The World and Everything in It - May 19, 2022

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

President Biden wants to crack down on guns put together from parts you can buy online without a background check. Will that reduce crime?

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also COVID masks and isolation took their toll on babies and toddlers. We’ll hear how and what to do about it.

Plus what do people do all day?

And commentator Cal Thomas on truth versus propaganda.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, May 19th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

REICHARD: Now the news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Russian soldier pleads guilty to war crime » A 21-year-old Russian soldier pleaded guilty to war crimes on Wednesday for gunning down an unarmed civilian. He is the first Russian soldier to do so.

Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin could get life in prison for shooting a 62-year-old Ukrainian man in the head through an open car window. It happened in the northeastern Sumy region on Feb. 28th, just four days into the invasion.

Ukrainian prosecutors say they’re readying war crimes cases against 41 Russian soldiers. The offenses include bombing civilian infrastructure, killing civilians, rape, and looting.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday said Russia’s invasion has upended the global order.

HARRIS: Fundamental principles are under threat, principles that are well grounded in the belief that sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations must be respected.

Sweden, Finland leaders meet with Biden as they seek NATO membership » Meantime, in Washington, leaders from Finland and Sweden are meeting with President Biden today.

Both countries decided to apply for NATO membership after generations of remaining neutral.

Swedish Ambassador to the United States Karin Olofsdotter said…

OLOFSDOTTER: The attack on the Ukraine on the 24th of February changed everything for us. We realized that the security arrangements that we have had and that we have built up for so long, they are not enough anymore.

But to add new members to the security alliance, all existing members must agree unanimously. Turkey is the only member voicing an objection.

Secretary of State Tony Blinken met with his counterpart from Turkey about the issue on Wednesday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu sent mixed messages during the meeting at UN headquarters.

He affirmed his country’s support for NATO’s “open-door” policy in allowing new members. But he also repeated President Recep Tyyip Erdogan’s demands that Sweden and Finland address his security concerns.

White House National security adviser Jake Sullivan said he believes it will all work out.

SULLIVAN: We’re confident that at the end of the day, Finland and Sweden will have an effective and efficient accession process, that Turkey’s concerns can be addressed. Finland and Sweden are working directly with Turkey to do this, but we’re also talking to the Turks to help facilitate.

Erdogan says Finland and Sweden have not been tough enough on Kurdish militias, which Turkey considers to be terrorist groups.

It’s unclear exactly what changes Turkey might demand in exchange for approving the NATO applications.

Ex-cop pleads guilty in Floyd case » A former Minneapolis police officer pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge related to the death of George Floyd. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Thomas Lane struck a deal with prosecutors, agreeing to plead guilty to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

As part of that deal, the state will drop a count of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder.

Lane and former Officers J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao have already been convicted on federal counts of willfully violating Floyd's rights.

In May 2020, Lane and Kueng helped to restrain Floyd, who was handcuffed. Lane held down Floyd’s legs and Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back.

Thao kept bystanders from intervening.

The state and Lane's attorneys agreed to a recommended sentence of three years, which is below state sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors also agreed to allow him to serve that sentence at the same time as any federal sentence he might get in a pending case.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

PA Republican Senate primary still undecided » In Pennsylvania, it could be weeks before Republicans declare a winner in Tuesday’s Senate primary.

Celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz, who was backed by Donald Trump, leads by two-tenths of one percent over Dave McCormick.

But thousands of absentee ballots are still trickling in. And the race is likely headed to a recount.

That could push the process into early June.

South Carolina passes ‘Save Women’s Sports Act’ » South Carolina’s governor has signed a bill preventing student athletes who are biologically male from competing against females in school sports. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has that story.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Republican Gov. Henry McMaster this week signed the Save Women’s Sports Act into law.

It prevents transgender athletes who are biologically male from taking part in girls’ and women’s school sports in South Carolina.

GOP leaders in the state say the law is aimed at ensuring a fair playing field for girls and women.

GOP state Representative R.J. May said, “Men have a biological advantage on the sports playing field, their bones are bigger, their lungs have more capacity, they’re built differently.”

He added, “We’ve seen this in the increasing examples of males dominating girls’ athletic competitions when competing as females, capturing championships, and shattering long-standing female track records.”

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: tightening regulations on gun kits.

Plus, the short-lived office of government propaganda.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 19th of May, 2022.

