WHY UKRAINE IS IMPORTANT

First some bad and good news about COVID-19.  The Omicron sub-variant B-A2 (now known as the Stealth Omicron) that showed signs of being more contagious than the Omicron variant B-A1, is indeed more infectious.  Maybe by a factor of 1.5.  But this virus is having some difficulty finding people to attack because only the unvaccinated are left...and if you haven't gotten your shots, stay away from anything that moves and get vaccinated as soon as you can.  The good news is that one booster appears to be resistant to serious illness for a much longer period than initially feared.  Plus, this booster is effective against B-A2.

Well, Russia did enter Ukraine, although it's not quite war yet because the troops only encroached into the Russian separatist region, which is pro-Putin.  Of course the U.S. and European Union condemned the move, but the worry now is what next, then what about Taiwan?  

The Russia-China partnership is looking more and more like the Axis Power formed by Germany, Italy and Japan in World War II.  But this time the goals are limited only to Ukraine and Taiwan...not the World.

Someone sent me the following copypasta: Why does Ukraine matter?  I first went to Snopes, and they said they were checking into the 30 entries and will file a report later today.  I looked into a few of them and they seem about right, save for at least one.  Here is a map of what minerals they have.  Ukraine ranks:

• 1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores (in thousand tons):
• Australia  1,781
• Kazakstan  942
• Canada  704
• Namibia  463
• South Africa  449
• Russia  395
• China  366
• #8  Ukraine 220
• USA  138

• 2nd place in Europe and 9th place in the world in terms of titanium production (in thousand tons):
• China  3,830
• Australia  1,513
• Mozambique  1,070
• The USA has around 10% of the ores, but no real production.
• Canada  1,030
• South Africa  743
• #9  Ukraine  492
• 2nd place in the world in terms of explored reserves of manganese ores (2.3 billion tons, or 12% of the world's reserves) and #8 in world production at 390,000 tons...but South Africa produces 6,200,000 tons/year.
• #7 in world production of magnesium with 19,000 tons...but China produces 1,020,000 tons/year.
• 2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world (30 billion tons):  WRONG
• Ukraine has 6.5 billion tons and is #5.
• #1 is Australia with 48 billion tons.
• 2nd place in Europe in terms of mercury ore reserves.
• 3rd place in Europe (13th place in the world) in shale gas reserves (22 trillion cubic meters).
• 4th in the world by the total value of natural resources;.
• 7th place in the world in coal reserves (33.9 billion tons).
• 
  Ukraine is an agricultural country:
• 1st in Europe in terms of arable land area.
• 3rd place in the world by the area of black soil (25% of world's volume).
• 1st place in the world in exports of sunflower and sunflower oil.

• 
  2nd place in the world in barley production and 4th place in barley exports
• 3rd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of corn in the world.
• 4th largest producer of potatoes in the world.
• 5th largest rye producer in the world.
• 5th place in the world in bee production (75,000 tons).
• 8th place in the world in wheat exports.
• 9th place in the world in the production of chicken eggs.
• 16th place in the world in cheese exports.
• Ukraine can meet the food needs of 600 million people.
• 
  Ukraine is an industrialized country:
• 1st in Europe in ammonia production.
• 4th largest natural gas pipeline system in the world (142.5 bln cubic meters of gas throughput capacity in the EU).
• 3rd largest in Europe and 8th largest in the world in terms of installed capacity of nuclear power plants.  Remember Chernobyl?
• 3rd place in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of rail network length (21,700 km).
• 3rd place in the world (after the U.S. and France) in production of locators and locating equipment.
• 3rd largest iron exporter in the world.
• 4th largest exporter of turbines for nuclear power plants in the world.
• 4th world's largest manufacturer of rocket launchers

It goes on and on.  If the Snopes review is significant, I'll later return to let you know.  For now, you can see why Russia wants Ukraine.

As I'm sitting at my computer, I see a beautiful rainbow over Honolulu:

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