The Seagull's last flight

The Seagull

The Seagull is very sensitive to wind. It will move to left or right following the wind. This is because unlike most other kites, its surface area is on both sides (its wings) and not on the body — it can be unbalanced easily. It is very dynamic, unlike other kites that generally stay stationary. Also, it is best to fly it slightly higher in case it gets into a spin and need some space to recover.

(Apparently the Seagull has a detachable tail that will stabilize it. I never used it. :-P)

Needs class 3 wind. It needs a little bit more wind due to its smallish surface area, even though its wingspan is 1.4 m.

The Seagull flew for the last time due to my carelessness. A cloth part holding a metal rod in its wing was torn. I did not keep the kite in its bag but I just folded it and carried it to my car. When I got home, I found the metal rod had slide out.

Bought for S$11 in 2021, costs $14.50 now.

Other kites

The Robot

The Robot is big, 1.9 m across, but it is super easy to fly. The reason is its large surface area. If needed, it can double up as an umbrella.

Needs class 2 wind.

S$18. The shop selling it, Kite Culture, is still around.

Fighter Plane

Another easy-to-fly kite due to its large surface area. Its width is 1.45 m. It has a permanently attached tail, though I feel it is not needed. There are blue and red models, the blue one looks nicer, but I got the red one because I thought blue would blend into the sky. I should have gotten the blue one.

Needs class 2 wind.

This design is so ugly, I should not have gotten it. It is hard to find a plane kite that I like. I don't want single-color ones, nor too realistic ones, especially in grey color. Too cartoony is also out.

Bought for S$5.70 in 2022, costs ~$7.60 now.

Sailing Ship

I remembered I went to Marina Barrage one time and saw many kites being flown. One of them was very memorable. How could such an un-aerodynamic ship fly in the wind?

I have always wanted to own one since.

How does it manage to fly? It actually has quite a large surface area — it has four sails on each side.

Surprisingly, it is cheap, but it is quite hard to assemble. I'll recommend to pre-assemble it in case the site is windy — ask me how I know. It also needs mildly strong wind (class 4) to fly.

The size is 82 cm (L) x 74 cm (W) x 90 cm (H).

While I like the ship design, I don't like its colorful sails. I want something more normal looking. It also does not look as good when flying. The reason is that it tilts upwards significantly instead of being level — maybe solvable by adjusting the string.

It has a detachable tail that helps to stabilize it, but it flies just as well without it — it is well-balanced.

The frame is made of polyester, but the sails feel like thin nylon cloth.

Bought for S$19.60 in 2021, costs ~S$25 now.

Biplane

This was my first foray into 3D kites. This is a very unique design. Need class 5 wind? No problem, Marina Barrage is always very windy. (*)

(*) Not really.

I never managed to succesfully fly this kite even once. There was either not enough wind, or the plane was super unstable and would crash immediately. I then realized 3D kites, while they look nice, tend to be less aerodynamic and harder to fly. But this kite takes the cake. Till this day, I'm not entirely convinced it can fly. This kite is heavy. I feel there is not enough surface area to support its weight — its width is only 85 cm. Maybe it'll fly if it is made from lighter nylon cloth instead of cheap polyester.

I also read that the tail needs to be attached for the kite to be balanced. I tried it, it did not help.

Some assembly is needed. It is not complex, but there are more steps than other simple kites.

Bought for S$25.40 in 2021, available for S$14.50 now.

Democracy is so flawed

Democracy does not work with 1-person 1-vote and first-past-the-goalpost.

For 1-person 1-vote to work, everyone must be an equal. Unfortunately, it is not outside of small groups.

'Special interest' groups will form naturally. It is possible to pander to some groups at the expense of others.

First-past-the-goalpost is the worst aspect of voting. 50.01% wins the election? It is difficult to get 60% majority nowadays.

And let's not kid ourselves, voting can be gamed. USA is the best example:

• Mass import of illegal immigrants (who will vote for the side helping them)
• No id checking (by right non-citizens are not allowed to vote)
• Proxy votes (increase turnout for your side)
• Partisan election officials

Reforms

The more social benefit you receive, the less your vote should count. This prevents pandering to the poor, which is very easy to do by throwing money at them — it is not even the politician's own money.

More than one representative can be elected, until 75% of the total eligible electors are represented, provided each wins at least 20%. Their voting power is proportional to their win ratio. They don't have voting power from people who don't vote.

(If none wins more than 20%, they need to form an alliance to cross 20%.)

