Swords and Squatters

 9/30/25 Oaklandside:

“The average squatter,” says James Jacobs, “has no melee experience.”

No familiarity with katana swords or other bladed weaponry. No training in kendo, iaido, or other martial arts. 

If anyone knows the typical combat background of a squatter, a person living in a home illegally, it’s Jacobs. He runs a company called ASAP Squatter Removal, offering do-it-himself eviction services to property owners throughout the Bay Area.

Say a homeowner or bank or landlord discovers somebody occupying their property without authorization. They could call the police, though officers might not come. Police tend to shy away from tenancy disputes, leaving them to the civil courts. The property owner could go ahead and file an eviction lawsuit, but that can drag on for months. 

Or they can call Jacobs. 

For a fee, Jacobs will surveil the place and force out the people inside of it using a complex concoction of homespun arms and militarized tactics.

This is not a new problem.  I knew someone in San Jose in the 1980s who had a problem with squatters who took over his cabin in Sana Cruz.  The police were no help.

I suppose if the owner was not actually using it for himself or as a rental and the squatter was not actively damaging the property, I can see how progressives might persuade themselves that homeless squatters are just doing social justice.  But squatters seldom treat such homes well.

 

Machining PVC

Compared to aluminum, CFC, or even Delrin, PVC is easy. (It is an odd smell as it cuts.)  It is soft enough that you want to cut at low speed to avoid melting.  I needed to put a not quite blind 1.31" hole that diameter all tge way through and it was startlingly easy.  Tapping a 1/4-20 hole for a thumbscrew to lock the draw tube in place was very quick.  The next step is cutting a 5.5" length of pipe on the chop saw then using the mill to get very square ends on it.  The focal length of the objective is 152mm.  This should bring the focal point right out the end of the tube, where the draw tube  starts.  A drawtube about 2" long will allow eyepieces with focal lengths of 6mm to 40mm to focus there.  I am putting a helical focuser at the end of the draw tube which adds about an inch so perhaps a 5" tube.

Next I need to bore the draw tube to 1.25" ID.  Fortunately, I have a 1.25" Forstner bit to put in the lathe.  Then tap a hole for another 1/4-20 thumbs crew to hold the eyepiece there.

 

One nice thing about PVC: it does not spew carbon dust everywhere which is a nuisance to clean up.

Do the Stupid Names Cause This? Or Are TheyJust a Symptom of a Broken Culture?

11/24/25 CBS News:

A homeowner who shot and killed one of four men suspected of breaking into his home in Richmond Heights on Saturday told CBS News Miami that it was the "scariest moment" of his life....

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue came to the scene and rushed the injured suspect, later identified as 26-year-old Quanterry Alvin Whitley, to the hospital, where he later died....

CBS News Miami spoke with Lashundia Jackson, the mother of Whitley. She said the homeowner should never have fired his weapon.

I would like to say he did not do a home invasion. That is inaccurate. That is not who he is. That is not who he was. He would not do that. He was not that type of person," Jackson said of her son." [Stupid names emphasized]

Yes, I Hired an African-American By This Standard

7/3/25 New York Times:

"As he runs for mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani has made his identity as a Muslim immigrant of South Asian descent a key part of his appeal.

"But as a high school senior in 2009, Mr. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, claimed another label when he applied to Columbia University. Asked to identify his race, he checked a box that he was “Asian” but also “Black or African American,” according to internal data derived from a hack of Columbia University that was shared with The New York Times."

And by this low standard, Elon Musk is an African-American. 

Long Term Care Insurance

Medicare covers nursing care and hospice.  Other categories such as memory care for those with the grave misfortune of Alzheimer’s are not.  A relative by marriage ran through $5000 per month in the last couple years.  Fortunately, she had purchased long-term care insurance, which left her millions untouched for her heirs.

I have not thought about this much, partly b because it is terrifying to imagine the last year of two before checking out and partly because my own parents managed to avoid these sort of ugly ends.  My father went from good health to death with only a couple days in the hospital.   My mother went from living at home fairly independently to death in a hospital in less than a week.

I think it likely that neither my wife nor me will battle Alzheimer’s because we keep our brains very active, constantly learning.  Nonetheless, it seems wise to consider purchasing coverage while we are still only in our 60s.  I confess that the prospect of burning through $5000 per month on memory care just does not seem thst scary.  That is not pocket change for us but there are no U-Hauls to Heaven.

Any thoughts or experiences on this?

UPDATE: One reader shared a horrible story that puts a worrisome asterisk on Medicare covers nursing care.  I did some digging and found out that what they cover has some gotchas: 

"So what happens when Medicare stops paying for nursing home care? Your loved one either extends Medicare coverage, privately pays for the nursing home, applies for Medicaid to pay for the nursing home, or gets discharged to a lower level of care.

"From day 21 to day 100 in a nursing facility, Medicare continues to contribute towards in-patient rehabilitation, but coinsurance payments are typically required from you. Additional coverage for days 21 through 100 depends on your Medicare supplemental or Medicare Advantage plans.

"Once you reach day 101 or plateau in rehab, Medicare coverage for nursing home care ceases. You are responsible for all costs (easily $300-500 per day in Florida) unless you have additional insurance policies or qualify for other programs such as Medicaid. This can be a critical juncture, necessitating a review of your financial resources and possibly the need to explore alternative long-term care options."

So if you stop improving, they stop paying and you can see several hundred dollars a day 

Epstein's Underlings Are Perhaps As Sleazy As Epstein

11/30/25 Daily Wire:

Democrat Delegate Stacey Plaskett, the Virgin Islands’ non-voting member of Congress, garnered headlines recently when it came to light that she took direction from sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing.

Her relationship with Epstein is especially notable because Plaskett herself had “private nude images” of her stolen by her own ex-staffers, who used them to attempt to sabotage her re-election campaign. The husband of one of the culprits was, like Epstein, later found dead.

It gets worse the deeper you read.

Interesting Article About Balcony Solar

11/30/25 Guardian:

"Acquiring solar panels to use on balconies are soon to become available for millions of Americans, with advocates hoping the technology will quickly go mainstream.

'Earlier this year, Utah became the first state in the country to pass legislation allowing people to purchase and install small, portable solar panels that plug into a standard wall socket.

"When attached outside to the balcony or patio of a dwelling, such panels can provide enough power for residents to run free of charge, home appliances such as fridges, dishwashers, washing machines and wi-fi without spending money on electricity from the grid."

The output of the micro inverter is a 110VAC plug so the current goes into your existing wiring feeding anything plugged in to other outlets on that breaker.

Theoretically, anything that can feed power back into the grid needs an interrupter to protect electric utility workers in the event their side is down.  It appears these changes in state laws would allow PV systems producing low voltages to be hooked up to the house wiring.  This is attractive for its simplicity and relatively low cost.

Anyone have any knowledge to share?