Morning Wire XX
[0] Dozens of warships sunk during the Second World War have disappeared from the ocean floor.
[1] Metals that don't have that contamination are incredibly valuable because they can be used in sensitive equipment.
[2] What's behind the world's biggest grave robbery?
[3] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor -in -Chief John Bickley.
[4] It's July 8th, and this is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
[5] President Biden is attempting to give his polling numbers a boost by touting his economic agenda, which he says has had some big wins.
[6] To move from trickle down economics, would everyone on Wall Street Journal of Financial Times began to call Bidenomics?
[7] I didn't come up with the name.
[8] I really didn't.
[9] I now claim it.
[10] How are Americans responding?
[11] And a committee in California tasked with overseeing reparations efforts have submitted their final recommendations to the state legislature.
[12] Not being able to own your own businesses, not being able to have access to capital, not being able to be hired and move up and matriculate.
[13] All of those things kept us from being able to rise naturally.
[14] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[15] Stay tuned.
[16] We have the news you need to know.
[17] Throughout the last decade, dozens of sunken World War II ships have vanished from the ocean floor stolen by scavengers and what's being called the world's biggest grave robbery.
[18] Here with more on what they're after and what's being done to stop it is Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[19] So Cabot, a shocking and frankly kind of disturbing story, What can you tell us?
[20] Yeah, so in late May, fishermen off the coast of Malaysia reported a strange foreign vessel loitering in a remote portion of the South China Sea near the wreckage of two British ships sunk during World War II.
[21] The HMS repulse and HMS Prince of Wales were attacked by Japanese torpedoes in 1941, just three days after Pearl Harbor, killing over 840 sailors in what's considered one of the worst disasters in the history of the British Navy.
[22] When the Malaysia Maritime Agency tracked down this foreign ship, they found it was a Chinese scrapping barge, sailing illegally without a permit.
[23] And in addition to the 32 sailors on board, they found it was carrying heaps of rusted steel from the wreckage of those ships, including a large cannon and unexploded artillery rounds.
[24] The incident sparked outrage from the UK Ministry of Defense, which called the salvage efforts a, quote, desecration of the military grave.
[25] But sadly, this is hardly the first time we've seen such an egregious violation of a designated war grave.
[26] How pervasive is this trend?
[27] Sadly, it is far more common than many people would ever imagine.
[28] According to Malaysian officials, this isn't even the first time that these particular ships have been looted.
[29] Back in 2015, a Vietnamese vessel was caught at the same site after using homemade explosives to detonate the ship's heavy steel plates for scrap metal.
[30] There's no real way of knowing how common the practice has become, but experts say that dozens of World War II sites have been targeted mostly in the Pacific.
[31] Dozens of them?
[32] Yeah, it is a global enterprise at this point.
[33] For example, in 2007, a team of researchers found the wreckage of the HMS Exeter for the first time.
[34] It was a British cruiser that was sunk in the second battle of the Java Sea.
[35] But 10 years later, when another team went to survey the ship, it was completely gone.
[36] All that was left was a 500 -foot depression in the seafloor where the ship had once lay.
[37] Indonesia salvagers are suspected of stealing it, but no one has been caught.
[38] The same thing happened again in 2016, when researchers discovered that a 6 ,000 -ton Dutch cruiser that sunk in 1942 had also completely vanished.
[39] Even World War II era submarines, including the American 300 -foot USS perch, have disappeared, stolen by illegal vandals.
[40] And because these crews typically poses fishing vessels and operate in the middle of the night, pulling the ship apart little by little, they're often very difficult to catch before it's too late.
[41] So what exactly are they doing stealing these wrecks?
[42] Why do they want them?
[43] Yeah.
[44] First, the ships typically have bronze propellers and copper cables, which can be fairly profitable, but the main reason they're going after these wrecks in particular is steal.
[45] Now, you might think it'd be a lot more cost -effective to simply make new steel, but the steel in these wrecks is particularly valuable.
[46] That's because it was forged before the first nuclear bomb was detonated in 1945.
[47] Due to nuclear radiation that's filled the atmosphere ever since, all steel made post -1945 is slightly weaker than what's known as pre -war steel.