Elected represenatives have proportional voting rights to the number of people who voted for them to some extent. For example, if a representative has less than half the average number of electors by constituency, he will have 0.5 vote.

Dynamic landscape

I saw this on TaoBao some time ago, but was hesitant to get it as I was not sure if it could survive the trip. I finally decided to try it since it was only 17 yuan (S$3.10). There are two sizes, 17 cm and 25 cm. I got the latter.

It arrived unscathed.

It is mesmerising to watch the sand fall slowly. The new landscape is always different — it depends how the sand fall. There are 3 colors altogether: blue, white and gold. There is a tendency to form distinct layers, I suppose it is due to the slight difference in weight.

If it works as intended, it can take a few hours. But sometimes the air bubbles are unable to form a continuous barrier and the sand falls down very quickly. The fastest I've seen it collapse is around 20s.

Even in the good case, the sand does not fall slowly all the way. Once some air has escaped to the top and there is no longer a continuous barrier, the top will have a "sudden death" collapse.

Globes

MOVA globe. They spin without using any external power source. Very attractive but very expensive. They are also very small: 4.5" (S$328), 6" (S$468), 8.5" (S$698). 8.5" is 21.6 cm.

I read they are quite fragile and tend to spoil after a couple of years.

Someone posted on YouTube how to make your own MOVA globe. It is not as good, but it is 10x cheaper!

Levitated and spinning, but needs electricity. Can light up.

Three sizes: 14 cm (301 yuan; S$56), 20 cm (532 yuan; S$98), 30 cm (1304 yuan; S$241).

There is a big jump in price from 20 cm to 30 cm.

Have 360 degrees and 720 degrees movement models — manual spinning. Has battery operated model (light only). Elevated terrain. Shows country borders when lighted up.

Three sizes: 20 cm (110 yuan), 25 cm (189 yuan), 32 cm (240 yuan).

Most low-end globes are made of two hemispheres and are joined at the equator with a pretty thick seam.

30 cm is the most commonly available largest size. If want bigger, need to custom order.

Owe China money?

XJP announced a sudden 'Southeast Asian tour' at the drop of a hat. He would tour Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia. Why not Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore? It should be fairly obvious who borrowed too much from China.

Of the three countries, Vietnam can deal the most damage to USA. Vietnam is already shaping up to replace China as the world's factory. If it aligns with China, USA is truly screwed about getting low-cost goods.

When I saw Malaysia on the list, my first thought was, oops, it must have owed too much Chinese debt. Malaysia is extremely prejudiced against its own Chinese citizens. It is ironic it has act subservient to China.

Malaysia wants more investment (*) from China, access to China market — good luck — and is also looking to antagonize US over ME — Malaysia is a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause.

(*) Another word for debt?

Apparently Malaysia is China's largest trading partner for the past 16 years? Huh? I don't see Malaysia exporting anything of value to China. What is Malaysia buying from China?

Najib denied borrowing from China to fill his 1MDB black hole. But since then, there had been heavy Chinese investment into Malaysia. These are well known double-edge swords... mega-projects that the host country has no hope of repaying.

Next generation m/b candidate

畅网微控 CW-NAS-ADLN-K N150 ITX m/b

Features:

• N150, max 3.6 GHz, TDP 6W
• 1x DDR5 4800 MHz, max 32 GB
• 1x PCIe 3.0 x4
• 2x M.2 NVMe (PCIe 3.0 x1), 2280
• 6x SATA 3.0 ports, ASM1166 controller
• 2x i226-V 2.5G RJ45
• HDMI 2.0 + DP 1.4, 4K @ 60 Hz
• 3x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, USB 3.0 header (*)
• Realtek ALC897

(*) It connects to 2 USB 3.0 ports on the front panel of the casing.

I nearly bought it on the spot. But... if I buy this, my brand new J5040 m/b would be kept as backup, which would be a waste of money.

Also, N150 is just a soup'ed up N100, overclocked with no new features, so its architecture is from 2023. The real replacement for N100 is said to be released in 2026 or 2027.

I can wait, I'm in no hurry since I have two working m/b — famous last words. :lol:

If my N3150 m/b spoils, you can bet I'll order this right away.

Black PSU comes to the rescue!

Amazingly, it arrived in 5 days after placing the order. It reached the warehouse on the second day and was shipped out on the same day.

Xin Dong Li (鑫动力) 300W SFX PSU

It measures 12.5 x 11.5 x 6.5 cm, which is bigger than my original PSU (12.5 x 10 x 6.5 cm). The user installable cables take up another 1 to 2 cm. 3 cm may not seem much, but my case is very tight in space.

