Lahaina’s beloved giant banyan tree (badly scorched, but hopeful survivor of Maui’s deadly wildfires) is showing new signs of recovery by sprouting a batch of fresh green leaves.
Attribution: Maui DLNR
A colossal, beloved 150-year-old banyan tree at the centre of Lahaina town that was scorched when deadly wildfires ravaged Maui, Hawaii, last month is showing viridescent signs of new growth.
The tree, which has been described as the “heartbeat of Lahaina Town” was badly singed, but still standing last month after fires killed at least 97 people and reduced much of the historic town to ash.
Since then, arborists have volunteered their time and expertise to save the tree, according to Hawaii’s department of land and natural resources (DLNR) – and have suggested that new leaves sprouting from the tree’s singed branches are a positive sign of recovery.
Unlike what the name suggests, a blue moon is not actually blue in color. Rather, it signifies the second full moon within a single month — hence the phrase, “once in a blue moon.”
The “supermoon” phenomenon occurs when the moon’s orbit is closest to Earth at the same time the moon is full. While around 25% of full moons are supermoons, just 3% of full moons are blue moons, according to NASA.
On average, supermoons are about 16% brighter than an average moon. They also appear bigger than the average full moon — with NASA comparing the size difference to that between a quarter and a nickel.
So I felt we should enjoy the celestial show they put on for us with some photos from around the world.
Since we’ve all seen TFG’s mugshot, I felt we should preserve some of the internet’s handiwork that turned it into a Meme. I’ll admit that some of the ones I came across were so inside (at least to this 75 y/o), I had NO idea what they were referring to.
And then there was the problem of what to exclude to make the size of this post even halfway manageable. But let’s start with a side-by-side comparison of the fake one that circulated before his mugshot was even taken. It’s amazing how close it was to the actual one.
It used a photograph of Trump captured by Carlos Barria (Reuters) during a press briefing on prescription drug prices at the White House on Nov. 20, 2020.
Several Tweets referenced the fact that TFG is hardly the first “celebrity” to have a mugshot taken …
One brought up how a number of presidents are so famous we know them just by their number. Might be a little hard to remember at first, but TFG has now entered that pantheon – including the need to rename his eponymous plane …
Speaking of presidents, Pres. Obama appeared a couple of times …
The new unveiling necessitated the rehanging of TFG’s official White House Portrait …
Although after TFG commented on his mugshot …
I’m sure this is how all of his MAGAts see his mugshot …
A couple commented on TFG’s history that led to his Fulton County Jail booking …
There was no escaping comments about his unhappy scowling pic …
And in addition to the pics on Twitter (aka, X), there were a few entertaining GIFs as well. Lincoln Project captured the moment it was Breaking News …
We can’t leave the historic week of Trump being UNANIMOUSLY found GUILTY of SEX ABUSE ANDDEFAMATION in UNDER three hours without marking the occasion for posterity.
There were a number of options open to me on how best to commemorate this historic marker, but I decided to go primarily with editorial cartoons.
One of the surprising things I came across while doing my research was Fox News actually showing a clip of TFG’s deposition where he incorrectly identifies his victim, E. Jean Carroll – someone he has repeatedly claimed as “Not my type”, as Marla Maples, his second wife.
And then when his mistake is pointed out to him, he immediately responds that the photo was “very blurry”.
For the record, here’s the actual photo marked as an Exhibit that was shown to TFG (blurry, my A$$):
[SIDEBAR: To be honest, I have no idea why his team of lawyers (NOT exactly a stellar lineup) let Trump repeatedly go with his “Not my type” as a defense. It implies that if Ms. Carroll were his type, then his sexual abuse of her would have been OK.]
In going through dozens and dozens of cartoons the most common theme was Lady Justice exacting her well-deserved retribution. So I put them together as a GIF and grouped similar ones sequentially.
I’ll let Ms. Carroll introduce the other Lady Justices:
[Reportedly the one with Lady Justice grabbing & dragging TFG by his balls was banned by Elon Musk’s Twitter]
Moving on to individual cartoons, I particularly enjoyed the one with Ms. Carroll doing a parody of Trump’s infamous Access Hollywood quote:
There were quite a few that focused on his tiny hands – and I particularly got a kick out of the one mocking his itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny paws:
The handcuff drawing raises a frequent question with folks wondering that since TFG was found GUILTY of sexual abuse, will he have to register as a sex offender. Unfortunately for us (but fortunately for him) the answer is no. Since this was a civil lawsuit rather than criminal case, he will not have to register.
But I still enjoyed this cartoon by Clay Bennett dealing with that issue:
A couple of times I’ve read about Team TFG really searching for a silver lining by pointing out that while found guilty of sexual abuse, he was not found guilty of rape:
That’s like the classic joke asking Abraham Lincoln’s wife:
“Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was your night at the theater?”
Trump has long voiced thoughts that he belongs up on Mount Rushmore – even Tweeting out a picture of himself lined up like a fifth face.
“Never suggested it [to Gov. Noem (R-SD)] although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!”
Well, Donny, as the saying goes, “Be careful what you wish for”.
Certainly looks like the appropriate cast of miscreants Trump would be comfortable with. I think we can all agree with Obi-Wan Kenobi’s assessment:
“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
And like the other criminals in the Mount Rushmore tableau, the main question now is how many more shoes will drop …
Looking forward to hearing more from Georgia and Special Prosecutor Jack Smith!
