#NeverTrumpNeverHillary #NotInMYNameWelcome back to another installment of the Watercooler, RedState’s daily Open Thread! Today, we’ve got…

A Eulogy, With Apologies to Marcus Antonius and the Bard

Friends, Americans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury the GOP, not to praise it. The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones. So let it be with the GOP.

I’m sorry, that’s as far as I can go and keep a straight face, other than to note a certain irony that I find myself in a position of having to help end something my ancestors worked for decades to help create. How long until Douchebag Don, False Messiah, stubby-fingered sociopath and wannabe Gozer the Destroyer, starts demanding his little Cargo Cult start rolling themselves in crushed Cheetos to mimic his own orangeness?

In Happier News

Over the weekend, the world regained a second flying B-29 Superfortress WWII heavy bomber. For the first time in six decades, Doc lifted off and circled its birthplace at Boeing Wichita/McConnell Air Force Base, a test-flight lasting about seven minutes performed by the same crew that flies FiFi, the Commemorative Air Force’s B-29. Congratulations to all who contributed blood, sweat, tears and treasure to getting the last remaining chance at another flyable Superfort off the ground–there are no more remaining that can be restored to flight status. (Well, officially anyway… the restoration team at Seattle’s Museum of Flight thinks they technically *could* get T-Square-54 back up, but the aircraft is USAF Museum Program property on loan to them and the Air Force is a bunch of Bitchy Little Girls about “if we can’t fly it nobody can–and oh by the way, it doesn’t matter how much you put into restoration we can reallocate it at will just like we did the Fort Worth B-36 after they spent decades putting it back together”.)

This Week In History

• Sunday, Jul 17: (Sorry, folks, had a brainfart last week and this Sunday’s listings appeared last Saturday. My research assistant is being punished with having to listen to a six-hour endless-loop recording of my mother’s snoring.)
• Monday, Jul 18: 54th Massachussetts wiped out at Ft. Wagner (see movie Glory), 1863; first US Army air unit established by Congress, 1914; FDR nominated for 4th term, 1940
• Tuesday, Jul 19: Rosetta Stone found, 1799; New York City fire, 1845; German U-boats withdrawn from lurking off US coast, 1942; first 3D CT scan of human head published, 1983
• Wednesday, Jul 20: Ford ships first car, 1903; Armstrong & Aldrin first on the Moon, 1969; CIA reveals MK/Ultra mind-control program, 1977
• Thursday, Jul 21: Old West’s first showdown (Hickock vs. Tutt), 1865, and train robbery (James-Younger Gang), 1873; NATO Treaty ratified, 1949; final Shuttle mission ends, 2011
• Friday, Jul 22: Albany, NY chartered, 1686; Cleveland, OH area surveyed and named, 1796; Wiley Post completes first round-the-world solo flight, 1933
• Saturday, Jul 23: Fox buys Movietone patents for recording sound onto film, 1926; Telstar 1 relays first trans-Atlantic satellite TV broadcast, 1962; race riots in Detroit, 1967 and Cleveland, 1968

Today’s Birthdays: Botanist Gregor Mendel, 1822; actresses Diana Rigg and Natalie Wood, 1938; actor Muse Watson, 1948 (happy birthday NCIS retiree Mike Franks, ya old goat!)

This Week In History is compiled with assistance from History.com and Wikipedia. Something interesting not listed here? Please share in the Comments section–this is an Audience Participation Encouraged featurette.

Budget Ballistic Blocking Update

A few weeks ago, this column mentioned a small discreet bullet-proofing panel for about $120. The review is in… and emptying a full magazine from an H&K UMP .40S&W submachine gun, about eight rounds out of thirty penetrated, mostly from wearing the panel down by hammering the same small area over and over. It’s not gonna let you just Shelter in Place, but it might help protect your vitals while you scramble for better cover… or close to Bad Breath Range and give your assailant a taste of their own medicine, if you have nothing to lose. If your taste in protection runs more to the wearable, tactical deal-hunter Slickguns found a decent-looking vest package for $140. (I get nothing from this referral, just saw that yesterday morning and thought somebody might find it worthwhile. Heck, if the Evil Old Ones weren’t back to second-guessing even my Lysol expenditures I’d have a few on the way to the ol’ nest already… and if I can weasel enough cash around their meddlesome brand of overreaching “oversight” may still order a few anyway. One would think the fact that I’m trying to keep them safe in an ever-more-hostile environment would carry some weight, especially since one works in a high-profile Active Shooter’s Game Preserve…)

Gratuitous Gun Giveaways

• American Handgunner magazine, for a Heritage Rough Rider .22 revolver, an NAA .22 Magnum mini-revolver or an HK VP40 pistol: http://americanhandgunner.com/giveaway/
• Guns Magazine, for an EAA polymer 1911 pistol, a SIG-Sauer P320 package or a Model 89 lever-action rifle: http://gunsmagazine.com/giveaway/
• Davidson’s Gallery of Guns, for a Taurus 738FS .380 pocket-pistol or Heritage Rough Rider .45 revolver: https://ggg.galleryofguns.com/
• Aero Precision, for a custom AR15: http://gvwy.io/80g0hph

Quote of the Day

In re Cleveland, a double-tap that resonates:

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.”–John F. Kennedy

“You called down the thunder… now reap the whirlwind!”–Ghost black-ops trooper, StarCraft

As always, the Watercooler is an Open Thread. Now that you’ve tried my modest little sampler plate, please add some discussion of them or a few delectable morsels of your own.

#NoQuarter #ReapTheWhirlwindGOP

Pity, I had hoped to strike these colors but the Cleveland Clownshow Cluster**** of Crookery just won’t let me. 🙁