Woke up to that yesterday morning. They also painted an arrow to the mezuzah on the door as an explanation. I'm not religious, but my girlfriend semi converted and put it there a while back.

Obviously the Trump win emboldened these folks even though there is no chance that Trump would have approved and almost no chance he is an anti-semite. They will learn this soon enough when they see Trump's upcoming inner circle. Still this incident does prove that the people who say that Trump's rhetoric is dangerous, even if he doesn't mean it, are correct.

Personally I was amused rather than appalled or fearful. For reasons I need not go into here. Neither was Sue. But she did write about it and post a picture on her facebook. And the next thing you know she got sympathetic replies from several of her facebook friends including a couple of woman who offered to come over and use their expertise to remove the symbol.

They did just that and refused payment or even gas money. More importantly they hit it off with Sue as they discovered they had many similar interests including sewing and veganism. Since Sue is visually impaired she can't drive and doesn't have a chance to meet that many friends in person, but these two ladies will now be added to that group. They probably would never have met otherwise. So here is an example of a bad incident actually being good. I wonder if those painters would have still put up that art if they knew how it would turn out. Frankly I feel like I owe them five thousand dollars or so. Perhaps they would like to come back and collect.

I made this point in the other thread but I thought it was absolutely critical to explain to my kids (ages 8,6) who sort of got the idea in their heads Trump was really, uniquely bad. We live in Ann Arbor after all. They hear stuff.

I made pains to point out he's not. I didn't go so far as to really frighten them and note he's almost surely a vastly better person than the majority of his millions of supporters. Maybe a vast majority of his supporters. Although this is an entirely unpopular opinion to express right now, the height of political incorrectness, and I'm told in fact makes even more Trump voters. All former I-told-you-so Bernie voters, all Trump supporters (can't blame them, they're rightfully offended), and all crass opportunistic Democrats are in agreement that this attitude is decidedly not the one to express right now. Keep a lid on it.

I hold so many in low esteem and the Trumpening of America has done nothing to redeem my views, but one of the things you can remain hopeful about is that lots of genuinely great people remain and it sounds like you know some.

I predict nothing with confidence. But I believe the long tail distribution outcomes of a Trump Presidency are quite, quite low. And yet so long as there's a critical mass of good people, he's effectively powerless to change too much.

Here's to hoping, anyway.

lol Sklansky. Can you just have a normal reaction once? Just once in your life, ever? Please?

Turn it into a Windows 95 logo!

Wait, hold up, you should read his post again. This one isn't bad!

Putting a monetary value on friendship isn't bad?

I did read it, and I wasn't saying it was awful. But somebody graffiti'd his house (even ignoring the swastika part), and he's amused, concluding with "I hope they come back so I can give them 5k." Only Sklansky.

it does not prove it that is true. do you maybe regret endorsing Donald Trump? That's all I'm wondering. yeah, yeah not you that other guy whatever. I understand why you reacted with amusement. but, uh, take a look at who is leading the transition effort for Donald Trump and who is up for cabinet positions. you know, read their biographies and ****. the presidency is not one person it is an office. your personal read on Donald Trump is not relevant. it really isn't.

I sort of read it as -- he went through a traumatic thing that -- while he says didn't rattle him too much -- ultimately portends violence and fear, even for the very rational.

That's not a dramatic conclusion.

And yet through that, he found out lots of people around him had unexpected humanity, generosity and decency. That's affirming for what psychologists call the implied consensus: the Swastika suggested people are rotten, but the level of support he got from friends and strangers who gave their time and energy to help him suggests hope and goodness for the future, that humanity is or at least could be fundamentally good and decent.

Why can't THAT kind of psychological comfort be worth $5k? People pay way way more than that to therapists.

That sucks DS. Handled with grace but so indicitative of what is being unleashed in the USA, UK and other countries.

That's could be worth money as well. But it wasn't quite what I meant. What I meant was simply that Sue's inability to drive makes it less likely she can find friends she can spend time with and the good luck the nasty incident happened to bring to her, made us feel good to an extent that would have been worth at least 5K. But there was another reason I translated the lucky event into to money and I would have thought it was obvious.

I also give props to how you handled it. Very important not to succumb to fear tactics. Making apoplectic posts in response to spray paint is what they want to happen. Kudos.

Well now I'm stumped. Your angry troglodyte Vegas neighbors are also highly likely to be degen poker players/gamblers so if you give them a starting roll, you're going to offer to play them HU and just as likely to make more back?

I'm only half joking. No clue here, not obvious to me. chezlaw seems to channel your spirit, maybe he can explain.

Nope I dont get the 5k. I look forward to learning.

Your seem to be such a nice person that its making me feel guilty that I haven't spelled it out. Even if it ruins the effect.

The money reference was made soley due to the possibility that the perpetrators were reading my post. I wanted to make it clear the degree to which their scheme backfired. As for telling them to come over to collect, well cmon. I guess I just live on a different planet than you do if you couldn't translate that into what I was really saying.

Didn't dawn on me to be honest. Even in retrospect:

- I'd assumed you wouldn't want those people anywhere near you ever again. They vandalized your property because you're Jewish, seems like that's getting close to much worse happening but ymmv I guess.
- and that the chances anyone would read it and come collect are ~0

But sure, racist graffiti artists are highly likely to be morons so maybe I'm discounting the odds of the second bullet.

Are you sure it wasn't angry Buddhists with their backwards swastika?

Also, way better to drop 5 Gs on this G to solve this problem imo:

The person who coined the term "Sklansky bucks" being results oriented, quite the irony.

Glad it turned out well for you guys, but it probably doesn't work like that for 99% of victims.

David,

Really glad that it didn't have the intended effect on you the cowardly scum that did it picked on the wrong dude, but even if you aren't rattled personally doesn't it worry you in the general sense? The conclusion of stanley milgram after his famous experiment was

If the sentiment in america is tilting to where people are emboldened to do things like this are you not at all concerned about the slippery slope? What about in 2 years when the economy takes a plunge and president trump needs a scapegoat? You don't think it's possible he'll lean on old hatreds?

Milgram's research wasn't about antisemitism. It was about something much more insidious - to understand why someone would violate their own moral code just by asking them to do so.

"A Molotov cocktail came smashing through my window and burned my rug, I really been meaning to buy a new rug and insurance will cover the window. I actually purchased a very expensive rug cheaply and resold it for $10,000 profit. I'm offering $3,000 to the bomb throwers for their community service."

Future David sklansky post iyam.

Obvious to us or to the people who painted the swastika?

EDIT: Kept reading

Confronting antisemitism with absurd money grubbing is an interesting strategy.

DS I still have no idea what you're talking about re: the cash, but in any case I'm sorry that this happened to you.

I feel like it's obvious that the swastika cleaners and swastika painters were the same people. The whole thing was a ploy to gain your trust so they could get a line on the inside.