The Democrat’s Next Steps

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So the 2026 midterm elections went well for the Democrats… probably better than most normal pundits would have expected. What now for the Democrats?

If I were leading the Democrats… With control of the House and Senate for Trump’s last two years, the Democrats…

  • SHOULD NOT SEEK REVENGE against Trump and his administration.
  • SHOULD NOT WAGE WAR against Trump and his administration.
  • SHOULD NOT ATTEMPT TO LIMIT Trump’s presidential power.
  • SHOULD NOT IMPEACH Trump or any of his cabinet members.

If you’re disappointed at these previous statements, then you are part of the problem with the current state of “revenge” politics. I encourage you to think bigger, broader and more to the future. What should Democrats do then? The Democrats in Congress should wield its power to help the citizens.

  • Democrats should look into ways to reduce the cost of living including: gas, food, housing, healthcare, education and child care. Citizens are complaining about how high these costs are. Congress should look into WHY they are so high? Who/What is causing the high prices? and more importantly, what can Congress do to reduce these prices?
  • Democrats should seek to decide what technology (past, present, future) should be protected and nurtured on US soil. Then proactively use tariffs to protect those new technology/industries. This could lead to guaranteed domestic manufacturing growth.
  • Democrats should change the rules of politics away from a 2 party system. Potentially one step would be encourage/mandate ranked choice voting. Another option could be to increase the number of Congressional representation. By establishing the state with the smallest population will have 1 House of Representative. Then proportionally allocate the population of each state proportionally based on population. Thus if the smallest state has 500,000 has 1 representative then a different state with 2,000,000 will end up with 4 representative. Another option would be to eliminate the “winner take all” electoral college system and replace it with a proportional system. A state like California with ~25% Republicans should not be allocating all 54 Electoral Votes to the Democratic candidate.
  • Democrats should enact legislation to fulfill the DACA promise. Long over due and politically a winning topic for both parties. However, I believe the pathway for DACA recipients is to go through the green card system first then apply for US citizenship. They are ultimately immigrants to US and should follow the law/system like any other legal immigrants. I also believe that other special immigrants like asylum seekers and refugees should also be offered a pathway for green card/citizenship.

Coffee From Around the World

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Though I may have stopped posting, I haven’t stopped drinking. I received beans from Taiwan, bought peaberry Kona beans at a Coffee Festival, bought Ritual Coffee on a recent trip to SF and then normal Trade coffee selections.

Contrasting Infrastructure: Madrid vs Los Angeles

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I recently stumbled upon this fascinating YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utt-KnIMB3o) discussing Madrid’s 4 YEAR, $9 BILLION USD, 35 MILE metro expansion success and how they did it…
– the government supported the consturction efforts (including facilitating permits and passing laws to expedite progress)
– a small team of engineers met daily sharing experiences/issues
– the same engineers were empowered to make value-based procurement decisions that prioritized the timeline, cost and efficiency of building of the rail network
– embracing a standardized design saved money by prioritizing the user experiences (wide corridors) over aesthetically pleasing architecture.
– gaining operational efficiency leads to faster completion time that minimizes the risk of not completing on time.
– finishing the project was important to their final boss stakeholder: Madrid’s metro riding population.
– the video posits that being able to build good and fast ultimately makes the project cheaper since there will be less chance for cost over runs.

The video also includes a comparison’s of the the NYC 2nd avenue subway (WIKI) and the US “efficiencies” encountered when work actually began. Let’s also compare that to LA’s Metro system and the California High Speed Rail…

Sad Case Study 1:
The LA Metro D line extension (WIKI) has been in the works well before 2010 for “environmantel impact assessment” and didn’t start work until 2012. With a total mileage of just around 9 miles underground, the first section of 4 miles only recently opened in May 2026 (click here). The 2nd and 3rd section are slated to open in 2027. Thankfully, he tunneling is finished (click here) and all thats “left to do” are to build out the stations. That’s 15+ years of planning, tunneling and construction. And at what cost? 9.5B according to this article. (click here)

Sad Case Study 2:
LAX People Mover aka SKYLINK (WIKI) is I think a game changing LAX infrastructure upgrade that is LONG OVERDUE. The days of having to navigate the horrendous “U Loop / Horseshoe” (link1, link2) are numbered with this people mover. Starting in 2018, the ~2.5 mile loop into and out of LAX was originally slated to be opened in 2023 and now has been slowly pushed back to Oct 2026 (hopefully?). This project has been mired in litigation resulting in continual delays. (link). This YouTube video does a good job explaining the cause of the delays (part of is how the contract was designed).

