Wednesday Reads: Go away, almost everybody hates you…
Posted: December 27, 2017 Filed under: morning reads, open thread, Political and Editorial Cartoons, U.S. Politics, Wednesday Hump Day Cartoons 46 Comments
The pick slip…
If only, right?
So did you hear the latest?
The White House to cut back magnolia tree planted by Andrew Jackson – The Washington Post
The enormous magnolia tree stood watch by the South Portico of the White House for nearly two centuries. Its dark green, glossy leaves shaded politicians and heads of state. Its ivory flowers bloomed through times of peace and war. It is the oldest tree on the White House grounds, a witness to Easter egg rolls and state ceremonies, a resignation, a plane crash, all the tumult and triumph of 39 presidencies.
But the iconic magnolia is now too old and badly damaged to remain in place, the White House announced Tuesday. At the recommendation of specialists from the National Arboretum, first lady Melania Trump called for a large portion of the tree to be removed this week.
So, this decision…they dropped in her lap. Considering she has higher ratings than that rodent haired fuck…what else would you expect?
The decision, first reported by CNN, comes after decades of attempts to hold the aged tree up with a steel pole and cables. Arboretum experts said that rigging is now compromised and that the wood of the magnolia’s trunk is too delicate for further interventions. Any other tree in that condition would have been cut down years ago.
But this is not any other tree. According to White House lore, the stately evergreen was brought to Washington as a seedling by Andrew Jackson. The magnolia was a favorite tree of his wife, Rachel, who had died just days after he was elected. Jackson blamed the vicious campaign — during which his political opponents questioned the legitimacy of his marriage — for his wife’s untimely death.
The new planting, which came from the couple’s Tennessee farm, the Hermitage, would serve as a living monument to her in the place she despised; before her death, Rachel had reportedly said, “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than live in that palace at Washington.”
Long after Jackson left office, his magnolia remained. Other trees were planted to supplement it, and the tree became a fixture in White House events. Herbert Hoover reportedly took breakfast and held Cabinet meetings at a table beneath its sprawling branches. Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke with Winston Churchill in its shade. Richard Nixon strode past it as he left the White House for the last time after his resignation. In 1994, a Maryland man piloting a stolen plane clipped the tree before suffering a deadly crash against the White House wall. And for decades, the magnolia was featured on the back of the $20 bill.
“No tree on the White House grounds can reveal so many secrets of romance and history,” longtime White House butler Alonzo Fields once told the Associated Press.
So with this last presidency, the tRump presidency that has ushered in the end of democracy…we see it also bringing an end to the (cough, cough) Andrew Jackson Magnolia. A tree planted by a president who caused so much pain and heartbreak to so many people….and who, as president, would be one of the main sources of antagonization for the American Civil War.
You can find more history of the tree here:
Exclusive: Iconic White House tree to be cut down – CNNPolitics
History of the Jackson Magnolia
After a brutal presidential campaign in 1828, Andrew Jackson’s wife, Rachel, died just days after his election; according to historians, Jackson believed the particularly divisive campaign contributed to his wife’s untimely demise. When he took up residence in the White House as a widower following his inauguration, it is believed Jackson insisted on planting a sprout from Rachel’s favorite magnolia tree from the couple’s farm, Hermitage, in Tennessee.That tree eventually grew into the sprawling magnolia the American public has come to know and recognize to this day. (A companion magnolia was planted on the opposite side of the South Portico years later for symmetry.)
Some highlights from the tree’s lifetime:
- From 1928 to 1998, the tree was featured prominently on the back of the $20 bill.
- In 1994, a single-engine plane crashed onto the South Lawn of the White House, sending debris from the wreckage into the Jackson Magnolia, cutting off one of its larger branches.
- Laura Bush commissioned a set of White House china inspired by the tree, called “The Magnolia Residence China,” painted with magnolia leaves and blossoms.
- Michelle Obama in 2009 took a seedling from the magnolia to the United States Department of Agriculture so that it could grow at the USDA’s community garden.
- In 2016, Obama also clipped a seedling as a gift to the people of Cuba; it was planted during the Obamas’ visit there. Various other dignitaries and first ladies have gifted or replanted seedlings from the tree throughout history.
There is more pictures and some scientific info at that CNN link if you care to go and take a look.
