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--:-- Georgia Howe: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID, and contact details. It's just one of the many places that has your personal info. And if any of them accidentally expose it, you could be at risk for identity theft. LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second. If you become a victim, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply. Visa, MasterCard, and American Express will begin tracking purchases of guns and ammunition.
--:-- John Bickley: We can reverse engineer a crime, right? We can reverse engineer what happened in mass shootings. The new Merchant Code is supposed to flag suspicious gun purchases, but critics say it's a way for activists to track and target gun owners.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, September 13th, and this is Morning Wire. An impending railroad strike coming as soon as this week could have a catastrophic effect on inflation and the supply of consumer goods. What's being done to avert a railroad stoppage, and will it be enough? And a criminal investigation into alleged fraud and a home robbery have made the Los Angeles mayor's race national news. Do you feel safe walking in? I do feel safe, but I do understand that a lot of people around the city do not feel safe. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: When you need top talent fast, you need Indeed. Indeed is the hiring platform where you can attract, interview, and hire all in one place. Instead of spending hours on multiple job sites searching for candidates with the right skills, Find great talent faster with Indeed. Visit indeed.com slash wire to start hiring right now. Just go to indeed.com slash wire. Indeed.com slash wire. Terms and conditions apply. Cost per application pricing not available for everyone. Need to hire? You need Indeed.
--:-- John Bickley: Major credit card companies have announced a new merchant category code that will track the sale of guns and ammunition. The move, they say, is necessary to stop mass shootings and crack down on gun trafficking. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham joins us now to give us the details on this new tracking code.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, so a merchant category code is a four-digit number that classifies different types of goods and services you charge on your card. And these classifications are set by the International Standards Organization. That's a regulatory body based in Geneva. Now, before this, gun sales just fell under a general sporting goods code. Now credit card companies will apply a category code to any purchase made at stores that specifically deal in guns and ammunition. But it's not going to be able to capture gun sales at general retailers like Walmart or, say, your big sporting goods chains. If credit card companies deem those transactions to be suspect, they'll be reported to local law enforcement. And as John said, virtually all of the major financial services companies are going to be doing this going forward. Visa, American Express, MasterCard, all of those.
--:-- John Bickley: So why are they taking this action and why now? Well, gun control activists have been putting the pressure on companies to introduce some kind of merchant code like this for a while. Massachusetts Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren in particular has made it a key issue. She and a group of nearly 40 other Democrats in Congress sent a letter to major credit card companies last week saying they can and should do everything they can to help law enforcement identify suspicious gun purchases through the implementation of this new code So Amalgamated Bank is the largest union-owned bank in the country, and they describe themselves as America's socially responsible bank. And it's been pushing the ISO to adopt the new code for over a year now.
--:-- Megan Basham: This was Priscilla Sims Brown, the CEO of Amalgamated Bank, explaining to CNBC different ways this tracking might be used. We can create algorithms that help detect those patterns. Secondly, we can sort of think about what people might do and create these patterns. Once these algorithms are created and we detect that suspicious activity has occurred, it is incumbent upon us. It is our obligation as a financial services firm to make sure that that activity is not happening on our rails. So we report to FinCEN. So FinCEN, for those who aren't familiar, is the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. It's a division of the Treasury Department.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, this is a controversial move. So what are the critics saying? Well, the NRA has already put out a statement saying that this is not about tracking or prevention or any virtuous motivation. It's about creating a national registry of gun owners. And at least one credit card company doesn't seem happy about this either. In a leaked letter, Visa said they believe this code is asking payment networks to serve as a moral authority and sets a dangerous precedent. Other critics say it's not fair to small gun stores because it's not going to track the sales at big general retailers, so it places an undue burden on those small mom-and-pop shops. It was for that reason that credit card companies successfully lobbied the ISO last year not to adopt the new code. But apparently the ISO changed its mind.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, some of the pushback I've heard to that criticism is that this isn't actually anything new. Some proponents say that credit cards already are tracking other kinds of purchases, for example, things like restaurants and groceries. So why is it significant that they now would track gun sales as well? So Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is one of the Republicans already addressing this potential tracking of gun sales. And I asked him about those who say it's not a big deal. Here's what he said. Well, if it's not a big deal, then what's the purpose of doing it? I mean, obviously, they've been pressured to do this. They're going to do it for a certain reason. That's also not being done in a vacuum. I mean, we do know that there have been Wall Street banks that have not been willing to provide financial services to people in the firearm industry. That is not anything new. So to me, this is just one more data point in a direction of a lot of very powerful financial institutions wanting to do basically indirectly what elected Democrats have not been able to do directly in terms of restricting the firearms industry.
--:-- John Bickley: So it sounds like yet another political battle that's being waged without much input from voters. Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, my pleasure.
--:-- John Bickley: That was Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. Coming up, a potential strike among U.S. rail workers further threatens the supply chain. Do you like to be the first to know about trendy news and current events? If so, you've got to get the Daily Wire Plus app. Not only will you receive mobile notifications whenever something's happening, but you'll also have access to the best commentary to break it all down. Download the Daily Wire Plus app and keep up with the facts no matter where your day takes you.
