James Phillips

Loving Life

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

Norway 🇳🇴 definitely winning the coolest font contest in this @FIFAWorldCup @nff_landslag

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

@bscholl Sadly not everyone sees it that way.

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

Hey @Costco you’re behind the curve. I’d definitely buy this.

[NEXTA @nexta_tv]

Aperol is now being sold in canisters: in Germany, customers can buy the drink in 5-liter containers.

Just what you need for summer.

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

@Exogynous @bscholl Wishing this to be true and not just wishful thinking.

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads.

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

😂

[ForAmerica @ForAmerica]

The Germans when they get back from watching the World Cup in the United States:

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

USA 🇺🇸 @USMNT

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving.

Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free.

I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these."

"They just come with the table, man."

They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner.

This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat.

I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared.

"Did we…?"

"Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless."

Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined.

My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude."

Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man.

I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy.

Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived.

I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most.

Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

@shaunvlog_ @C_C_Krebs Much of America doesn’t even understand this dish. It’s a Texas thing.

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

Birthday breakfast!

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

@EBasilion Congratulations Eva. Happy Anniversary!

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

Excellent read… sadly, the “kind as Christ” part is missing with our current leadership.

[Mitchell G. Klingenberg @MGKlingenberg]

“We’re fortunate in being Americans. At least we don’t step on the underdog. I wonder if that’s because there are no ‘Americans’ — only a stew of immigrants; or if it’s because the earth from which we exist has been so kind to us and our forefathers; or if it’s because the ‘American’ is the offspring of the logical European who hated oppression and loved freedom beyond life? Those great mountains and tall timber; the cool deep lakes and broad rivers; the green valleys and white farmhouses; the air, the sea and wind; the plains and great cities; the smell of living — all must be the cause of it. …

“And yet, with all that, we can’t get away from the rest. … For each of us who wants to live in happiness and give happiness, there’s another different sort of person wanting to take it away. Those people always manage to have their say, and Mars is always close at hand. We know how to win wars. We must learn now to win peace. Stick our noses in the affairs of the world. Learn politics as well as killing. Make the world accept peace whether they damn well like it or not. Here is the dove, and here is the bayonet. …

“If I ever have a son, I don’t want him to go through this again, but I want him powerful enough that no one will be fool enough to touch him. He and America should be strong as hell and kind as Christ. That’s the only insurance until human nature becomes a tangible thing that can be adjusted and made workable.”

Letter of LT Thomas Meehan III, CO, E Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division, to his wife, May 1944.

KIA 6 JUNE 1944

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

Trump had leveraging and bankrupting casinos on his resume. No one should be surprised.

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

Trump is now reportedly responsible for roughly 27.7% of the entire U.S. national debt accumulated under all presidents combined.

That is an astonishing figure historically.

The national debt just crossed $39 trillion.

President Trump has added roughly $12–13 trillion to the debt across his two terms in office.

That’s approximately 30% of ALL U.S. national debt accumulated since 1789.

In 2016, Trump said he would pay down the national debt “over a period of eight years.”

Instead:

- First term: +$7.8 trillion
- Second term: roughly +$4–5 trillion already

And yes, COVID affected first-term spending.

It does not explain adding another trillion dollars every five months without a pandemic.

A political movement built on:
“fiscal conservatism”
“small government”
“balanced budgets”

has now overseen the largest debt expansion tied to any single presidency in American history.

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

@enlightenedcoop Check out Scottsdale! 🌵

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

@Antonioatfarm I know the feeling. A wise man told me long ago to inspect what you expect. Then you have to give constructive feedback tailored to your crew to set them up for success.

[Frederic Martel @martelf]

La manipulation des statistiques est l’une des stratégies les plus efficaces pour alimenter l’anti-occidentalisme.

L’#Inde ne parvient pas à connaître le nombre exact de ses villages mais annonce 1,4 milliard d’habitants au chiffre près. #Beijing annonce 5 % de croissance pour 2024 ; plusieurs économistes chinois l’estiment à moitié moins. Les chercheurs ayant souligné ces incohérences ont été sanctionnés et la #Chine a simplement cessé de communiquer ses données de balance de paiements à l’#OMC.

#Poutine fait de même. Confronté à une baisse de natalité, il a compté dans la population russe les habitants des territoires occupés par la force, dont la #Crimée annexée illégalement : 2 millions de personnes supplémentaires d’un trait de plume. Il manipule aussi les statistiques sanitaires : un médecin m’a confirmé que les chiffres officiels sur le sida et la toxicomanie sont falsifiés, pour montrer que les Russes ne sont pas « déviants comme les Occidentaux ».

La Banque mondiale, le FMI, le PNUD reprennent ces chiffres, faute de pouvoir les vérifier. Dans les régimes sans médias libres, personne ne les conteste.

J’enquête sur ce sujet dans #Occidents, Enquête sur nos ennemis (Plon)

[James Phillips @jamespp2]

@SarahLongwell25 Wow! Elections have consequences and we chose poorly last time around.