The World and Everything in It - April 5, 2022

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

The IRS doesn’t have a lot of sympathy for people who don’t file their taxes on time. But that same agency is asking taxpayers to be patient about refunds this year.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today Russian retaliation, Putin is fighting western economic sanctions by threatening cyber attacks.

Plus our Classic Book of the Month features a culinary reflection for Easter.

And happy camping doesn’t always begin with happy campers.

BROWN: It’s Tuesday, April 5th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

BROWN: Time for news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden: Putin should face war crimes trial for Bucha killings » President Biden on Monday called for a war crimes trial against Vladimir Putin after Russian troops apparently tortured and executed civilians near Kyiv.

BIDEN: He is a war criminal. But we have to gather the information. We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue the fight.

He also said he’ll push for more sanctions.

After Russian troops departed the town of Bucha, authorities found bodies of civilians strewn in the streets. Some had been brutalized, had their hands tied, and were shot at close range.

Russia claimed the atrocities happened after its troops left the area. But satellite imagery has disproven those claims.

National security adviser said the Russian pullback from the Kyiv is not a sign that Moscow is relenting. The Kremlin is simply “repositioning its forces” …

SULLIVAN: To concentrate its offensive operations in eastern and parts of southern Ukraine. All indications are that Russian forces will seek to surround and overwhelm Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine.

The White House has vowed to continue backing Ukraine with military, humanitarian, and economic support.

Senate panel deadlocks on Jackson; confirmation on track » For the first time in decades, the Senate Judiciary Committee was evenly split Monday on whether to advance a Supreme Court nomination to the Senate floor.

AUDIO: The votes are 11 yeas, 11 nays. It’s a tie vote.

That vote was expected, as there is an even party split on the committee. All of the panel’s Republicans oppose Kentanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz …

CRUZ: If Judge Jackson is confirmed, I believe she will prove to be the most extreme and the furthest left justice ever to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

But Democrats are taking a series of procedural steps to wind her nomination through the Senate. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer started the ball rolling on Monday.

SCHUMER: I move to discharge the Judiciary Committee from further consideration of Kentanji Brown Jackson …

With the support of at least one Republican in the full Senate, Susan Collins of Maine, Jackson remains on a glidepath toward confirmation later this week.

Coroner IDs 6 people killed in Sacramento mass shooting » Police in Sacramento arrested a man on Monday in connection with a deadly mass shooting. Police Chief Kathy Lester told KCRA …

LESTER: We do have one person in custody. He’s 26-year-old Dandre Martin, and he was arrested in connection to the K Street shooting. He was taken into custody on assault with a firearm and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.

But she said police were searching for multiple shooters.

At least two gunmen opened fire in a crowd as bar patrons filled the streets at closing time around 2 a.m. Sunday morning.

The Sacramento County coroner on Monday identified the six people killed in the shooting. They range in age from 21 to 57, three women and three men.

Twelve people were also wounded, at least four of them critically.

UN climate report slams global governments, warns of ‘unlivable world’ » The UN’s climate change panel warned on Monday that the Earth is “firmly on track toward an unlivable world.” WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report sticks to the usual script. It warns that without drastic change, mankind will cause irreversible damage to the planet.

The report said governments around the world have failed to follow through on promises in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord. Commitments in the accord were aimed at keeping global temperatures from rising 2 degrees over the next century.

It said global warming has triggered more intense wildfires and hurricanes, longer droughts, and more floods.

The report urges a quick move away from the use of fossil fuels in favor of clean, renewable energy.

It also highlighted risky experimental methods of reducing temperatures along with simpler steps like fixing methane leaks in mines and landfills.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: delays at the Internal Revenue Service.

Plus, the joys and struggles of camping.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 5th of April, 2022.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up: the tax deadline.

It’s just under two weeks away. So if you haven’t started working on this year’s return, you’d better get cracking, it’s not this Friday but next.

If you’re signing the front of a check—because you owe—you have to do that by April 15th. If you’re signing the back of one—because you expect a return—well, that signature might be awhile away.

WORLD’s Lauren Dunn explains why.

LAUREN DUNN, REPORTER: Peter Cook is a certified public accountant in Wichita, Kansas. He says his firm’s clients started experiencing processing delays two tax seasons ago – in 2020. They continued to see problems last year.

COOK: There were certain instances last year multiple instances where a return had to be paper filed instead of electronically filed, or there was some issue with the process in that return that necessitated a actual physical agent to look at that return. And when that happens, and then the processing of it can go from two weeks to six months.

Cook says one of his clients filed his return electronically and the IRS did receive it. But then the processing hit a snag.