[48] The extra strength of that old steel makes it especially useful in high -tech scientific and medical equipment, and it's particularly necessary for modern particle detectors, which countries like China used for nuclear development and equipment aboard spacecraft.
[49] But there's only so much of that pre -war steel out there, leaving salvagers with a highly profitable and also highly illegal opportunity in World War II wrecks.
[50] While U .S. and British officials have called for stricter enforcement on laws preventing the practice.
[51] Very few of these salvagers are caught, leaving the door open for more grave robbers in the future.
[52] Now, that makes me kind of concerned about all the radiation, but I suppose another story for another day.
[53] Yes.
[54] All right, Cabot, thanks for reporting.
[55] Anytime.
[56] time.
[57] Coming up, is Bidenomics good for your wallet?
[58] President Biden is trying to lift some of his poor polling numbers this week by selling the American people on Bidenomics.
[59] On the other side of the aisle, however, Republicans are just as eager to use the term to tie Biden to high inflation and declining real wages.
[60] Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to tell us about the president's attempts to convince a skeptical American public.
[61] Hi, Tim.
[62] What's the Biden administration's message here?
[63] Hey, John.
[64] Biden is trying to make the most of the post -pandemic recovery with an aggressive PR pitch of his economic agenda this week.
[65] Biden, Vice President Harris, and other top administration officials are now touting some part of Bidenomics, and the White House hopes this fulsome approach will make a convincing message.
[66] But it won't be easy.
[67] Biden is starting deep underwater.
[68] The real clear politics polling average of Americans' thoughts on Biden's economic policies shows a 38 % approval rating versus a 57 % disapproval rating, a gap of nearly 20 points.
[69] But the president thinks he can persuade a pessimistic public that the economy they currently disapprove of isn't all that bad.
[70] Here's what the president said last week when he embraced the term, Bidenomics.
[71] When I took office, the pandemic was raging, and our economy was reeling.
[72] Supply chains were broken.
[73] Millions of people unemployed.
[74] Hundreds of thousands of small business on the verge of closing after so many had already closed, literally hundreds of thousands on the verge of closing.
[75] Today, the U .S. has the highest economic growth rate leading the world economies since the pandemic, the highest in the world.
[76] Now, according to Biden, Bidenomics has been scoring some big wins.
[77] The White House has taken credit for post -pandemic job growth as well as rising wages.
[78] And Biden is taking credit for a boom in factory building because of targeted investments made through the Chips Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
[79] So that's how the Biden administration is spinning the economy.
[80] what about the Republican response to this Bidenomics narrative?
[81] Well, Republicans are just as excited to talk Bidenomics as the White House.
[82] The term apparently hasn't been poll tested, so it's anyone's guess how the public will respond, but Republicans think they have a winning issue here.
[83] Inflation over the past two years has wiped out any gains in wages and actually caused them to decrease.
[84] Average hourly earnings for Americans, when adjusted for inflation, have fallen over 30 cents since Biden took office.
[85] And while investment in factories is surging, a lot of that interest has been artificially inflated through government spending, which works against efforts by the Federal Reserve to tamp down inflation.
[86] And then there's the most obvious signs of economic pain for most Americans.
[87] Biden's energy policies have contributed to an increase in gas prices from 247 a gallon when he first took office to 364 now.
[88] At the grocery store, prices increased on average 11 % from 2021 to 2022 and was one of the primary drivers of inflation.
[89] Yeah, those everyday costs aren't lost on anyone.
[90] What's the economic outlook right now?
[91] There's a lot of room to be pessimistic about where the economy is headed.
[92] Staff of the Federal Reserve are predicting a recession before the end of the year, and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has already said more interest rate hikes are likely, meaning inflation is still a problem.
[93] Here's what Powell said last month.
[94] We have raised our policy interest rate by five percentage points, and we've continued to reduce our securities holdings at a brisk pace.
[95] We've covered a lot of ground, and the full effects of our tightening have yet to be felt.
