An assistant principal read the children’s book ‘I Need a New Butt!’ to second graders. He was fired.

https://wapo.st/35Qi6Av (WaPo, No Paywall)

When a guest who was scheduled to read to second graders over Zoom earlier this month didn’t show up, Toby Price, the assistant principal at a Mississippi elementary school, improvised.

Price’s boss at Gary Road Elementary School suggested Price read to the students, so he reached for one of his favorite children’s books: “I Need a New Butt!” written by Dawn McMillan and illustrated by Ross Kinnaird.

“It’s a funny, silly book,” Price, 46, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “I’m a firm believer that … if kids see that books can be funny and silly, they’ll hang around long enough to see all the other cool things that books can be.”

The students “thought it was hilarious,” Price recalled. But the superintendent for the Hinds County School District near Jackson, Miss., did not, and about an hour after the event, Price was placed on administrative leave. Two days later, on March 4, he was fired.

On Telegram and other platforms, cracks are appearing in the official Russian narrative

WaPo, no paywall: https://wapo.st/3trzu6g

While Vladimir Putin’s military lays siege to Kyiv, his propaganda organs at home are waging an impossible war to simultaneously hide and justify the invasion of Ukraine. Despite the Russian president’s reputation as a master media strategist, his government is losing the propaganda war — and fast.

His propaganda assault is monotonous. The news is full of references to the “special military operation” — a term that is as tedious in Russian as it is in translation. While the sense of war pervades this media space, it is never named as such: The conflict is supposedly between the West, which has insidiously spread anti-Russian and “fascist” oppression, and the innocent people of Ukraine; Russia and its armies are absent from the battlefield.

But look beyond the state’s social media sphere, and cracks begin to emerge. Only 47 percent of younger Russians profess support for the war. More active on independent or foreign-owned platforms such as Instagram and the messaging service Telegram, they are expressing support for Ukraine and hearing anti-government views.

Telegram, which allows total anonymity and provides strong encryption, has thus far proved unblockable by the government. It has in recent years increasingly been used as an organizing space for anti-government protest. Opening one of an array of Russian-language Telegram channels — some with subscriber counts in the millions — gives Russians easy access to a counternarrative.

Source: New York Times, No Paywall

‘I Just Can’t Stand By’: American Veterans Join the Fight in Ukraine

“Sanctions can help, but sanctions can’t help right now, and people need help right now,” said the former Marine, who lives in Tampa Bay, Fla., and like other veterans interviewed for this article asked that only his first name be used for security reasons. “I can help right now.”

All across the United States, small groups of military veterans are gathering, planning and getting passports in order. After years of serving in smoldering occupations, trying to spread democracy in places that had only a tepid interest in it, many are hungry for what they see as a righteous fight to defend freedom against an autocratic aggressor with a conventional and target-rich army.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/05/us/american-veterans-volunteer-ukraine-russia.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DODm4fiPkORIGF9l3MbqNlIsU-wzmBTdladaEoQOF00uJSJQlwSBOho52J3Y4YOD40oMSzQmYyldrrbIwPzAXLPCO_Ofstg_q2pQ6HOzy9RvDc03J2JgxjvcBicVm13SAClbOWG-QlxoN63P8lUpF7QjYHYzKY_KW9U2UIM9SMZxvd7AA9SrsZDWmVxYjAnupGJAZCClvGT2d943I-7L5fOtAUOqX-J30waZa0wOVRWiEzctDfV9BmTJPUlr5qrbfLtRWKrcK3zP0zH69f16jWQPvthI0gX2YQh6tj-YgAEg&smid=url-share