COOK: Because of the amount of the refund, it necessitated actual physical review by a agent and instead of it being processed immediately, the ended up that it has dragged out and dragged out and dragged out, not just not just for a couple of months, but we are still about 10 months past the filing of that return, and he still has not received that refund yet.

And he’s far from the only one. In February, the Internal Revenue Service had a backlog of just over 23 million tax returns waiting to be processed. The agency has plans to hire as many as 10,000 more workers to help address the problem. But IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig says it will still be late this year before the agency can catch up.

Nina Olson is the executive director and founder of the Center for Taxpayer Rights. Before starting the center, she spent 18 years as head of the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the IRS.

She says COVID-19 brought work at the agency to a screeching halt.

OLSON: What the pandemic did was shut it down in the middle of the filing season. And, you know, it was very difficult for the employees who needed to actually be in a physical space to process payments, to process returns that were coming in on paper, etc. And it wasn't really set up well to do telework for a whole bunch of job descriptions. You know, there were some positions that were set up for telework, but a whole bunch of others weren't. And so 2020 was really a year when the IRS just got incredibly behind. And so it started 2021 with the filing season and 2021 already behind with millions and millions of returns that had not been processed.

While the pandemic exacerbated the backlog, Olson says some issues existed long before 2020.

OLSON: I've worked under, I don't know, four, or five commissioners, and everybody has worked, you know, the IT systems have been the devil of everybody. And it's a problem, because the systems are so old, that you're spending a lot of money, a lot of your budget, just maintaining them, keeping them operating, and trying to create, you know, connections between old systems and more modern, you know, software and technology and things like that. So you're Jerry rigging stuff, you know, it's requiring programming and upkeep, and it says it has a modernization plan. But every year, the progress on that is delayed.

Stimulus payments and child tax credit payments also created extra work for the agency. Olson says the IRS showed its strengths in mobilizing its resources to get payments to recipients as fast as possible. But during tax season, all of those payments can complicate filing a return.

Olson says the IRS does need to hire more employees, but it’s not easy to find the right people for the job.

OLSON: It's going to take time bringing people on board and training them. And you have to do background checks on everybody, because they are seeing people's personal financial information. I mean, the amount of information that the IRS has about people, in terms of their financial lives and their family structures is incredible. And so you don't want just anybody walking off the street and taking a job.

Given the delays, taxpayers might be hesitant to notify the agency of any errors or problems. Olson says, don’t be.

OLSON: What I've always felt is that people are afraid of the IRS, and therefore, they accept things or they're afraid to challenge what the IRS is saying. And the IRS has many, many people and its employees can get things wrong. And I don't want people to accept something if it really feels like it's wrong…If you get a letter from the IRS. One thing that I say to everybody is, don't ignore that letter. Because the worst thing you can do is nothing at all, the IRS will just, you know, so much of what it does is automated, that it just keeps rolling on. And that's really you just got to be a really smart tax consumer.

Accountant Peter Cook recommends filing electronically if possible to avoid running into delays.

COOK: So far this year, once again, there's this difference between electronically filing and paper filing your return. And for clients that electronically file their return we haven't had any issues.

But if you do face complications with your return and need to call the IRS, he has a few tips.

COOK: Not every time is equal, not every day is equal.Sometimes there's early in the morning I've had the most success. Other times, it's later in the week I've had the most success in terms of contacting the IRS. So look for non-peak times and days to call the IRS if you do have to contact them.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Dunn.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: ​​bracing for possible Russian cyber attacks.

NICK EICHER, HOST: U.S. sanctions are taking a toll on Russia’s economy. And American-made weapons are giving Ukraine a big boost on the battlefield.

Moscow has promised retaliation, and late last month, President Biden urged U.S. corporations to be vigilant.

BIDEN: Today, my administration issued new warnings that, based on evolving intelligence, Russia may be planning a cyber attack against us. As I said, the magnitude of Russia’s cyber capacity is fairly consequential, and it’s coming.

Joining us now to help us understand the cyber threat is Jason Blessing.

He is the author of the book “The Global Spread of Cyber Forces.” He previously worked with the International Institute for Strategic Studies and in the financial sector he worked as a fraud-operations analyst.

BROWN: Jason, good morning!

JASON BLESSING, GUEST: Hi, Myrna thanks for having me. Great to be here.

BROWN: You say we should not expect a full-blown cyber war with Russia. Tell us what you mean there and why you say that.