Right out of box:

• The casing was not closed properly. I needed to unscrew it to close it properly. I destroyed the warranty sticker in the process. Oh well
• It should have 2 IDE and 4 SATA power ports on two cables, but my cables were reversed: 2 IDE and 1 SATA power port each

Other than that, it's fine. I really want the white one, though...

Did it work? At first, the server auto powered off too, but after trying a few times, it could stay powered up even with HDD attached.

The server is running fine now, but I'm not sure if it can power up reliably.

The new PSU is so quiet! Though, the old PSU, after cleaning the fan, is also pretty quiet.

More tests

I swapped the old PSU back and it was worse than before. It would power off in a minute or so even without the HDD. So the PSU was truly spoilt.

Aug 2010 – Apr 2025. Powered on 24/7 99% of its service life. RIP.

This is truly go big or go home!

Trump plays a high-risk high-stake game by announcing tariff against the entire world!

Beyond the shock factor, it is a way to get other parties to come to the negotiation table quickly — with a weaker hand.

Provided they don't gang up. It is a possibility, but it is unlikely for different countries with varying interests to cooperate at such short notice.

Or retaliate. If you retaliate, it is a lose-lose situation for both sides.

China said it would not negotiate, so Trump responded with another round of tariff. And China followed. Now it is 104% and 84%.

Who will blink first?

As a country, USA does not necessarily lose to China in terms of co-dependency. But Trump would be under immerse pressure from all sides, including the stock market and his allies.

It's do-or-die for Trump. If he fails to pull this through, he will be impeached in 2026. China, on the other hand, just need ride it out. This is what they are betting on.

Viewed at a higher level, it is a battle of wits between a rising country and a falling country.

USA looks strong today, but its industries are hollowed out. Due to its loss of skilled labour and reliance on imports even for key technologies, USA can easily be held hostage by other countries today. Core technologies and key manufacturing must be kept in own country.

Also, this is an opportunity for other countries. USA is a huge consumer country. China giving up its US$400bil pie? Others can step in. So, USA does not particularly need China like China needs the US market. But it would be super disruptive in the short term.

Surely China can sell to others? But, can it find such a big market? And, what makes you think those countries won't impose tariff on the cheaper Chinese goods to protect their own industries?

One day later

Trump, of course, raises China's tariff to 145% for its 'lack of respect'. At the same time, he pauses tariff — all set at base 10% — for 90 days for other countries which did not retaliate — including EU. The reasoning was that EU approved new tariffs, but they had not taken effect. This is a weak excuse, meant to give EU a way out.

In just one sentence, Trump makes China look foolish. Previously, it was conceivable China could form trade deals with other countries. Now it is unlikely and China becomes isolated.

I believe Trump intended to do this all along, because it takes time to hammer a deal. Though he may have brought it forward due to stock market carnage.

This is such a classic Trump tactic. Trump is "do, not tell", because people don't take you seriously when you just "tell". But you want to play hardball? Trump will 奉陪到底. This is a message to other countries who like to play hardball as well.

Will China back down? It is unlikely. They will devalue their currency and introduce stimulus (using their reserves and borrowings) into their local economy and stock market.

You want face? You want to act tough? You want to be treated as an equal? You want to be acknowledged as a superpower? Your knees better not be weak.

High time for a new motherboard

I have been using the Asrock N3150-ITX m/b since Oct 2015.

When I considered upgrading to a new m/b a couple of years back, I found I had skipped a generation — Intel released N3150 in 2015 Q1, J5040 in 2019 Q4 and N100 in 2023 Q1.

For some reason, Asrock only released one SKU, N100DC-ITX with 2 SATA ports. I want 4 SATA ports.

When my server went down, I was not 100% certain the PSU was the culprit. It could be the motherboard, given its age. I decided to buy a 'new' motherboard just in case.

I settled on the trusty previous gen Asrock J5040. Surprisingly, there were some new old stock (NOS) on Amazon. I bought one for S$207 with 'free shipping'. I thought of buying older Asrock m/b such as J3455 or J4205 (both 2016 Q3), but J5040 was already old enough.

Asrock J5040-ITX

It uses DDR4, so I had to buy new DIMMs.

The official spec says max memory is 8 GB, 16 GB is supported unofficially and some 32 GB DIMMs work as well. Being able to boot up is not enough, it must pass MemTest86.