You’re listening to today’s edition of The World and Everything in It and we’re so glad to have you along today! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up: gun kits.

Owning a gun is legal in the United States. But the process for buying one involves a fair amount of regulation. The government tracks most gun sales and requires background checks on people buying them.

REICHARD: But that only applies to fully functioning guns. People who buy parts and build the guns themselves don’t face the same level of scrutiny. And the Biden administration says that’s a problem.

WORLD’s Josh Schumacher reports.

BIDEN: A felon, a terrorist, a domestic abuser could go from a gun kit to a gun in as little as 30 minutes.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: Last month, President Biden announced a new rule from the Department of Justice cracking down on so-called “ghost guns.”

BIDEN: When they show up at a crime scene, they can’t be traced. Harder to find or prove who used them. I mean you can’t connect the gun to the shooter and hold them accountable.

Gun kits include 80 percent of the key parts necessary to make a working gun. Because they’re not legally considered firearms, they aren’t subject to the same kind of regulation.

The new rule requires gun kit parts to have serial numbers, so they can be traced. And it mandates background checks for people buying them. The president says that will reduce the number of untraceable guns used in violent crime.

But gun rights advocates say the new rules won’t actually make Americans safer.

Trevor Burrus is a research fellow at the Cato Institute.

BURRUS: In reality, these guns, these so-called “ghost guns,” are not really being used as much as the administration is purporting to. And even if you made them disappear you're not going to functionally save almost any life.

According to the Biden administration, investigators recovered 20,000 “ghost guns” last year at crime scenes across the country. That’s a 10-fold increase since 20-16. And that has law enforcement agencies from Boston to San Francisco worried.

But it still represents just a fraction of the total number of guns used in crimes last year. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms traced nearly 400,000 guns recovered by investigators in 2021. And that’s just the ones police turned over for tracing.

Trevor Burrus notes criminals rarely buy guns through legal channels. They steal them or buy them on the black market. Or, they use “straw purchases”—asking someone with no criminal record to get the gun for them.

Burrus says it’s almost impossible to regulate guns in a way that will prevent criminals from getting their hands on them.

BURRUS: There's just a lot of guns out there. And whatever we think about gun policy, that's a really important starting premise, because that's not going to change. It's just, it's probably about 400 million guns in the country, we have no idea how many guns there are. But you couldn't even, if you somehow eliminated half of those guns, you would still have an unbelievable amount of guns in this country.

And Burrus says the new rule doesn’t even focus on the type of firearm most often used in gun deaths.

BURRUS: If we're going to have a serious conversation about gun deaths in this country, and when I say gun deaths, I am including both suicides, which is about 60 percent of gun deaths in America, and interpersonal homicide, shooting of someone else. And almost all of those are committed with handguns.

The new rule is intended to make gun kits less appealing to criminals by making them traceable. But it places a high burden on gun manufacturers and sellers. Amy Swearer is a legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

SWEARER: That's going to be a whole lot of paperwork for any gun store, gunsmith, that gets one of these privately made un-serialized firearms, and then has to say, look, in order for me to take this, I've got to get it engraved, I've got to do all the paperwork on this. And then I've got to retain those records, you know, up until the day the store closes, whether it's tomorrow, or 10 years or 10 decades from now.

Gun sellers previously had to keep sales records for 20 years. Now, businesses have to keep them for as long as they’re in business. That adds up to a lot of records business can’t afford to lose.

SWEARER: It increases the likelihood that you're going to have, you know, otherwise lawful, well intentioned, peaceable gun sellers, who are now going to be hit over the head for infractions, because they couldn't afford to keep 12 stores worth of paper records over the course of, you know, six decades, sitting in their storage facility.

Cato’s Trevor Burrus says none of this will stop at-risk people and hardened criminals from getting their hands on firearms. He says that’s true of any law seeking to regulate guns directly.

The better option, Burrus says, would be to address the root causes of crime itself.

BURRUS: I think it'd be better to look at sort of social causes of crime, you have to ask why people commit crimes in the first place. Not trying to figure out, what is the gun that did the previous crime that was in the news, and then going after that gun, as if it will do anything to sort of save lives next time. Because it really won't.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Up next: the impact of COVID-19 and how the response to it has affected the very youngest Americans.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: The pandemic disrupted everyone’s life to some degree over the past couple of years. And scientists are still trying to figure out the impact it’s had—and the impact it’s still having—on children.

