[jQuery] Remove an element but not it's content

I'm trying to remove a link, but keep the content within, is there a simple way to do this in jquery? ***This is a test turns into ***This is a test

[jQuery] Remove an

I want to remove the following and any after that which have the class jcarousel-item-placeholder in them I'm not sure how to go about this.

[jQuery] Remove an element ONLY if exists

There's a way to remove a element by his id, but first check if it exists? thanks.