36 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

I hope not. I've known many Brits that I've liked, even admired, but their political system and culture is about as low as it gets. Not what you could call an egalitarian culture by any means. It's chief industries are money laundering, tax avoidance and dodgy investments sold on commission. It's circling the drain IMO.

The 5th largest economy in the world is primarily based on " money laundering, tax avoidance and dodgy investments sold on commission"? 

As for it not being an egalitarian culture, follow the money:

 

In a study for which the results were first published in 2009, Wilkinson and Pickett conduct an exhaustive analysis of social mobility in developed countries.^[16] In addition to other correlations with negative social outcomes for societies having high inequality, they found a relationship between high social inequality and low social mobility. Of the eight countries studied—Canada, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, the UK and the US, the US had both the highest economic inequality and lowest economic mobility.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility

In other words, when it come the kind of social inequality that matters most, it's USA! USA! USA!

13 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

Just sitting in a restaurant or sports bar and hearing your voice

It is a fact that the majority of Americans have the tendency to speak very loud in cafés & restaurants. 

 

This can be for the other customers very annoying/irritating, to the point that some also react in an ungentle way. 

 

its so 'special' it now travels on the short bus.

10 minutes ago, Silurian said:

 

Radiating insecurity, clumsy and inept...

 

Doesn't take much observation skills to state the obvious. It would be interesting to see how other foreign diplomats describe the Reality TV Con Man and his "inept" administration. Probably not too far off from this.

 

I'm amazed....how can you call this inept ?

Looks like Putin will be interfering in the next election to after this spectacularly successful result with president chaos ????  

15 minutes ago, wombat said:

I'm amazed....how can you call this inept ?

What did he do to get that?

Ambassadors are payed  to be candid. He did his job and provided an honest, unvarnished assessment of the politics in the US to his government.

One of his memos read “We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept.”

What is offensive to that- its the damn truth and no-one should apologise for speaking it.

1 hour ago, Sujo said:

What did he do to get that?

Trump’s supporters cry out " Trump is God’s man." The enthusiastic, uncritical embrace of Trump by white evangelicals is among the most mind-blowing developments of the Trump era. How can a group that for decades—and especially during the Bill Clinton presidency—insisted that character counts and that personal integrity is an essential component of presidential leadership not only turn a blind eye to the ethical and moral transgressions of  Trump, but also constantly defend him? Why are those who have been on the vanguard of “family values” so eager to give a man with a sordid personal and sexual history a pass?

14 hours ago, Salerno said:

An internal briefing doesn't need to be diplomatic, it needs to be accurate ... which it was.

And it's saying nothing about Trump and his administration that the world doesn't already know, either from his unintelligent quips.....

 

 "I considered putting Ivanka forward for the World Bank job because she is good with numbers" and in his July 4th speech Trump claimed, “the 1775 revolutionary army 'took over airports'. Duh! (plus many others) or from the leaks and books written by former White House employees.

 

Suck it up Donald, the world knows you are a dumb clown anyway, so this is nothing new.
 

Some troll posts have removed. 

1 hour ago, wombat said:

I'm amazed....how can you call this inept ?

What do you think Trump has done that would make him responsible for this?

2 hours ago, wombat said:

I'm amazed....how can you call this inept ?

One can always post selective facts to make themselves look good...

first and second point are the same thing, every positive effect has at least one secondary effect.

So wages are going up causes inflation running at 2% so in reality standard of living really only gone up 1%, that is if wage increases were distributed evenly which I suspect not, just a case of the fat cats getting fatter.

Has he done anything to make health care affordable to the poor? or reduced crime? reduced the amount of shootings?

Nothing is "special" to Trump, except for himself.  The rest of the world simply exists for him to maul and abuse and call petty names.

 

what else is new?

9 minutes ago, Basil B said:

One can always post selective facts to make themselves look good...

first and second point are the same thing, every positive effect has at least one secondary effect.

So wages are going up causes inflation running at 2% so in reality standard of living really only gone up 1%, that is if wage increases were distributed evenly which I suspect not, just a case of the fat cats getting fatter.

Has he done anything to make health care affordable to the poor? or reduced crime? reduced the amount of shootings?

what happen to the promise of infrastructure spending? education, homelessness?    just more spending on weapons.

2 hours ago, wombat said:

I'm amazed....how can you call this inept ?

 

 

This is what Trump (and those before him) have done. This chart stops in 2016, but the trend lines surely have accelerated in the wake of Trump and the Republicans 'let's make the corporations and billionaires richer" tax cut law.

 

 

If I'm anyone outside of the top 1% of wealth (blue), I don't think I'd feel too good about the direction those purple and orange lines are going. And especially the group that's outside the top 10% of wealth (otherwise referred to at the bottom 90%!!!)