--:-- John Bickley: With the U.S. economy still struggling to bounce back to pre-pandemic form, a looming strike among the nation's rail workers is threatening to further stress the supply chain. Here with the details is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So, Cabot, what can you tell us about this strike? Well the two largest rail worker unions in the country are threatening to go on strike by this Friday if a deal is not reached Now these unions represent over 57 workers including crucial engineers and conductors that really keep a huge part of our country's infrastructure going. This month, the American Association of Railroads warned that the strike would, quote, halt most passenger and commuter rail services and also shut down 30 percent of the country's freight capabilities overnight. At the center of the strike are disagreements over quality of life provisions like vacation and sick time and penalties for missing work. Because of the fragile state of the supply chain, they really came into negotiations with quite a bit of leverage. Current estimates are that a railroad strike would cost the U.S. economy, get this, $2 billion a day. So there is a lot of incentive to meet these demands by Friday. Now, what happens if they don't come to an agreement? Well, they'd go on strike and it would be devastating for the economy. At the moment, around 40% of America's long-distance trade takes place on railroads. That's more than any other form of transportation. And in the short term, you could expect to see an immediate price increase and longer shipping times on many commodities. And the White House has also warned that it would have a major impact on inflation as well. Now, from a logistical standpoint, there's just not a clear solution for how goods would get moved without railroads. Even the trucking industry, which you'd think would stand to benefit from a rail shutdown, has actually said that this would be a disaster. So truckers are saying they don't have the capacity to fill the gap if this strike happens.
--:-- John Bickley: Right. According to the National Truckers Association, there would need to be an additional 460,000 long-haul trucks per day to keep up with the new demand. And keep in mind, that's on top of the fact that America is already dealing with a massive trucker shortage. According to the ATA, we're currently short 80,000 drivers. And numerous states have tried to address that shortfall by lifting red tape and lowering the amount of training that's necessary to get a trucking license, but it's just not enough to keep up with demand. So if you're looking for truckers to fix this problem, it's not practical.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, how has the Biden administration responded? They've actually taken a really hands-on approach. So back in July, the president formed a presidential emergency board to offer recommendations for avoiding a strike and sort of mediate between the two sides. Now, typically the White House does not get involved in labor disputes like this. And if they do, it's not until the very last minute of negotiations. But the Biden administration has handled this very differently. They've been closely involved for months now, which has them in a bit of an awkward spot. That's because Biden is extremely pro-union and campaigned on worker rights and even said he wanted to be the most, quote, pro-union president ever. But on the other hand, he knows that a union-led strike would cause inflation to rise and really decimate a supply chain that's already dealing with historic backups. And that's not to mention the timing of it all. The strike would reverse any progress that's been made on the economy in the last few months. and it would do so right before midterms. So you can see why the White House is desperate to avoid this strike.
--:-- John Bickley: Cabot, thanks so much for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: That's Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. The Los Angeles mayor's race has been shaken up in recent days by two headline-grabbing stories involving progressive frontrunner Congresswoman Karen Bass, who has been endorsed by both President Biden and Kamala Harris. The first shoe dropped a few days ago when the LA Times reported that an official at the University of Southern California, who's set to go on trial for bribery charges, was involved in a $100,000 scholarship for Bass, who subsequently passed legislation this official was pushing for. And just days later, Bass announced that her home had been burglarized and some curious items stolen. Here to talk about it is columnist David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: Hey, David. So let's start with USC. What do we need to know here? Morning. So the underlying case involves Marilyn Flynn She a former dean of USC social work programs And she allegedly bribed a state official with free tuition for his son if he got through some legislation that USC wanted What the LA Times revealed was that Flynn also wanted support from Karen Bass. And what her challenger in the mayor's race, businessman Rick Caruso, is saying is that Bass was bought off with the scholarship money. Bass denies it, but there seems to be no doubt that there is at least some connection between Bass and Flynn. And honestly, it doesn't look great. Right. And this was playing out as Bass says that her home was robbed. When does she say this occurred and what was it that was stolen? This was on Friday evening. And the only things taken, despite other valuables in plain view, were two licensed guns that Bass owned. She says the firearms were safely secured, stored in a lockbox, which raises strange questions like, how did the thief know about the guns or why would they target the guns to steal? This is a developing story. And obviously there's a police investigation, but it's all certainly odd.
--:-- John Bickley: Caruso has accused Bass of hypocrisy and owning guns for home defense when she has supported measures that he argues have made Angelinos less safe. Is that argument likely to play well with the voters? It could. Fighting crime is a key plank in Caruso's campaign. And in a recent debate, Bass had essentially said the city is safe. It's a big issue. Just last month, the progressive L.A. district attorney, George Gascon, was very nearly recalled. The effort failed, but not by much. So yeah, Caruso is absolutely going to bang that drum.
--:-- David Marcus: So who is Rick Caruso? He's a Democrat challenger, not a Republican. Is this a quirk of the Los Angeles voting system? We seem to see more and more unique approaches to local elections these days. Yes, it is. It's another example of alternative voting systems, such as we recently saw in Alaska. So Caruso's a real estate billionaire, and he came in second in the nonpartisan L.A. primary. Bass got 43 percent of the vote. Caruso got 36. And because neither got over 50, they have a head-to-head runoff. Polls still put the race around that original number. Now, it is noted very often by Bass that Caruso has in the past been a registered Republican as well as an independent. But he's now a Democrat. So either way, a Democrat wins. What kind of message would it send, not just in regard to Los Angeles, but for other big cities as well, if this more moderate candidate can defeat Bass, even with her White House endorsements? It might signal a trend. Last year, New York City elected Mayor Eric Adams, who was seen as the most centrist and pro-police Democrat in the race. In Miami, Mayor Francis Suarez is really becoming a star in Republican politics with what have been some very effective policies. So I think if Caruso wins or frankly gets close, Democrats should view it as a wake up call that urban dwellers are losing patience with things like crime, vagrancy and education, among a slew of other issues.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, David, thank you for joining us today.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: That was Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. Other stories we're tracking this week. The Memphis man charged in the kidnapping and murder of Eliza Fletcher was back in court Monday morning. He faces charges related to an alleged 2021 rape and kidnapping of another woman. New data released from the U.S. Treasury Department shows that the national debt has reached $30.9 trillion. Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and you stand with our mission, please consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