[96] In light of how far we've come in tightening policy, the uncertain lags with which monetary policy affects the economy, and potential headwinds from credit tightening, today we decided to leave our policy interest rate unchanged and to continue to reduce our securities holdings.
[97] Looking ahead, nearly all committee participants view it as likely that some further rate increases will be appropriate this year to bring inflation down to 2 % over time.
[98] Well, the pocketbook tends to be a major factor when it comes to picking president.
[99] So we'll see if Biden is able to save himself on this issue ahead of 2024.
[100] Tim, thanks for joining us.
[101] My pleasure.
[102] California's reparations task force has submitted its final recommendations to the Democrat -controlled state legislature.
[103] The report estimates a stunning $800 billion in harm to black residents since California's founding in 1850, and lawmakers are expected to propose legislation based off of it in September.
[104] Here to discuss the report and the report.
[105] The constitutionality of the move is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo.
[106] So Amanda, we've covered this process up to its latest submission to the state legislature, but there are some new developments here.
[107] Tell us about those and give us a quick refresher on the initiative.
[108] Yeah, sure thing.
[109] So quick background, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed an assembly bill in September 2020 to establish this reparations task force.
[110] He notably signed that bill right in the wake of those nationwide Black Lives Matter protests and riots sparked by the death of George Floyd.
[111] The nine -member task force in its nearly 1 ,100 -page report, wants qualifying black residents to receive up to $1 .2 million each in reparations, a formal apology from the state and established school curriculum on its findings for all grade levels and investments in black communities.
[112] But now the committee has added some new requests, correct?
[113] Right.
[114] These new developments are getting a lot of attention, too.
[115] They include the recommendation to eliminate interests on past child support and any back child support debt for Black California residents.
[116] The report cited the, quote, disproportionate amount of African Americans who are burdened with child support debt.
[117] The report also calculates that Black California residents are owed over $225 billion for alleged victimization from the war on drugs since 1970.
[118] That's very recent, of course, and the War on Drugs Initiative was not explicitly race -based, but proponents claim that due to the disparate impact, it is effectively part of the legacy of slavery.
[119] Now, let's get to the constitutionality of all this.
[120] Has this task force addressed that at all?
[121] Well, there have been legal scholars arguing that racial reparations for slavery are unconstitutional, citing equal protection case law well before this decision.
[122] And certainly, this decision puts a new focus on this reparations initiative.
[123] The task force, though, has come out and argued that their recommendations are constitutional because they recommend lineage rather than race alone for the, standard of eligibility.
[124] So to qualify, you have to be a descendant of a free or enslaved African -American person in the U .S. prior to 1900.
[125] About 7 % of Californians are expected to qualify under that standard.
[126] We should note that California was founded in 1850 and was always a free state.
[127] But proponents of reparations argue that slavery still had an imprint in the state.
[128] They say some slaves were trafficked to California during the gold rush, for example.
[129] Now, what are some of the arguments for and against these reparations outside of the legal arguments.
[130] So proponents argue that the legacy of slavery and racism has stifled black Americans for generations.
[131] These reparations are simply owed to black Americans for those wrongs, and proponents argue that they're needed to level the playing field.
[132] In this report, which again estimates $800 billion in damages, the task force says that isn't even enough.
[133] The report reads, quote, no amount can encompass the full scope of damage done by the institution of slavery and ongoing discrimination.
[134] Now, an argument from opponents of reparations is that taxpayers who were never slave owners or even descendants of slave owners would be paying people who were never slaves to remedy this past sin of slavery.
[135] California, again, was founded as a free state.
[136] And not only that, the state is 39 % Latino and 15 % Asian American or Pacific Islander.
[137] And the majority of white Americans are not descendants of slave owners.
[138] So many of those citizens footing the bill would have no connection to American and slavery.
[139] Opponents also say that all races are treated equally under the law today, and that's really what's important.
[140] Well, again, as always, other states are watching what Progressive California does.
[141] Amanda, thanks for reporting.
[142] Yeah, thanks for having me. That was Daily Wire reporter, Amanda Press to Giacomo.
[143] Thank you for listening to Morning Wire.
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[148] Thanks for waking up with us.
[149] We'll be back later this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire.