The headlines of the moment are in the growing roll call of prominent Republicans who are rescinding their support for Donald Trump. But I am left wondering how his candidacy and those who supported, enabled it, and abetted him until now, will be viewed through the long lens of history. It should be noted that many conservative editorial boards and critics have already come out against Trump long before this latest bombshell in very stark terms.
Apparently everyone has a line, and yet do you feel things would be different if all of these politicians thought Trump could still win in November?And what should we make of all the other groups who have been insulted and marginalized by Trump and yet his supporters stood by him?
He attacked Mexicans as rapists and murderers - but that was not enough.
He called for barring Muslims from entering the country - but that was not enough.
He incited violence in his rallies - but that was not enough.
He publicly mocked the disabled - but that was not enough.
He retweeted anti-Semitic memes - but that was not enough.
He demeaned a Gold Star Family - but that was not enough.
He insulted the press and railed against their Constitutional freedoms - but that was not enough.
He said that those who suffer from PTSD were weak - but that was not enough.
He had a long history of misogynist and sexist comments - but that was not enough.
He repeatedly lied on issues big and small - but that was not enough.
He refused to release his tax records or health records - but that was not enough.
He joked about violence against his political rival - but that was not enough.
I could go on, and I ask you to do so in the comments section.
Perhaps we can tag it with #butthatwasnotenough.
I know some equate Donald Trump with Nazisim - that goes too far for me. But in recent hours I have been hearing echoes of the chilling poem by the German anti-Nazi theologian Martin Niemöller about the culpability of his country's elite in the rise of Nazism.
"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
America's better nature has always been to speak out for the marginalized and dispossessed. It is an ideal for which we have all too often fallen far short. What about now? -- Dan Rather, 10/8/2016
Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind. 
Treat your kids like intelligent aliens. Intelligent, because they're wired to learn at an incredible rate of speed and can process far more complex information than many people realize. Aliens, because they don't know the first thing about our civilization and need a lot of instruction to learn to live well in it. Parent long and prosper.This captures quite well the challenges, complexity, and delight of parenting. For me, some of the most memorable and heart-warming movies and TV shows build on this dichotomy.
E.T. -- the incredible smart little alien who had to learn to cope with our culture. And the children who befriended him without fear because they hadn't yet fully acquired the biases of our civilization.
Short Circuit with its endearing "Johnny Five" almost-human robot -- able to acquire and process incredible quantities of information but requiring lots of assistance interpreting the rules of civilization.
Mork and Mindy, which put Robin Williams on the map as the alien who struggled hilariously to understand our culture.
Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the differences between accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity.
Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is, simplistically, a dystopian novel -- definitely not my favorite genre. Perhaps one of the dystopia scenarios might very possibly occur in my lifetime (probably not the zombie kind) and I should therefore face up to the reality. But I find most novels in this genre to be unrelentingly humorless and grim. I prefer grim reality served up with a human touch and some people that I care about. Thank you ESJMl!
After a few years, we decided that the Twin Cities, specifically the suburban Minneapolis, was a pretty good place to settle down and raise a family, so we stayed. But two houses later, with our kids approaching adulthood, I still didn't list "Minnesotan" as one of my identities. I didn't identify with any other place (maybe "citizen of the world") but I just couldn't quite see myself as a Minnesotan.
The state was settled by no-nonsense socialists from Germany and Sweden and Norway who unpacked their trunks and planted corn and set about organizing schools; churches; libraries; lodges; societies and benevolent associations; brotherhoods and sisterhoods, and raised their children to Mind Your Manners, Be Useful, Pay Attention, Make Something of Yourself, Turn Down the Thermostat (If You’re Cold, Go Put on a Sweater), Share and Share Alike, Be Satisfied with What You Have—a green Jell-O salad with mandarin oranges, miniature marshmallows, walnuts, and Miracle Whip is by God good enough for anybody. I grew up in the pure democracy of a public grade school where everybody brought a valentine for everybody on Valentine’s Day so we should feel equally lovedI so admire Garrison Keillor's self-deprecating, articulate, and funny prose, especially when he's skewering what I consider the opposition. And despite his corniness, he and his words make me proud to finally officially declare myself a Minnesotan.
The social media maven spends his or her time creating a self-caricature, a much happier and more photogenic version of real life. People subtly start comparing themselves to other people’s highlight reels.
In our increasingly diverse country, many children will be truly multilingual -- speaking fluent English with their friends and at school while speaking their mother tongue equally fluently at home with their immigrant parents. Science now tells us that multilingual children develop parts of their brain that will lie dormant in children with only one language. (See, for example, "The Cognitive Benefits of Being Bilingual.") And the global economy will value language ability. So native speakers of American English need to step up and learn a second language or be left behind. And thankfully, our schools seem to be rising to the challenge. I look forward to the day when we in the US have widespread acceptance of the value of multilingualism instead of insistence that "we are exclusively an English-speaking country."
A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
Most people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a lifetime.
The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind.
You will either step forward into growth, or you will step backward into safety.
The biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. 
One of my mantras of life has always been "don't sweat the small stuff." It might be a bit of rationalization and self-justification, because I'm much more of a concepts person than a details person. So I often tell myself that the details aren't worth losing sleep over. And mostly this works, plus it's a good counter-balance to my Type A, always planning, side.
For parents, bribery is a white-collar crime; for grandparents, it's a business plan.