BLESSING: Well, sure, we tend to get swept up. And by we I mean, popular media, us analysts, we aren't impervious to this either. But there is the predilection to think that you know, like a Hollywood movie that will see some sort of cyber attack that will shut down our traffic lights, take us offline, shut our economy down. And most of the time, that's just not realistic, given the technology and given the manpower and resources behind that. And just given the ability to wield that as a weapon of statecraft.

What's much more likely is lower sophistication, attacks, that appear really much more like criminal activity. And there's several dynamics behind that. But the basic point is that we get swept up in these ideas of a Hollywood cyber war, when that really just isn't the case.

BROWN: We're going to talk about infrastructure threats here in a moment. But right now, I'd like for you to explain a little bit more about what private companies in general should be worried about, in the short term.

BLESSING: Absolutely. In the short term, there are really two main threats to look out for. And then one more on the long term horizon. So in the shorthand, most importantly, is events that look much more again, like criminal activity. So we're talking about things that, you know, look like ransomware attacks on your networks that look to make a buck by extorting and holding information or networks hostage, things that for instance, can deny service access and delay service provision times for customers. So certain things like taking a financial website offline for a few hours. So customers can’t access their accounts - sort of these low level very, you know, what we would call basic and unsophisticated attacks. The second that we need to look out for really is spillover from Russian operations in Ukraine. And there's precedent for this if we look back to 2017, for example, with the NotPetya malware. This was a worm that self replicated past Ukrainian targets, and spread to over 150 countries and created about $10 billion worth of damage cumulatively. So those are really the two main things to look out for is things that appear like criminal activity, and then we have spillover.

BROWN: Alright, now back to infrastructure. Now you said Russian cyber activity can target critical infrastructure with low cost, low sophistication, just as you mentioned, methods that are indistinguishable from criminal activity. Just drill down a little bit more. What do you mean by that?

BLESSING: Sure. Well, if we look at what it takes for, you know, on one hand, let's say a distributed denial of service, where it's an attack that denies network access, either internally to people working at the company employees, or externally to customers trying to access, let's say, to pay their power bills. The way that they work is that they overload servers and networks with traffic requests, right? A good example of this not being malicious behavior is back when the Affordable Care Act launched its online portal, and it took forever in a day for anyone to be able to sign up for it. That's a benign case of where that's legitimate customer traffic. Now just transplant that to malicious actors who are actively trying to deny network access as a part of a larger goal. And so you can have state operatives carry that out in the case of Russian military intelligence, or you can have criminals carrying that out. And it's the same methods, and they just don't cost that much. So those are generally more low cost options, which are a lot easier to carry out.

BROWN: You mentioned the private sector. So what about the average American? I mean, could good everyday Americans like you or me wind up being targeted in some way?

BLESSING: Well, absolutely. It's, it's a game of numbers. And you have to ask yourself, you know, the conversation I have with most folks, is, “Why should I worry about this, I don't have anything that hackers could want?” And that's just not the case. You have an online persona. If you use social media, if you use Google or another search engine, you have data out there in the world that is valuable to someone, whether it's mapping behavioral patterns, or what. You know, even if I have $100, in my bank account, that's still valuable to someone, because that's 100 more dollars that they didn't have that they could steal. And there are a variety of measures, you know, just because you're you're one person or I'm one person, the greater cyber hygiene needs to be sort of baked into our everyday lives at this point since technology touches on every part of our lives. And there are measures that individuals can take.

BROWN: Now, like the word cyber hygiene, in the time that we have left. Jason, what steps would you recommend to anyone to ensure they're safe online?

BLESSING: Sure. So one is multi factor authentication, either through text message through ads, or hard tokens, which we used to mail out when I was in finance, we'd mail them out physically to customers. And you know, the multi-factor authentication is just you know, that randomly or sporadically produced code that you can put in with your login and password. That's an extra layer of security that you have control over that hackers don't.

Another is just think before you click on a link, you know, it's very easy. But over time, a lot of these hackers and bad actors in cyberspace have gotten much better at making their these links much more convincing, right? You know, back to logins, using a password manager, that is always helpful. You want to have unique passwords for everything. And that can help you keep track of it. So it's it's these everyday sort of low hanging fruit that we need to think about.

BROWN: Important reminders, Jason Blessing has been our guest today. He is a visiting research fellow and cybersecurity expert at the American Enterprise Institute. Jason, thank you so much for your time and expertise.

BLESSING: Thank you again for having me. My pleasure.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Santa Claus is running for Congress!

That’s right! Santa Claus, from the North Pole, is running for Alaska’s only seat in the U.S. House.

Seriously. He is a legal resident of North Pole, Alaska, U.S.A., and he currently serves on city council up there.

Granted, he has no flying reindeer—cover the ears of your young ones—flying reindeer are not real.

But he does have a long white beard, real one. He does make lists. He does check them twice.

SANTA: My naughty and nice list is fairly comprehensive. The elves updated it all the time and I have my own personal opinions on others’ behavior, not that mine is perfect either.

He even sounds like Santa Claus, I think. The 72-year-old city councilman legally changed his name years ago.

Before the name change, he was known as Thomas Patrick O’Connor. Good name for politics, but nothing like Santa Claus—and he’ll fit right in in D.C., I think—all the giveaways, it’s Christmas presents all year long.

Santa’s running as an independent—just like the politician he admires most, Bernie Sanders.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Tuesday, April 5th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: our Classic Book of the Month.

Resurrection Sunday is less than two weeks away, and Emily Whitten’s found a book that challenges Christians to think more deeply about our celebrations.

WHITTEN: This is actually so good. This is super good. I love this so much.

EMILY WHITTEN, REPORTER: Welcome to the Rexer family dinner table. On March 26th, my husband, two girls, and I joined the Rexer family of seven for supper at their home in Nashville. And not just any supper, but one inspired by our Classic Book of the Month for April: The Supper of the Lamb—a 1969 cookbook by Robert Farrar Capon.

After our meal, we stayed at the table to savor some of Capon’s writing. Here’s dad Brent Rexer reading from chapter 3.

REXER: Lamb for Eight Persons Four Times is not simply a recipe. It is a way of life. It does indeed produce 32 servings from a single leg of lamb, but at the same time, it opens the door to a school of cooking that has produced some of the greatest dishes in the world.

In the book’s first three pages, Capon offers an ingredient list for four lamb supper recipes—each for 8 people. He takes most of The Supper of the Lamb’s 268 pages to finish the instructions for those recipes. But it’s much more than a cookbook. Capon devotes chapters to practical cooking advice, theological reflection, and his philosophy of cooking—looking back to older generations.

REXER: Never serve anybody a whole anything. As you can see, it is rooted in the hard-earned wisdom of the ages. It goes back to that primeval cook who first discovered the culinary version of Parkinson’s law: Appetite rises to meet food supply. She found that her family would eat a whole leg of mutton as readily as a half—and with very little additional gratitude. [LAUGHTER]

You can hear Capon’s witty humor there, and that partially explains why this book was reprinted in 2002.

But Christians will find the book stands out in another way. As an Episcopal priest, Capon goes beyond the how of cooking to the why. In a word: worship. That’s not to say Capon can be trusted theologically in every respect–for instance, he seems to promote elements of evolution here. But he does understand God meant ingredients like garlic and onions not merely to keep us alive, but to cause us to delight and give thanks to Him.

Here’s my daughter, Rebecca, reading from his hilarious chapter devoted to observing an onion…

WHITTEN: Once you are seated, the first order of business is to address yourself to the onion at hand. (You must resist the temptation to feel silly. If necessary, close the doors so no one will see you; but do not give up out of embarrassment.) You will note to begin with that the onion is a thing, a being, just as you are. Savor that for a moment. The two of you sit together in mutual confrontation.

No matter how witty or wise, though, a cookbook stands or falls based on its recipes. So I decided to test out the first recipe—lamb stew.

To save money, Capon suggests buying a larger cut of meat from a butcher, then cutting it down to use in several meals. So, to give that a try, I headed across town to Bare Bones Butcher to talk with Ian Palmer, a lamb farmer here in Middle Tennessee. Palmer delivered one of his processed lambs to the butcher just before I arrived.

PALMER: This is just a walk-in cooler that stores everything. Feel free to come on in. Oh, wow, there’s, like, a pig. What is that? That’s the lamb. That’s the lamb, ok.

When Palmer and I sat down a bit later, I asked him about Capon’s ideas. Palmer agreed that using more of the animal just makes sense—both economically and morally. In terms of economy, using more of an animal means more meals can be generated from the same lamb.

PALMER: There's a lot more to a lamb than lamb chops and loin chops and, and ground lamb. I mean, there's there's, you know, shanks and necks and then you get into the shoulder and you can do roasts…

Lamb shanks at my butcher cost $10 a pound, but Palmer sells a whole lamb in small vacuum-packed cuts for less than $6 a pound. So, it’s a different way to buy in bulk.

Still, morally, Palmer wants to do more than just sell cheaper lamb. He’s with his lambs when they’re born, and he personally oversees their deaths–making them as peaceful as possible. In between, Palmer gives them the best life he can, both because it makes the meat taste better and because he cares about the animals.

