Welcome back to another installment of the Watercooler, RedState’s daily Open Thread! Today, we’ve got a short one, since an idea I was working on didn’t pan out.

This Week In History

• Sunday, 1/6: Vail demonstrates first primitive telegraph, 1838; Washington National Cathedral chartered, 1893; FDR’s “Four Freedoms” speech, 1941
• Monday, 1/7: Jamestown burns, 1608; Siege of Bataan begins, 1942; Clinton impeachment trial begins, 1999
• Tuesday, 1/8: Washington delivers first State of the Union address, 1790; Battle of New Orleans, 1815; Watergate trial begins, 1973
• Wednesday, 1/9: Blanchard flies first hot-air balloon in US, 1793; Battle of Bear Valley ends Indian Wars, 1918; Krueger’s Sixth Army lands at Lingayen, 1945
• Thursday, 1/10: Paine publishes Common Sense, 1776; first steamboat arrives in New Orleans, 1812; Spindletop gusher inaugurates Texas oil boom, 1901
• Friday, 1/11: America’s first life-insurance company established, 1759; CSS Alabama sinks USS Hatteras off Galveston Light, 1863; first networked TV broadcast, 1949
• Saturday, 1/12: Boelcke and Immelmann get first Blue Maxes for air combat, 1915; first American combat in Nam, 1962; Congress authorizes military force for Desert Storm, 1991

Today’s Birthdays: Bridgebuilder Joseph Strauss, 1870; actors Lee Van Cleef, 1925 and Bob Denver, 1935; politician Matt Bevin, 1967.

Holidays Around the World: Panama observes Martyrs’ Day and South Sudan celebrates Peace Agreement Day. Japan celebrates the start of Hoonko today.

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.

Gratuitous Gun Giveaways

• *American Handgunner magazine, for a Smith & Wesson Model 19 revolver or Sig-Sauer P320-M17 or P365 pistol: http://americanhandgunner.com/giveaways/
• *Guns Magazine, for a CZ82 9x18mm pistol, BCM RECCE-9 .300BLK pistol, Taurus G2C 9mm pistol, Sig-Sauer Tread M400 rifle or Mossberg Patriot Predator rifle:  http://gunsmagazine.com/giveaways/
• Davidson’s Gallery of Guns, for a DPMS RFLR-OC AR10-pattern .308 rifle: https://ggg.galleryofguns.com/
• Aero Precision, for a custom AR15: http://gvwy.io/o1um976
• GrabAGun, for a Sig-Sauer P938 Legion 9mm pistol: http://grabagun.com/giveaway

*Note: FMG Publishing giveaways require you to provide an FFL dealer’s info at entry. Aero Precision giveaways give me one entry each per person who uses my referral link.

RedState Slack – Realtime Chat and Private Messaging for the VRWC

Several of us commenters put heads together to address some longstanding desires for features the Disqus platform lacks like private user-to-user messaging, and we’ve started up a Slack server for private messaging and chat. If you’d like to join the fun Slacking Off after hours, your invitation to the party is here.

RedState Slack is not officially endorsed or authorized by the staff, advertisers, management or ownership of RedState, Townhall Media or Salem Communications. It is intended to complement the RedState Disqus comment platform, not compete with it. While we have made every reasonable effort to provide a secure platform, user assumes all risks.

Public Service Announcement for “Sanctuary State” Residents
If you would like to report illegal aliens, please call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at 1-866-DHS-2ICE (347-2423). They will need to know names, locations (either work place or residence) and any other specific information you can provide. Visit http://www.ice.gov for more information.

Quote of the Day

“You are responsible for your actions, but the world doesn’t turn around you, so it’s important that you find something bigger than yourself to work for, a way for you to make a difference.”

–Medal of Honor awardee Drew Dix

As always, the Watercooler is an Open Thread. And as so eloquently coined by ntrepid, “Thanks for the click! Your effort helps fund future posts of this nature.”

Copyright Diamondback, 2018; publication license granted exclusively to RedState. If you’re reading this anywhere BUT RedState, you are seeing STOLEN PROPERTY. Opinions expressed in the preceding piece are solely those of the author and in no way reflect on those of the staff, advertisers, management or owners of RedState, Townhall Media or Salem Communications.

Tip Jar – If you like what you read here, please consider hitting one of these and further funding my modest little effort. Thanks! 🙂

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