Supposedly, a new clone tree of the Jackson Magnolia that has been growing for the last ten years or so, and is now 8-10 feet tall…will be planted in the originals place. As CNN notes this is so that, “for history to live on.”
I don’t know why…democracy is over in America but the fucking Andrew Jackson Magnolia will live on…just like the U.N.? And I am pronouncing that as UN, like in un-nazied the world…forever.
You do realize that, Idiocracy is no longer coming true! Because even in that world of idiots, they knew the Nazis were bad. Now…fuck no!
It’s the stupid racist Nazis running the show.
And on that sour note of realization, here are your cartoons.
Again…a lot of these cartoons are from the foreign press.
Behind the red white and blue curtain: 12/26/2017 Cartoon by Jen Sorensen
12/26/2017 Cartoon by Tom Stiglich
2017 Return: 12/26/2017 Cartoon by Rob Rogers
Bad Shadow: 12/25/2017 Cartoon by Ed Hall
And believe me when I say, that shadow is lingering around for 2018.
This is an open thread.
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
Minkoff Minx
NW Luna
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
This made me cry.
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Very sweet!
I watched it twice and I still have no idea what the gift was.
Okay, I got it. Her daughter came home. Cool!
Saw that a couple of days ago … she’s like so flabbergasted she runs into the bedroom!
Those are some very dark cartoons.
Yeah, I think it is very telling about what is coming ahead…
Very fond of: Better Vote as we say, See. See. See. Holy SEE.
Next was the stocking by Buffalo News. Trump destroying our institutions…….a reason for 2018 to run on.
I’m afraid to look at Twitter this morning.
Did you watch that video? It’s wonderful.
Yes, I saw it yesterday. It is wonderful.
Oh, but there is a YUUUUGE backlash against the idiotic sexist Vanity Fair hit-piece on HRC. At least 1 of the editors involved has *protected* her Twitter account. Expect the rest to follow soon.
As it should be…that video was disgusting.
I hope they really get hit where it hurts, Luna.
Good! I’m not going to watch the video – I can’t handle the negativity. I feel the sexist negativity directed at Hillary personally. I don’t know how she gets through it.
I didn’t bother watching it either.
Didn’t see that Luna. I did listen to Amy Tarkanian of Nev. say Hillary Clinton would be a disaster if she participated in the 2018 elections……………wtf?
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Delightful!
And we know there was ….
See where WAPO did an article on Federal prosecutors New York are going after documents from Deutsche Bank on a loan, that Kushner took didn’t have to pay back. Yeah, didn’t have to pay it back, millions.
….and we know the answer to that one, too.
And Trump came out and said today, there was no collision between himself and his campaign………..freakin’ idiot.
JJ, great cartoons. I especially like the one of Trump sitting on the Iron Throne. Soon he will slash himself on one of those swords and be hauled off to trial.
I like the one of Santa cr@pping in the WH chimney.
JJ – I think 2018 will be much much better. If nothing else it provides us with a concrete way to hit back – the midterms. There will be more indictments. I still don’t think tRump will make it through a full term.
Love Gary and Carrie art
Yeah. And those Republican assholes in congress don’t care about any one but themselves and their donors. Trump is a perfect metaphor for the lot of them. Stupid, selfish, and greedy.
THIS!!!!!
Jackie Speier is the real deal. Another great California Democrat.
Agree.
And that right there should be the NUMBER ONE REASON to get democrats out to VOTE!
We need to work on ads today………….get it out there right now……….and She is the woman to do it.
Does anyone else find the weird and cartoonish fawning by Pence and the cabinet a possible prelude to maybe axing him with the 25th? It’s just so over-the-top and ridiculous. Here’s a crowd of mostly white male politicians (a highly egocentric species) – and they all get on their knees and kow-tow to tRump?? Go on teevee and pray to him? Are they that afraid of him that they think that level of pandering is necessary? I think they’re laughing at him. What is up with that?
I think they know there’s kompromat on all of them and maybe Donnie will put in a good word with his pal Vlad. Except Donnie is Vlad’s toady.
Yeah. I think they’ve got something big on Lindsey and now I’m expecting it on Hatch too.
True – they’ve probably all been taking Russian dollars for years now and working with them on the campaign hack all along.
tRump isn’t capable of being a normal human being – he is a thug, through and through.
From day one, I called him out as Al Capone #2.