PALMER: We can keep them in pens with fresh bedding so that when they lamb, they’re there. We even have, like, wifi cameras set up in there so that if I’m at the house, I can sit there and say, ‘Oh, she’s struggling. I need to go help her. And even if that’s one o’clock in the morning, you go.”

Eventually, I did purchase 5 pounds of Palmer’s lamb shanks. Back at home, I followed Capon’s recipe as best I could. I cut the lamb pieces, sauteed them in oil, added the vegetables and broth, seasoning it with cheap wine and herbs as instructed. And yes, we did end up with the best lamb stew any of us had ever tasted. But we may have gotten more from Capon’s reflections on Christ, our Passover lamb.

Here’s mom, Debbie Rexer.

DEBBIE REXER: Think about the priests eating that meat and what a vivid picture that is, like connecting with what you’re saying. There has to be a death for us to live. And that death occurred because of our sin, but it’s also what gives life to the priests and those who partake of that meal.

Still, after hours of feasting, laughter, and serious reflection, our dinner party eventually came to an end.

WHITTEN: Thank y’all. It was delicious. Thanks for doing this project…

But the meal, along with Capon’s writing, left us even more hungry for that final Supper of the Lamb.

I’m Emily Whitten.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, April 5th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Here’s commentator Whitney Williams on the rewards of spending a few nights under the stars—even when the cost seems a little high.

WHITNEY WILLIAMS, COMMENTATOR: We almost gave up on our family camping trip, thinking it might not be worth the effort. The packing list alone left me exhausted—we’d need the tent, five sleeping bags, five pillows, and extra blankets because it was supposed to be cold at night. We’d need cooking supplies, food, s'mores stuff, firewood, clothes for warm weather, clothes for cold weather, fishing poles, hooks, tackle. We’d need an ice chest, air mattresses, charcoal. Our three boys wanted to bring their bikes. How was all of that going to fit in the truck?

To top it all off, the campground was several hours away, weekends are way too short, and some events leading up to our planned departure had left my husband and me extremely frustrated. OK, so we were yelling at one another.

“Why don’t we just stay home?!” he said in frustration.

Taking it as a direct attack, I popped back: “Not hurtin’ my feelings.”

AUDIO: [Sound of boys playing and campfire]

Less than 24 hours later, the tent was staked down, the campfire was crackling, and sounds of boyhood glee flitted up from the nearby river. Smoke from individual campfires melded together in the pine tree tops, accentuating scattered rays of sunlight. My husband and I shared a long, forgiving, and grateful embrace.

AUDIO: [Sound of water running, voices]

And to think, we almost missed it all: Powerful rapids winding through jagged, rocky cliffs, quieter streams speckled with fly fishermen … the beauty of a brown trout—its name betraying its golden belly and bright red spots. We almost missed our twins’ first horseback ride, downed trees doubling as bridges, sharing a cup of percolated coffee and morning breath with nearby campers turned temporary friends.

AUDIO: [Sound of frogs chirping]

I almost relinquished a son of mine falling asleep in my arms, fireside, to a lullaby of chirping frogs, thinking that our camping trip might not be worth the effort.

Throughout the weekend outdoors, I caught my eldest son humming to himself, totally carefree. Worship songs whispered across my lips without thought, my soul stirred by the beauty that surrounded me. In certain moments I thought about nothing at all. I was just there. Fully present, not tempted by the laundry, a list of to-dos, or another episode of Lone Star Law.

Now, don’t get me wrong—the weekend wasn’t totally picturesque. We never showered. The tooth fairy couldn’t locate our tent. Two out of three air mattresses continually deflated. We shivered through the first night and one set of neighbors whooped and hollered into the early hours of the morning. The marshmallows for our smores united as one on the dashboard of our truck and our barbless fishing hooks and neon worms continually hung up in moss covered river rocks. Evenstill, our family couldn’t help but sing God’s praises.

On the drive home, my iPhone selected songs at random for our family to enjoy. “Indescribable” by Chris Tomlin followed by “How Great Thou Art” by Carrie Underwood just about did me in as I recounted scenes from our weekend.

While we drove past farmland and freeways, I looked out the window and wondered: How many blessings do we miss out on because we don’t feel like packing up the figurative truck?

I’m Whitney Williams.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Hunter Biden’s laptop. We’ll get the latest on a growing scandal involving the president’s son.

And, foster care in Philadelphia. We’ll visit with Christian agencies that sued the state over religious liberty rights and won.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The seventh commandment: You shall not commit adultery.

Go now in grace and peace.

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