After I bought it, I did more research and found that Intel just released N150 (a refreshed N100) in Q1 2025. Nothing from Asrock yet, though it could be too early to tell.

Why do I keep mentioning Asrock? First, many of its ITX boards have 4 SATA ports. Second, its SATA ports support hot-plug. Asrock advertises it as a selling point. Other m/b may or may not support hot-plug.

I found a brandless N150 ITX m/b on TaoBao with 6 SATA ports! It costs around S$195 including a CPU fan — it is needed for N150.

N150 uses DDR5, so will need to buy new DIMM — again.

It would have been perfect, except the SATA controller is JMicron JMB585, which does not mention hot-plug support. Will need ASMedia ASM1166.

(Asrock N3150 and J5040 use ASMedia ASM1061.)

An alternative is to buy a board with just one SATA port and use a multi-SATA M.2 adapter.

Update: I found a N150 ITX m/b that uses ASM1166! It has 6 SATA ports. It costs 958 yuan (S$174.15) with a CPU fan.

Scenarios

If my N3150 m/b is working, I'll continue to use it in the short term, but will change to J5040 and keep it as backup.

If my N3150 m/b is not working, I'll use J5040 and either buy a spare J5040 or a suitable N150 m/b. If I buy a N150, I'll use it and keep J5040 as backup.

It makes sense to use the new m/b and keep the old one as backup. If the m/b spoils, fallback to the old m/b while sourcing for a replacement m/b. This is why I prefer not to buy a second J5040 as backup — it is already 6 years old today, what's more in projected 5 to 10 years.

Home server outage

My home server suddenly powered off by itself. It was still fine earlier in the morning, then I found that I could not access it. When I checked it, I found it was powered off.

I could not turn it on. Pressing the power button did nothing. Turning off the mains, then turning it on, the server had power. But it auto-powered off again in less than 5 seconds.

My first suspect was the PSU (Power Supply Unit). I had the feeling it was at its EOL (End-of-line).

One possibility was the PSU overheated. I knew it was super dusty.

I bought a compressed air can and opened up the PSU. Wow, was it dirty!

Before:

(This is actually pretty clean already. I knocked loose dirt out a year ago when my HDD died.)

After:

(Warning: do not touch anything inside the PSU, especially the capacitors.)

Unfortunately, it still did not work. The server would auto-power off by itself after 5s.

Interestingly, it could stay powered up if I removed the HDD.

Another possibility was the capacitors had blown or became marginal. If so, the PSU needed to be replaced.

I immediately placed an order on TaoBao for a new 300W PSU. It would take at least 5 days to arrive. The downtime was unimaginable. :-(

In the past, I would go down to SLS or SLT to buy a PSU. Now SLS is just a shell of its former glory.

I must talk about fate.

I actually ordered a 300W PSU in Feb this year on TaoBao. At that time, my PSU fan was whining — later silenced with WD-40 — and I was worried the PSU was near the end of its lifespan. It had been 14.5 years!

The PSU I wanted was a seldom-seen white model. Unfortunately, it was OOS. The seller asked me if I could take the more common black model instead. I decided to wait.

Now, I ordered the black model. Downtime waits for no one.

If the white model was available, or had I bought the black one then, this downtime could have been avoided.

GWR zigsaw puzzle

A 500 piece jigsaw puzzle that comes with Guinness World Record 2022 book:

Illustrated by Rod Hunt.

This is shown without the border pieces. There are some 15+ pieces missing in all. That's what happen when you leave it around a 3 year old.

I like this style of busy artwork. There are so many things going on. It is so dense.

I still put it together from time to time — I'm getting better and better at it. Soon, I should be able to put it together without referring to the finished picture. It will be Achievement +1.:lol:

Earthquake risk check

A 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit close to Mandalay, the second largest city in Myanmar. The epicentre was shallow at 10 km deep.

Tremors were felt in Bangkok, slightly more than 1,000 km away. One 33-floor office building under construction collapsed — the only one to do so — so it drew a lot of attention. The tremors were around 5.0 in magnitude.

The question on everyone's mind is, of course, is Singapore safe?

Singapore is not on any active fault line. The likelihood of an earthquake is near zero.

However, the nearest earthquake zone is in Sumatra, only 400 km away.

Will buildings collapse like the Bangkok one?

It is unlikely. That was the only building to collapse. It used beamless design which is not earthquake resistant. It was also being built by a China developer, and of course everyone is asking if it used 'tofu' materials.

Shoe boxes

My shoe area has never been so neat and tidy.