Even more, new evidence suggests babies and toddlers face new developmental hurdles.

EICHER: Studies show that they are talking less and could face more reading and academic challenges going forward.

Joining us now to unpack these new findings is Dr. Rosemary Stein. She’s a pediatrician and has been for the past 25 years and is the director of the International Family Clinic in Burlington, North Carolina. She is also the author of the book Who Needs a Village? It’s a Mom Thing.

REICHARD: Doctor, good morning!

ROSEMARY STEIN, GUEST: Good morning! I’m so glad we get to speak about this very impactful topic.

REICHARD: You say that at your clinic, you’ve been seeing strange behavior in children since COVID restrictions started. What do you mean by that?

STEIN: Well, they’re not engaging. So they’re not looking at their friends' eyes. They’re not looking at the parents’ or adults’ eyes when they’re talking. They mumble to themselves and they say things that nobody can understand what they're trying to communicate, but then they get very frustrated because nobody understands them. So it's like we're sparking our own autism in our younger children.

REICHARD: Forbes had an interesting article recently pointing to a couple of studies of COVID-era babies that used a fascinating piece of technology. It is called a “talk pedometer.” That kind of sounds like a Fitbit for your mouth! What exactly is it?

STEIN: Well, to tell you the truth, I had not heard about it before. Because as a pediatrician, I just sit and listen to the interaction the child has, because the mom can tell me he's not speaking well, but I can't assess that in a short amount of time. So I just let the child interact with me and talk. And so I have my own talk pedometer in my head. I didn't realize that we were putting recording devices on children and seeing the turns of the conversations, but that does make some sense.

But what it amounts to is that you can tell the babbling or the speaking with few or little words that a child is doing. So there'll be a little interval when you talk to a child, there'll be a little interval and then the child talks or babbles back. And so if that child is not engaging, or has increased risk of let's say, autism, that child will have a longer interval or will not respond. It's very unusual for a child, let's say even six to seven months, if you talk to him or you engage with them, they will respond if not with a noise, with a facial gesture. And so children today are not responding at the pre-COVID level, let's say. So it's taking a little longer, it's taking me longer to engage with them. I really emphasize being able to look at the patient's face, having him look at me. I try not to wear masks with my patients so that we engage and they can trust me. But that little turnaround time that they're talking about when they talk about the talk pedometer is what you can capture with this lag in being able to communicate with a toddler or even an infant.

REICHARD: You know I wonder about face masks that have been in use over the past couple of years, it’s been tougher to see people’s faces; I know I can’t hear people when I can’t lip read really, babies need to read facial expressions, they need to see our faces. How big of a role do you think masks played in these delays?

STEIN: I think a lot and the fact that almost all infants, when they're in the company of adults, many of these adults have masks on. And so the baby cannot gauge facial expressions—just like you said—can't understand the words or even understand whether it's a well-intentioned adult or maybe somebody that you should be cautious about. All of these things the child is picking up on—even to the age of six months. The first thing a baby does is they turn around when they go into a new environment. They turn around and they look at you because they’re trying to figure things out. This is all a learning process to them, but with all of our faces being covered up, I would say that 50% or less of the learning experience for your child is going to be there.

REICHARD: What do parents, family members, and teachers need to do to help children develop these communication skills and perhaps make up for lost time?

STEIN: The first thing is that we need to disengage from our phones. While we're on our phones and on our electronic devices, we're not with our children, and our children need us more now than ever. So that’s the first thing is dedicate that time to foster your family and your children directly, to speak with them, to make sure that you're talking directly into their faces, and have them respond to you. And when they're a little bit speech delayed, you work on that with them and seek consultation with your pediatrician, if needed. But you are the best speech therapists, mom and dads. So that would be the first thing.

And then, you know, just around the table—make sure you have an 'around the table,' even if it's a toddler in an infant seat—so that you're all engaged and you're talking and they can see all the expressions around the table as you do. These are all the things that we have left behind with COVID that will be very necessary for our children.

It's not as important to me what happens outside of the home as what happens inside the home. So if we know that these disturbances, let's say, are happening outside of the home, then let's try to make our home the most normal possible. Look at magazines and books of how children were raised maybe in the 1950s and 1960s sitting at the table talking to each other, engaging, and you will bring back that time. He or she will use all of their experiences to put them together to be a healthy child. But mom and dads, it's really going to be dependent on how much you engage with this child.

REICHARD: We’ve been talking with Dr. Rosemary Stein. Our thanks to the Christian Medical and Dental Associations for connecting us. And Dr. thanks so much for your time!

STEIN: Thank you. It’s a pleasure!

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, May 19th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Quick reminder that the merry month of May is WORLD’s new-donor drive. We know that hundreds of thousands listen, and we’re grateful that you do. But we also know that only a fraction of that larger group provides the support needed to produce this program. If you listen but haven’t yet made a gift of support, I’d remind you that during this week, we still have two days left for your gift to be doubled. A regular donor has committed to match dollar for dollar every gift from a new donor that comes in this week. So that’s today and tomorrow to make a double impact. Please visit WNG.org/newdonor and make your first-ever gift.

REICHARD: And thanks very much. Well, coming next on The World and Everything in It: another in our occasional series, What Do People Do All Day?

About seven years ago a man in Texas began considering retirement options. He wanted to be productive. Do something that meets a need. And make a really good pizza crust. So, he opened a grain mill.

EICHER: Right, talk about meeting a need! And he’s doing it by drawing from the past, going back to the time when the lives of the farmer, miller, and baker were not so far removed from one another.

WORLD reporter Bonnie Pritchett tells his story.

REPORTER, BONNIE PRITCHETT: James Brown has a PhD in historical musicology. He has a culinary degree. But when he wanted to open a small grain mill as his retirement gig, his only teachers were other millers, books, and experience.

BROWN: There's no school for the sort of artisan milling we're doing. I mean, we on day one, just turn the mills on and started wrecking some wheat until we figured it out…

One thing he “figured out” was that from seed to bread to brew, doing things the old way was best. Several hundred tons of grain later, his farmers and chefs seem to agree.

BROWN: Let’s find out what they’re unloading back here…

Walking through the storage wing of Barton Springs Mill Brown identifies the grains stored on the shelves.

BROWN: These here are corn that we're milling for brewers and distillers. These over here that on the second row that are in the blue bags. This is grain that we're milling for culinary, either retail or wholesale. We go through about 400 to 450 tons a year. And each of these bags holds about 2500 pounds. And you started milling how much? 1000 pounds a week.

BROWN: This is Keith. He’s our lead miller…What are we getting?

KEITH KOELER: We’ve got our buckwheat.

BROWN: Oh, sweet!

AUDIO: [SOUND OF FORKLIFT STARTING AND MOVING]

Keith Koehler mounts the forklift and offloads two pallets of buckwheat that just arrived from Trilla, Illinois. Brown hasn’t found a Texas farmer to raise that crop. But that’s his goal for the Central Texas mill—to produce organic, regionally sourced grains for the region’s chefs, bakers, and distillers.

Brown selects the grains he wants grown and partners with regional organic farmers to raise it. He picked the grains from an old catalog, of sorts.

BROWN: I did have something called the 1919 Wheat Classification where they, state by state, tallied up the wheat that was being grown in those regions by variety. So, that was a touchstone for us to go back and say, okay, these varieties were growing here in 1919. That doesn't necessarily mean they will grow here now. But it's a good, it's a good starting point…

Some of those seeds he got from farmers in the United States and Canada.

BROWN: The Mediterranean that we're growing the soft Mediterranean wheat and the Quanah, we had to go to the U.S. gene plasm bank for those.

That’s the Agricultural Genetic Resources Preservation Research facility in Fort Collins, Colorado. It collects and preserves plant and animal genetic material, keeping it safe from natural or man-made cataclysms.

BROWN: We started with eight varieties that no one was growing on the face of the planet when we first opened the mill. And we now have four of those in broad production…

AUDIO: [COMPRESSOR MOTOR RUNNING]

All that grain must be ground—just so—in one of the two stone mills imported from Europe. They’re made of beautiful, pale, knot-free pine. The design is simple—grains are hand-loaded into the hopper crowning the mill. They funnel down through a regulated opening that controls how much grain is fed into the mill.

This morning, Koehler is using the larger mill to grind Blue Beard Durum into semolina for a local chef.

Brown explains the process.

BROWN: So, you have a bed stone here, this lower stone that's stationary, and the upper stone stones what's inside this enclosure spins…

AUDIO: [MILL STARTING]

BROWN: And at first there's a there's a pattern that's cut into the stones; it will essentially have the effect of shearing or clipping the wheat. And as the grain works its way out to the perimeter, that pattern goes out to zero so it starts out sharing and then grinding…

AUDIO: [BANGING SOUND COMING FROM THE MILL]

The stones aren’t supposed to make that sound. Brown, Koehler and an apprentice miller look for the cause of the malfunction. There is no one else who can.

