Marathon Pundit

Monday, February 28, 2022

1 killed, a 16-year-old boy, and at least 13 others wounded in Chicago over weekend

In the last weekend in February there was one fatal shooting, which killed a 16-year-old boy in the River North neighborhood at 2am this morning. At least thirteen others were wounded in other weekend shootings.

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Photos from the protest of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in Chicago's Ukrainian Village (some pics NSFW)

This afternoon there was a protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine at Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church in Chicago.

Warning, some of these photographs are not-safe-for-work or not images you want little ones to see.

The beautiful house of worship is located in heart of the Ukrainian Village neighborhood on Chicago's Northwest Side. I know many Ukrainian-Americans--they are stout hard-working people.

Chicago is blessed with America's second largest Ukranian-American community, only New York's is bigger.

On one level the location was ideal--but Ukrainian Village has a parking problem on most days and it was hard to get a good view of the rally. I had to climb on top of a grease trap dumpster to get a good view. And unless you were within 100 yards of the church it was difficult to hear the speakers, which included Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Governor J.B. Pritzker.

Follow up rallies--and don't get me wrong--this was an effective one--should be held in a larger location, such as Daley Plaza or Grant Park.

My guess is that there were at least 3,000 protesters at the rally.

Last week a group of Ukrainian soldiers told the crew of a Russian naval ship that demanded the surrender of Snake Island in the Black Sea, "Russian warship, go fuck yourself." Initial reports that all thirteen of the soldiers were killed, but they may still be alive.

The war is not even a week old and the Ukrainians already have their battle cry.

One way to end this war is to kill Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. Hey, who started this war? Certainly not Ukraine.

This wasn't a "mostly peaceful protest." It was a completely peaceful protest.

Poo-tin. Yes, Poo-tin.

With a tip of the hat to movie director Sam Peckinpah, "Bring me the head of Vladimir Putin."

Comparisons to Adolf Hitler, even in regard to thugs, is generally a foolish endeavor. In this case, here we see Hitler telling Putin, "I am proud of you, Vlad." Hitler's justification to seize the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia were fabricated attacks on ethnic Germans there. Putin used a similar casus belli regarding Russian-majority regions in eastern Ukraine to attack his western neighbor.

So yeah, Putin is a 21st century Hitler.

"Hands off Ukraine, Putler."

More than one million Ukrainian Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.

Nyet, nyet Soviet Devil.

Regular readers of Marathon Pundit know that Mrs. Marathon Pundit emigrated to the USA from Latvia. Another Latvian-American, a Michigan resident, tipped us off about the protest. Thank you!

Latvians suffered terribly during the fifty-year occupation by the Soviet Union. They are justifiably concerned about Putin's war.

South of Latvia is fellow NATO member Lithuania. That nation also endured horrible brutalities after its forced annexation to the USSR in 1940.

"NATO close the sky." There were many protest signs calling for NATO to protect Ukrainian airspace from Russian airplanes.

There have been anti-war protests across Russia. Here are some Russian at the rally who oppose Putin's war.

While there were no signs calling for direct American military involvement there were many rally signs calling for a greater involvement by the United States.

By many accounts Putin wishes to recreate the Soviet Union, or even the Russian Empire.

Of course, I just had to sneak in one more "Russian warship go fuck yourself" sign. Notice the "SS" bolts, which were used by Hitler's Schutzstaffel, better known in the rest of the world as the SS.