I was comparing between several brands, but still bought the 'wrong' one in the end. This one is not fully clear on all sides — it has two lines on the other side. But it works.

There are two main designs. One where the door opens along the long side, the other where it opens along the short side. The latter is more space saving, but the former looks nicer — the shoes are on display.

Missus and 2nd Ji's shoes can be put in perpendicularly, so 2 pair of shoes per box for them.

Online measurement is 36.5 x 27 x 20 cm (H). I measured it at 36 x 27 x 20 cm (H). Internal space is about 0.5 cm smaller.

Downside: the shoes-to-space ratio is low. The main reason is the height of 20 cm. 16 cm is sufficient for most shoes.

Online, I see people stack the shoe boxes very high. 4 to 5 is the limit for me. I don't like to put worn shoes so high up.

They also advertised the strength of the box by sitting on it. I tried, nope, it did not work. The top would flex and pop the door open. Originally I thought could use it as a bench to wear socks, for example.

It should be possible to sit at the edge of two boxes, spreading the weight across them. It is not advisable to do so, though.

2-in-1 display/storage boxes

I was looking for ways to organize my stuff neatly and I saw these stackable acrylic display/storage boxes.

I'm interested cos they are both display and storage. I like open shelves, but they are just too dusty.

These come in a variety of sizes and can be used to store books, display items, bags and even shoes.

But they are not optimal in either function. For display, the front side is not 100% unblocked — there are better display boxes. For storage, they are kind of small and will fill up quickly. They are also pretty expensive, especially ones that come with lighting (*). Different sizes also cannot be mixed-and-matched seamlessly.

(*) Lighting option is offered by some sellers and can be purchased separately.

Lighting makes sense if used for displaying things. For books, not so much.

From another seller:

Based on pictures, I believe they are the same boxes. This is about as cheap as I can find.

Medium, Big and Large have the same length and height, it may be possible to mix-n-match them.

I measured my books. Bigger books require 30 cm (H) x 25 cm (W) — this fits all but the biggest books. Smaller books require 25 cm (H) x 20 cm (W).

For shoes, I am currently using small IKEA shoe boxes that measure 34 cm (L) x 22 cm (W) x 16 cm (H). The width makes it a tight fit, otherwise it works well.

I found two suitable sizes for shoes: 34 x 26 x 19 (H) and 36.5 x 27 x 20 (H). I prefer the first, but I found it only after I bought the second.

Almost impulse buys

Cozy House (#31139), 2023, 808 pcs, US$60

I saw this when I was window shopping in Toys R Us and wow, did it look good!

But it also looked kind of familiar. Searched my Amazon history. Nothing. Searched Lazada. Oh, I bought it in Oct 2023.

I also took some time to see if there were any Creator sets I missed in 2024 — I didn't browse Lego for an entire year! Nope, nothing I wanted.

Galactic Spaceship (#60446), 2025, 717 pcs, US$80

I was attracted to this space ship. It was modular and could detach to form a smaller space ship and land modules. I guess I have a thing for modular things.

TLG has really refined their connecting technique and it is now usual to build separate sections, then join them together, whether they are vehicles or buildings.

I almost bought this, but changed my mind after a day of rationalizing.

ROKR Parallel World Marble Run The Last City (MR01S)

Marble run is a dime a dozen. What makes this interesting is that it is modular. You can connect multiple of it, as well as the other in the series, MR02S (The Future City), either horizontally or vertically. There are likely be more in the future.

I'm sure you can guess why I'm attracted to it. Say it with me: modular. :lol:

It is pretty expensive at S$90. But a search on TaoBao shows the Chinese edition costs 225 yuan (S$41.46) at the cheapest. Wow, almost instant buy!

But I decided to watch YouTube reviews first and lost half my enthusiasm. It was noisy. Then I asked myself, what do I look for in a marble run? This is 2D. Would I prefer a 3D one?

I ended up buying one thing.

Race Plane (#31160), 2025, 178 pcs, US$15

I like small Creator 3-in-1 sets, the reason being they are buildable without instructions — though may not be 100% exact. This is how Lego should be played.

This makes a decent present for 2nd Ji at S$22. I found it for S$19.28 on Lazada, so I bought from there instead.

A day when things just go wrong

Incident 1

I paid $2.40 for a plain and egg prata. I didn't realize it until the next day, where I paid for the same thing again, and the stall operator told me it was $3.20. I had a brain fart and thought prices had increased. But he said it was the correct price all along. I paid him the difference for yesterday's meal as well.