BROWN: All right, we have to make it work. So we just have to effect repairs ourselves and that means fixing mishaps and also wear and tear…

Brown is grateful for the millers who have shared their expertise with him. But the daily grind of mill operations often requires on-the-job training—for everyone. Turns out the mill stones had been knocked out of alignment.

AUDIO: [ENTERING MILLING ROOM (VOICE: Are we ready to rock?)]

About 45 minutes later, with the stones realigned, the semolina milling proceeds.

AUDIO: [MILL STARTING]

Koehler pulls a lever at the bottom of the mill that diverts some of the milled Durham into his hand.

BROWN: He's getting a sample, and he's looking at it for what's ...we call particle size distribution. Not only the size of the grain. Yeah, that looks not bad. He's probably gonna say that's still a little a little large…

Koehler adjusts the grind and draws another sample.

BROWN: Wow, that really looks pretty. And really, the bran’s coming off very nicely. I think they're gonna love that. I think we start with that…

The small-scale milling enterprise allows Brown to know his customers and their preferences. And it gives farmers the opportunity to see and taste the fruit of their labor.

Kind of how things used to be.

BROWN: Some of them were working with big mills, you know, a truck showed up, took all the wheat and it went away and then they never heard another thing. And now I can bring them a loaf of bread or stick a loaf of bread in the mail and overnight it to them. I mean, I have one farmer who's let's see 68 and he'd never had a product ever made with the wheat that he'd been raising his entire life. And so it's a pretty powerful thing to behold. Yeah, and very rewarding.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett in Dripping Springs, Texas.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Thursday, May 19th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security launched a new initiative called the Disinformation Governance Board. It immediately caused an uproar over potential challenges to free speech. On Wednesday, DHS put the project on hold—at least for now.

EICHER: Like many people, commentator Cal Thomas said it was a bad idea from the get-go.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: As with many things, propaganda can be used for good or ill, depending on who dispenses it. During World War II, American propaganda was considered a necessary tool in the pursuit of victory in a moral cause. Germany and Japan had their own propaganda machines to advance an evil agenda.

Joseph Goebbels headed the Nazi propaganda effort. He’s credited with coining the term “The Big Lie.” It means if you tell a lie often enough, people will come to believe it’s true. Japan aimed propaganda at American forces through several women called “Tokyo Rose.” Their messages were aimed at demoralizing troops by claiming they were losing the war. Most soldiers who listened on their radios treated it as entertainment.

In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin employed newspapers, Pravda and Izvestia, and TV “news” shows to lie to his people. He and his successors used jamming devices to block signals from Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Liberty. The Soviet leaders didn’t want the truth to reach Russian ears.

Now comes the announcement of a new office within the Department of Homeland Security to police “disinformation” and “misinformation.” Some critics are comparing it to the fictitious “Ministry of Truth” in George Orwell’s novel 1984.

Why would anyone believe the U.S. government—or any government—could be an arbiter of what is true and what is false? A brief trip down recent memory lane should dispel such misplaced faith.

Dwight Eisenhower lied about U-2 flights over Russia. John F. Kennedy lied about a “missile gap” between the United States and the Soviet Union. Lyndon Johnson lied about the Gulf of Tonkin incident that got us more deeply into the “big muddy” of Vietnam. Richard Nixon lied about Watergate. Ronald Reagan lied about aid to the Contras in Nicaragua. George H.W. Bush lied about not raising taxes. Bill Clinton lied about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Barack Obama lied when he said, “if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor.” The Washington Post calculated Donald Trump made more than 30,000 false or misleading claims over four years! They can’t all be “fake news.” And now we have President Biden, who lies about how well the economy is doing and whose Secretary of Homeland Security lies about the southern border being secure.

Americans who are unsure about what is true and what is not have plenty of places to look for information independent of any administration. As history has shown, those in power understandably have a personal and political interest in the public believing only what they tell us.

I’m Cal Thomas.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow on Culture Friday, we’ll talk about the white supremacist massacre in Buffalo.

And, Downton Abbey. This time in the scenic south of France. We’ll tell you whether it’s a film that’s worth your time.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

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WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.