI Director Christopher Wray instituted dozens of changes in 2019, and how the bureau seeks secret surveillance warrants and handles other matters after the bureau's inspector general pointed out a series of flaws in its efforts to monitor a former Trump campaign advisor. Attorney General Merrick Garland received the report on Friday, last Friday, and provided it to Congress on Monday, yesterday, without changes, he said in a letter to lawmakers in which he didn't offer his own opinion on the conclusions, of course not. 480 interviews, 480, a review of more than 6 million pages of documents, 190 subpoenas, and other actions. Mr. Trump once predicted that Mr. Durham's probe would reveal the crime of the century, a conspiracy among intelligence officials and law enforcement to undermine the 2016 presidential campaign.

The probe's findings have fallen far short of that expectation, but it's still serious. The reactions to the report fell along partisan lines, of course. Trump said, quote, wow, on truth social, after extensive research, special counsel John Durham concludes the FBI should never have launched the Trump-Russia probe.

That's correct. In other words, the American public was scammed, just as it is being scammed right now by those who don't want to see greatness for America. Here's the FBI's statement, having been caught red-handed with political weaponization, quote, the conduct in 2016 and 2017 that special counsel Durham examined was the reason that current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time, the FBI said in their statement.

Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented, could have, maybe. This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity, and professionalism the American people deserve and rightly expect. Of course, that's what the FBI is going to say. Here's what DeSantis said.

He's slamming away on this one as he should. The Durham report confirmed what we already knew. Weaponized federal agencies manufactured a false conspiracy theory about Trump-Russia collusion, DeSantis wrote on Twitter. It reminds us of the need to clean house at these agencies as they've never been held accountable for this egregious abuse of power. When DeSantis was representing Florida's 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, he sent a letter in 2018 to then Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray, pushing them to criminally prosecute many of the players involved in the investigation. DeSantis pushed for criminal investigations into former FBI Director James Comey, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former acting director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, FBI agent Peter Strzok, and FBI counsel Lisa Page.

And by some strange turn of circumstances, he gets to run against Biden. I hope this becomes an issue. You know Trump's going to bring it up as he should. And I hope that DeSantis, and I believe DeSantis would, and somebody's got to get in there and clean house because the FBI is out of control, which leads me to this. This was in The Federalist today. The Durham report leaves no doubt the FBI is a mortal threat to democracy.

Pretty strong words. The big takeaway from the report, this is in The Federalist, is that the Obama era FBI launched a full investigation of the Trump campaign, codenamed Crossfire Hurricane in the summer of 2016, despite having zero evidence of any collusion between Trump and Russia. Remember Stalin's right hand guy? Show me the guy.

I'll show you the crime. Not only that, he writes, but officials at the highest levels of the U.S. government, including President Obama, knew that the entire false narrative that Trump was colluding with Moscow was completely made up by the Clinton campaign in an effort to weaponize the federal government against Trump and distract from Hillary Clinton's own email server scandal. The Durham report recounts how in August 2016 CIA Director John Brennan briefed Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, James Comey, and other senior intelligence officials on what the report calls the Clinton planned intelligence, a scheme Clinton approved in July 2016 to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services, and our leaders and the federal government knew about it. In other words, he writes in The Federalist, all of these senior officials, some of the most powerful people in the federal government, knew as early as the summer of 2016 that the Clinton campaign had a plan to whip up a scandal by falsely alleging collusion between Trump and Moscow. The FBI knew all of this, as did Brennan, yet they ignored it to keep Crossfire Hurricane alive, along with the narrative that Trump was in bed with Russia. That fall, the FBI used the baseless dossier to acquire FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign. See how bad this is? This is horrible. I mean, even CNN's Jake Tapper, who was all about this stuff for a while, said, uh, the report is now here, it has dropped, and it might not have produced everything of what some Republicans hoped for. It is, regardless, devastating to the FBI, and to a degree, it does exonerate Donald Trump.

Ooh, I bet that was hard for Jake to say, because he was such a cheerleader for that hot mess. I mean, this is, uh, phew. Beyond the statements, back to The Federalist. Of the media and the corruption of government officials, the Durham Report is a sobering reminder that we can't sustain a self-governing republic under these conditions.

True, I agree. When the law enforcement and intelligence agencies of the federal government can be used as a weapon to undermine an outsider candidate for high office, it means our republic is in grave danger. It means, too, that it would be better if we had no FBI at all than the corrupt agency we now have, which sees fit to traffic and actual disinformation, spread conspiracy theories, and throttle the democratic process whenever a candidate comes along who threatens the status quo.