Incident 2

I was driving and I signalled to change lane from 2 to 3 (slowest lane) cos I wanted to make a left turn in front. There was a car slightly ahead in lane 3, so I slowed down and signalled. The moment I did so, the car behind sped up to close the gap. However, he was way far behind and there was a lot of space for me to cut in. He was not happy and gave a long horn. The car in front braked slightly cos he was confused. If I did not brake slightly, I could have hit him.

The car behind continued to horn, sped up and overtook me on the right. I thought he would cut back in front, but it turned out he was going straight.

At first I thought it was a PHV car, but it was not.

Incident 3

My go-to TaoBao seller still had not list MS-05 (Onslaught). Finally, someone commented on TFW that it was out in China. I finally ask them. Their answer: they may not list it after all.

Argh, I scrambled to find other sellers. Some already listed it at full price of 880 yuan (S$162.27). They were in Shanghai and Beijing. I found one seller with preorder listing and he was based in Guangzhou. I had the idea preorder is cheaper than in-stock listing and Guangzhou is nearer to the warehouse.

So I ordered from him. His preorder price was 50 yuan, but it included 30 yuan shipping? Hmm, maybe the deposit was 80 yuan?

After I ordered, I realized his full price was already out and it was 888 yuan. Argh! Nevermind, it was only 8 yuan more.

The figure arrived the next day and I was asked to pay 838 yuan. Shouldn't it be 808 yuan? (808 + 80 = 888 yuan)

Nope, need to pay for shipping. :-O The seller told me it was written very clearly in the product listing.

Everyone else is selling at 880 yuan including shipping and this seller is selling at 888 yuan + shipping? Only careless people will buy from him. :blush:

So I ended up paying 38 yuan (S$7) more. I can only say I tripped over myself for being too clever. :-(

Incident 4

I was at a shared desk with two power points. One was already in use. I used the other one.

After a while, someone came and said he needed to use the plug. His bag was already on the table, so he could argue he was there first.

Anyway, I was using a travel adapter with USB ports, so he could just plug his power cable into my adapter. No problem.

When it was time for me to leave, I switched off the plug, removed my adapter and put his adapter into the power point.

And I was promptly scolded by him. He asked why I didn't give him any notice? He needed to power off his notebook first, else it would spoil.

At first I thought he was not running on battery, so he lost power. But his notebook was still on.

Must power off notebook to disconnect from power point? That's news to me.

Anyway, I apologized profusely to him and told him I didn't know how computers work, so I made this mistake.

Adjustable bookstand

Choice of medium (34 x 24 cm, 1.35 kg) and big (39 x 28 cm, 1.5 kg), normal or thick (加厚).

Price in yuan:

The seller does not know the difference between normal and thick. He said better material? (Looks like he is a dropshipper.)

I believe the normal one is suitable for books only. The thick one can even hold a notebook computer.

I bought two medium "thick". The package was heavy, 3.6 kg, so I shipped it by sea. It took "forever" to arrive — I checked again and it was 12 days, which was within delivery estimate (7 to 12 days).

I was surprised by the size and, for a moment, I thought I ordered big size.

The acrylic glass is 5 mm thick. The joints are ultra tight, making height and angle adjustments super difficult. I guess that is what "thickened" means. It swivels easily though.

The comedian who has no cards

So this Z guy went to Washington and quarrelled with Trump on live camera. He seems to think that USA has an obligation to help Ukraine.

In the past, USA did help without asking for anything in return. Now Trump wants a rare-mineral deal.

Why? It's simple. Everyone has their cut in the massive aid, or the aid went to their arms supply backers. Very little direct aid went to Ukraine. Z has complained about this in the past — apparently he could not benefit too much from it.

Trump is different. He does not benefit from it, so he can openly ask for something "for America". Why should USA be involved if there is no benefit?

Wouldn't the arms suppliers complain if they lose their business? Well, there is Gaza conflict and that is an even bigger gravy train. One conflict is enough. Sorry, Ukraine.

First of all, why is USA involved and not Europe?

Europe is a true two-headed snake. They claim to support Ukraine, but not militarily. Then, they buy oil from Russia. Winter survival is more important than Ukraine, I guess. Now, they talk about financing Ukraine with frozen Russia assets. How about using their own money?

In all these, do you know who does not want the war to end? Yes, it is Mr Z.

As the person who send his countrymen to die in a proxy war, and incur massive foreign goodwill debt (translation: expensive post-war reconstruction projects), his good days will come to an end once the war ends.