Grumpy Old Soldier: For those that missed the sad news, one of the WaterCooler’s own, Grumpy Old Soldier, passed away.  We will miss the class that he brought to everything at RedState that he touched.

Welcome to today’s edition of Watercooler: Last Week, RedState.   This WC is all about Posts, Reader’s Diaries, and comments at RedState.

Hot Topics Last Week:

Facing Hostile Powers: Streiff was busy with a few great articles in the genre with the first one explaining why N. Korea and war have their  War has its Very Own Logic.   That was a great lead-in to his next piece as he pondered the imponderable in I Don’t Get It. Why Did Kim Jong Un Threaten Guam?   Bonchie, after being granted writing privileges by the PTB helped answer that question with well-researched piece saying that North Korea was not Responding to Trump in Today’s Statement!

But RedState contributors weren’t finished with Susan noting that there was an ongoing War of Words as North Korea Threatens Nuclear Attack on U.S. Mainland.  Streiff wrote a piece that was a tour de force on At Least Eight Reasons Why the Talk of North Korea Leveling Seoul Is Simply Wrong explaining why so much of what we see in the news about fighting N. Korea is wrong.

And then the little midget in N. Korea, Kim Jong Un, threatened the US territory of Guam with a nuclear attack and Streiff wrote this piece where he wondered exactly… What Could Go Wrong? North Korea Claims It Will Fire a Four-Missile Test Volley Towards Guam.  So, Trump, being Trump, helped answer the question with his patented style of tweeting where he warned the midget that:  The US Military Is ‘Locked and Loaded’ in Case North Korea Decides to Act.

Iran must have been feeling left out and a rumor (just started by me) was that one of the Mullahs dropped a note to a few of Obama’s Iranian advisors saying they were feeling left out and would appreciate an honorable mention, this resulted in this last piece by Streiff where Trump Says Iran Is Violating Nuclear Deal and the Left Goes Bonkers.

All-in-all it was a busy week and if the consequences of all these moves couldn’t end in tragedy we could have all just gone to the beach with the family and lived our lives in peace.

Bringing Sanity to Justice:  Streiff also had this piece about the… Department of Justice Changes Sides in Ballot Box Security Case.  This was a great development and Sessions is continuing the business of bringing sanity back to the Justice Department.  Now, if they’d only get serious about all of the illegal stuff done during the Obama Administration!

PC Police: This piece was worth an honorable mention as our own Sarah Lee explains that Google Values Diversity (Just Not of Thought)

RedState Gatekeeper:

Reader’s Diaries:  Conservatives and Americans tend to take for granted the reasons for the successes of this country in the economic front, Audax had a great piece on: I. Capitalism: Secrets To Remaining The Worlds Biggest Manufacturing Economy, one passage was particularly interesting:

Lets compare Manufacturing GDP in US$, and Manufacturing GDP as a % of total GDP. Though USA has the lowest % of Manufacturing GDP as a % of the total economy, we still have the highest Manufacturing GDP in the world. Though China may overtake the USA as the worlds largest manufacturing economy, it will probably stay the least productive economy of the top 5 manufacturing nations.

1.) USA, $1,820 Billion, 12.3%
2.) China, $1,756.8 Billion, 29.9%,
3.) Japan, $1,000.8 Billion, 18.8%
4.) Germany, $663 Billion, 22.2%
5.) South Korea, $353.7 Billion, 31.1%

Another key statistics was that the “USA has the highest Labor Productivity per capita ($110,050) and China the 5th highest at ($22,408)”  It’s well worth a read.

POSTING RULES (cont.)

As noted in my July 1st post, a few members of the RedState community have pointed out that the Posting Rules link does not work and I was going to “post one or more of the rules each week until the Posting Rules are restored”.  A complete list of these rules can be found in the diary here but we are now up to #8:

8. Generalized attacks on mainstream, peaceful religious beliefs and practices are forbidden. RedState is firstly a political website, and is not an appropriate venue for debates on comparative Christianity and Judaism.

Recurring Topics at RS:

Obamacare Exchanges: The death watch continues!

This map on the current state of the Obamacare exchanges, created by the federal government’s U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.  There were a few changes since last week, note the Washington and Tennessee counties have found providers.  The good folks that compiled the data and prepared the map estimates that there will be 13 counties without health insurance providers.

You can access past and current versions of this map at Obamacare Exchange Carriers by County

Memorable RedState One-Liners:

“He is ridiculous, but he does have a lot of output” –edintexas

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Drink up, that’s it for the Watercooler today. Remember, it’s an open thread all about RedState contributors from the front page, Reader’s Diaries, or in the comments section.

Thanks for stopping by, hanging out, and drink up.