That's the real lesson of the Durham Report, and we ignore it at our peril. Once again, makes me think of 1 Timothy, chapter 2, why we need to pray for those in authority over us. PrayOneTimTwo.org is a website you should get to, A-S-A-P, PrayOneTimTwo.org, which is where you find that scripture. Pick your state and get signed up for a daily email to pray for our elected officials, because boy, do they need it. Welcome back.

It's Steve Noble, The Steve Noble Show. Ouch. The Dow Jones down 336 points today.

That's not great. So we have to pay attention and get ourselves equipped to deal with the realities of what's going on in the financial world. Yesterday, with my buddy Todd Von Helms talking about our students today and as they progress from high school to college and college to career, what a great conversation that was. And I wanted to make sure we could have that conversation all the way to the end of the show. So our good friend David Fisher was kind enough, as always, to jump over so we can do a Money Monday update on a Tuesday, David thinks, as always. How you doing? I'm doing great. You're very welcome.

Thanks for having me on. And yeah, the markets are saying ouch today, but the Lord is still on the throne. Amen.

Exactly right. So let's start by talking to him before anybody listens to us. And let's go to his word, Hebrews 10, 19 and 20.

We'll start there. Love this passage. Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence, and I think that's a key word there, to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body. So obviously those of us who are believers understand that scripture that Jesus gave up his life, he shed his blood for us, the veil and the temple that only allowed the priest and the going to the Holy of Holies, now that's been opened up for all of us, and we can enter in confidence. I'm so reminded, I was reflecting back on my life, not to make this about me, because it's not, but as we grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord of Jesus Christ, we can understand really who we are in Christ, and we can have confidence in that he really has done the work so that we've been bought with such a great price, and we don't have to have pittance and go through these rituals to have a practicing the presence of God and having a relationship with Jesus in our life, and I've kind of come to the place where I just, especially since my heart issues, I really look for the opportunity just to kind of practice the presence of God, no matter what I'm doing. Am I always there?

No, I have to be honest, but I'm still working at it. Yeah, he'll never leave us nor forsake us. We're never alone, and it's such a great reminder. I love this passage and the reminder of the veil of the temple, which the high priest going once a year, nobody has direct access, but then Jesus dies. The veil is torn from top to bottom.

That thing was about five inches thick. No man could do that. And then a reminder to your point, David, when I'm pretty sure when the creator of the universe says it is finished, that that's a done deal.

I'm pretty sure you can take that to the bank, although not every bank would be a great place to take that perhaps. But man, from an eternal perspective and spiritually speaking, when he said it is finished, it is finished. You don't need a priest. You don't need a pastor.

You have direct access to the Father, which is so awesome. What a great way to start. Thank you for that reminder. Well, my little joke there about banks. So let's get an update on how the banks are doing, regional banks and the FDIC. Anything wild going on there because that problem is not going away?

Well, it's not wild. The commercial banks, their money still keeps coming out of the commercial banks. In the month of April, $360 billion came out of these commercial banks last week, as much as $25 billion. So it's not slowing down.

It's still at a pretty fast clip. As far as the lending side, that's tumbled also. Commercial banks are not lending near as much money as they used to. They're down $16 billion for last week. Small banks are also down their loans and issuing those are down $14 billion. So we're not doing well as far as the stock for regional banks.

Here's four major ones. PAC West down 80% year-to-date. First Horizon down 58%. Western Alliance down 46%. Zions Bank Corp down 51%. The index for regional banks is down 35%. So even though the Fed is not really raising rates aggressively, it looks like now, the regional banks are still not doing well.

Even though they had an income, a net income, four regional banks, the four largest ones, had income of $3.2 billion. Obviously, investors and traders, Steve, are spooked big time by the results of what's happening in the banking industry. And that's why they're pulling money out of the bank still, people are.

Yep, pay attention and pay attention to your own bank. Well, the powers that be had a little powwow last week at the White House that accomplished nothing. So we have this June 1 default date, the debt ceiling is not raised, the government giving itself yet another credit card.

So give us an update on that, please. So Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House, he has everything to lose and not much to gain if he doesn't strike a deal because they can oust him and that's how he got in office. But the big thing is they don't want to go through a 2011 scenario where we're within 48 hours of default under President Obama. We got a downgrade back then from Standard & Poor and gold spiked $250 in six weeks. The stock market crashed in about a four-month period of time.