Potentially unpopular opinion….
Once this opens, I think anyone using rideshare service to fly in or out of LAX MUST be dropped off / picked up at one of the outside station and utilize the people mover to enter/leave the LAX terminals. Additionally, curbside pick up and drop off should be banned. Although this might be difficult to enforce without cameras and auto-ticketing systems. If one does want to pick up or drop off travelers, then they should be forced to park in the garages. Hotel and Car Park shuttles can remain in use as is. This should ease the congestion on the horsehoe.

Sad Case Study 3:
California High Speed Rail. If you’ve lived in California for the past 25+ years… you know about this disastrous public infrastructure works. Since 2008, it’s incurred over $230 BILLION with no real visible achievements (link).

Oh… just for comparison, in 2008 China had started construction on its first(?) high speed rail line of 1300 KM (800 miles). They finished in 2011. In 2026, China has over 50,000 KM (31,100 miles) (link) of rail connecting pretty much all of China together (I think). For comparison, LA to SF by car is almost 400 miles. The LA to SF high speed rail would have covered approximately 500 miles of rail (link). As of 2026, there is no true high speed rail like that of China that can be found in US.

How can it be a country that claims to be a great nation can’t even get infrastructure projects completed ON TIME and ON BUDGET. AI generated images are fun.

Transit infrastructure budget overruns

More Artemis II Mission Photos

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My YouTube recently recommended to me this Hank Green video analysis of the currently released Artemis II mission photos. In the video, Green describes his favorite of what’s been released but also provides some addiitonal scientific commentary beyond what NASA has populated for the said pictures. I recommend watching this 30m video. It’s fascinating and I learned quite alot from the addiitonal explanations!

NASA’s Inspiring Artemis Mission

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Ever since the launch of Artemis II, I’ve been excited about this NASA mission . Specifically, I’ve been excited for all the amazing, awe inspiring pictures of the Earth and the Moon from space! The image gallery provided by NASA are amazing to look at and the captions provided by NASA are also information. What’s also awesome is that Netflix has streamed some of the action from inside Mission Control in Houston and on the Orion spacecraft. YouTube also has some live steaming from the spacecraft as well too.

https://www.nasa.gov/gallery/journey-to-the-moon/
https://www.nasa.gov/gallery/lunar-flyby/

My favorite picture has been the one below (link for full pic). It mimics the 1968 Apollo 8’s “Earth Rise” picture of Earth in the backdrop and the Moon in the forground. Browsing through the gallery is such a treat. How can anyone NOT get excited by these pictures… maybe we’re all a little bit of a space nerd at heart! Even if you’re not a space nerd, browse the pictures and be inspired at the wonderous planet that we live on.

Coffee Update

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I’ve been neglecting on posting biweekly updates of the various coffee roasters I’ve received. To be honest, I put a short pause an all my coffee subscriptions after receiving coffee beans from Taiwan (2 bags) and Hawaii (1 bag).

Below is a list of Drink Trade and Atlas Coffee Club selections from the past 5 months. I didn’t get pics of the coffee beans from Taiwan and Hawaii.

Additionally, I’ve cancelled the Atlas Coffee Club subscription and have decided to stick with Drink Trade only. I’ll need to remember to every so often switch up the roast levels from light to medium to dark to maintain the variety received beans.

Caffe Vita Coffee Roasting Company

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June’s Trade Coffee comes from Caffe Vita Coffee Roasting Company. I recieved a medium blend from Guatemala, Ethiopia and Brazil. Making my latte, I taste a wonderful chocolate and caramel flavor

Cometeer Coffee

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One of the more interesting direct to consumer coffe ideas I’ve come across is Cometeer Coffee. They flash freeze an espresso amount of liquid so that the eventual coffee drinker can melt the espresso and make their coffee or latte.

I ended up ordering a starter box to try out what this flash freezing concept was about. Over the course of a little over 1 month (each box holds 10 cofee pods assuming 1 serving a day), I tried these four diferent roasters generally making a latte from a coffee pod. Overall, I the flavors were excellent. I expeically enjoyed Birch Dark and Mocha Java. Both exhibited a rich chocolate and carmel flavor. Some days, I would actually have two of the coffee pods because they were delicious.

Final thoughts, I think subscribing to Cometeer is an easier alternative to making lattes and other espresso based drinks (flat white, affogatos, etc…). Although each box is roughly priced similarly to a bag of coffee beans, they are slightly more expensive if you consider on a per serving basis. I generally am able to make 13-15 servings of latte/espresso drinks with 1 bag of beans whereas Cometeer coffee pods comes in boxes of 10 (where each pod is 1 serving). For a person who loves coffe but doesn’t have the space for any coffee making items (scale, grinder, espresso maker, etc…), Cometeer Coffee might actually be a good option.