47 minutes ago, expatfromwyoming said:

Ambassadors are payed  to be candid. He did his job and provided an honest, unvarnished assessment of the politics in the US to his government.

One of his memos read “We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept.”

What is offensive to that- its the damn truth and no-one should apologise for speaking it.

Do you not think the American Ambassador in London is not sending back confidential reports to Washington using probably the same or similar words to describe  May, The Government, No 10, Corbyn, Johnson, Farage?

 

Thing is Trump is so predictable and starts slagging off anyone who criticizes him just like a school bully.

The '' special relationship '' which is always trotted out on such occasions is now a total myth.

After the second world war this was certainly true but that was decades ago and situations move on and this phrase should be let to rest in the annals of history.

Let me get this straight. You insult the world's most powerful  leader and still expect to have a special relationship with him after he offered the UK support. The UK is going through a transitional  phase and a country that needs huge support whatever way they choose and you piss off the number one country in the world that was backing you...way to go. 

1 minute ago, DividendGuy said:

Let me get this straight. You insult the world's most powerful  leader and still expect to have a special relationship with him after he offered the UK support. The UK is going through a transitional  phase and a country that needs huge support whatever way they choose and you piss off the number one country in the world that was backing you...way to go. 

The UK didn't piss off the entire USA.  Just one guy.  And this one guy won't be around for much longer. 

3 minutes ago, DividendGuy said:

Let me get this straight. You insult the world's most powerful  leader and still expect to have a special relationship with him after he offered the UK support. The UK is going through a transitional  phase and a country that needs huge support whatever way they choose and you piss off the number one country in the world that was backing you...way to go. 

It wasnt a personal insult though, it was an honest opinion relayed to people that deal with him .

Trump now seems to be acting  like Kim from NK , needs to be adored by everyone and attacks anyone that doesnt worshipp him 

 

 

10 minutes ago, sanemax said:

It wasnt a personal insult though, it was an honest opinion relayed to people that deal with him .

Trump now seems to be acting  like Kim from NK , needs to be adored by everyone and attacks anyone that doesnt worshipp him 

He called Trump a clumsy, inept liar with a dysfunctional administration.  If that ain't personal what pray tell is?

Just now, marcusarelus said:

He called Trump a clumsy, inept liar with a dysfunctional administration.  If that ain't personal what pray tell is?

That was his private personal observation and that is his job, to honestly tell the UK Gov what his opinion (on Trump)  is .

It was a private discussion and not meant for public consumption 

8 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

He called Trump a clumsy, inept liar with a dysfunctional administration.  If that ain't personal what pray tell is?

It was a confidential document between the ambassador and UK government. It was never intended for public consumption, someone else  leaked it.

As an assessment of Donald it does seem to hit the nail on the head 

7 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

He called Trump a clumsy, inept liar with a dysfunctional administration.  If that ain't personal what pray tell is?

To give it some context....

 

[The irony, said one person close to the Trump administration who’s been to Darroch’s parties, is that “a lot of folks from the White House actually say the exact same things” about the internal dynamics there. “They were probably saying those things to him.”]

 

[“What Kim Darroch said is what all the ambassadors or most of them think, even the ones who particularly cozy up to the Trump people” like ambassadors from Middle Eastern countries, Quinn said. “They’re just lucky that their reports have not been hacked.”]

 

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/09/british-ambassador-donald-trump-1404601

 

Whoever leaked it was almost certainly counting on Trump's reaction. In matters like this, his behavior is entirely Pavlovian.

20 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

He called Trump a clumsy, inept liar with a dysfunctional administration.  If that ain't personal what pray tell is?

The truth ????

Some of you can spin it anyway you want, but it is still an insult to the US President. Will he be so understanding and allow it to pass or will he do something about it, after all he has the power to do something or not...his choice. Let's hope he is as forgiving.

1 minute ago, DividendGuy said:

Some of you can spin it anyway you want, but it is still an insult to the US President. Will he be so understanding and allow it to pass or will he do something about it, after all he has the power to do something or not...his choice. Let's hope he is as forgiving.

TBH, he reacted in a rather juvenile way .

Taking offence (without understanding the context) , replying with abuse and then stating how big his army was .

Which kind of proves the content of the E-mails to be correct 

48 minutes ago, DividendGuy said:

Let me get this straight. You insult the world's most powerful  leader and still expect to have a special relationship with him after he offered the UK support. The UK is going through a transitional  phase and a country that needs huge support whatever way they choose and you piss off the number one country in the world that was backing you...way to go. 

How many allies has Trump (to use your words) "pissed off" since he has been in power?

 

With Trump in charge backing the UK is one day, yet a different day it is something else. What Trump says on one day will be retracted on a different day. Way to go.

 

That is what the UK ambassador was saying, and he is right.