It was just not good and eventually took four years to get out of that hole. But they're miles apart. $5 trillion is what McCarthy wants in spending cuts and Biden is willing to agree to $20 billion. So that's really far apart. $20 billion, by the way, everybody, is not quite a day and a half and the federal spend $20 billion.

And that's just what they didn't spend for COVID, so the unpaid money. So McCarthy is saying that we're not in a good place with these debt ceiling talks and Yellen is saying basically the same thing. She said today it's very conceivable that is if we default. So they're all talking about this default, but they're all saying we're not going to default.

So it's like which camp is it? I don't get it. So the market doesn't know what to believe and that's why we're seeing so much red today.

Yeah, so I was going to ask about that. Obviously the market having a bad day today down over 300 points. Is it the bank situation? Is it the debt ceiling?

Is it something else or is it just a big cocktail of all of it? It's a cocktail of two things, of the debt ceiling and what's happening in banks. So we're in the fourth successive weekly outflow of money coming out of equities to the tune of $5.7 billion has come out in the U.S. funds, in the U.S. markets. So Stanley Druckenmiller is saying he's a very well-to-do man. He's $6.4 billion. He's 30 years into the market. The hedge fund manager, one of the most successful ones, he says we're going to have a hard landing, a bad recession.

So he makes no bones about it. That's what some of this is about. And also a big piece right now is the massive uncertainty kind of going backwards where we just talked about the big banks. The FDIC now is asking to be bailed out. I was shocked when I read the article last week.

Check this out. So just those that are new to this, the FDIC did not bail out First Republic Bank, the third big bank. That failed. They pushed that on according to Bloomberg News. They went to JP Morgan and asked JP Morgan to bail them out, and JP Morgan did. So now there's no money in the FDIC coffers, and they're putting what you call a special assessment fee that passed the board members here yesterday or two days ago that says we're going to assess a $50 billion fee on banks now on top of what they already pay to be an FDIC member.

This would cost JP Morgan $1.7 billion per year for the next two years. The FDIC needs to be bailed out. This tells you really how insolvent the system completely is.

That's why we're also seeing a lot of red. Yeah, a lot of – again, it always reminds me of a shell game, and they're moving things around all the time so you can't figure out exactly where the truth is. As we learned with that video that you shared with us last year and is on your website at landmarkgold.com where you can see them saying, yeah, yeah, we don't want this information coming out to the public. The public can't handle this kind of stuff because we'll have fear and panic.

Well, yeah, that's because that's what the truth can sometimes bring with it. How do Americans – because obviously I think listening to – whether we're talking about gold and silver, listening to Glenn Beck, other shows, it's in the news, it's in the financial news. You can see it on Yahoo Finance, MSNBC, wherever. So there's the big central banks and all the big players in the gold and silver thing. But what about just regular Americans? How do regular Americans kind of feel about utilizing gold and silver as an aspect of what's going on right now?

Well, our phones have been ringing off the hook, and we've done – just the volume is off the charts. It's like 2008 all over again. But taking Landmark Capital out of it, there's a Gallup poll, ironically, that was done, Steve, and they've reported 1,013 Americans randomly across the board from April 3 to April 25. And the number one investment historically has been real estate. Stocks have been second, and gold has been way down on the list. Gold now is number two, and it's getting ready to pass real estate according to this poll. So it's moved up into the second slot, and it's right behind real estate. So this tells us Americans really are completely embracing the idea of a long-term hold in gold instead of choosing long-term hold in stocks and possibly long-term hold in real estate because their interest rates are so high. Yeah, because the fluctuation in the stock market, what you see happening in the real estate market, that's also going to happen in the commercial market, commercial real estate market, and I think a lot of people like – and then the de-dollarization, which we talk about.

Can you actually hold on to something that retains its value? That's amazing that gold is up to number two now. That's just mind-boggling to me. I'm going to have to look that one up. That's just amazing. So if people want to get educated, that's the whole key here, David.

What do they do? Give us a call, 844-604-2575. Again, 844-604-2575 or website, landmarkgold.com. Excellent, David. God bless you. Great to hear from you. Thank you for that passage of Scripture. Have a great week, buddy. We'll talk to you soon. God bless you, my brother. You too, friend. Bye-bye.

And that was David Fisher. Again, landmarkgold.com. As always, landmarkgold.com. A lot of great information, a lot of great education, which we all need as things get wilder by the day. This is Steve Noble on The Steve Noble Show. God willing, I'll talk to you again real soon. And like my dad always used to say, ever forward.